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    Karma,
    the Law of Action Followed by Reaction


    Definition

        Karma -from the root kri, "to do"- is the means by which you become the architect of your own destiny. The word karma literally means deed, but implies the entire cycle of cause and its effects. According to the law of karma, every human action -in thought, word, or deed- inevitably leads to results or consequences, good or bad, depending upon the quality of the action.

        Karma deals with causality. A specific action leads to a specific result. A positive act will lead to a result of a positive nature, hence, to the experience of positive events, may it be in this life or in future ones. On the other hand, negative acts will unavoidably sooner or later lead to suffering. This happens of itself because the result will unavoidably correspond to the nature of the cause. For example, if you plant a seed, a certain kind of plant will grow from this. From a bean seed, a bean plant will grow; from an apple seed an apple tree will grow and not any other kind. The effects of a deed, word or

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    thought, sometimes are immediate but in some cases many days, months, years or lifes must elapse till the precise moment determined by God comes about. Buddha said: "Our good and evil deeds follow us continually like shadows."

        You must remember that thoughts and words are also considered as karma. To desire is also a sort of action, so you must be very aware of your bad desires trying to get rid of them immediately. Negative emotions such as anger, hatred, envy, egoism, jealousy, etc. are also wrongful actions leading to negative reactions -suffering, so we must always keep in mind that each of our physical, emotional, verbal or mental actions have its repercussions in the whole Universe.

        Negative thoughts or disturbing emotions might emerge every day within yourself. This is not a sin, but if you permit those detrimental emotions to abide within yourself, strengthening them through wrongful actions, evil thoughts and iniquitous words, then you will be creating bad karma. Your duty is to get rid of those negative thoughts and foolish and senseless emotions as soon as possible. Christ, Buddha, Mohammed and other great souls were not exempt of experiencing evil thoughts, fear, anger, sadness,

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    hatred, egoism, or any other kind of negative emotion, though they were always trying to hastily eradicate those tremendous obstacles in their evolutionary process.

        You should try to stop or at least control your negative thoughts and emotions so that you can stop bad karma from being accumulated. You generate around 60,000 thoughts every day so it is very important to educate your mind so that you always generate positive thoughts that will lead to positive words and actions.

        Not only our actions, but also our omissions become our destiny. Even the things that we should have done but did not do, trigger reactions that may develop into events of grave concern. For example, my grandmother was very ill on Sunday but I decided not to visit her on that day because I preferred going to the movies. Days went by and three days later she dies, so I did never pay a visit to her. This action will trigger adverse reactions in my destiny, because it was my moral duty to drop by her house in order to give her opdestiny, because it was my moral duty to drop by her house in order to give her optimism and spiritual strength through affectionate actions and loving words towards her.

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        None of us like to suffer and our greatest mistake lies in trying to get through the difficult periods as quickly as possible, not realizing that this suffering purifies our soul giving us a chance to evolve at a higher pace. You should accept suffering with faith, surrender, resignation and humbleness, praying to the Almighty for the purification of your soul and for your spiritual liberation. You must remember that the hellish moments are preparing you to give birth to something of immeasurable value, spiritual evolution. You should welcome all circumstances as part of your treasury of opportunity. All sort of difficulties in your life may draw you magnetically into the valleys of pain in order to shock you out of your old and comfortable grooves into fresh pathways of thought. In every difficulty lies the golden seed of spiritual upliftment. You gain inner strength and spiritual evolution from the overcoming of difficulties.

        You have done millions of different karmas from many past lives, and in only one day you create a lot of new karma through your thoughts, words and actions. Sometimes it is positive, sometimes negative but unfortunately, it is usually negative because you, as a human being, constantly have disturbing thoughts and emotions which never result in anything positive,

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    but in wrongful actions. You may act lovingly towards your family, this is your Dharma -duty-, consequently you will reap love from your relatives and you will evolve spiritually. If you want love, give unconditional love.

        If you perform bad karmas -actions- such as killing, stealing, lying, criticizing, etc. then you will reap terrible results such as illness, calamities, hardships, or any kind of suffering inflicted upon you. The greater the sacrifice and goodness of the action, the greater will be the fruit you receive. Similarly, a bad or mean action, which inflicts pain and suffering to other beings, will bring equivalent results to the doer. For every action, word and thought there will be a reaction -fruit- equal in nature and degree. The Law of Cause and Effect is uninfringeable and no one escapes from it. This law operates in every situation, in every place, at any time within the created Universe, at every level of creation.

    Next Chapter: Action and Reaction

    Any Questions?