Karma, Reincarnation and Christianity
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I am going to begin with my own journey on the Path because God revealed the concepts of karma and reincarnation to me at a very early age.
How many here have had an experience where you remembered a past life somehow, someway?
Raise your hands. Quite a few people here this evening have had that experience.
How many of you have never had a sense of remembering a past life?
Quite a few of you also. Before we’re through I think some of you who think you haven’t remembered a past life will realize that you have.
We’ve all had the sense of being familiar with a person or place that we’ve never contacted before in this life. Kind of an instantaneous like or dislike. Even love at first sight signifies an inner soul knowing.
We have little hints but, as a matter of fact, there is a reason why we specifically don’t remember our past. God in his mercy pulls the shade when we enter the birth canal. It’s a “curtain of forgetfulness.” This is an act of mercy because we have an assignment for this life and we can’t really focus on more than one life at a time and make a go of it.
But now and then God raises the shade and shows us a frame or two from a previous life episode. This is for the quickening of our souls as to our responsibilities in this life and the commitments we made before coming into embodiment this time around. God sends his angels to teach us from the record of our own karmic book of life so that we can make enlightened choices and pass our tests.
Because even now at inner levels God is teaching your soul about your karma and your past incarnations, I am going to tell you how I first learned about karma and reincarnation in the hopes that my story will ring a bell for you. What I’m about to tell you is the first time I recall God raising the shade for me.
One day when I was about four years old I was playing in my sandbox in Red Bank, New Jersey, where I was born. I was in my play yard that my father had made for me. It had a playhouse, a swing and sandbox enclosed by a white picket fence with an arch and gate. It was situated next to a delightful garden created by my parents.
It was a beautiful day. Big white clouds were moving through a deep blue sky. And I was alone, enjoying myself in the sun, watching the sand slip through my little fingers, drawing designs in the fresh earth and making mudpies with cookie cutters and tin molds.
Then all of a sudden, as though someone had turned a dial, I was playing in the sand along the Nile River in Egypt and I was experiencing the beauty of that scene. It was just as real as my play yard in Red Bank and just as familiar. I was idling away the hours, splashing in the water and feeling the warm sand on my body. My Egyptian mother was nearby. Somehow this too was my world. I had known that river forever.
After some time (I don’t know how much time had passed), it was as though the dial turned again and I was back at home in that little play yard. I wasn’t dizzy. I wasn’t dazed. I was back to the present, very much aware that I had been somewhere else.
So I jumped up and ran to find my mother. I found her at the kitchen stove and I blurted out my story. I said, “Mother, what happened?” She sat me down and looked at me and said, “You have remembered a past life.” With those words she opened another dimension. And I have never been the same.
Instead of ridiculing or denying what I had experienced, she explained that the soul does not accomplish her mission in one life. She told me that my soul was eternal. She said that our body is like a coat we wear: it gets worn out before we finish what we have to do. So God gives us a new mommy and a new daddy and we are born again so we can finish the work God sent us to do and finally return to our home of light in heaven. Even though we get a new body, we are still the same soul. And the soul has a continuous recollection of the past but we do not.
She explained all of this to me in simple childlike terms I understood. It was as though I had always known it and my mother was reawakening my soul memory.
Over the years she was to point out to me children who were born maimed or blind, others who were gifted, some who were born into wealthy homes and some into poverty. She attributed their inequality to karma and to their past exercise of free will. She said that there could be no such thing as divine or human justice if we had only one life, that God’s justice could only be known in the outplaying of many lives in which we see past actions coming full circle in present circumstances.
Accustomed to praying to Jesus, my thoughts turned to him. I saw the logic of reincarnation and I said to myself, “God must have shown me this past life for a reason.” But God didn’t tell me the reason till I was well into adulthood. Then I realized that that life in Egypt was the key to the work I had to do in this life. No doubt through that glimpse into the distant past, there was transferred to me some substance of myself–perhaps some heavy karma that I had to balance today, thirty-three centuries later, or a mission I had not fulfilled whose time had come.
Since then God has revealed to me other incarnations and taught me lessons concerning positive or negative momentums that I must build on or undo. Thus, I have seen the causes behind the effects of bad karma that I had to balance in this life, and I have seen how my good karma put the wind in my sails to achieve my goals and more. Karma, in fact, is why we are all here.
You, too, have brought with you the momentums of your good karma as well as those of your bad karma that you must balance. You most certainly have positive or negative karma with family members and people you know or people you will meet. Life is a challenge and an opportunity.
Since the concepts of karma and reincarnation are the key to understanding our soul’s journey, I ask you to stay with me this evening because I have much to say on the subject. I will not leave a stone unturned in bringing to you this teaching.
Based on my findings, you, then, can do your own research. You can meditate and consider what you come to in your own heart on this subject. You should not believe something because I say it but because the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking directly to you in your own heart and confirming the Truth that I speak by the Holy Spirit.
I have walked and talked with Jesus all my life and Jesus has answered my questions about the scriptures, about the sermons of the pastors and ministers, about the Mass, about the rabbis, and so many things my heart would ponder. I have read my Bible and asked Jesus for answers, and he has never failed me.
And so I give you what I have received directly from Jesus as well as the research I have put together on karma, reincarnation and Christianity.
The belief in reincarnation is ancient and widespread. In 1886 the Reverend W. R. Alger wrote A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life. It became the standard Christian work on the subject of immortality.
In his book Alger wrote: “No other doctrine has exerted so extensive, controlling, and permanent an influence upon mankind as that of...metempsychosis [another word for reincarnation]–the notion that when the soul leaves the body it is born anew in another body, its rank, character, circumstance, and experience in each successive existence depending on its qualities, deeds, and attainments in...preceding lives.” <1>
Before the advent of Christianity, reincarnation was a part of the spiritual beliefs of many of the peoples of Europe, including the early Teutonic tribes, the Finns, Icelanders, Lapps, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, early Saxons and the Celts of Ireland, Scotland, England, Brittany, Gaul and Wales.
The Welsh have even claimed that it was the Celts who originally carried the belief in reincarnation to India. <2> Author Ignatius Donnelly suggests that the Celts’ belief in reincarnation was derived from the inhabitants of the lost continent of Atlantis who migrated to Ireland. <3>
In ancient Greece both Pythagoras and Plato believed in reincarnation. In the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras taught that the soul had many incarnations, which were opportunities for the soul to purify and perfect herself. “The human soul is immortal,” he said, “for it resembles the heavenly stars, and (like them) is involved in perpetual motion.” <4> According to biographer Diogenes Laertius, Pythagoras claimed that he had been embodied in the past as Aethalides and Euphorbus, who died at the hands of Menelaus at Troy. <5>
In the fourth century B.C., Plato taught that the soul is immortal and that its circumstances in its current life depend on its disposition formed in a previous life. In book 10 of The Republic, he tells the story of a group of souls about to embody who are advised by a prophet: “Virtue owns no master. He who honors her shall have more of her, and he who slights her less. The responsibility lies with the chooser. Heaven is guiltless.” <6>
According to some scholars, statements made by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus indicate that the Pharisees and Essenes believed in reincarnation. Others believe these are references to the resurrection of the dead in new bodies.
In his Wars of the Jews, Josephus writes, “[The Pharisees] say that all souls are incorruptible; but that the souls of good men are only removed into other bodies–but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment.” <7>
And in The Antiquities of the Jews, he says, “[The Pharisees] also believe that souls have an immortal vigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again.” <8>
Reincarnation was also taught by students of the Kabbalah, a system of Jewish esoteric mysticism that flowered in the thirteenth century. Reincarnation is still a part of the religious beliefs of the Jewish Hasidic movement, founded in the eighteenth century.
Some tribes of American Indians as well as numerous tribes in Central and South America have believed in reincarnation. Today the belief in reincarnation also exists among over one hundred tribes in Africa as well as among Eskimo and Central Australian tribes and many peoples of the Pacific, including Hawaiians, Tahitians, Melanesians and Okinawans.
The most elaborately developed concepts of reincarnation are found in the religious traditions of India, especially Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. In these religions, reincarnation is linked with the law of karma.
Karma is a Sanskrit word meaning “act, action, work or deed.” In Hinduism karma originally referred to sacred actions performed in Vedic rituals and later evolved to mean moral deeds. It then became associated with the concept of reincarnation in another body or form of life.
Some in the Eastern religious traditions believe that as a result of past misdeeds or cruelty, a human can reembody as an animal or can regress to an animal-like state. Others, like the Jains, do not see the animal state as a punishment but as a necessary experience in one’s spiritual evolution.
Pythagoras may have subscribed to this theory. One of his contemporaries once told the following story: “They say that while walking past a dog that was being beaten, Pythagoras took pity and said: ‘Stop! Strike no more! In his body abides the soul of a dear friend of mine, whose voice I recognized as he was crying.’” <9>
You see, every dog–and dogma–has his day!
According to the law of karma as it is taught in the East, your thoughts, words and deeds in past lives have determined the conditions of your present life; and your thoughts, words and deeds in this life will determine your destiny in future lives.
It’s a bit difficult to accept that. People like to blame their parents or circumstances or heredity or what happened to them when they were children or the opportunities they’ve missed–everything but themselves.
I think that the Church’s doctrine of the vicarious atonement (that Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sins) perpetuates our sense of wanting someone else to carry the burden of our karma, in other words, the burden of our sin.
If some calamity happens to us, we think, “Well, this is so-and-so’s fault.” Or “I was a victim of circumstances.” Or “I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.” Some people blame God and stay angry at him for the rest of their lives. These attitudes are wrong. We have to get into the driver’s seat and take responsibility for our lives and our actions. And when we do we begin to see that there is justice in the universe.
I myself have certainly not had an easy life. I recall petitioning the Lords of Karma before I took embodiment to allow me to take on a major portion of my karma at birth, and they did. And I accept that most of the things that have happened to me, good or bad, have come about by my own doings.
I say “most” because people initiate original acts of negative karma every day. People willfully harm people, just as nation inflicts harm upon nation where there is no antecedent of a prior karma between them. Thus the injured party is not the recipient of returning karma of the past, but the victim of an initial act of wrongdoing. This is why we can truthfully say that not everything that happens to us is the result of our own doings.
Then there is the situation of the initiation of our souls. This comes from the Cosmic Christ. And there is temptation. This comes from the Antichrist. Initiation and temptation are the means God allows for the testing of our souls. The story of Job is a classic example of calamity which God allows so that our love for him can be tested. These trials teach us lessons. When we pass through them without compromising our honor, we are ready for the next trial and the next until we graduate from earth’s schoolroom.
So our good karma brings untold blessings as the harvest of our good works. Our bad karma brings the harvest of what we have sown in error. And we do not escape one jot or one tittle of it. <10> But it is true that we may receive good or bad energy from others, neither of which we deserve. Every day people exercise their free will to be kind or unkind–regardless of past karma. They are making new karma and they will receive blessing or bane accordingly, just as we do when we initiate actions that are wise or unwise.
Initiations, including persecution and the crucifixion, are sent by God to strengthen us and restore our souls back to him. Temptation is a testing of the mettle of the soul. Since we cannot always tell whether the good fortune that befalls us is due to our good karma or the sheer mercy and grace of God, and we do not know if adversity is our bad karma coming back to haunt us or temptation or trial or soul testing or the highest levels of initiation from God, we must therefore deal with every circumstance with a positive, grateful attitude. We must determine that we will deal justly with ourselves, our God and our fellowman so that there will be a victory, a blessing and a resolution for all concerned.
So you see there are circumstances in our lives that cannot be classified strictly as karma–except it be our karmic lot to endure all things because it is we who left off from the presence of God in the first place. And now we have the karma of finding our way back to him “by the sweat of the brow” until our original sin of turning away from God, be balanced.
In my sense, then, of God and the universe, I have only gratitude for the lessons I have learned from my karma. For I understood the law of karma in my heart before it was ever taught to me. My motto is: There is no injustice anywhere in the universe. Amazing as it may seem, if we knew all the circumstances and ramifications of our past lives, our past “rights” and “wrongs,” we would see clearly that this is true.
If we understood the continuity of being and all that we have said and done in past ages, we would see that our words and deeds return to us as our teachers. And if they are not so nice, we should understand that not-so-nice things happen to us so that we can self-correct. They happen so that we can see how it feels to be on the receiving end of what we have sent forth in this or a previous lifetime.
I think it is the coming of age of a man, a woman or a child when the soul reaches that point of maturity where she can say, “Whatever comes to me, I will receive it with rejoicing. For I know that as I balance and resolve that situation I can look forward to my communion with God and ultimately to that day when I can attain permanent reunion with my Divine Father and my Divine Mother.”
So Hinduism and Buddhism teach that the law of karma is a universal law of cause and effect that affects everyone. As Newton’s third law of motion states: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The law of karma operates automatically and without prejudice. This is why there is no injustice. We think that some people get away with everything while we get away with nothing. That makes us chafe at the bit and wonder if there is a just God.
We simply have to be at peace and remember the teaching from Deuteronomy that Paul referred to: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” <11> Therefore it is ours to forgive. God will mete out his justice and we certainly do not wish harm upon anyone, even those who are our self-styled enemies.
We know that karma functions on an individual as well as on a group level. As the twentieth-century yogi Paramahansa Yogananda wrote: “The cumulative actions of human beings within communities, nations, or the world as a whole constitute mass karma, which produces local or far-ranging effects according to the degree and preponderance of good or evil. The thoughts and actions of every man, therefore, contribute to the good or ill of this world and all peoples in it.” <12>
There is, then, such a thing as personal karma, something very personal, for instance, between you and me alone; it functions one-on-one. And then there is group karma. Entire nations or towns or families have made karma because of their stand against life. They commit acts together as one body and therefore they must reembody together. The Mafia families, for instance, come back together again and again because of their karma.
It has been said, and it is true, that America is Atlantis come again, that most of us lived on Atlantis and are here to make right those things that we didn’t do right and to have our victory. Atlantis was a teeming continent with great advances in science and technology. Many of our scientists have brought back the same inventions that they patented on Atlantis.
If you read the book A Dweller on Two Planets by Phylos the Tibetan, you may find yourself identifying with the sights and scenes of that lost continent. You may even find that God will open your memory and reveal to you a past life and tell you what you have to do today to complete a major chapter in your life story. You see, life is a tremendous opportunity.
I pray daily for the awakening of the people of America to their divine destiny–for them to know that they are Atlanteans come again and that they have a mission to bring America and the world into a golden age like the one we knew 25,000 years ago on Atlantis.
And I pray, as it is my calling, that I can help you find the answers to your questions so that you can make the most of every moment of the rest of your life and come Home to God with a good report–so that you can joyously stand before the Court of the Sacred Fire at the conclusion of this life and hear the divine approbation: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things of thy karma, I will make thee ruler over many things.” <13>
“Karma, Reincarnation and Christianity” is based on a lecture given by Elizabeth Clare Prophet on Friday, October 11, 1991, during the four-day Class of the Golden Cycle held at the New Orleans Airport Hilton.
5. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 8.8.4.
8. Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews 18.1.3, in The Works of Josephus, trans. Whiston.
9. Xenophanes, quoted in Diogenes Laertius, Lives 8.8.20.
11.. Deut. 32:35; Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30.
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