“
A boomerang returns back to the person who throws it.
But first, while moving in a circle, it hits its target.
So does gossip.
”
”
Vera Nazarian (The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration)
“
Situations seem to happen to people, but in reality, they unfold from deeper karmic causes. The universe unfolds to itself, bringing to bear any cause that needs to be included. Don’t take this process personally. The working out of cause and effect is eternal. You are part of this rising and falling that never ends, and only by riding the wave can you ensure that the waves don’t drown you. The ego takes everything personally, leaving no room for higher guidance or purpose. If you can, realize that a cosmic plan is unfolding and appreciate the incredibly woven tapestry for what it is, a design of unparalleled marvel.
”
”
Deepak Chopra (The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life)
“
The core practice of magic is: The execution of a willed intent to create change in the material world, which either defies, hastens or purifies the consequences of natural cause and effect.
”
”
Zeena Schreck
“
Karma, simply put, is an action for an action ... good or bad.
”
”
Stephen Richards
“
Karma has been a pop culture term for ages. But really, what the heck is it?
Karma is not an inviolate engine of cosmic punishment. Rather, it is a neutral sequence of acts, results, and consequences.
Receiving misfortune does not necessarily indicate that one has committed evil. But it is a sufficient indicator of something else.
And that something else can be anything, as long as it is a logical consequence of what has come before.
Consider: if you fall into a well, you are not a bad person who deserves to suffer—you are merely someone who took a wrong step. Or someone who had one drink too many. Or got a head rush due to poor circulation. Or forgot to wear your glasses. Or—
The reasons are plentiful, and all plausible. But the chain of cause and effect goes way, way back into the deepest hoariest recesses of your personal past.
So never rule out retribution. But never expect it.
”
”
Vera Nazarian (The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration)
“
No effect occurs without cause, and no cause occurs without effect. No unjust action goes without penalty, and no action or thought flows unnoticed throughout the universe.
”
”
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
“
Karma is simply the law of cause and effect. If you plant an apple seed, you don’t a get a mango tree. If we practice hatred or greed, it becomes our way and the world responds accordingly. If we practice awareness or loving-kindness, it becomes our way and the world responds accordingly."
"We are heirs to the results of our actions, to the intentions we bring to every moment we initiate. We make ripples upon the ocean of the universe through our very presence.
”
”
Christina Feldman
“
Behind every effect there is a cause. You can never eliminate an effect without first understanding its cause.
”
”
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
“
Astrology is the study of man’s response to planetary stimuli. The stars have no conscious benevolence or animosity; they merely send forth positive and negative radiations. Of themselves, these do not help or harm humanity, but offer a lawful channel for the outward operation of cause-effect equilibriums which each man has set into motion in the past. “A child is born on that day and at that hour when the celestial rays are in mathematical harmony with his individual karma. His horoscope is a challenging portrait, revealing his unalterable past and its probable future results. But the natal chart can be rightly interpreted only by men of intuitive wisdom: these are few.
”
”
Paramahansa Yogananda (The Autobiography of a Yogi ("Popular Life Stories"))
“
Do you know the concept of karma? It’s kind of like a circle, or cause-and-effect, like a slow-tolling bell you rang maybe a year ago, five years ago, maybe in another lifetime if you believe in that. Karma means that what you do today, and why you do it, makes you who you are forever: as if you were clay, and every thought and action left a mark in that clay, bent it, shaped it, even ruined it… but with karma there are no excuses, no explanations, no I-didn’t-really-mean-it-so-can-I-have-some-more-clay. Karma takes everything you do very, very seriously.
”
”
Kathe Koja (Buddha Boy)
“
The greatest book in the world, the Mahabharata, tells us we all have to live and die by our karmic cycle. Thus works the perfect reward-and-punishment, cause-and-effect, code of the universe. We live out in our present life what we wrote out in our last. But the great moral thriller also orders us to rage against karma and its despotic dictates. It teaches us to subvert it. To change it. It tells us we also write out our next lives as we live out our present.
The Mahabharata is not a work of religious instruction.
It is much greater. It is a work of art.
It understands men will always fall in the shifting chasm between the tug of the moral and the lure of the immoral.
It is in this shifting space of uncertitude that men become men.
Not animals, not gods.
It understands truth is relative. That it is defined by context and motive. It encourages the noblest of men - Yudhishtra, Arjuna, Lord Krishna himself - to lie, so that a greater truth may be served.
It understands the world is powered by desire. And that desire is an unknowable thing. Desire conjures death, destruction, distress.
But also creates love, beauty, art. It is our greatest undoing. And the only reason for all doing.
And doing is life. Doing is karma.
Thus it forgives even those who desire intemperately. It forgives Duryodhana. The man who desires without pause. The man who precipitates the war to end all wars. It grants him paradise and the admiration of the gods. In the desiring and the doing this most reviled of men fulfils the mandate of man.
You must know the world before you are done with it. You must act on desire before you renounce it. There can be no merit in forgoing the not known.
The greatest book in the world rescues volition from religion and gives it back to man.
Religion is the disciplinarian fantasy of a schoolmaster.
The Mahabharata is the joyous song of life of a maestro.
In its tales within tales it takes religion for a spin and skins it inside out. Leaves it puzzling over its own poisoned follicles.
It gives men the chance to be splendid. Doubt-ridden architects of some small part of their lives. Duryodhanas who can win even as they lose.
”
”
Tarun J. Tejpal (The Alchemy of Desire)
“
Doing right gets results, doing wrong gets consequences.
”
”
Amit Kalantri (One Bucket of Tears)
“
A person who is deliberate with their causes can be expectant with their effects… like a gardener who
knows the seeds she plants and plans for a harvest Accordingly.
”
”
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr. (The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic)
“
To produce a primary [karmic] cause which is potentially capable of having an effect, three things are necessary: intention, the actual action, and then satisfaction.
”
”
Namkhai Norbu (Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State)
“
Our every action has consequences. Thoughts have consequences. Since actions start from thoughts I guess I can say technically that thoughts in general have consequences. In our thoughts we make dreams. So if I think I can do it, then my actions will be "I CAN" and I am able to do it. So the result or the consequence will be "I did it!".
”
”
Diana Rose Morcilla
“
The law of karma states simply that every event is both a cause and an effect. Every act has consequences of a similar kind, which in turn have further consequences and so on; and every act, every karma, is also the consequence of some previous karma. This
”
”
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
“
THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS
I. Suffering does exist.
II. Suffering arises from "attachment" to desires.
III. Suffering ceases when "attachment" to desire ceases.
IV. Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the eightfold path:
1. Right understanding (view).
2. Right intention (thought).
3. Right speach.
4. Right action.
5. Right livelihood.
6. Right effort.
7. Right mindfulness.
8. Rght meditation (concentration).
Buddha's fourfold consolation:
With a mind free from greed and unfriendliness, incorruptible, and purified, the noble disciple is already during this lifetime assure of a fourfold consolation:
“If there is another world (heaven), and a cause and effect (Karma) of good and bad actions, then it may be that, at the dissolution of the body, after death, I shall be reborn in a happy realm, a heavenly world.” Of this first consolation (s)he is assured.
“And if there is no other world, no reward and no punishment of good and bad actions, then I live at least here, in this world, an untroubled and happy life, free from hate and unfriendliness.” Of this second consolation (s)he is assured.
“And if bad things happen to bad people, but I do not do anything bad (or have unfriendliness against anyone), how can I, who am doing no bad things, meet with bad things?” Of this third consolation (s)he is assured.
“And if no bad things happen to bad people, then I know myself in both ways pure.” Of this fourth consolation (s)he is assured.
”
”
Gautama Buddha
“
Karma literally means “deed” or “act” and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction which governs all life. Karma is a natural law of the mind, just as gravity is a law of matter.
”
”
Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Dancing With Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism: An illustrated sourcebook, timeline and lexicon exploring how to know the Divine, honor all creation and see God everywhere, in everyone)
“
The law of karma states simply that every event is both a cause and an effect. Every act has consequences of a similar kind, which in turn have further consequences and so on; and every act, every karma, is also the consequence of some previous karma.
”
”
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
“
Lao-Tze, whose great work, the "Tao-Teh-King," is a classic, taught Reincarnation to his inner circle of students and adherents, at least so many authorities claim.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
We never really get away with anything.
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”
Ajahn Chah (A Still Forest Pool: The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah (Quest Book))
“
The Gnostics, a mystic order and school in the early church, taught Reincarnation plainly and openly, bringing upon themselves much persecution at the hands of the more conservative.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
the Upanishads agree on their central ideas: Brahman, the Godhead; Atman, the divine core of personality; dharma, the law that expresses and maintains the unity of creation; karma, the web of cause and effect; samsara, the cycle of birth and death; moksha, the spiritual liberation that is life’s supreme goal. Even
”
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Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
“
Plato taught that the reincarnated soul has flashes of remembrance of its former lives, and also instincts and intuitions gained by former experiences. He classed innate ideas among these inherited experiences of former lives.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
Brahman, the Godhead; Atman, the divine core of personality; dharma, the law that expresses and maintains the unity of creation; karma, the web of cause and effect; samsara, the cycle of birth and death; moksha, the spiritual liberation that is life’s supreme goal.
”
”
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
“
That is exactly what nobody seems to grasp about this karma business. It’s not a simple matter of cause and effect, reward and punishment. It’s a question of what’s available. You see, as long as life for the majority of souls on this planet is just a long round of starvation, misery, torture, and early death—and believe me, outside this fortunate watershed that is an apt description of the state of affairs—as long as only a few live in comfort while the masses scrape along in want, then all us returning souls have to take our fair share of shifts among the hungry. You think this life you’ve lived was tough? Let me tell you, it was just R and R between the ones where you never get a solid meal two days running or you die before your first birthday from drinking bad water.
”
”
Starhawk (The Fifth Sacred Thing (Maya Greenwood #1))
“
Anger-pride-deceit-greed are in the form of ‘discharge’. But if a person does not have Self-realization, new ones will be charged within.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
“
Those vibrations that we created have indeed fall upon us. Only those acts that were done in the ignorant (Self unawareness) state, that has given us reactions.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan
“
Ignorance’ (absence of Self-Knowledge) creates vibrations (causes) and ‘Knowledge’ (Self-Knowledge) stops these vibrations.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan
“
the traditions concerning Ancient Atlantis—the lost continent—all hold to the effect that her people believed strongly in Reincarnation, and to the ideas of the complex soul.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
For several centuries the early Church held within its bosom many earnest advocates of Reincarnation, and the teaching was recognized as vital even by those who combatted it.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
Relation with another man or a woman, other than one’s own husband or a wife, is a direct cause for a life in hell.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan (Brahmacharya: Celibacy)
“
Circumstances occur automatically and scientifically and they dissipate according to the natural law.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
“
There is not a single person in this world who has any control over circumstances.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
“
What is the rule of God? He does not bind the one who wants to become free, and the one who wants to be bound, He never lets him go.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
“
Gross circumstances, subtle circumstances, circumstances of speech are of the non-Self and they make us dependent; In addition they are in the form of ‘scientific circumstantial evidence’.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
“
Our children form a large part of our Immortality Project. This is one of the reasons a child’s death cuts so deep; some of the future dies with them. Through them and their descendants, part of us lives on forever, just as it does in the friends we touch and the ripples our actions cause in the world. All these effects are conscripts, earthwork defences against the finality of extinction.
”
”
John Dolan (A Poison Tree (Time, Blood and Karma, #3))
“
Some of the ancient legends hold that Pythagoras was the instructor of the Druidic priests, and that Pythagoras himself was in close communication with the Brahmins of India, and the Hermetists of Egypt.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
Buddha teaches that there are many causes and many conditions and always refers to causes and conditions in the plural, never just as cause and effect. We are presented with a very complex picture of how things work.
”
”
Traleg Kyabgon (Karma: What It Is, What It Isn't, Why It Matters)
“
Vitality, or Prana-Jiva; (3) Astral Body, or Linga-Sharira; (4) Animal Soul, or Kama-Rupa; (5) Human Soul, Manas; (6) Spiritual Soul, or Buddhi; and (7) Spirit, or Atma. Of these seven principles, the last or higher Three, namely, the Atma, Buddhi, and Manas, compose the higher Trinity of the Soul—the part of man which persists; while the lower Four principles, namely, Rupa, Prana-Jiva, Linga-Sharira, and Kama-Rupa, respectively, are
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
New dispensations may await us; the Kingdom may come in ways we never dreamed of; the beyond may be more momentous than we have ever expected, but always and everywhere 'the within' determines 'the beyond,' and character is destiny.
”
”
Rufus Matthew Jones (The Inner Life)
“
The subject of karma is of great fascination to many cultural explorers, philosophers and mystics. Essentially the word karma means 'action' which includes both negative and positive effects. On the positive slant, when you help another, you help yourself. This is cause and effect, from attitudes, motivations and behavior. That which you do, you get back. And so, in the everyday world, when one exercises (action) and builds up muscle tone, this too is karma. Yes, this does not seem so esoteric. Studying is also action, and by focusing on a topic or skill one improves; Mental muscles are built up, and one graduates from the student to become a journeyman, and then an expert, and eventually a teacher.
”
”
Stephen Poplin (Inner Journeys, Cosmic Sojourns: Life transforming stories, adventures and messages from a spiritual hypnotherapist's casebook)
“
You are free to enjoy what is yours, but happily enjoying what is not yours will bind a strong karmic knot, and ruin many more future births. But that knot will loosen up through pratikraman (apology) and one will have the opportunity to become free.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan (Brahmacharya: Celibacy)
“
[Pertaining to The Law of Free Will and Karma]: Disputing traditional cause and effect karmic doctrine, Kuan Yin maintains that it is the accumulated beliefs from parallel realities creating “made-up stories” about oneself and, thus, reality. Because of this quantum factor, we have absolute Free Will to attract optimum realities from infinite, simultaneous Evolutionary Potentials. Thus, according to Kuan Yin, where and how skillfully one focuses their intention and attention can determine an outcome.
”
”
Hope Bradford (Beneficial Law of Attraction: the Manifestation Teachings (Kuan Yin Law of Attraction Techniques based on "Oracle of Compassion: the Living Word of Kuan Yin))
“
The fundamental precept of Buddhism is Interdependence or the Law of Cause and Effect. This simply states that everything an individual experiences is derived from action through motivation. Motivation is thus the root of both action and experience.
FREEDOM IN EXILE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE DALAI LAMA
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”
Dalai Lama XIV
“
Good inner intent, higher inner intent, is one’s ‘positive’ effort with which one will go to higher life forms. And wrong inner intent is one’s negative effort, which will take one to the lower life forms. And the real self effort is that which one does after he becomes the Self (Pure Soul) which takes one to moksha.
”
”
Dada Bhagwan (Simple & Effective Science for Self Realization)
“
These differences are not important, and the Upanishads agree on their central ideas: Brahman, the Godhead; Atman, the divine core of personality; dharma, the law that expresses and maintains the unity of creation; karma, the web of cause and effect; samsara, the cycle of birth and death; moksha, the spiritual liberation that is life’s supreme goal.
”
”
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (The Bhagavad Gita)
“
the Ancient Doctrine. The Egyptians held that there was "Ka," the divine spirit in man; "Ab," the intellect or will; "Hati," the vitality; "Tet," the astral body; "Sahu," the etheric double; and "Xa," the physical body (some authorities forming a slightly different arrangement), which correspond to the various "bodies of man" as recognized by occultists to-day.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
The Gauls were so advanced in the practical phases of occultism that they gave every condemned criminal a respite of five years, after sentence of death, before execution, in order that he might prepare himself for a future state by meditation, instruction and other preparation; and also to prevent ushering an unprepared and guilty soul into the plane of the departed—the
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
The Magi taught that the soul was a complex being, and that certain portions of it perished, while certain other parts survived and passed on through a series of earth and "other-world" existences, until finally it attained such a degree of purity that it was relieved of the necessity for further incarnation, and thenceforth dwelt in the region of ineffable bliss—the region of light eternal.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
He tried to be a good man, to do the right things, to make the
world a little better than it had been before he had put his stamp
upon it. You could be generous with the love you gave, with the
care you took with others. You could follow all the command-
ments that made sense to you and still the world could sideswipe
you. There was no cause and effect. There was no karma. The
truth was that he wasn't so sure he understood how the world
worked anymore.
”
”
Caroline Leavitt (Pictures of You)
“
the doctrine of Reincarnation played a very important part in their philosophy. The prevailing idea was that the worthy souls pass on to a state of bliss, without rebirth, while the less worthy pass the waters of the river of Lethe, quaffing of its waters of forgetfulness, and thus having the recollection of their earth-life, and of the period of punishment that they had undergone by reason of the same, obliterated and cleansed from their memories, when they pass on to re-birth.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
About Reincarnation
Q~ After death can one be lured backward into physical reincarnation rather then transcendence into the higher Celestial Realms of the One?
A~ In the realm of transcendence you will find no conspiracy. Those who reincarnate do so because they have not yet balanced the effects of Karma within their consciousness. So they are not yet fully Realized. They have not yet stepped off of the wheel of the birth death cycle of the cause and effect realms of the material plane.
”
”
Leland Lewis (Angel Stories. Angelic Tales of the Universe. Tales 1 through 6.)
“
there is in man an immaterial Something (called the soul, spirit, inner self, or many other names) which does not perish at the death or disintegration of the body, but which persists as an entity, and after a shorter or longer interval of rest reincarnates, or is re-born, into a new body—that of an unborn infant—from whence it proceeds to live a new life in the body, more or less unconscious of its past existences, but containing within itself the "essence" or results of its past lives, which experiences go to make up its new "character," or "personality.
”
”
William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
“
Whilst the world will be whole, and refuses to be disparted, we seek to act partially, to sunder, to appropriate; for example,—to gratify the senses, we sever the pleasure of the senses from the needs of the character. The ingenuity of man has always been dedicated to the solution of one problem,—how to detach the sensual sweet, the sensual strong, the sensual bright, &c., from the moral sweet, the moral deep, the moral fair; that is, again, to contrive to cut clean off this upper surface so thin as to leave it bottomless; to get a one end, without an other end.
”
”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“
The Hindus do not blame an invisible Providence for all the suffering in this world, but explain it through the natural law of cause and effect. If a man is born fortunate or wretched, there must be some reason for it; if therefore we cannot find the cause for it in this life, it must have occurred in some previous existence, since no effect is possible without a cause. All the good that comes to us is what we have earned through our own effort; and whatever evil there is, is the result of our own past mistakes. As, moreover, our present has been shaped by our past, so our future will be moulded by our present.
”
”
Paramananda
“
The root being there, the fruition comes (in the form of) species, life, and experience of pleasure and pain. The roots, the causes, the Samskaras being there, they manifest and form the effects. The cause dying down becomes the effect; the effect getting subtler becomes the cause of the next effect. A tree bears a seed, which becomes the cause of another tree, and so on. All our works now are the effects of past Samskaras; again, these works becoming Samskaras will be the causes of future actions, and thus we go on. So this aphorism says that the cause being there, the fruit must come, in the form of species of beings: one will be a man, another an angel, another an animal, another a demon. Then there are different effects of Karma in life. One man lives fifty years, another a hundred, another dies in two years, and never attains maturity; all these differences in life are regulated by past Karma. One man is born, as it were, for pleasure; if he buries himself in a forest, pleasure will follow him there. Another man, wherever he goes, is followed by pain; everything becomes painful for him. It is the result of their own past. According to the philosophy of the Yogis, all virtuous actions bring pleasure, and all vicious actions bring pain. Any man who does wicked deeds is sure to reap their fruit in the form of pain.
”
”
Vivekananda (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda)
“
The cultivation of Right View is about applying the four noble truths in your life, taking them from an abstract idea into a living reality. The enlightened person sees the truth of the world, recognising the flawed and temporary nature of objects and ideas. They see the cause and effect relationships that connect the events of the world (karma). Because all ideas and concepts are ultimately impermanent, the enlightened person does not rely on ideologies and other external explanations of the world in order to practice Right View. Instead they cultivate their Intuition and use it to build a deeper, more complete understanding of the world beyond the level of appearances.
”
”
David Tuffley (The Essence of Buddhism)
“
The New Age Manifesto
You're always exactly where you need to be,
some call it coincidence, others synchronicity.
The universe entire, spiritually interconnects
Partaking of the same God energy it at once reflects.
We are all tones in the cosmos musicality,
Each man tunes in and creates his unique reality.
Intuition integrates our divine and truest guide,
Science and rationalism are too often misapplied.
All is framed by the principles, laws and duties of dharma
Effecting cause, causing effect, in each incarnation's karma.
Everything we confront, everyone we meet
Become our teachers in life's balance sheet.
The most important lesson to learn is that of love
Absence its problem, presence the solution thereof.
”
”
Beryl Dov
“
The Natural Law of Cause and Effect. (KARMA) For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Our world will be a much better place to live, if such natural law of cause and effect can be widely acknowledged, taught, and respected. Also, when we treat the important people and loved ones in our life with immense respect, compassion, love, dignity and honesty (cause), we will experience the most profound and loving, solid relationships – which lead to happiness, fulfillment and peace of mind (effect). All that brings us to be more in touch with who we are because we know that we are living the life we were meant to lead. And yes, everything can change for the better when we see that all of the events and reasons of our life have meaning and great value.
”
”
Angie karan
“
All souls come from God—individualized rays of pure Spirit— and evolve back to their native perfection by exercise of their God-given free will. The ignorant and the wise alike require equal opportunity from the hand of a just and loving God in order to fulfill this quest. For instance, a baby who dies prematurely cannot possibly have used its free will to be either virtuous enough to be granted salvation or vicious enough to be damned. Nature must bring that soul back to earth to give it a chance to use its free will to work out the past actions (karma) that were the lawful cause of its untimely death, and to perform sufficient good actions to attain liberation. Ordinary souls are compelled to reincarnate by their earthbound desires and effects of past actions.
”
”
Paramahansa Yogananda (The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You (2 Volume Set) 1St edition by Yogananda, Paramahansa published by Self-Realization Fellowship Hardcover)
“
Shadow of Immaturity is rooted in the human tendency to see ourselves as separate from nature. The human mind has enormous difficulty seeing itself as a collective organism that is deeply embedded in nature and the earth. If one of us commits a selfish act or an act rooted in fear, it reinforces that act throughout the totality, which in turn strengthens its vibration in the world. This is what immaturity is — an aspect of the whole that does not yet realise that it is the whole. However, human beings have always sensed the inherent balancing force woven into creation. It is reflected for instance in the Buddhist and Hindu doctrine of karma — the law that every cause results in an effect that directly influences our own future. A common oversight here is that it is not only we as individuals who affect our future, but we as a collective.
”
”
Richard Rudd (The Gene Keys: Embracing Your Higher Purpose)
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These questions are closely related to one of the Buddha’s main interests: how to lead a virtuous life. Every spiritual tradition is concerned with virtue, but what does virtue mean? Is it the same as following a list of dos and don’ts? Does a virtuous person have to be a goody-goody? Is it necessary to be dogmatic, rigid, and smug? Or is there room to be playful, spontaneous, and relaxed? Is it possible to enjoy life while at the same time being virtuous? Like many spiritual traditions, the Dharma has lists of positive and negative actions. Buddhists are encouraged to commit to some basic precepts, such as not to kill, steal, or lie. Members of the monastic community, such as myself, have much longer lists of rules to follow. But the Buddha didn’t establish these rules merely for people to conform to outer codes of behavior. The Buddha’s main concern was always to help people become free of suffering. With the understanding that our suffering originates from confusion in our mind, his objective was to help us wake up out of that confused state. He therefore encouraged or discouraged certain forms of behavior based on whether they promoted or hindered that process of awakening. When we ask ourselves, “Does it matter?” we can first look at the outer, more obvious results of our actions. But then we can go deeper by examining how we are affecting our own mind: Am I making an old habit more habitual? Am I strengthening propensities I’d like to weaken? When I’m on the verge of lying to save face, or manipulating a situation to go my way, where will that lead? Am I going in the direction of becoming a more deceitful person or a more guilty, self-denigrating person? How about when I experiment with practicing patience or generosity? How are my actions affecting my process of awakening? Where will they lead? By questioning ourselves in these ways, we start to see “virtue” in a new light. Virtuous behavior is not about doing “good” because we feel we’re “bad” and need to shape up. Instead of guilt or dogma, how we choose to act can be guided by wisdom and kindness. Seen in this light, our question then boils down to “What awakens my heart, and what blocks that process from happening?” In the language of Buddhism, we use the word “karma.” This is a way of talking about the workings of cause and effect, action and reaction.
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Pema Chödrön (Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World)
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Karmic Cause and Effect It is very important to contemplate the connection between our mental states and our actions. Our karmic patterns are formed and sustained by the intentional actions of the “three gates” of body, speech, and mind—everything we do, say, or think with volitional intention. Our actions and reactions form the cause and effect of action (Skt. karma; Tib. las) that in turn determines the kinds of experiences we have. As such, our mind has the potential to transport us to elevated states of existence or to plunge us into demeaning states of confusion and anguish. Our actions are not like footprints left on water; they leave imprints in our minds, the consequences of which will invariably manifest unless we can somehow nullify them. As the thirteenth Karmapa, Dudul Dorje (1733–97) states: In the empty dwelling place of confusion, Desire is unchanging, marked on the mind Like an etching on rock.13 The thoughts and emotions we experience and the attitudes and beliefs we hold all help to mold our character and dispositions and the kind of people we become. Conditioned existence is characterized by delusions, defilements, confusions, and disturbances of all kinds. We have to ask ourselves why we experience so much pain, while our pleasures are so ephemeral and transient. The answer is that these are the karmic fruits of our negative actions (Skt. papa-karma; Tib. sdig pa’i las). Jamgön Kongtrül says: The result of wholesome action is happiness; the result of unwholesome action is suffering, and nothing else. These results are not interchangeable: when you plant buckwheat, you get buckwheat; when you plant barley, you get barley.14 This cycle of cause and effect continues relentlessly, unless we embark on a virtuous spiritual path and learn to reverse this process by performing wholesome actions (Skt. kusala-karma; Tib. dge ba’i las). It is our intentions that determine whether an action is wholesome or unwholesome, and therefore it is our intentions that will dictate the quality of our future experiences. We have to think of karmic cause and effect in the following terms: “My current suffering is due to the negative actions, attitudes, thoughts, and emotions I performed in the past, and whatever I think, say, and do now will determine what I experience and become in the future. So from now on, I will contemplate the truth of karma, and pursue my spiritual practices with enthusiasm and positive intentions.
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Traleg Kyabgon (The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion through Training the Mind)
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One will keep on charging new karma as long as there is the awareness of ‘I am the doer’. In the ‘akram-marg’ (step-less, direct path to Self-realization), ‘We’ (enlightened one, Dadabhagwan) dissolve your ‘doer-ship’. The awareness that ‘I am the doer’ goes away and the understanding of ‘who the doer is’ is given. Therefore, the charging (of karma) stops! What is left now? Only the form of ‘discharge’ is left.
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Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
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Importance is not of ‘discharge’ (of karmas) that occurs; but the importance is that of the ‘dhyan’ (internal state of being) at that time in effect.
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Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
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Charge' always keeps on worshipping the 'discharge'.
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Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
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It is considered pure ‘discharge’ (of karma) when a person does no ‘planning’. Charging occurs where there is planning. Discharge is of natural characteristics. There is no pain in it.
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Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
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A person is not a ‘doer’ in this world. When one believes that ‘I am the doer’ is when the ‘charging’ (of karma) occurs. When one tastes egoistic pride of, “I did this samayik (spiritual introspection), I did these activities,” is when the ‘charging’ occurs. The taste of egoistic pride is very sweet.
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Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
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What is 'discharge'? It will not move away till it’s time has come. Discharge does not happen at your convenience, if you are in a hurry.
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Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
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In whatever work that you do in this world, the work has no value. You will be ‘binding responsibility’ for next life only if there is attachment and abhorrence involved in it. There is no responsibility if the attachment and abhorrence do not occur.
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Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
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Shukladhyan (internal state that renders the constant awareness of ‘I am pure Soul’) is the direct cause for moksha (liberation). Dharmadhyan (absence of adverse internal state of being that hurts the self and others) is the indirect cause for moksha. Artadhyan (adverse internal state that results in hurting the self) is a cause for a birth in animal life form (non-human). Raudradhyan (Adverse internal state of being that hurts others) is a cause for a life in hell.
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Dada Bhagwan (The Science Of Karma)
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Whatever actions that are seen in this world, are the discharging of karma that has previously been charged. A person has nothing to do with it. There, he does the egoism that I have done samayik (introspective analysis as Self). One binds karma there, and gets entrapped. He is indulged in the pride of doership there!
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Dada Bhagwan (Simple & Effective Science for Self Realization)
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Sri Leland what is Karma?
Karma is a Sanskrit word that means something beyond the common popular interpretation. But in essence Karma refers to the cumulative cause and effect of action. It is a phenomena which endures within the realms of Samsara regardless of various human belief structures. Karma is not a religious belief, it is simply a word to describe an observable phenomena.
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Leland Lewis (Random Molecular Mirroring)
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2. The Doctrine of the Hinayanists. This doctrine tells us that (both) the body, that is formed of matter, and the mind, that thinks and reflects, continually exist from eternity to eternity, being destroyed and recreated by means of direct or indirect causes, just as the water of a river glides continually, or the flame of a lamp keeps burning constantly. Mind and body unite themselves temporarily, and seem to be one and changeless. The common people, ignorant of all this, are attached to (the two combined) as being Atman.[FN#337] [FN#337] Atman means ego, or self, on which individuality is based. For the sake of this Atman, which they hold to be the most precious thing (in the world), they are subject to the Three Poisons Of lust,[FN#338] anger,[FN#339] and folly,[FN#340] which (in their turn) give impulse to the will and bring forth Karma of all kinds through speech and action. Karma being thus produced, no one can evade its effects. Consequently all must be born[FN#341] in the Five States of Existence either to suffer pain or to enjoy pleasure; some are born in the higher places, while others in the lower of the Three Worlds.[FN#342]
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Kaiten Nukariya (The Religion of the Samurai A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan)
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1. The Doctrine for Men and Devas. The Buddha, to meet temporarily the spiritual needs of the uninitiated, preached a doctrine concerning good or bad Karma as the cause, and its retribution as the effect, in the three existences (of the past, the present, and the future). That is, one who commits the tenfold sin[FN#324] must be reborn after death in hell, when these sins are of the highest grade;[FN#325] among Pretas,[FN#326] when of the middle grade; and among animals, when of the lowest grade. [FN#324] (1) Taking life, (2) theft, (3) adultery, (4) lying, (5) exaggeration, (6) abuse, (7) ambiguous talk, (8) coveting, (9) malice, (10) unbelief. [FN#325]
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Kaiten Nukariya (The Religion of the Samurai A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan)
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1. The Doctrine for Men and Devas. The Buddha, to meet temporarily the spiritual needs of the uninitiated, preached a doctrine concerning good or bad Karma as the cause, and its retribution as the effect, in the three existences (of the past, the present, and the future). That is, one who commits the tenfold sin[FN#324] must be reborn after death in hell, when these sins are of the highest grade;[FN#325] among Pretas,[FN#326] when of the middle grade; and among animals, when of the lowest grade. [FN#324] (1) Taking life, (2) theft, (3) adultery, (4) lying, (5) exaggeration, (6) abuse, (7) ambiguous talk, (8) coveting, (9) malice, (10) unbelief. [FN#325] There are three grades in each of the tenfold sin. For instance, the taking of the life of a Buddha, or of a sage, or of a parent, etc., is of the highest grade; while to kill fellow-men is of the middle; and to kill beasts and birds, etc., is of the lowest. Again, to kill any being with pleasure is of the highest grade; while to repent after killing is of the middle; and killing by mistake is of the lowest.
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Kaiten Nukariya (The Religion of the Samurai A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan)
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Karma knows nothing about good and evil, it just assures that the chain of cause and effect continues.
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John Daido Loori (The Heart of Being: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen Buddhism)
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All of our thoughts, words, and deeds flow from a chain of 'cause and effect'.
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Shree Shambav (Journey of Soul - Karma)
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The higher you rise, the greater your desire for becoming loved and admired.”
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”
“Remember to be yourself; you don’t need anyone’s approval or appreciation otherwise.”
“Some people are so busy looking in the mirror they forget to look at what is around them.”
“What comes around goes around and more often than not comes right back at you.”
“Good karma will always come back to those who give off positive energy and spread kindness and love.
The only person that can truly make a difference in your life is you – start by becoming aware of when narcissism rears its ugly head.
“If you do good, you will be rewarded. If you do bad, you will suffer the consequences. That’s what karma is all about.”
“Karma has no deadline; be aware that your actions today will always come back to haunt you tomorrow.”
“The universe always pays back; you cannot escape from the effects of Karma!”
“Good karma requires no explanation and bad karma requires no excuse.”
“Karma has a way of returning your secrets in unexpected ways. Be careful who knows them and how they’re shared… or not shared at all!”
Selfishness brings misery, whereas kindness brings joy and peace built upon a strong foundation of karma that eventually leads to success.”
“In life, we reap what we have sown so it’s best to sow good deeds so one can reap their sweet rewards later on in life through karmic justice!”
“Karma has no menu; you get served what you deserve.”
“The universe is not punishing you; it’s teaching you.”
“Be careful with your words. Once they are said, they can be only forgiven, not forgotten.”
“Everything that happens to us happens for a reason and the only viable response we can give is to learn from it and move on.”
“By hating someone else, we set ourselves up as judge; we take upon ourselves the powers of Karma: to reward or punish with justice.”
“No matter how much suffering you go through, you will never earn the right to be cruel.”
If life gives you lemons and all that jazz remember one thing: Everything eventually becomes something else and nobody ever truly knows what the future holds.
“Karma is a powerful force that doesn’t forget anyone who has wronged or hurt you.”
“You will reap what you sow and what goes around comes around in due time.”
“One day the pain and suffering you caused others will come back to you tenfold”
“Put kindness out into the world and it will come back to reward you in unexpected ways.
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Encouraging Blogs
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Karma is the law of cause and effect. Every action produces a reaction. In other words, your current decisions, good and bad, determine your future experience.
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Jay Shetty (8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go)
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The idea of reward and punishment also springs from this law. Whatever we sow, we must reap. It cannot be otherwise. [...] If a person spends all his life in evil-thinking and wrongdoing, then it is useless for him to look for happiness hereafter; because our hereafter is not a matter of chance, but follows as the reaction of our present action. [...] We should, however, never lose sight of the fact that all these ideas of reward and punishment exist in the realm of relativity or finiteness. No soul can ever be doomed eternally through his finite evil deeds; for the cause and effect must always be equal. Thus we can see through our common sense that the theory of eternal perdition and eternal heaven is impossible and illogical, since no finite action can create an infinite result. Hence according to Vedanta, the goal of mankind is neither temporal pleasure nor pain, but Mukti or absolute freedom ; and each soul is consciously or unconsciously marching towards this goal through the various experiences of life and death.
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Paramananda
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Karma's menu: what goes around, comes around! So, sprinkle some kindness, top it off with good vibes, and serve it up with a side of positivity. Remember, the universe has a way of balancing the scales, so whether it's a slice of sweet justice or a hearty helping of good fortune, rest assured, karma's got your back. Bon appétit!
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Life is Positive
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Whatever you have done in the past, whether in the current or ancient lives, predisposes you to certain conditions: pleasant or stressful. You need to understand this predisposed old karma to neutralize its side effects or inner causes.
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Master Del Pe (Higher Science of Longevity)
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Good deeds move you towards the right place, at the right time, and with the right people. When you succeed in good things, ultimately you will experience enlightenment/ascension.
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Hina Hashmi (Your Life A Practical Guide to Happiness Peace and Fulfilment)
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The enlightened person sees the truth of the world, recognising the flawed and temporary nature of objects and ideas. They see the cause and effect relationships that connect the events of the world (karma).
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David Tuffley (The Essence of Buddhism)
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The New Age Manifesto
You're always exactly where you need to be,
some call it coincidence, others synchronicity.
The universe entire, spiritually interconnects,
partaking of the same God energy it at once reflects.
We are all tones in the cosmos musicality,
each man tunes in and creates his unique reality.
Intuition integrates our divine and truest guide,
science and rationalism are too often misapplied.
All is framed by the principles, laws and duties of dharma,
effecting cause, causing effect, in each incarnation's karma.
Everything we confront, everyone we meet
become our teachers in life's balance sheet.
The most important lesson to learn is that of love,
absence its problem, presence the solution thereof.
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Beryl Dov
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On ignorance depends karma; on karma depends consciousness; on consciousness depend name and form; on name and form depend the five organs of sense; on the five organs of sense depends contact; on contact depends sensation; on sensation depends desire; on desire depends clutching; on clutching depends existence; on existence depends birth; on birth depend old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief and despair. —The Buddha’s twelvefold concatenation of cause and effect
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Leonard Shlain (The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image (Compass))
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Wonderful things happen due to positive beliefs and good karma. Change your mind set to earn good karma and to make your life beautiful.
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Hina Hashmi (Your Life A Practical Guide to Happiness Peace and Fulfilment)
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Things of the world are not in a ‘seed’ form; they are in a form of a ‘fruit’. One has come with a ready farm; all he has to do is harvest the fruits now.
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Dada Bhagwan
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You could be generous with the love you gave, with the care you took with others. You could follow all the commandments that made sense to you and still the world could sideswipe you. There was no cause and effect. There was no karma.
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Caroline Leavitt (Pictures of You)
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You can't escape karma ... It is what it is. It doesn't judge, it's neither good nor bad like most people think. It's the result of all the actions, positive and negative--a constant balancing act of events--cause and effect--tit for tat--reaping and sowing--what goes around comes around ... However you phrase it, it's the same in the end.
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Alyson Noel (Shadowland (The Immortals, #3))
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One will bother you only if you have a karmic account with him. No one can bother you without your signature (karmic cause). All this is due solely to your signature.
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Dada Bhagwan
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Advaita You may be asking: how am I responsible for my karma? How can I change it? One popular Western theory is that when we are born, our lives are like a clean slate where nothing is written. Each life develops as a result of its surroundings and the forces acting on it such as parents, friends, society, their dominant culture, etc. However, TransZendental Introspection teaches the eternity of life – that I’ve lived countless lives before this current manifestation. This means that when I am born, I am not a collection of blank pages, but rather pages with countless impressions. In TransZentalism, life is forever existing in the cosmos. At times, it is manifested; at other times, latent. When I sleep and awaken, my conscious mind awakens and my body is refreshed. My consciousness carries on in a sub-conscious state between sleeping and awakening. Similarly, my life continues eternally in alternating states of life and death. Therefore, death is a part of the process of living. Karma is a Sanskrit word that means ‘action.’ It is the accumulation of effects from the positive and negative causes I brought with me from my former lives, together with the causes I make in this life, thus shaping my future. My thoughts, words and deeds are manifested in my appearance, behavior, attitudes, good and bad fortune, where I’m born or live - in short, everything about me is the effect of my karma. Unlike some philosophies, TransZendental Introspection does not consider one’s karma or destiny to be fixed; since my mind changes from moment to moment, even the habitual and destructive tendencies I possess can be altered. In other words, I have in me the potential to change my destiny. Last but not least, Advaita is the non-duality - The Oneness, the fundamental quality of everything conscious.
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Young (Turpitude (A Harem Boy's Saga Book 4))
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St. Augustine, in his "Confessions," makes use of these remarkable words: "Did I not live in another body before entering my mother's womb?
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William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
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Following Pythagoras, Plato, the great Grecian philosopher, taught the old-new doctrine of Rebirth.
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William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
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Reincarnation—Metempsychosis—Rebirth—has
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William Walker Atkinson (Reincarnation and the Law of Karma A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect)
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Karma is a loaded word. Karma is popularly used to describe a sort of “divine plan” that includes its own system of punishment and reward. But the Sanskrit word karma simply means activity. What is the activity we are describing here? It is the activity of objectification. There is no Dr. Evil sitting in a large chair petting his cat and controlling our karma. There is no judge, no wise old man with a long white beard, no list of ethical “rights” and “wrongs.” Karma doesn’t predetermine anything. In fact, karma is just the movement of objectified experience. Karma is the natural, impersonal law of cause and effect. As long as we objectify things, we will continue to live in a world that follows the dictates of karma.
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Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel (The Power of an Open Question: A Buddhist Approach to Abiding in Uncertainty)
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the Centrist approach of presenting mere conditionality without analysis is in clear opposition to any reifications of asserting arising from the four extremes. Hence, the Centrist way of presenting the two realities is highly superior to any such approach by realists, since it expresses the knowable objects of all persons from ordinary beings to Buddhas in a way that does not contradict common worldly consensus. As was said before, to abstain from reifying things such as karma, cause and effect, ethics, and the means to achieve liberation in no way makes these things lack their justification or functioning. To the contrary, it is precisely the fact of their emptiness-their lack of solid and independent existence-that allows for the unimpeded and dynamic flow of the dependent origination of conditioned phenomena.
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Karl Brunnhölzl (The Center of the Sunlit Sky: Madhyamaka in the Kagyu Tradition (Nitartha Institute Series))
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What is the cause of karmic bondage? It is agnan (ignorance of the Self). What is the cause for moksha (ultimate liberation)? It is Gnan (knowledge of the Self, the Pure Soul).
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Dada Bhagwan (Simple & Effective Science for Self Realization)