Your Daily Yoga

Welcome to Your Daily Yoga, the website that attempts to answer your basic questions about yoga, including "What is yoga?", and "What is a yogic practice?"

To the student already initiated in the ways of one or more yogic practices, these explanations will seem overly elementary - and yet even the experienced practitioner of yoga can recall the point in time when the answers to these basic questions seemed complicated and mysterious.

We must think of a yoga as a type of personal discipline, the kind of discipline that involves one or more specific actions or practices, which are referred to as spiritual practices.

The term "yoga" then refers to the specific act or focus of the discipline which is being practiced. For example, one of the most widely practiced forms of yoga, hatha yoga, involves primarily physical exercises. Many have come to believe that the term "yoga" refers exclusively to such physical exercise approaches. If we use the terms correctly, we will only think of physical yoga exercises as hatha yoga, and reserve the larger term "yoga" to refer to all the different disciplines and practices which have been historically included within the term "yoga".

In addition to referring to a specific form of spiritual discipline or practice, it should also be said that the practice of yoga, when accomplished successfully, constitutes an entire way of life for the practitioner or adherent.

One of the most accessible sources of information about the valid types of yoga is to be found within the ancient Hindu text Bhaghavad-Gita¹, in which Krishna describes to Arjuna the various forms of yoga, and their advantages as pathways to enlightenment. Krishna devotes entire sections of narrative to each of the following forms of yoga:

   Dharma yoga
   Karma yoga
   Kshatriya yoga
   The yoga of renunciation
   The yoga of knowledge

The yoga of action
The yoga of devotion
The yoga of meditation
The yoga of mysticism

Along with these, the traditions of Bhatkti Yoga, Sahaja Yoga, and Kundalini Yoga, although not mentioned in Krishna's narrative, will be reviewed.

Dharma yoga
To live in accordance with dharma means to live in accordance with one's duty. The doing of one's prescribed duty in life, whether duty to family, to community, to vocation, to deity, or to oneself, is the supreme value guiding the dharmically-correct lifestyle. Certain forms of dharma apply to all humans, as a consequence of membership in the human community. Individual dharma may be inherited by birthright, or karmically, or by promises made or obligations incurred during the individual's life. Dharma is not self-selected by the individual. If you are a parent of children (for example), a certain type of dharma (duty) is attached to that context, which is inescapable, and cannot be "deselected" by any choice or preference of the individual.

Many people select a path in life that they feel will be "dharmic", by virtue of being either spiritually-focused, or otherwise devoted to some good cause. While this sounds positive enough in theory, it is actually a context where many pitfalls to spiritual development may be encountered. Careful analysis of some of these "dharmic" lifestyles reveals a repeated context in which there is one spiritual leader or teacher who has inspired one or more followers to emulate that person's personal path of spiritual development. And while it is a legitimate dharmic responsibility of a disciple to emulate their teacher or guru, this dharmic requirement must somehow be meaningfully balanced by the admonishments of Krishna in the Bhaghavad-Gita against confusing one's dharma with that of another person.

But how can we know as individuals what is our true dharma? How can we sense or learn about our personal dharma? How can we differentiate our true dharma from the many illusions of duty which occur to us, or from obligations which others push on us or teach us? How can we tell our true dharma from the many false dharmas we encounter?

If we emphasize dharma, two main activities become the focus of our thought processes: (1) we must continuously study and increase our understanding of our responsibilities which are a part of membership in the human race, and (2) we must continuously study and increase our understanding of our individual dharma and personal dharmic responsibilities.

Mastering the subjects of human dharma and personal dharma are tasks which are never fully complete. We can always learn more about both subjects. We cannot become complacent with the idea "I know my own dharma", because more dharmic responsibilities can always be added to us, or our dharma may change, or new dharma can always emerge or unfold with the passage of time. If we decide to live by dharma yoga, the study of dharma becomes our prevailing thought pattern, and dharmic principles become our lens and perspective on every moment and situation, every choice and decision, and most of all, every action, deed, or even intention.

The code of dharma is a code of morality governing action, behavior, and conduct. Dharma requires us to do many things, and to abstain from doing many other things. A commitment to living in accordance with dharma is a commitment to setting aside other priorities, desires, and values in deference to the requirements imposed by dharma.

Both human and personal dharmic responsibilities are highly complex as well as dynamic (changing), otherwise a lifetime of study would not be required to master their understanding. In spite of the inherent inadequacy of any attempt to summarize these concepts in a brief way, an introduction to these topics is respectfully offered.

As members of the human race, all share the following dharmic responsibilities. (1) We are obligated to recognize the existence of God in every person, and to treat human life and the gift of life as sacred and inviolable; (2) We are obligated to acknowledge our basic similarity with other humans in being possessed with the same capacity for flaw, defect, error, failure, shortcoming, beastliness, or need; (3) We are obligated to let our actions toward other humans be guided by empathic understanding of the feeling impact we generate, and by mercy; (4) We are obligated to care for others whenever the opportunity or need presents itself, and to engage in caring action; (5) We are obligated to abstain from doing harm or causing harm to others, and are also obligated to actively combat the causes of suffering, and to work to reduce suffering in general.

As previously stated, our individual or personal dharmic responsibilities may be inherited by birthright, or karmically, or by promises made or obligations incurred during the individual's life. The dharmic obligations coincide with the individual's personal complement of talents, skills, advantages, and experiences. Whether inherited, learned, or purchased, the totality of an individual's characteristics are relevant in the calculation of personal dharmic responsibilities. The following ideas help to elaborate on the nature of personal dharmic obligations.

If you have talent, you must use it.
If you have ideas, you must study and develop them.
If you are a thinker, you must provoke others to think.
If you have love you must spread it and share it.
If you have energy you must channel it in healthy directions.
If you have wisdom, you must pass it on to following generations.
If you have knowledge, you must disseminate it.
If you have economic advantage, you must give advantage to others.
If you have social advantage, you must use it for the common good.
If you have physical beauty, you must use it to foster love, kindness, and healing.
If you have strength, you must use it in the service of a good cause.
If you have courageousness, you must combat the enemies of goodness.
If you have given your word or promise, you must uphold and fulfill these.
If you have accepted a role in life, you must be true to it and fulfill it.
If you have been helped by others, you must honor those who have helped you, return help if it is needed, and help others you encounter who need it as well.
If you possess special knowledge, insight, or understanding, you must reflect these in your behavior or conduct.
If you have asked things of others, you must not waste what they have sacrificed to you.
If you have established loyalties, you must not betray them.
If you have debts, you must repay them.
If you have won the trust of others, you must not exploit them.

Although this list of examples is woefully incomplete, it may begin to communicate the overall principle of personal dharma, which is further described as being of infinite variety, with the personal dharma of no two persons alike, and being of a special nature which allows it to be passed from one existence to the next along with its "energy twin" within the subtle body, the matching packet of karmic inheritance.

It is hard to tell where the discussion of dharma leaves off and the discussion of karma begins, because there is such a high degree of interlinkage between the two that they can barely be discussed separately at all. The "negative" karma we earn by invalid actions determines our future dharmic debts, obligations, and responsibilities. Our ability to live in adherence with current dharmic responsibilities is our most certain route to "positive" karmic accumulations, while dharmic failure becomes our most self-injurious method of committing serious karmic offenses. In failing to fulfill our deepest dharmic responsibilities, we literally deepen the permanent wound of the soul that had been.

The reader may be curious as to why the writers began this explanation with a discussion of dharma first, rather than of karma, about which some readers feel they know at least "a little". Is this meant to convey that dharma comes first above karma, or that dharma is an underpinning, a necessary foundation of karma?

Several points are of interest in this connection. It is certainly impossible to ever act correctly in accordance with karmic principles without a thorough immersement in the study and mastery of dharma. The life that is dharmically incorrect is also karmically incorrect. And of the two principles, there has tended to be a fascination with the forces and operation of karma, at the expense of understanding of dharma.

The principle of karma seems magical and mystical, and somehow more inherently interesting to study than dharma, which is mostly a prescriptive form of moral code, on the edge of being a "boring" topic.

It is only if we look beyond the rigidity and controlling qualities of dharma yoga, and see within and beyond this exterior into the deep mystical roots of the philosophy of dharma, that the experience of the lifestyle governed by dharma yoga becomes a light-filled (sattvic) experience of liberation and spirituality, rather than a religious compliance with a moralistic rule-orientation.

It is not so much that we learn how to better and better obey dharma, but rather, we more and more learn how to get with it, how to get "in sync" with dharma, how to hop into the stream, and get with the flow of our personal and collective dharma. Getting with the flow of our own personal dharma is revealed to us as the actual path of least resistance in life. While we may choose a path of low resistance out of laziness, this does our evolution no good. But the actual path of our personal dharma has a quality of "rightness" and immediacy that is continuously energizing, even when the process on the path itself is at another level grueling.

Living in accordance with dharma gives us an inexhaustible inner energy supply which can power us through the most soul-depleting experiences in life, as we remain grounded in commitment to our individual paths, which transcend the circumstances of this moment or lifetime.

We must learn that dharma is no less mystical or fascinating to study than karma, and that the mystery lies in the connection of dharma to our lifelong quest to discover the real self within each of us. This quest to learn who are we really, why are we here, what must we do to advance spiritually, and what is unique about our path, becomes as mysterious as the destination itself. In the end, we see more and more clearly the right path, while the final destination becomes more shrouded in mystery and hidden. We accept this paradox of ultimate clarity in the context of ultimate unknowability as an inherent part of the dharmic path. We use whatever we are able to know, while accepting the parts we cannot know.

Even if we do not choose the dharmic way as our personal emphasis in yoga, we must give dharma some weight, or end up living a lifestyle that is deeply flawed and in error at karmic and other spiritual levels.

In the Bhaghavad-Gita, Krishna is critical of humanity for failing to give sufficient study to dharma and for overemphasizing karma:

By discussing dharma first, we are doing our part toward helping to reverse the tendency to underemphasize dharma. As we move on to the discussion of karma and other approaches to yoga, each of these approaches will be illuminated in the light of dharma, and the attached dharmic implications.

Karma yoga
If dharma is the universal code of morality and righteousness, karma is the universal enforcement of this code. Karma is the natural mechanism of justice, the invisible self-corrective agency of the universe. The term karma also refers to the unseen energies that are active in this self-corrective function, energies which may have a quality of being "good" (progressive-evolving) or "bad" (regressive), and which become attached to the immortal "soul" component of each individual.

Each person is said to be born with a certain complement of attached karma, accumulated over all the prior lifetimes of the individual. This inherited karma determines the characteristics and destiny of the individual, including their physical characteristics and appearance, their health and defects, their personality, intelligence, and success in occupation, love, and family life.

The individual comes into the world in a certain karmic context, which might be highly favorable, or highly unfavorable. A person may enjoy a lifetime of karmic benefits, or may spend most of life in paying karmic debts. Usually, there is a complex mixture of inherited karmic influences, including innumerable diverse qualities not limited to "good" and "bad". These influences propel the person throughout life, while giving the individual the illusion of free choice. The individual thinks he is choosing, but is actually under the direction of unrecognized karmic forces. The individual may think "this moment in life feels right or valid", and never consider that this feeling may be one of the tricks of karma, a way that bad karma can manifest itself in life, by giving confidence and false validation to a path in life that actually would be quite harmful. We smile cheerfully, not knowing we step through the gates of doom.

The operations of karma are complex, subtle, infinitely diverse, and powerful. Karma has been referred to as the most powerful force in the universe. Others have suggested that full understanding of karmic forces and actions is the one true mystery of the universe and of human existence. Many consider the study of karma to be the most important topic of study for both religion and science, and regard the correct understanding of karma to be the single most important factor affecting each person's individual destiny.

With all of this emphasis having been placed on the importance of studying karma, why does it seem that the general public knows so little about karma? In Western society, karma is one of those concepts that people like to superficially endorse and mention from time to time, but which is never explained or discussed, and rarely understood. Also, many false concepts of karma are circulated in the media. It is in style to (1) invent a principle of karma, (2) to market this principle as an idea, (3) to campaign to convince people to believe in this idea, and (4) to develop products and industries selling to the people who have been brought to believe in this idea.

Although we have said that karmic influences are infinitely diverse, possibly we should have said they number "infinity minus one.". It is very easy to specify principles that are NOT true regarding karma. While karmic influences may be infinitely diverse, this does not imply that the natural laws governing the operation of karma are also infinitely diverse.The laws of karma seem to be fixed and unchanging, and to have been fixed for the full length of recorded human history.

The purpose of human beings and of human life, is to master an understanding of karma, to study the nature and operation of the forces of karma, and to master the art of living in harmony with the priorities dictated by karmic governance.Only by learning to live with the forces of karma instead of in opposition to them, can we achieve and fulfill the other purposes of existence.

The universe corrects itself. The exact nature of this self-corrective function may puzzle us and escape our full grasp, but whether we understand it or not, karma works inexorably in its own natural way. Karma is understood as a force of nature, a force which affects only living beings possessing the indelible, immortal, "soul" component, that is, humans.

While some authorities claim that animals possess similar spiritual elements that are analogous to the soul, these are still regarded as "proto-souls" at best, souls at an incompletely formed stage of development. Overall, animals are considered to be in a state of innocence, and unaware of right and wrong (although well able to sense malevolent intent and loving-kindness). It is not intended that this discussion of karma be applied to animals.

The ancient religions of Hinduism and Buddhism share in the concept of karma. In both traditions, karma is a natural force of nature which operates automatically and without interruption or exception. One of the chief aspects of both religions was the systematic, scientific study of karma. In their methods and practices, these Eastern religions more closely resemble Western science than they resemble Western religion. Ancient documents within both religions give systematic maps of the many layers of human consciousness that may be navigated while practicing esoteric meditative and spiritual disciplines. Lama Govinda has documented many of these maps of consciousness, and explained the way in which the approach of Buddhism is identical in approach and subject matter to the Western science of psychology².

It is crucially important to differentiate the corrective effects of karma from the idea of a deity that is punishing and vengeful. No angry, Jehovah-like God sits in arbitrary administration of the effects of karma. Karma works the same way, for every person, without modification or possibility of modification. The operations of karma are not affected by the whims or moods of an unpredictable God or gods. Therefore, within Hinduism and Buddhism, the concept of justice which emanates from God is completely depersonalized and objective, rather than being based on the defective human qualities of retribution or vengefulness.

The question that arises at this juncture would ask how it can be that if karma is so consistent, so objective, and so invariant, then why is the action of karma not obvious, predictable, and accepted implicitly by everyone, much as the force of gravity is universally accepted? If karma operates scientifically and methodically, then why do we not simply apply the laws of scientific discovery and verification to the topic of karma, identify exactly the laws of karma, and acquire the ability to predict everything of importance? If karma is so fixed and invariant, why aren't we all true believers in it 24 hours a day already?

Study of this consideration illuminates the most important factor within the operation of karma, the single factor that makes karma a mystery rather than an exact science of prediction. This factor is the factor of time, and the passage of time. The effects of karma are almost never manifested in any time frame close to the event that generates the karma. If we want to verify the effects of gravity, we may test it at any time by dropping an object, or our own bodies, onto the ground. The effect of gravity is instantaneous, which makes it highly predictable. And so we begin to see that the critical factor needed for the ability to predict an event in science, is the ability to make measurements over time.

In science, the proof that A causes B, requires that (1) A precedes B in time, (2) when the occurrence of A is observed, B is also observed subsequently, and (3) whenever the scientist experimentally induces or causes A, this results in the occurrence of B.

This third aspect is worthy of special discussion. The importance of the scientist being personally able to manipulate the causal factor is crucial. In any science where the scientist cannot make an experimental manipulation of some kind, there is a kind of stigma of being "less scientific".

And of course, here is precisely where the subject of karma cannot and will not make itself amenable to the traditional methods of scientific analysis. None of the three usual steps of scientific validation have any ability to meaningfully reflect or "measure" what is going on in the case of karma. The failure of each of these three steps will be analyzed momentarily, but one additional foundational concept must first be introduced.

We began our discussion of time by stating that the effects of karma are almost never manifested in any time frame close to the event that generates the karma. This suggests that the karmic effects or results must be delayed in time, rather than instantaneous. But the term "delayed" is incredibly broad, and includes infinite possibility. Karmic results may be delayed for an hour, a week or month, for years, or may seem to never happen at all. Given this infinitely wide window of observation, the ability to draw precise scientific judgments and predictions is impossible. According to science, we must not believe in karma, because the phenomena of karma cannot be proven by scientific means. Of course, according to this criterion, then not only karma, but also all other religious beliefs, must be discarded as unworthy.

In addition to this wide time-window for observation of the possible actions and effects of karma, which extends over the entire course of the individual's life following the time at which the karma was generated or created, the principle of karma specifically provides that karmic effects may occur in a "future lifetime" of the individual, following reincarnation.

This is where the potential student of karma must pause and declare a basic philosophy and attitude toward the principle of reincarnation. If one feels clear rejection of reincarnation, then a belief in the principle of karma would be nonsensical. The concepts of karma and reincarnation are thoroughly dependent on each other, and neither retains meaning without the other. To reject one is to automatically reject the other. And yet, one occasionally hears the expression "I believe in karma, but not in reincarnation", a proposition as absurd as declaring that one believes in the existence of ice, but not of water.

Once the student of karma has accepted the necessity of embracing the principle of reincarnation as well, the new task of studying reincarnation in detail is added to the requirements of the aspirant. It is soon revealed that the karma attached to an action taken by an individual may be expressed as a karmic effect that can impact the individual in a variety of ways, including: (1) during the same lifetime as the action that generated the karma, (2) during the next lifetime, (3) during any of an infinite number of additional successive lifetimes, (4) during multiple lifetimes, either grouped consecutively or in any sequence or combination that serves the evolutionary needs of the individual. If the individual does not exhaust the karmic effects of the action during a single lifetime, then the karma and its effects will reappear in as many additional lifetimes as is required for the individual to learn the complete lesson or evolve sufficiently to exhaust the effects of the karma.

We have commented extensively on the effects of karma, but what exactly are these effects? What are the manifestations of karma, how can they be recognized, and what must we learn from these manifestations?

First, we should note that the effects of karma are corrective. They are intended to counterbalance, account for, make up for, reverse, offset, undo, negate, or pay for the negative or undesirable effects of the individual's improper actions in life. Understood in this way, karma seems almost identical to a basic law of physics - for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction, a perfect correction and rebalancing of the universe, and of the individual at the same time.

Another quality that is prominent is the appearance that many of the manifestations of karma resemble punishments, a price that the individual must pay for past misdeeds, either through losses, tragedies, sufferings, or misfortunes. Although karmic effects may include both rewards and punishments, the emphasis is on the side of karma constituting bondage for the individual, and the goal of evolution being the avoidance of earning any new karma.

Karma is not merely related to reincarnation, it is the cause of reincarnation. We are reborn entirely for the sake of paying our karmic debts, and once we stop earning new karma, we will no longer have to "suffer" rebirth. Living out the effects of karma already earned, along with being careful not to earn any new karma, allows for the eventual purification of the soul. Without karmic attachments to human life, we are free to transcend the "karmic wheel of birth and death", and enter eventually into union with God.

We must go beyond the limitations of thinking in terms of rewards and punishments. Reward and punishment are extremely limited concepts, and are very poor in their ability to describe the effects of karma. While the aspects of reward and punishment are present in karmic effects, these aspects should not be overemphasized. It is only our Western tendency to always reckon the value of things in terms of their gratification value that leads us to leap to considerations of reward and punishment in the first place. It is a corrupt frame of reference to always use as our first point of view when establishing an attitude toward a new phenomenon. "Will I like it?" and "Will it make me happy?" are the first questions of most Westerners, who are unfortunately held in bondage to a materialistically-oriented value system, and thoroughly addicted to gratification.

What is gratification addiction? The subject of gratification addiction is so hidden and secret within our society that it is a new topic for most readers. Orthodox science would reject such a general notion by saying "Well, we all have that problem, therefore, its not a disease", or "Well, we're all addicted to oxygen, so it just renders the concept of addiction meaningless".

Such "scientific" arguments are pure double-talk. The fact that we all have the same problem does not disqualify the problem from being a disease. Gratification addiction is the disease we all have, the fundamental disease of human life. In Christianity, this basic flawed quality within humans is referred to as "original sin", a condition that makes us all captives and in bondage to the flesh. The tendency toward gratification addiction is part of the human condition.

Further, we are not "addicted" to oxygen. The fact that we are dependent on oxygen and other substances to sustain life does not make us addicted to them, any more than an automobile is addicted to gasoline. The difference between a natural biological need and an addiction is straightforward. When we take in a needed biological substance, such as air or water, the result is that it makes the natural mechanisms of the body function correctly. In contrast, when we take in a substance that we are addicted to, it makes the person's natural processes stop functioning, at least to some degree. If it is a strongly addictive substance, it's use tends to replace the functioning of natural mechanisms, so that gradually, the natural mechanisms are weakened or lost.

It may "feel good" to rest or "turn off" our coping and defense mechanisms. This happens naturally for most people during sleep. However, during periods of disturbance, even sleep may not replenish our defensive reserves. Turning to addictive substances or pursuits may seem to provide momentary relief for an exhausted defensive system, but it actually weakens the underlying defensive strength even more. This often leaves the addiction as the individual's only remaining method of self-fortification, even though this method only seems to work.

We must not give in to tendencies to develop addictive attachments to gratifications, and while it is most important not to participate in the obvious toxic addictions, there really is no "safe" addiction that may be participated in without harm to the individual. It is our attachments most of all, and especially our unhealthy attachments, that generate karma for us, that compel us over and over again to return to this earthly sphere, to live again and do a "better" job this time, of living in a way that advances the individual soul in the proper direction towards God.

If we transcend addiction to gratification, then we no longer experience events as rewarding and punishing. When we acquire this improvement in perspective, a new objectivity, we are able to look at events dispassionately, neutrally, calmly. From the perspective of neutrality, we might see that the effects of karma are perfectly corrective. If one lifetime ago we made the horrible mistake of "turning left", then in this lifetime we should not be surprised to find ourselves repeatedly in the position of having to "turn right".

If we have been previously insensitive to the infirmities of others, our whole life may become preoccupied with the infirmities of ourselves or those close to us. If we have ignored religion, we may next become a minister. If we have ignored our mental abilities, we may spend the next life in study.

Karmic corrections are not simply manifested during the next lifetime. The corrective effects of karma may be perfect corrections, but that does not necessarily mean that the job can be completed in one lifetime. Karmic corrections occur again and again until the job is complete. Therefore, the karma affecting an individual during a given lifetime includes the collective karmic effects of many different lifetimes, corrections for all the personal defects and wrongful actions of prior existences.

Lest the reader suspect that the authors have gratuitously incorporated a treatise on addiction where it did not belong in a discussion of karma, we will note that the subjects of gratification and addiction are the key considerations that Krishna emphasizes repeatedly in the Bhaghavad-Gita. The following passage is the most well-known on this subject, in which Krishna summarizes his entire "lecture" on karma to Arjuna:

In a following section, the complete philosophy of the Yoga of Renunciation will be discussed in detail. However, it can be usefully said now that what we must learn to renounce is our attachments. What we must give up are the things in life that we cling to most.

Having discussed the nature of karmic effects in at least an introductory fashion, we may now return to the subject of the timing of karmic effects. We have already discussed the fact the the unpredictability of karmic effects makes them impossible to prove using ordinary scientific methods and reasoning. We promised to show how the three validating steps of science fail when used to test the effects of karma.

Remember, to prove to the satisfaction of science that A causes B, we must demonstrate that (1) A precedes B in time, (2) when A occurs, B is also observed to occur, and (3) whenever we experimentally induce or cause A, this results in the occurrence of B.

Let us consider a hypothetical situation. Let us suppose that an individual engages in some form of cruelty towards a friend. If we wish to scientifically measure or prove the existence and nature of a karmic effect resulting from this cruelty, we must show that "A precedes B", meaning in this case, we must show that event A (the cruelty), is followed by another event B, the karmic effect or result. In this case, the future event of having one's home burn down will be used as the hypothesized karmic result.

How can we ever know if the hypothesized effect occurs? We would have to follow the individual through all their subsequent future lifetimes to know if they ever actually experienced their home burning down. Since we can never verify an individual's future experiences, it is impossible for us to ever establish that "A precedes B".

However, even if we cannot collect data to verify karmic effects over multiple lifetimes, may we not observe karmic effects that do not take so long? Can't we observe karmic effects within this lifetime, or even next week?

Although a lot of pop psychology would assert that the answer to these questions is "yes", the answer from the perspective of Eastern traditions is very clearly "no". Karma does not happen next week, or usually, in this lifetime at all. And yet we have earlier said that the effect "may" happen in this lifetime, and so it is important for us to clarify what would otherwise stand out as a contradiction.

There really is no contradiction. Karma may happen during the same lifetime as the event generating the karma, but it usually does not. The mechanisms of karma are not limited to future lifetimes, but are always biased in favor of corrections in future lifetimes rather than in the current one.

This point may be a bit hard to take for some, who would claim to have observed the effects of karma personally. Beatles songwriter John Lennon added to the confusion with his playful lyric:

The authors enjoy that song as much as anyone else, while reflecting simultaneously that it reflects a deteriorated state of society if a person derives their spiritual understanding from a rock and roll song.

And yet, even if there really is no such thing as instant karma, there is still something going on, something that suggests a cause-effect relationship between events and certain repercussions that seem to happen rapidly, and in some cases, instantaneously.

These moments in life are so interesting that they have become the unconscious preoccupations of fiction and mythology in many cultures. They are embodied repetitively in cartoons for children, such as the roadrunner and coyote. If the coyote hopes to drop a boulder on the roadrunner, it invariably lands on his own head. There is instant hard justice for the wrongdoer. Whatever had been intended for the victim happens instead to the perpetrator. This basic theme is the underplot of so many books and movies that the public should have grown tired of the repetition long ago, and yet we never seem to tire of this theme.

What is going on when a karmic result seems to happen instantly? The following explanation is offered.

Whatever karma is in effect for a given individual at any point in time is generally the residual of prior lifetimes and actions, not of the current one. After all, there is always the chance that an individual will engage in some meaningful form of self-correction before the end of the current lifetime. Therefore, the long-term corrective effects of karma may not be required, and are reserved for whichever defects in character and conduct the individual is unable to self-correct during life.

From this standpoint, we can see that when karma seems to be operating instantaneously, it must be true that the karmic effect or result, no matter how closely fitting to the current moment, was earned during a prior existence or lifetime. What we can also conclude in this kind of situation, is that the individual is still engaged in this lifetime in recommitting the same karmic violations as in the prior existence. This moment reflects an overwhelming karmic context, in which the individual may have been caught for many lifetimes in a cycle of recommitting the same grievances over and over, and suffering repeated karmic punishments for these, but without ever evolving out of the pattern or cycle. One might even speculate that a large proportion of humanity may be locked into a seemingly endless repetition of this non-evolutionary pattern. It must be remembered that evolution over the course of multiple lifetimes is not automatic or guaranteed, but requires some motivation toward self-improvement, as well as strenuous self-application in the direction needed. Unfortunately, we all know of examples of members of the human race that seem to possess none of this motivation, even though the repercussions and consequences they repeatedly experience seem obvious and instantaneous to us.

How to spot an atheist
While this subject might seem gratuitously thrown in during our discussion of karma, it is a highly relevant subject which summarizes much of what has been said of karma already. These insights regarding karma shed a considerable illumination upon the deeper meaning of the term "atheist", and the nature of individuals who earn or claim this designation.

We must begin our commentary on atheism with the observation that the usual definition of an atheist as a person who "rejects belief in the existence of God or an afterlife" may be too stringent. Often, an individual will take on an identity as an "atheist" as a reactionary attitude against certain ultra-conservative Christian sects, especially Christian fundamentalism. In fact, if one of these so-called atheists is asked how they feel about the notion of a "non-embodied element of connectedness which runs through everything in the universe", then the "atheist" may be highly likely to say, "Oh yeah, well that's O.K. I just don't believe in some gigantic old man who sits up in heaven".

So it is easy to demonstrate that a lot of self-declared atheists really do accept beliefs in non-material or spiritual principles. What so many self-identified atheists are trying to communicate is that they despise and reject Christianity, or at least the corner of it to which they have been personally exposed. Rather than being "anti-God" or "anti-spiritual", they are merely "anti-Christian". And while it is true that some atheism of this type has been inspired by faiths other than Christianity (there are some "anti-Jews" and "anti-Muslim" atheists), we would have to suggest that modern atheism is for the most part an American phenomenon, which is largely composed of individuals with anti-Christian sentiments.

The principles presented in this discussion regarding karma and its effects provide us with a much wider perspective on and a deeper understanding of the nature of the atheistic position. Instead of thinking of the atheist as an individual who does not believe in God, we must realize that first and foremost, the atheist is an individual who does not believe in himself. More than denying the reality of God, the atheist denies the reality of the self, and the true nature of human existence.

"Life is just a dream, therefore, go ahead and do anything. Life is unreal, so don't worry about the justifiability of your actions, it's all just a fantasy in the mind of God, anyway."

It's hard to believe that some people live their lives according to such a set of philosophies, which give license to the individual to engage in any action, regardless of its harm to others. Such a belief system rejects the concepts of right and wrong, of morality and immorality, and strongly rejects the notion that there is any afterlife, nor any final accounting and justice for things done wrongfully during human life.

The individual who feels convinced that there is no chance for personal survival after human life has ended, is freed from all the obligations that accrue if one accepts the notions of ultimate accountability and ultimate justice (or correction). If there is no accountability, life can be lived in any way we choose. If there is no aterlife, then there is no need for ethics, morality, achievement, or evolution. One should live for the moment, because the moment is all that there is.

The foregoing is the most convenient philosophy of life of all. How convenient if we are allowed to dispense with the feelings and experience of other persons. How convenient if we can dispense with morality, ethics, and responsibility. If we are going to select a philosophy of life on the basis of its personal payoff to the individual in terms of removing "burdens" such as obligations to other persons, then we would have to admit that rejection of the concept of afterlife is the most efficient philosophy of life of all. It removes more burdens of responsibility than any other theological attitude. It is the ultimate simplification - there is no god, no spirit, no afterlife, no survival, and no justice, correction, or accountability. This supreme negation of the world-view of the rest of society, which aggregates around the opposite pole along the dimension of belief, also communicates to those on the other side - the side of belief - the utter apathy which the nonbelievers feel regarding the needs and feelings of the believers.

This difference, then, characterizes the essential difference between the 2 types of people in the world - people who harms others and prey upon others without guilt or regret, and people who would not deliberately cause harm to others, and who would feel guilt and regret for even accidentally causing harm to another person.

We could call these two basic types of human beings "harmers' and "non-harmers". However, this awkward phrase quickly yields in favor of the idea that those who refuse to do harm are also frequently committed to giving help. We suggest the contrast between "helpers" and "harmers" accurately expands the understanding of the two types of people, who we may further designate as "evolving" versus "devolving".

Are the "evolvers" and "devolvers" both human? In terms of the genetics of species, of course. Evolvers and devolvers are equally human genetically. However, esoteric theories of evolution of the human spirit suggest that the devolvers are placing themselves at risk of being left out of the next "major round" of evolution, and to be dropped out of the aggregate of souls that will inhabit the next form of being that humans will evolve into. This is equivalent or analogous to being removed from the physical human gene pool, and to devolving to the point of being dropped out of (removed from) the human race.

Summarizing these contrasts, we can see that "harmers" and "non-harmers" have different futures. Non-harmers are those who also help, who evolve, and who are included in the next evolutionary leap forward, who move on, while harmers are those who do not evolve, or who devolve, and who are not included in the next evolutionary leap forward, who are dropped out or left behind, who do not move on.

However, these esoteric theories of evolution of the human spirit cannot be presented adequately within this brief discussion of atheism. What we can yield from the esoteric perspective is an understanding that humans may be either evolvers or devolvers. For those with deep karmic debts, the possibility of redemption may seem so long and arduous as to be impossible. These persons, despairing of ever being able to earn enough merit back to balance out or pay back for all the wrongs they have already committed, easily decide to throw caution to the wind, and dedicate whatever time they may have left to the pursuit of short-term gratification with an intensity analogous to a fire that must burn itself out.

It is as if these people have figured out that they can never become good again, that no amount of self-correction or reformation can ever improve the status of their soul, their karmic position. Therefore, if one has given up on being good, then one might just as well enjoy being "bad", i.e. pleasure driven and without ethical and moral limits.

It follows without explanation that any individual who feels indifferent to the moral consequences of their personal behavior has no feeling of obligation or attachment to truth or honesty. When such a person tells a falsehood, it is the same experience for the prevaricator as it is for honest people when they speak the truth. This kind of lie is not detectable using lie-detector (polygraph) tests, because the person without a conscience regarding truth will show no detectable emotions while betraying the truth. All lies are equally true to the individual who bears no allegiance to truth.

Life is only partly lived, only partly real to the devolver. Since there no longer seems to be any point to taking life seriously, all that is left is to take life as a "game", as some kind of cosmic joke which has been played on humanity, and which must be responded to in kind with an utter lack of belief or seriousness.

1. Bhaghavad-Gita: The Song of God. Translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood. New York: New American Library (Mentor Books), 1972.

2. The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy. Lama Anagarika Govinda