The Key (A Fairytale) — Chapter 7: A Step Above Oblivion (Part 2)

A John was tireless, and continued with his story, "These forest dwellers made another tremendous breakthrough. They discovered ‘kamma,' the part of us that continues after death. What continues after death is rather complicated so I will go slowly. Whenever you act, this act is remembered by something which colors the pure consciousness of Reality, and a record of that act is stored as a psychic memory, which is a spiritual memory of sorts. This remembered act, this psychic record, will boomerang at some point returning to affect you precisely as your original act affected another. Whatever you send out, whatever you do, circles back and affects you with an equal impact at some future date. Each particular act comes back to revisit you someday and pay its debt, in a manner of speaking, with a good act repaying in good luck and a bad act repaying in bad luck. This is the Great Law of kamma: Whatever you do to others will be done to you."

I could understand kamma on a worldly level. If I helped someone, that person would think well of me and perhaps return the favor someday. Conversely, if I harmed someone, that person or somebody from that person's family would hate me and might seek retribution. A John, however, was apparently taking into account a broader scale, a scale of certainty in that whatever one does will come back with equal force. I questioned this because I had known people whose evil went unpunished their entire lifetime!

Reading my mind, a John continued, "This spiritual memory stores every record of your conscious actions because, as I mentioned, each action must be resolved. The resolution is accomplished by granting good luck for good actions and bad luck for bad actions. But what if the being dies with many of these debts still unpaid? A criminal might have done many evil things and should have accumulated much bad luck, but somehow goes scot-free in his present existence. Alternatively, a well-meaning person might have performed many good acts but is seemingly not rewarded. This well-meaning person might even find him or herself suffering one inexplicable tragedy after another. This apparent unfairness can be explained this way: When a being dies, many debts, both good and bad will remain outstanding because the old body, now dead, cannot experience the repayment of the good and bad luck resulting from these debts. Therefore, rebirth in a new body is necessary for if there were no new body, there would never be a resolution of these actions. Then, when rebirth occurs, actions from many past lives affect the present being, and although one may be very good and kind in this lifetime, bad actions of the past will affect them until they find their key.

"This is a very simplified explanation, as the action-reaction sequence can be extremely complicated, but do you at least understand on a logical level? Your actions, whether they are good or bad, necessitate a new body to resolve the good luck or bad luck resulting from these actions. In the case of the unpunished criminal, his good acts from a previous lifetime may have protected him from punishment this time. His present bad actions, however, will negatively affect him sometime in the future. The good person, who is now having bad luck, might have been a criminal in the past and is just now reaping the consequences. We weave quite a tangled web with our freewill, not knowing what might be waiting for us in a new body! Once we are born into physical existence with all it's desires and distractions, who knows what will happen to us. We could act like animals, and then be reborn in the animal world, or worse, which is very difficult to move out of.

"It is therefore advisable to take every advantage of any good luck that comes your way in this lifetime and not waste it by simply enjoying yourself. Use that good luck to find the key, for who knows what lies ahead in the next lifetime?"

I had to think this through. If I understood correctly, my body and mind - my physical appearance and my personality, along with my memories and thoughts, in essence, ‘the king,' did not continue after death. The single thing surviving will be a spiritual memory of the actions of the old lifetime. This storehouse of remembered actions then takes on a new body, using the new body as a ‘bank' of sorts. The spiritual memory of the old body's actions is deposited in the new body, so that the old actions can be repaid in good luck or bad luck by using this new body. Consequently, since I killed many people in this lifetime during my misguided war, there will come a day that I will be besieged with bad luck! I wouldn't know when to expect it, either. How could I escape this?

"Some of the good and bad luck does not necessarily resolve itself in the next lifetime," a John continued, as if answering my questions. "It might come back many lifetimes later depending on the severity of the action and the degree to which it impacted the mind. Not every past action is deposited in the new body's ‘bank' at once.

"Don't forget, every good (expansive), or bad (self enclosed) action, no matter how small or insignificant, will result in an equal reaction affecting you at some point in time. Although you will be in a different body or form, and possibly on a different sphere, and appear to be someone other than the one who committed the action, the results will hit you nonetheless, and you will definitely feel the effects. When the good or bad luck arrives, you will experience it, no matter where or who you are at the time, just as you are now experiencing the results of someone who acted in the past - and that someone was nobody but you."

I was utterly bewildered. This meant that my personality, or whatever I believed to be my soul, would not survive death. Is that what my soul is, my past actions? Surely, I must continue to exist somewhere. I can't just dissolve – I'm much too important for that.

A John explained further, "After death of the physical body, if the personality is extremely confused and full of sentimentality and insecurity, it might temporarily remain close to its attachments on earth in the form of a physic entity or ghost, but this is merely transitory. Soon, it realizes its misunderstanding regarding the fleeting nature of forms and moves on to the in-between world. There, it will recall previous existences and learn from them. Once it descends into a new being, however, all memory is lost, both of the in-between world and its previous lifetimes. Unfortunately, you will be unable to recall your previous existences for now, the ones that have granted you such wealth and power in this lifetime as well as the insight and opportunity to seek the key. Until your inner work becomes very refined, these past lifetimes will remain a mystery to you.

"The part of us that never dies is this psychic memory of our actions. We merely leave the old body behind, as a caterpillar leaves its cocoon, to take on the particular new form that will best suit our particular desires at the time of death. It's like changing into appropriate clothes for whatever activity we had in mind. Do you understand? It is very simple, and since everything changes and evolves, why would you attempt to drag your old, physical body and mind with you when you die?

"Every death is a renewal and an incredible opportunity for new and wondrous freedoms. Whatever we desire we will eventually attain, for this is the only way to get beyond those desires, which we must first see and then understand before we can transcend them. You will learn to trust your psychic record more than you trust anything else, for soon you will realize that good actions will sustain you while committed horrors result in hardship. Be assured, however, that regardless of the pain, opportunities will present themselves to relieve it through understanding. This might take a long time and involve much pain, but you will eventually see the light. Once you truly understand this process and take it to heart, your actions can't help but change for the better.

"The original key seekers discovered that this resultant kammic action travels out into the heavens in a big circle. I'm speaking in images here. It then turns around and comes back, aimed directly at the one who originally created the action. Every action results in a reaction, and when we act with any kind of an agenda in mind, whether good or bad, this creates our kamma. Good or bad actions will create, in turn, good or bad kamma. Whatever we do to others, or for others, will be done to us. The kamma will return to us at various times depending on the size of the circle, perhaps in this lifetime or perhaps in a distant lifetime when we least expect it. The exception to this rule is when one becomes a key keeper."

Maybe there was a key keeper right here in this hut with me! A John slowly turned to Moosawa, "You have been with the community for some time now and have participated with them during their inner work. Have you noticed any changes in yourself?"

Now I was wide-awake! How would this snake; Moosawa, reply?

"Yes, of course, it has been very good." Moosawa answered.

"The inner work is how we change our kamma," a John continued, "and once the key is found, the entire storehouse of the key seeker's past kamma is completely excused and will no longer affect the new key keeper. When the kamma returns from its circular journey from the heavens to again meet up with its original perpetrator, it cannot find a key keeper! Why is this? It is because a key keeper no longer possesses a ‘self,' and a self is the only thing that can create and receive kamma.

"We are reborn so that our old self, which is all the accumulated past kamma, can find a new home with a new self. This kamma, the psychic residue of a concept of a self, and of our actions over many lifetimes, is a kind of unfinished business made up of our strongest characteristics, wants, and desires as death approaches. We develop these characteristics and cravings over many lifetimes, as they create habit patterns or grooves that we find ourselves caught in. These patterns then create our personal world, the kind of world into which we are repeatedly reborn. Therefore, be careful of your actions, because they become habitual, and the habit patterns they produce are extremely difficult to alter. They will keep you ensnared for many lifetimes."

He again turned to Moosawa, "Have you ever walked through the forest and noticed how the leaves dance along with you, or is your mind too busy with other things? Wouldn't you say that sensitivity is more important than gold?"

"Yes, of course, of course," Moosawa agreed, looking down.

A John was incredible. Would my association with this implausible man sitting next to me help in my next rebirth? I felt as if something was working inside, something I wasn't familiar with, and I wondered if it was Ariya's influence, or a John's, or maybe both. I saw what a John was doing with Moosawa too. This amazing little man was saving Moosawa, saving Moosawa from himself; a John's love had no boundaries. He was confident that the community's influence, as well as his own, would create a radical change in the snake man. (To be continued)