Karma

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Alois Delug - The Norns, 1895

Karma ([ˈkaʁma] or [ˈkərmə][1]; Sanskrit: n., कर्म, karman, Pali: kamma, "action, deed, work", derived from the Sanskrit root कृ kṛ (kri) "to do, make, act, work"; Hebrew: קַרְמָה karmā resp. גּוֹרָל gôral "fate"), the universal law of fate, states that every physical, mental or spiritual effect that emanates from a spiritual being and - consciously or unconsciously - disturbs the spiritual-cosmic order[2] reverberates back to that being itself and also disturbs its own inner soul-astral order and brings it into disharmony with the spiritual world order and thereby determines its fate (from Latin: fatum "fact"). Karma applies not only to man but to all spiritual beings in the entire cosmos.

Karma is inscribed into the astral world

Just as the etheric body is the carrier of our memory, so the effects of our deeds are inscribed in our astral body. When we go through the Kamaloka after death, all that we cannot purify here is inscribed in the astral world, the world astrality, as our karma. It cannot be taken into the higher astral world and still less into the Devachan, that is, the actual spiritual world, and remains in the lower astral world of the earth sphere. When we descend to the Earth for a new incarnation, our karma is again woven into the newly formed astral body.

„... just as the etheric body is the tool for our thoughts, insofar as they become memories and are incorporated into memory, so our astral body is the tool for our deeds. They arise from our astral body. Everything that man does, and thus, as I have described, incorporates as an effect of the outer world, is bound to the tool of the human astral body. Just as his everyday consciousness is bound to the physical body, just as his memories and his memory are bound to the etheric body, so, however fine the astral body may be, everything that man does, which is an effect in the outer world, is done through the human astral body. The consequence of this is that it also remains connected in a certain respect with this astral body, just as memory remains connected with the etheric body. If, as we have seen, we still live in our etheric body after death, then the memory tableau is formed; that is to say, the memories of our past life remain bound to our etheric body. When we have laid aside our etheric body some time after death and have entered into the general life ether what our personality first retained in memories, in memory content, then we still live entirely in our astral body. We have often described how man still has a long time to live in his astral body. In this astral body we are indeed - as has often been described - connected with the outer effects of our life. This is also shown externally by the fact that after death man has to relive his world of deeds backwards, everything he has ever done or performed for other beings on earth. In a time of which we have said that it amounts to about a third of his past life, he feels as if he were passing through his earthly deeds in his astral body, through all that he has done on earth. And just as - after we have laid aside our etheric body a few days after death - our personal memories are inscribed in the general life ether, so during the time in which we are still connected with the astral body, all our deeds are inscribed in the general world-astrality. There they stand, and we remain connected with them just as we remain connected with the memories of our personality, which are inscribed as a permanent note in the world ether, only our deeds are inscribed, as it were, in another world note. While we relive the deeds of our last life, all this is entered into the general world-astrality and we remain connected with it. Through our astral body, therefore, we permanently belong to our deeds, insofar as we are earthly people.

What I have just described, what connects us with our deeds, that is karma. That is in reality karma: what is entered from our life deeds into the general world astrality.“ (Lit.:GA 133, p. 140f)

Past and future karma

Through his actions, man imposes on himself a karmic task to be fulfilled in the future, which he cannot escape sooner or later, but which not only does not affect his freedom, but - together with the knowledge of good and evil - has made it possible in the first place, because freedom also means, above all, taking active responsibility for the consequences of one's deeds. Fate is not a punishment imposed by the gods, but it is one's own higher self that assumes this responsibility and willingly brings about the execution of fate. Responsibility is not exhausted in an earthly life. From an anthroposophical point of view, fate clearly proves to be the consequence of previous earthly lives. Karma and reincarnation thus appear to be inseparably connected for the earthly embodied human being. Karma, however, is not only to be seen as a lunar effect from the past. Not everything that happens to us is determined by past events, but enters our lives anew through no fault of our own. Even if we suffer from it at the moment, it will find its karmic compensation in the future.

Of particular importance in the future will be the solar karma, consciously created in freedom from present circumstances and pointing to the future, which as a creatively generated cause opens up new positive possibilities and also predisposes such possibilities for communal work in the coming incarnations. These two sides of Janus-faced karma are now often referred to as lunar karma (past) and solar karma (future). Karma helps people to free themselves from the burden of the past and opens up completely new possibilities for the future. By no means should it be misunderstood in the sense of a strictly deterministic doctrine of predestination.

In this context, Rudolf Steiner also speaks of creating out of circumstances, which are not derived from the past, but from the way in which the human being freely faces the facts of his environment.

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

  1. ↑ About the pronunciation of the word "karma" Rudolf Steiner said:

    „You see, the word word karma came to Europe in a roundabout way through English. through English. Well, because that's how it's spelt: Karma, people people very often say "karma". That is mispronounced. Karma is to be pronounced just as if it were written with ä. I have always spoken "ka(= ä)rma" since I have been leading the Anthroposophical Society, and I regret that very many people have got into the have got into the habit of constantly saying the horrible word "kirma". say. They must always understand, these people, when I say "karma", "kirma". I say "karma", "kirma". That is terrible. You will have heard it also that some very faithful disciples have been saying "kirma" for some time now.“ (Lit.:GA 235, p. 64)

  2. ↑ The spiritual-cosmic order and its reflection in the earthly-human world was originally called Hinduism in Ṛta (Sanskrit: n., ऋत, ṛta (rita) "truth, law, order"). Today, as in Buddhism, the term dharma (Sanskrit, m., धर्म, dharma; Pali: Dhamma "custom, law, order") is commonly used for it.
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