Excerpt

FATE

           Men speak of deserved and undeserved fate, of reward and punishment, retribution and karma.

All these are only part-designations of a Law resting in Creation: The Law of Reciprocal Action!

A Law, which lies in the entire Creation from its primordial beginning, which was inseparably woven into the great, never-ceasing Becoming, as a necessary part of Creating itself, and of Development. Like a gigantic system of the finest nerve-strands, it holds and animates the mighty Universe, and stimulates continual movement, an eternal giving and taking!

Plainly and simply, and yet so aptly, Christ Jesus has already said it: »What a man sows, that shall he reap!«
These few words render the picture of the activity and life in the entire Creation so splendidly that it can hardly be said differently. Inflexibly woven into Being is the meaning of the words. Immovable, untouchable, incorruptible in its perpetual effect.

You can see it if you want to see! Begin therewith while observing the surroundings now visible to you. What you call Laws of Nature are, of course, the Divine Laws, are the Creator’s Will. You will quickly recognise how incessantly they are in constant activity; for if you sow wheat you will not reap rye, and if you scatter rye it cannot bring you rice!

This is so obvious to every man that he thereby simply never reflects about the actual process. He therefore does not become at all conscious of the strict and great Law resting in it. And yet here he faces the answer to a riddle, which need be no riddle to him.

The same Law, now, which you are able to observe here, takes effect with equal certainty and strength also in the most delicate things, which you are only able to discern through magnifying glasses, and, going still further, in the fine material part of the whole Creation, which is by far the larger part. In every happening it lies immutable, also in the most delicate development of your thoughts, which do also still have a certain materiality.

How could you imagine that it should be different just there, where you would like to have it different? Your doubts are in reality nothing more than pronounced inner wishes!

In all Being, visible and invisible to you, it is no different, than that each kind produces its own kind, no matter what the material. Just as continual are the growing and becoming, the bearing of fruit and reproducing of the same kind. This process runs uniformly through everything, makes no distinctions, leaves no gap, does not stop at some other part of Creation, but carries the effects through like an unbreakable thread, without interruption or cessation.

Even though the greater part of mankind, in their limitation and conceit, have isolated themselves from the Universe, the Divine or Natural Laws have not therefore ceased to regard them as belonging to it, and to go on working without change, calmly and evenly.
But the Law of Reciprocal Action also stipulates that everything a man sows, thus where he gives cause for an effect or consequence, he must also reap!

Man has a free resolve, a free decision, always only at the beginning of every matter as to where the Omnipotent Power flowing through him should be guided, in what direction. He must then bear the consequences arising from the power working in the direction willed by him. In spite of this, many insist on the assertion that, after all, man has no free will if he is subject to fate!

This foolishness is only meant to serve as narcotic, or to be a grudging submission to something inevitable, a grumbling resignation, but mainly a self-excuse; for each of these effects falling back on him had a beginning, and at this beginning the cause of the subsequent effect lay in a previous free decision by man.

This free decision has at one time preceded every reciprocal action, thus every fate! With a first volition man has each time produced or created something in which, subsequently, sooner or later, he himself has to live. When this takes place, however, varies greatly. It can still be in the same earth-life, in which the first volition made the beginning for it, but it can just as well happen after shedding the coarse material body in the Fine Material World, or still later, in yet another coarse material earth-life.

The variations play no role here; they do not free man from it. Continually he carries the connecting threads with him, until he is redeemed from them, that is to say, »unfastened« through the finite effect, which ensues through the Law of Reciprocal Action.

The one who forms is bound to his own work, even if he has intended it for others!

If therefore a man today decides to do another an ill turn, be it in thought, word, or deed, he has thereby »put something into the world«, quite irrespective of whether this is generally visible or not, thus whether coarse material or fine material; it has power and therefore life within it, which continues to develop and work on in the intended direction.

How the effect is released upon the one for whom it is intended depends entirely on the psychic condition of the one concerned, to whom it may thereby bring either much or little harm, perhaps also a different harm from what was intended, or even none whatever; for the psychic state of the person concerned is again solely decisive for he himself. Hence no one is exposed to such things unprotected.

It is different with the one who through his decision and his volition has given cause for this movement, thus was its producer. With him his product remains absolutely bound and, after a short or long journeying in the Universe, returns to him reinforced, laden like a bee, through the attraction of similar species.

The Law of Reciprocal Action releases itself thereby, in that every single product in its movement through the Universe attracts or is itself attracted by various similar species, through whose union a source of power then arises, which sends back amplified power of similar kind as from a center to all those who through their products are connected as if by cords with the gathering place of similar species.

Through this amplification an ever greater condensation also occurs, until finally a coarse material precipitation arises from it, in which the former producer must now, in the same kind, live out himself what he once willed, in order to be freed from it at last.

That is the emergence and development of the so dreaded and misunderstood fate! It is just, down to the minutest and finest gradation, because through the attraction of only similar species in the returning radiation it can never bring anything other than what was really originally personally willed.

Whether for a particular individual or in general makes no difference here; for it is naturally also the self-same process when man does not direct his volition specifically to one or several persons, but lives generally in some kind of volition.

The kind of volition which he chooses for himself determines the fruits he must eventually reap. Thus countless fine material threads cling to man, or he to them, all of which let flow back to him whatever he once willed. These currents result in a brew that continually strongly affects the forming of his character.

Thus in the vast machinery of the Universe there are many things which contribute to how man »fares«, but there is nothing to which man has not himself first given cause.

He supplies the threads out of which, in the untiring loom of Being, the cloak is crafted which he has to wear.

Christ clearly and sharply expressed the same when He said: »What a man sows, that shall shall he reap«. He did not say, «can» he reap, but he »shall«. That is the same as saying: he must reap what he sows.

How often does one hear otherwise very sensible people say: »That God allows such a thing is incomprehensible to me!«

But it is incomprehensible that men can speak thus! How small they imagine, according to this remark, God to be. They give therewith the proof that they think of Him as an »arbitrarily acting God«.

ABut God intervenes not at all directly in all these small and great cares of men, in wars, misery, and whatever other earthly matters there may be! He has from the very beginning woven into Creation His perfect Laws, which automatically carry out their incorruptible work so that everything precisely fulfills itself, forever releases itself in the same manner, whereby any favoritism is just as excluded as any discrimination, and every injustice remains impossible.

God therefore need not tend to this Himself especially; His Work is without a gap.

One of the principal mistakes of so many a man, however, is that they judge only according to coarse matter and regard themselves as the center point therein, and also take into account one earth-life, whereas in reality they already have several earth-lives behind them. These, as well as the interims in the Fine Material World, count as one unified existence, through which the threads are tightly stretched without breaking, so that therefore in the effects of a particular earthly existence only a small part of these threads becomes visible.

Hence it is a great mistake to believe that with being born an entirely new life begins, that a child is thus “innocent”, and that all happenings may be accounted for in only the short life on earth. Were this really so, then by existing Justice, the causes, effects, and retroactions would of course have to occur all together in the span of one earth-life.

Turn away from this error. You will then quickly discover the now so often missed logic and justice in all happenings!

Many are frightened by this and afraid of what, according to these Laws, they have still to expect in retroactions from the past.

But such are unnecessary worries for those who are in earnest about the good volition; for in the self-acting Laws also lies at the same time the certain guarantee of mercy and forgiveness!

Quite apart from the fact that, with the firm onset of the good volition, a boundary is immediately set for the point where the chain of evil retroactions must come to an end, yet another process comes into force, which is of tremendous worth:

Through the continual good volition in all thought and deed, there flows, likewise retroactively from the homogenous power source, a constant reinforcement, so that the good becomes more and more firm in man himself, emerges from him, and first of all forms accordingly the fine material surrounding which envelops him like a protective covering in much the same way as the atmospheric layer around the earth affords it protection.

Now when evil retroactions from the past come back to this man for release, they slide off the purity of his surrounding or covering, and are thus deflected from him.

But should they nevertheless penetrate this covering, the evil radiations are either immediately disintegrated or at least appreciably weakened, so that the harmful effect cannot manifest at all, or only to a very minor extent.

Additionally, through the resulting transformation, also the actual inner man to whom the returning radiations are attuned has become, through the continuous striving for the good volition, much more refined and lighter, so that he no longer homogeneously faces the greater density of evil or base currents. Similar to wireless telegraphy, when the receiver is not tuned in to the energy of the transmitter.

The natural consequence of this is that the denser currents, being of a different kind, cannot take hold, and thus pass harmlessly through without evil effect, redeemed by some unconscious symbolic action, the various kinds of which I will speak about at some later time.

Thus, to work without delay! The Creator has placed, in Creation, everything into your hands. Use the time! Every moment harbors for you disaster or gain!

(In the Light of Truth, Lecture: Fate)