Karma and Reincarnation are as Real as Gravity

It’s time to demystify the two fundamental laws governing our existence – the Law of Cause and Effect and the Law of Rebirth.

Is there any truth in the oft-repeated adage, “what goes around comes around”? It’s a question that might be worth a few minutes of your time to seriously consider. After all, if it is true then most of us are blindly going about our days unconsciously setting into motion all sorts of causes that will impact us, sooner or later.

Westerners would do well to stop thinking of karma and reincarnation as mere belief systems. Known also as the Law of Cause and Effect and the Law of Rebirth, these essential laws underlie our very existence. Like gravity, you can deny their governance all you want, but they won’t avoid you.

One reason we don’t easily recognize the working out of karma is that the boomerangs don’t come back instantaneously. A time lag of years or lifetimes doesn’t make for easy observation of karmic connections. Yet if you think about it, the space between each cause and effect provides opportunities to grow and atone for our mistakes. Behind any given action is a motive that can range from highly constructive to immensely harmful. Our lives are the result of the accumulation of our intentions, thoughts and activities. Whether we fall at times into a destructive state of mind, such as exclusion or animosity, or choose to surround our thoughts with kindness and goodwill, we continually control our destiny.

The Universal Golden Rule

Because science and religion often appear at odds in modern society, it’s important to acknowledge areas where they clearly overlap. Sir Isaac Newton famously declared, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This well-known law of physics reinforces from a material angle the undeviating law of karma presented throughout the Christian Bible as an ethic of reciprocity. In the Old Testament’s Job 4:8 it is said, “those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.” Similarly, 2 Corinthians 9:6 says, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” Matthew 7:12 cautions, “whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets,” while Matthew 19:19 puts it so simply with “love your neighbor as yourself.”

The call for harmlessness is truly the universal “golden rule” reflected in all great spiritual traditions as well as many nonreligious codes of conduct.

Bahá’í

“Lay not on any soul a load which ye would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for any one the things ye would not desire for yourselves. This is My best counsel unto you, did ye but observe it.” (Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh)

Buddhism

“Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” (Udana-Varga, 5:18)

Atheism/Humanism

“Treat other people as you’d want to be treated in their situation; don’t do things you wouldn’t want to have done to you.” (British Humanist Association, 1999)

Hinduism

“This is the sum of duty; do nothing to others that you would not have them do to you.” (Mahabharata 5,1517, c.150 BCE)

Islam

“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” (A saying of The Prophet Muhammad — Number 13 of Imam Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadiths, 7th century)

Judaism

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.” (Talmud, Shabbat 3id, c.100)

Sikhism

“As you think of yourself, so think of others.” (Guru Granth Sahib, 1604)

Continuity of Life

Despite our formal education and even across various types of religious upbringings, the concept of a future existence after death remains either an enigma or a bundle of confusion for many people. Spiritual teachings in the East have, for millennia, taken for granted the fact of reincarnation. However, in India we see how misunderstandings of karmic law can lead to a sense of futility or complacency. Practically speaking, people are born into extreme poverty as a result of social and economic injustice, not because they are untouchables predestined to suffer in squalor. The real sins are the greed and self-protectionism of the wealthiest nations who are most responsible for today’s global inequality.

While the Western world has been slow to embrace the concept of reincarnation, where there is interest it is often superficial or misunderstood as a transmigration of souls — i.e. going from human form in one life to an animal or plant form in the next.

The Evolutionary Journey

In recent centuries a certain body of esoteric knowledge known as the Ageless Wisdom Teaching has provided a great deal of clarity on the cycle of life and death in relation to the spiritual development of the human race. Esotericism is the study of the evolution of consciousness and the inner forces that lie behind the world of outer forms. On a macro level esotericists see an ever-progressing humanity, despite the occasional and inevitable setbacks along the way. Some of the more outstanding moments in history include the Enlightenment, the Renaissance, the Women’s Rights Movement, the defeat of the Axis powers during WWII, the Civil Rights era, and the many modern-day global campaigns demanding social, racial, economic and environmental justice. Such periods indicate a growing sense of collective responsibility. They also demonstrate a continual passing on of accumulated wisdom down the generations.

On a personal level, the Ageless Wisdom Teaching points to the Law of Cause and Effect as being inextricably linked to the Law of Rebirth. Together they provide a means of learning to establish right relationship with everyone around us. Certain qualities are given focus in each incarnation, along with certain challenges necessary for growth, in order to develop a more rounded out and refined personality. All the while, our many karmic ties require resolution at some point along the way, starting with the family unit and our closest contacts.

This evolutionary journey is ultimately about the spiritualizing of matter. Our real and immortal Self, the soul, which has no sense of separation or time, patiently seeks to manifest unity on the physical plane. Lifetime after lifetime, it watches for a shifting of the attention by its lower reflection, the human form in incarnation. The self-serving desires of the personality are eventually superseded by an aspiration to creatively serve the world. Gradually, the light, love, and inclusive nature of the soul become properties of a more integrated personality. At the final stage of the spiritual journey, the culmination of countless lifetimes and lessons learned, the enlightened individual achieves full liberation from the pull of the material world.

Reincarnation in the Bible

In the early years of the Christian church, one of the first teachers named Origen (AD 185–253) spoke and wrote openly about the subject of reincarnation. Though Origen’s teachings were censured by the Roman Emperer Justinian in the 6th century, Christians can still find references to past lives in any modern version of the Bible. For instance, in Matthew 11:14 Jesus reveals the former identity of John the Baptist when he says quite clearly, “if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah [a respected prophet from the 9th century BC] who was to come. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Later in the New Testament we see how the karma of past lives is taken for granted within the question posed by the disciples to Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) The only way a sin could lead to someone being born blind is to have committed the sin prior to the current life.

Rebirth in Nature

In nature we witness the cycle of death and rebirth in the leaves of a tree, emerging in Springtime and fading away in the Fall. So, too, does our permanent and immaterial core display its personality leaves, season after season. We have been conditioned to fear the inevitable winter of death, a transition serving its own purpose in the great cycle of life. Yet “death” is not really what it seems. When we truly understand it to be a transitional stage rather than an end, the pervasive fear of death will be dissipated.

Scientific Research

Will modern day science ever meet up with the Spiritualist movement of the 1800’s to confirm what spiritual teachers have explained for ages? It seems such a convergence is already underway. The late Professor Ian Stevenson performed extensive research on children’s memories of previous lives. Some of these stories are mentioned in this Scientific American blog. Though the author (a professor of science communication) remains skeptical, he admits he cannot fully dismiss the concept of reincarnation after considering Stevenson’s rigorous work. There is also the story of a boy named Cameron Macauley from Glasgo Scotland, who recounted his life on the island of Barra without having visited the island in his current life.

Both science and religion must each deal with their own self-imposed limitations, but there is good reason to expect that the process of reincarnation and the existence of the human soul will one day become widely accepted facts. The long story of human history shows how often we have corrected our ways of thinking. What is considered by conventional wisdom to be the complete picture of reality is eventually challenged and expanded to include a fuller measure of truth.

What Goes Around – a Personal Story

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Ev’ryone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Instant Karma (We All Shine On) lyrics, by John Lennon

Is it pointless to introduce the Law of Cause and Effect (Karma) to the average Judeo-Christian Westerner when the faithful are too busy warding off Satan’s lure to even consider this essential law of life? They will say that the whole karma/reincarnation thing doesn’t appear to fit into Christian teaching. Others, a growing group of nonbelievers, really don’t care or have already decided that if they don’t “believe”, it doesn’t apply to them. An intelligent approach might be to explore Karmic Law as potentially in play and be open to it as an organizing principle of our experience, appreciating its beauty as an equitable way to ensure that life is an educational process, and that there is ultimately justice in life on Earth.

Such concepts won’t be proven inside a laboratory. You’ll have to research and decide for yourself. But your life has value, and we all have the capacity to grow in awareness of things we never suspected might be operating below the limitations of our past experiences. You and I can surely agree on this much. If we don’t understand why we’re actually here living this life, then what’s the point of it all? There is never a bad time for serious self-reflection. Are we courageous enough to re-think what was taught during those childhood years of conditioning?

Any moral authority can tell you what to believe, yet the greatest truths can only be confirmed as they become ingrained into our own experience. It’s possible you’ve witnessed something in your own life or another person’s life that resembled the full cycle of cause and effect. We all like tangible examples on which to hang our hats, so here’s one illustration I can offer of “what goes around, comes around”.

Years ago, while at the airport heading out of town for work, I stopped at a grab-and-go eatery near my departure gate. My flight was boarding soon, but there was enough time to get some food. A flight attendant stood behind me in what was a sluggishly moving line. Fretful and impatient, she mumbled about how a plane was being held up by her tardiness. Upon realizing that her need to rush was even greater than mine, I immediately told her to step in front of me. While paying for her food she expressed thanks to me and then hurried off.

Exactly one week later I found myself travelling out of town again and departing from the same terminal. I stopped at the same eatery and first grabbed a baked potato. While standing in line I noticed a flight attendant was behind me again — a different person than the previous week. Like me, she was debating to herself whether or not to indulge in a freshly baked cinnamon roll. Together we mutually decided to give in to the sugar temptation. Then I learned they were only accepting cash at the register that night. My wallet contained a few cards but no bills. Noticing my predicament, the flight attendant said, “I only have $6.25. How much is his?” The cashier responded with a similar amount for the total charge. After trying to stop her, the generous stranger insisted on paying for my food while somehow convincing the cashier to throw in an extra cinnamon roll for herself. Before walking off she glanced at me with a smile and remarked, “See, everything comes back to you.”

Maybe, just maybe, natural lessons are presented to us all the time, but we rarely pay attention. Many important concepts and aspects of life seem to be subtle in nature.

If the Law of Cause and Effect is real, and if it’s true that every thought, every act is a cause that initiates an effect, then our lives really do matter. We create effects in the world, for good or ill, which effects we may not even realize until we become aware of them. Nevertheless, they exist. Since we are tied to those thoughts/actions/effects, we’d also need a long time to continually experience and work off the “bad” effects so as to learn the importance of creating more good effects through our positive thoughts, words, and actions. So, it seems logical that life would have to be either longer than most of us have in years to learn our lessons, or else “life” would need to be a continuous process.

We need to be courageous by asking unconventional questions. What forms of scientific research have been conducted, and what else can be done, to shed light on the possibility of rebirth? Why does the human kingdom make significant progress — from an intellectual and moral standpoint — over a mere few millennia when animals appear to be more stationary in their overall development? Can the existence of a non-physical aspect of ourselves, the immortal soul, ever be proved?

Regardless of whatever code of conduct guides your thinking, these universal laws do favor and reward harmlessness. Even physically, it’s a fact that states of fear and hatred generate tension in the muscles, restricting your body from functioning in a normal way. People might be attracted and inspired by your harmlessness. If negativity is contagious then so is harmlessness, but it is a choice you will live with over and over again.

We might need to keep asking ourselves this question: What goes around?