Theosophical Study Paper No 03

Author(s): Theosophical Society in Australia
Publisher: Theosophical Society in Australia

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human life. Clashing out alone they startle and even horrify us, but in the final Word those discords also find their resolution, and the whole chord of life is perfect.
Reincarnation teaches us that we see such a mere fragment of a life that we cannot judge it. If I almost covered up a picture on the wall, how could a spectator judge of the beauty, or lack of beauty, of the whole? Similarly, how shall we judge of the beauty of the picture, in which what seems to us a defect may be the shadow that lends depth and beauty to the whole life, that is so much more complex than we imagine? If all the lives were made according to our stupid ideas, what sort of a universe should we see around us? But the universe is God's thought, and He is manifesting in it at every point, and when we see what seems to us a sin, it is wise to ask ourselves: "What is meant by this manifestation of the Self?" not to condemn it. Then we learn. We need not copy it. For us it may be evil. But we should never judge our neighbour. That is the law laid down in every great scripture. The attitude of the Theosophist should always be that of a learner in life: "What has this man, or that circumstance, to teach me? What have l'to learn from this problem?" In this way we should look at life, and doing so, we would be so interested in it that we should have no time to judge or blame, and our life would begin to be the life of wisdom.
KARMA: A Continuing Creation. Much more might be said along these lines; but let me turn now to one of the most misunderstood of theosophical teachings—the doctrine of karma. Few things, perhaps, are so dangerous as a little knowledge of the law of karma. And unhappily many of us have stopped at the point of a little knowledge. We need to remember how karma is made up, and judge it by what we know, and not by what we fancy. People often talk of karma as though it were a kind of great lump which is flung down on a man's head at birth, against which he can do nothing. Sometimes this occurs, but in the vast majority of cases the karma that you are making every day is modifying all the results of the karma of the past.
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