In talking with friends the other night, the perennial question arose regarding 'karma':

Why did that thing happen to me, what did I do to deserve that, why is this loved one or that suffering, why do we have to face loss and death? Does Karma mean "cause and effect" implying that all suffering is, after all, due to our 'original sin'? What about reincarnation?

Karma and reincarnation, in my view, are immediately and constantly acting on our consciousness. Events outside of our control are always affecting us, in a neutral and non-specific manner. That is, fate, or 'the gods' are NOT testing us, or throwing things in our paths. However, we must inevitably deal with adverse events, whether physical, or internal and psychological.

I believe that bodily reincarnation is not necessarily a part of the cosmic plan, but since the Tibetans believe very strongly in the literal reality, I will give it the benefit of the doubt. However, until somebody comes up wth a way to do a double-blind study and prove it one way or the other, I personally don't find it necessary to incorporate a transcendental soul or spirit into my world view, let alone one which travels through the astral worlds between death and the next birth. Seems to me that all these phenomenon can be viewed with Occam's Razor as the manifestation of the dissolving thread of consciousness in a dying -- or otherwise altered -- brain... [1]

Nonetheless, reincarnation offers a useful metaphor. The universe that we perceive is in some very literal way, recreated before our eyes every single moment. Every quantum fraction of time (a Planck moment?) our consciousness is slipping away -- dying -- from the past moment and moving into -- reborn -- the next.

Karma, in this context, is our reaction to the immediate event at the moment of "death and rebirth" -- every instant in every breath. That is: the world line stretches into the future, but it divides into an infinite number of options as it moves forward. Our 'karma', so called, is determined by how we react, how we deal with the events and the actions of others. If we return love and kindness for hatred and spite, we will surely smooth the path of our own consciousness. Perhaps the events around us, the events outside of our control, may flame into greater fury, but the only thing we have any real control over, after all, is our own state of mind.

I am not a Christian, but as a literate human, I am aware of the basic mythology -- in fact, as a mythtic, I may well know thee story better than thee believers!

I think that the essential nature of the Christ myth is exactly this: after all, did Jesus "deserve" to be nailed to a cross? For that matter did six million Jews and Gypsies deserve to die in Nazi death camps?

No. No. No. Don't get me started!

It's not about 'deserving', it's about how we accept and acknowledge the loss, the challenge, the death -- our own death -- even as we feel it's unjust, it's framed on a falsehood, it's a crying shame -- we can still maintain a clear mind, our consciousness that by remaining true to our deliberate awareness even to the last, we'll send some type of coherence back into the cosmos, where it may strenghten the power and energy for change. Perhaps it would even trip the trigger for some other being's bullet -- a half-second early or late, and change the history of the future...

Jesus says, "Forgive them, they know not what they do." Indeed, how many persecuted in his name have had need to consider the same?

In any case, the lesson is valuable.

Instant karma is all there is. Our immediate reaction to events is the seed upon which our future instantly begins to crystalize. [2]

P