Category: The Key To Theosophy (1889): H. P. Blavatsky

"Enq:  But I see nothing of moral character about this law. It looks to me like the simple physical law that action and reaction are equal and opposite.   Theo:  I am not surprised to hear you say that. Europeans have got so much into the ingrained habit of considering right and wrong, good and [...]

"Enq:  Well, then, tell me generally how you describe this law of Karma?   Theo:  We describe Karma as that Law of readjustment which ever tends to restore disturbed equilibrium in the physical, and broken harmony in the moral world.   We say that Karma does not act in this or that particular way always; [...]

"Enq:  That is a sad but beautiful letter, and I think it presents with painful conspicuity the terrible workings of what you have called "Relative and Distributive Karma."   But alas! there seems no immediate hope of any relief short of an earthquake, or some such general engulfment!   Theo:  What right have we to [...]

"Enq:  And are there no means by which the distributive or national Karma might be concentrated or collected, so to speak, and brought to its natural and legitimate fulfillment without all this protracted suffering?   Theo:  As a general rule, and within certain limits which define the age to which we belong, the law of [...]

"Enq:  Do I, then, understand that the law of Karma is not necessarily an individual law?   Theo:  That is just what I mean. It is impossible that Karma could readjust the balance of power in the world's life and progress, unless it had a broad and general line of action.   It is held [...]

"Enq:  And what has Theosophy to say in regard to the solution of the more practical needs of humanity? What is the explanation which it offers in reference to the awful suffering and dire necessity prevalent among the so-called "lower-classes".   Theo:  To be pointed, according to our teaching all these great social evils, the [...]

"Enq:  But what is Karma?   Theo:  As I have said, we consider it as the Ultimate Law of the Universe, the source, origin and fount of all other laws which exist throughout Nature.   Karma is the unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental and spiritual planes of being. As [...]

"Theo (cont):  The saying of Jesus:  "With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again" (Matth. vii., 2), neither by expression nor implication points to any hope of future mercy or salvation by proxy.   This is why, recognizing as we do in our philosophy the justice of this statement, we cannot [...]

"Enq:  In this Christian dogmas contradict both, and I doubt whether any Christian will accept the teaching.   Theo:  No; and Inman gave the reason for it many years ago. As he puts it, while "the Christians will accept any nonsense, if promulgated by the Church as a matter of faith...the Buddhists hold that nothing [...]

"Enq:  And what is it that regulates the duration, or special qualities of these incarnations?   Theo:  Karma, the universal law of retributive justice.   Enq:  Is it an intelligent law?   Theo:  For the Materialist, who calls the law of periodicity which regulates the marshalling of the several bodies, and all the other laws [...]