“My effort to preserve myself is useless;
every day I am my complete breakdown:
and I watch the decay of everything,
in these mirrors without reflection.
Obstinate voice that is calling me in the distance,
lead yourself to me”Cecília Meirelles
What is fate? What is karma? Is there a difference between them? And what is life, apart from karma or fate?
People usually associate fate, or what they call karma, with something unavoidable in their lives. It’s why they look for fortune tellers. By “reading their fortune”, it is believed that they will not be surprised by the fatality of fate. They want to be prepared for what awaits them ahead. This is because it is common for all of us to plan to get somewhere, to follow the corridor that we think is right, but suddenly we are faced with a blockage that forces us to look for another option, we arrive at an unforeseen place, or we are left wandering around without making any progress. It’s like we’re in a labyrinth from which we can’t find a way out.
After many of these experiences, which usually are bitter, we are overcome by fatigue from such a circular and painful race, and finally we begin to wonder what is behind these repeated attempts that keep bringing us down. Is it fate? or perhaps chance?
The smallest particle discovered by science is a part of a great universal intelligence. Stars and planets follow a determined orbit, things come and go, according to absolute laws. Why would our lives be any different?
Let’s understand what karma really is, it’s a word that means “action”. Karma is the Universal Law of action and reaction. It’s neither good nor bad. We can imagine the Law of Karma as a boomerang. Everything we throw, returns. Everything that is sown, is reaped. Karma can be of the individual, of a collectivity, of humanity, of the planet and of the cosmos.
In Greek mythology, this original strength is symbolized by Nemesis, a blindfolded goddess who wields a two-bladed sword: she rewards or rectifies. To the action blade, there is a corresponding reaction blade. Such a Law causes all of our thoughts, feelings and reactions – individual or collective – to be followed by a reaction. The purpose is the release of one’s own karma from the process. Therefore, what is truly important regarding this subject is the transformation of the consciousness to a completely new attitude of life
Our reaction, as a rule, has been to allow ourselves to be lived by our automatisms and unconscious habits, from which reactions arise that we set in motion, although we usually attribute them to something external, such as people, relationships or situations. We are victims and prisoners of ourselves.
We continue to go around in circles. We don’t realize that the labyrinth in which we feel lost is our inner workplace. The word labyrinth comes from labor, or work, and, in this case, inner work that leads us to self-knowledge. “The world is a labyrinth where the human soul has to wander aimlessly until liberation” (Hippolytus, III A.D.).
The Law of Karma constitutes a spiral of inner learnings so that we can deepen our self-knowledge, which can lead to our freedom in an autonomous and conscious way. Fate brings us the chance for fundamental transmutation, the key to learning.
The book “Saúde e Espiritualidade: a Cura” (Health and Spirituality: the Cure) explains that fate is a treasure that each human being has inherited and that has brought him or her to the doors of the path of true self-knowledge and the real possibility of transforming his or her life. It is also the treasure that, in addition to this luminous possibility, provides the opportunity to experience, in a single lifetime, the resolution of all pending matters.
It is to this life, in the present, pulsating and strong, that we must pay attention, decide and act autonomously, through a Universal Consciousness that already exists in each one of us. It is in transforming ourselves, here and now, with each practical experience of our life that we can harmonize our thoughts, feelings and actions. The transmutation of human consciousness into a new consciousness, which is the Universal Consciousness, is our guideline, in mindful, brave and voluntary surrender to our own complete transformation.
How do we achieve this?
We will not transform our fate based only on external changes, such as behaviors, professions, social, political, economic activities, amongst others. This is because all external change is centered on an egocentric consciousness, whose justice is partial and not absolute. In this way, we remain trapped in our inner labyrinth, with no real transformation of consciousness. We continue to see only its high walls.
Through a new consciousness we can rise above the labyrinth of fate and see a way out, which is at its center: the heart. Yes, in our heart already dwells an immortal Principle, a seed of Light, which is the basis for our inner liberation: the Spark of the Spirit. It is poetically also called the Rose of the Heart by the classical Rosicrucians, or a mustard seed or a lotus flower in the Universal Teachings.
When this Principle awakens in our heart, a flame of Light rises to our head and begins to transform our consciousness, which is also reflected in our actions. We acquire deep self-knowledge of our self-preservation mechanisms – attack and defense. Even though for a moment, we can have the possibility of a conscious and autonomous choice, instead of a blind and automatic reaction. A new perception arises, a new Soul, which helps us to achieve a completely new attitude to life.
If the new Soul is reborn, it guides us towards the middle path. The rectifications become fewer and less necessary. Experiences are thus understood as true treasures for a new consciousness. In this process, the Law of Karma is the Law of Universal Love.
Like the sun that shines for all, fate will eventually give way to a New Life that radiates without distinction like living cells – both part and all of Universal Love.
References
LECTORIUM ROSICRUCIANUM. A Lei do Destino (The Law of Fate). Revista Pentagrama, Jarinu, Year XVIII, n. 3, p. 21-26, 1996. Quarterly.
LECTORIUM ROSICRUCIANUM. Dédalo ou Labirinto? (Daedalus or Labyrinth?). Revista Pentagrama, Jarinu, Year XIX, n. 5, p. 2-3, October 1997. Quarterly.
LECTORIUM ROSICRUCIANUM. Saúde e Espiritualidade: a Cura. (Health and Spirituality: the Cure) Jarinu, SP: Pentagrama Publicações, 2018. Renewal Series, v2, p. 47. Available at https://pentagrama.org.br/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2020/01/A_Cura.pdf
MEIRELES, Cecília. Viagem (Travel). 1 ed. eBooksBrasil – Collection: Clássicos da Literatura (Literature Classics). p.88, 2000. Available at https://www.ebooksbrasil.org/adobeebook/viagem.pdf. Accessed on November 20, 2021.
