A selection on Understanding Karma, from Perspective on Yoga, a new book to be published later this year.
Everything, without exception, material, or immaterial, arises from a cause, and is a revelation of that cause. Because of this, everything has a meaning.
Those who believe in karma should carefully analyze their life situation in order to understand what kind of actions from the past are coming to fruition now and to see what their minds were like in that past. The real lesson to be learned is that just as the present is created by the past, the future is created by the present, sometimes combined with elements from the past.
Before, we were unaware that we were creating the future, but now we do know, and can take complete charge of our destiny. The best thing, of course, is to “fry” the karmic seeds through yoga sadhana.
The key to understanding
The knowledge of cause and effect is an absolute necessity if we are going to understand anything about our life. Those that do not understand about karma and rebirth have no idea why they are here and how they should live. All the religiosity in the world cannot substitute for practical spiritual knowledge.
Consider how the “one lifers” lay all the blame for human suffering and misery at God’s door rather than rightly attributing it to human action (karma). So they claim that all this mess is “God’s will” supposedly “for a reason.”
Buddha and the Law of Karma
Buddha stated the essence in the Four Aryan Truths: There is suffering. There is a cause of suffering. Suffering can end. There is a way to end suffering. The power behind all four of these statements is insight into the Law of Karma. Otherwise we keep whirling and suffering.
It is our karma that brings us here and takes us away, until enlightenment frees us and we leave of our own liberated will.