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Chapter 4

The Grand Scheme, Reincarnation, and Karma

The Grand Scheme

All of the previous chapters were partial answers to fundamental questions: What is going on? Who are we in our essence? How do we fit into the larger scheme of things? Here is another way of attempting an answer, quoted from another source (The Michael Handbook, Stevens & Warwick-Smith, 1990, p.3).

The Tao (or God) thinking aloud: "I've been bored lately. Being 'all that is' is, of course, wonderful, but I feel that it's time for a new game. I feel totally creative today and I'm in the mood for something quite unusual.

Wouldn't it be interesting and fun to play hide and seek with myself! I'll pretend that a part of myself has forgotten that it is part of me. The game will be for that part to remember that it truly is a part of me.

I'll create some mazes and diversions to make the journey a real adventure. Aha! I'll fragment this part of me up into millions of parts and let them interact with one another. I'll concoct some fancy distractions and paradoxes so they'll never know. That'll keep them, er, me, busy for a long time trying to sort it all out.

I'll leave them clues and little signs along the way to keep them on the trail if they get too far off course. Naturally, there will be an underlying structure to the game to give it a semblance of awesome order. I'll even arrange for the parts to have free choice so that they, uh, we can really get into trouble. But that will make winning even more delicious. Well, let's get started." And that's exactly what the Tao did and here we are.

Reincarnation

This tongue-in-cheek version of the grand scheme is probably as close as we will ever get to an understanding of the motivation behind the creation of humans, as no human being can truly comprehend what was on God's mind at the beginning of creation. Some of the essential points made above are that we are "split-off" parts of God, that we were endowed with free will, and that the objective of the human experience is to remember our divine origin, i.e., to return to an awareness of our oneness with God and all and everything. Obviously, this is too ambitious a task if we allow only for one lifetime -- most of us don't even come close to divine consciousness, no matter how long we may live. For most of us it requires numerous incarnations through eons of time until our soul has learned enough from the hide-and-seek game to ascend, i.e., to graduate from the school of life on earth. (Our ascension from a life in a human body, however, is just one step on the long journey home to God; there is no end to learning and growing.)

Contemplating the grand scheme addresses the fundamental question of the purpose of human life, the reason for our existence. My understanding can be described in simple terms: The eternal portion of our totality, which we called Higher Self, delegates an offspring of itself to go to school on the material plane in a human body. In the classroom called "life" each being undergoes a learning process according to an individualized curriculum. The principal in this school is the being's Higher Self which supervises the curriculum in collaboration with higher vibrational beings (the superintendents, so to speak) and in accordance with the laws set forth by God (the legislature). The principal respects the free will of the student but insists on the supreme goal of learning and growing. If a student refuses to learn a lesson, the same lesson will be presented to him over and over in various versions and disguises -- until the student is tired of avoiding the growth. Most of us are inclined to avoid growth and change even if our resistance comes at a high price. Only when the pain becomes intolerable are we willing to do our homework and learn the lessons. The prevalence of learning through painful experiences, of course, is not due to some cruel divine law; it is simply the consequence of our habits and our ignorance. Our Higher Self is primarily interested in our progress as student in the school of life, not so much in our comfort. Like a wise and benevolent parent, the Higher Self orchestrates experiences for the student which provide the greatest growth opportunities for the highest good of all -- even if the student fights it tooth and nail.

Obviously, no student enters the school of life as a blank page; we all bring some characteristics, dispositions and attributes with us as we enter this plane. (Parents who have more than one child need not be convinced of this assumption.) In addition, we are being handed an outline of our lifetime's curriculum as reflected in our natal horoscope. Both, the outline of the curriculum as well as our innate characteristics, are in no way accidental. While we can never fully understand everything that went into the creation of a human life, let us assume two major factors: What we are is determined by what we were and what we shall become. Using the school metaphor again, whether we go on to learn 11th grade math is determined by our performance in 10th grade math and our aspirations for our educational future. Eventually, all students have to master all subjects, but neither in the same lifetime nor in the same order or at the same speed. (To be precise, we don't really learn anything new, we only learn to remember what we already know.)

Karma

While each student has been given free will, the school of life is only seemingly anarchic. None of us can escape the Law of Karma, also known as the Law of Cause and Effect or the Law of Balance. Most religious traditions have based their ethical reasoning on some version of this law (e.g., "Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." Gal 6.7; The Golden Rule). According to such teachings, it is how we use our free will, i.e., the intent behind our thoughts and actions, which is the deciding factor in producing "good" or "bad" effects at some later day in one's life, at the time of judgment, or in another lifetime, depending on the specific religious tradition.

While such reasoning may be legitimate in an effort to give ethical guidance, it may also involve somewhat of a misunderstanding. A slightly more neutral, less value-laden interpretation of the Law of Karma sees it only as the Law of Balance, requiring us to "experience the other side," accepting all experiences and rejecting none. This viewpoint would deny that there are "good" or "bad" experiences, only lessons to learn. Which interpretation is right? While all experiences are part of the grand scheme of God experiencing him/her/itself, and thus all principally neutral and valid, from a human point of view some causes and effects are clearly more pleasant than others. We should not forget, however, that the goal is learning, not comfort. And as students of life we know that our most painful experiences often prove to be our best teachers.

One could also think of karma as referring to debits and credits on our cosmic bank account. Just as a businessman does not expect debits and credits to balance at the end of each day, but rather is striving for a balance over a longer period of time, so do humans not reach a karmic balance within one lifetime. Instead, the karmic balance is being achieved over many incarnations but with unfailing precision. We bring into each incarnation a balance sheet of imbalances with certain others which we intend to adjust during a specific life. This objective is one of the factors entering the design of a lifetime's curriculum. Another factor would be the spiritual and karmic agreements with other souls which our Higher Self negotiated on higher planes prior to our incarnation. These may be agreements to help a fellow soul advance on his or her spiritual path or to provide opportunities for learning and balancing of karma for others.

In summary, if we observe seeming injustices -- some becoming rich and famous, others suffering endlessly -- we should remind ourselves that all is ultimately in divine order as the Law of Balance rules supreme. Furthermore, we should try to look beyond the human preference for comfort which underlies our judgment of things being "good" or "bad." Just as eating ice cream and pastries every day is more pleasant than healthy, having a lifetime of ease and comfort may not truly be for our highest good. It is wisest to relinquish judgment of what is "good" or "bad" for us or others, as we can never really know, and to trust that all is in divine order. Lest this objective view sounds callous, we should be reminded, of course, that wisdom and compassion in the face of suffering are of tantamount importance -- seeing yourself as one with all others.

Before we move on to the next chapter, let me briefly comment on the popular notion of God punishing us for our sins and transgressions. The teachings of karma and reincarnation have an obvious advantage as they avoid the awkward concept of a Deity who is supposed to be loving and merciful on one side and an objective judge of our vices and virtues on the other. In my understanding God does not judge at all, He/She/It is the legislature, decreeing the laws, but not the judge or the police. The universal laws cannot be escaped; they apply to all without exception, just as the laws of physics. If we violate another being, the Law of Balance will apply automatically, making the transgressor the only one who determines the consequences of his or her actions. To put it even more simply, if I drop a hammer on my foot, there is no one injuring me other than myself, the hammer only follows the laws of physics. Violating another is also like dropping a hammer on our own foot, as all is one and an aspect of our Self. There is no divine punishment, only the application of universal laws of metaphysics, and we have God's permission to experience these as often as we like.