Karma.
The Law of Cause and Effect.

The law of cause and effect is universal; each man must carry his burden of sin, and must go along to its retribution. The same law of cause and effect controls good deeds. Teachings of Buddha, p.194

You have to reap the rewards of your deeds. As you sow, so shall you reap. You are indeed fortunate to get the refuge of the Perfect Master who will guide you te perform righteous deeds and also protect you from doing evil deeds. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 34.

Do not return evil for an evil. Otherwise, how do you differ from him? The maxim, "You shall reap what you sow" is an eternal truth. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 220.

Ignore the faults of others and forget the good you have done for others. The sooner you do this your suffering will cease and happiness shall pervade your life. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 224.

Nature does not take sides. Everyone has to face the consequences of his deeds. Hence always do noble deeds so that you may not have repent. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1928.

As you think, so you will become. Always harbour noble thoughts in your mind. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 2123.

Every vicious thought will rebound, every thought of hatred which you have thought, even in a cave, is stored up and will one day come back to you with tremendous power in the form of some misery. (...) Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.196.

Goswami Tulsidas said in his "Ram charita Manas": "The Lord Himself created the law of karma - as you sow, so you shall reap." Keeping this basic principle in mind, our main duty should be to spread the message of Karma Yoga in the world, we ourselves giving an example to all, by practicing it. Whenever true progress was made in the world, it was due to the hardworking individuals of a particular Age. (...) By karma alone can we become prosperous. We have to work to our last breath. Teachings of Babaji, P.63.

Due to heavy rainfall, roads have been damaged and communications are difficult. (...) This breakdown in communications will mean great losses to the country. This is Nature's curse: it is the working out of the law of cause and effect. Because righteousness had decreased, all these calamities come. Teachings of Babaji, P.94.

Crime follows crime. For that, the earth is withered. Everything that dwells on it languishes - beasts of the field and birds of the sky - even the fish of the sea perish. Hosea 4:1-3

(...) And when he (God, the Spirit) is seen in his immanence and transcendence, then the ties that have bound the heart are unloosened, the doubts of the mind vanish, and the law of Karma works no more. Katha Upanishad, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World Wisdom, P.16.

Samsara, the transmigration of life, takes place in one's own mind. Let one therefore keep the mind pure, for what a man thinks that he becomes: this is a mystery of Eternity. Maitri Upanishad, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World Wisdom, P.20.

Mind is indeed the source of bondage and also the source of liberation. To be bound to things of this world: this is bondage. To be free from them: this is liberation. Maitri Upanishad, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World Wisdom, P.20.

Conditioned by ignorance are the karma-formations; conditioned by karma-formations is consciousness; conditioned by consciouseness is mind-and-body; conditioned by mind-and-body are the six sense-fields; conditioned by the six sense-fields is sense impression; conditioned by sense-impression is feeling; conditioned by feeling is craving; conditioned by craving is grasping; conditioned by grasping is becoming; conditioned by becoming is birth; conditioned by birth there come into being ageing and dying, grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation and despair. This is the origin of the whole mass of suffering. Ascribed to Buddha, quoted after Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.69-70.

(...) every person in a family is an individual soul who brings his own distinctive traits from his past lives. (...) A man takes birth in a certain family, a particular social and national environment, owing to specific causes - his own past actions. (...) One can almost predict what he will be in his next life by analyzing his dominant interests and habits in this one. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.74.

Every desire consists of specific forces, either good or evil, or a mixture of both. And when you die, though your body is gone, those forces do not die. As mental tabloids they follow your soul wherever it goes, and when you are reborn, these tabloids manifest as behavioral tendencies. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.123.

Desires for wordly joys create the magnetic attraction that draws man back to earth, life after life. Reincarnation is no longer necessary for those who have fulfilled their desires in God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.131.

Our good or bad traits determine whether, and by whom, we are liked or disliked. Evil attracts evil; good attracts good. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.140.

Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein; and he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon him. Proverbs 26:27. Quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.49.

We are all just like puppets who are dancing, and the strings are being pulled by Him according to our karmas. The realized and the unrealized souls are all dancing in the same way. The only difference is that the realized souls know that He is pulling the strings and the unrealized souls think they are dancing by their own effort. So we have to act in this world with detachment to our role in life, knowing that He is pulling the strings and whatever is to happen will happen, but all the same doing our best under all circumstances. Thus we make ourselves receptive and become good puppets in His hands. Maharaj Charan Singh. Quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.57-8.

What we kill today as our food will one day kill us in return, for this entire world is nothing but a crop of our karmas. Maharaj Charan Singh, quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.238.

To free yourself from karma that binds you to the lesser duties of life, develop wisdom and God-consciousness. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.228.

Any word, any action, any thought that produces an effect is called karma. Thus the law of karma means the law of causation, of inevitable cause and effect. Whatever we see or feel or do, whatever action there is anywhere in the universe, while being the effect of past work on the one hand, becomes, on the other, a cause in its turn and produces its own effect. Each one of us is the effect of an infinite past. (...) Each one of us is the maker of his own fate. Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.200.

There is no other way to vindicate the glory and the liberty of the human soul and to reconcile the inequalities and the horrors of this world, than to place the whole burden upon the legitimate cause - our own independent actions, or karma. (...) Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.200.

In terms of day-to-day human existence, karma shapes the lives that we lead right from the beginning (...). It is generated by all the information and socialization we receive from our family, friends, acquaintances, teachers, mentors, workmates, and the culture at large. This conditioning creates within us mental and emotional habits that, left unexamined or unbroken, tend to perpetuate themselves by our own conscious or subconscious volition. Karma also proceeds from our more independent, nonhabitual thoughts or feelings, and from the more isolated, unconventional, or exceptional things that we do or experience. Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.96.  

Karma isn't a closed-loop system. A certain kind of conditioning doesn't always have the same repercussions in person after person; nor does a given habit, thought, or deed always wind up causing the same thing to happen. (...) We can think good and do good but still get treated badly, thanks to the karma of other individuals or to the collective karma of a whole nation of individuals. Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.96.

(...) many of the things we think and do have consequences we can't possibly foresee. No thought or deed occurs in a vacuum, and the cross-functioning of countless different, interrelated strains of karma is bound to create a certain amount of unpredictability regarding specific outcomes. Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.96.

The vitally important spiritual challenge relating to the law of karma is not that we avoid having bad things happen to us. It's that we take mindful and active responsibility for our own lives - for how we think and feel and. by extension, for how we conduct ourselves (...). Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.96.

In fact, man cannot help acting: his thoughts are projects and commitments, his feelings are understandings, he is nothing other than his life, and his life is the unity of his behavior. The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre. Vol.2. P.157-8.

If you do not want to suffer evil, do not inflict it, since the suffering of it inevitably follows its infliction. 'For whatever a man sows he will also reap.' (Gal. 6:7). St. Mark the Ascetic (4th Century C.E.), quoted in: The Philokalia, Vol. I., P.118.

It is the uneven quality of our thoughts that produces changes in our condition. For God assigns to our voluntary thoughts consequences which are appropriate but not necessarily of our choice. St. Mark the Ascetic (4th Century C.E.), quoted in: The Philokalia, Vol. I., P.121.

Everyone receives what he deserves in accordance with his inner state. But only God understands the many different ways in which this happens. St. Mark the Ascetic (4th Century C.E.), quoted in: The Philokalia, Vol. I., P.131.

How God treats you depends upon how you treat your body. St. Thalassios the Libyan (VI-VII Century C.E.), quoted in: (1981). The Philokalia. Vol. II., P.309.

All these sufferings are man-made and it is within man’s power to put an end to them. God helps by facing man with the results of his actions and demanding that the balance should be restored. Karma is the law that works for righteousness; it is the healing hand of God. Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. P.24. OGN#657, 22 February 2015.

 

By all means attend to your duties. Action, in which you are not emotionally involved and which is beneficial and does not cause suffering will not bind you. You may be engaged in several directions and work with enormous zest, yet remain inwardly free and quiet, with a mirror-like mind, which reflects all, without being affected. Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. P.50.

 


Last updated: 2015/02/22

See the related subjects: Mind, Reincarnation, Responsibility, Sin, Suffering, Work

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