People want to know WHY this or that happens to them. They look for flaws in their own character; reasons for the disturbing events of their lives; an explanation of karma and its influences. Almost everyone assumes there is some purpose for the accidents to which they are involved, or some purpose for their inherited disabilities.
We are generally so tied to the concept of purpose in the scheme of things that it is difficult for us to avoid a reference to it in everything that happens to us. Yet purpose, in the sense of a Cosmic Mind directing and deciding upon the events of our live, is nonexistent. Few things happening to us are due to any personal karma, or to anything we did to bring them about. Many things are not even due to group karma. They are simply natural events over which no one has any control, not even the Cosmic.
To think of the Cosmic as having limits or restrictions to its powers is almost unthinkable to us. We have always been led to think that the Cosmic is all-powerful and omnipotent; that it can interrupt, modify, or reverse the course of events.
We look at certain events and call them miracles. A plane crashes, ninety-nine persons perish, and one survives. The one survival is hailed as a miracle, an act of God, the Creator. But what of the ninety-nine?
The Cosmic functions according to the laws of its being. These laws are as much a part of the Cosmic as are its substance, its force, and its mind. These laws are absolute. They operate eternally and universally. These laws are the order of the Cosmic. They cannot be set aside, by us, or by the Cosmic itself.
The laws of the Cosmic were never established by the Cosmic, and thus cannot be rescinded or withdrawn by the Cosmic. Thus there is no purpose in the laws being what they are – no reason why they are as they are anymore than there is a purpose for the Cosmic’s existence, nor a reason why it exists. The Cosmic is what it is, and it cannot be other than what it is. This is the Cosmic’s restriction, and since we are part of the Cosmic, it is also our restriction.
The heart of cosmic law is action and reaction, and around it we have built our patterns of behaviour. We are attracted to, and we are repelled by other things. We experience a sense of harmony or disharmony. We observe actions and reactions as magnetic fields adjust and readjust themselves in order to maintain balance.
Now to answer the question: WHY this or that happens, we can say that the law is the cause for everything that happens within the cosmic structure. What is significant for us at this time is that the law acts without regard to the elements of the Cosmic’s nature. There are no such attributes as compassion, selectivity, choice, or retribution in the law. This holds true regardless of what anyone, including the Cosmic, would rather have happen.
Let’s look at some examples. When the snowpack builds on mountainsides, and its weight exceed its ability to hold to the mountain, great sheets of it will fall in an avalanche. It won’t matter if trees are uprooted; if nests and homes and other refuges are destroyed; or if thousands upon thousands of animal lives are snuffed out. Do we think that the Cosmic looks upon this and is pleased?
When a volcano erupts, the earth around it is devastated. Poisonous fumes and stifling dust fill the air and bring death to animal and plant life within miles of its perimeters. Is this something the Cosmic enjoys? Can we really conceive that these are purposeful acts on the part of the Cosmic? That it would intentionally devastate and destroy life? Can we conceive that the Cosmic would intentionally look on silently as innocent men kill each other in warfare? Or that it has no compassion for the millions of life forms that are devoured by other life forms as they fight for survival?
We say that all things are of the Cosmic, yet we have a tendency to give credit to the Cosmic for only the good things that happen, but not for the bad things. But both the good and the bad are results of cosmic law. Both are the result of natural actions and reactions of cosmic events.
What this says is that there is a cause for everything that happens to us, but the cause is in cosmic law, and not in the Cosmic Mind. It is important to realize this difference. There is little question that we cause many of the things that happen to us simply by the actions we take, by our behaviour, or by the lifestyle we adhere to. We set actions into motion, and cosmic law brings about a reaction. It’s not a question of whether it’s right or wrong. It’s only a question of reaction to some action on our part.
Cosmic law doesn’t distinguish between right and wrong. It only functions according to one principle – action and reaction – the maintenance of balance in the universal system.
If this all sounds very fatalistic, it isn’t. It may sound rather hopeless – reality of ponderous cosmic forces over which we have no control. But, as you will see, it’s not that you have no control, but rather a matter of what you have control over and what you don’t have control over. You may not be able to stop an earthquake or an avalanche, but one thing you can do is to not be where they happen when they happen.
Just because there are fixed laws governing our actions doesn’t mean that we have no options. Just because we have man-made laws that say you must not steal, cheat, kill, run a red light, or jaywalk, or drive over fifty-five miles per hour, or commit adultery does not mean that we lack options. We have all the options that we think we have. We can obey the law or we can break the law. We can decide what we want to do and what we don’t want to do. We can work in harmony with the law and experience more or less favourable reactions, or we can work out of harmony with the law and experience more or less negative reactions. The presence of law, however, determines what reactions we will have once we act.
Again, so as not to sound fatalistic, we do have ways of circumventing catastrophe. If we would give more time to exercising our special mental faculties, such as intuition and visualization, we could avoid what most would harm us. Guided by intuition on a day-to-day basis, we would be sensitive to the vibratory conditions about us. As with other animal, long before an avalanche fell, or an earthquake rumbled, or a tornado tore our dwelling to shreds, we could sense the makings of these phenomena in the changing vibratory conditions that lead to catastrophe. Long before an airplane reaches, or a coal mine caves in, there are already vibratory conditions existing that reflect the flaws that bring on disaster.
Guided by intuition, we would be drawn to places and conditions in both space and time that would be conducive to our well-being. We would have the unique option to be in the right place at the right time, as it were, and so avoid natural catastrophes and events that would disturb, injure, or incapacitate us. We rarely take time to exercise our intuitive faculty, and take even less notice of what intuition tells us when it has brought us an impression.
The same is true of visualization. While intuition provides us with a sensitivity to conditions that exist around us now, visualization provides us with a means of preparing in advance for such guidance. Instead of waiting for intuition to tell us whether or not a thing is good for us when we’re already confronting that thing, visualization provides us with an opportunity to ask the Cosmic in advance, to direct us to things that are good for us, and to bring into that environment positive and constructive elements.
For example, you may have intuitive feelings that warn you of stress the following day in relation to someone you have to work with, or deal with. If you follow your intuition, you will try to avoid direct confrontation with this person, or with any activity or comments that would cause stress. On the other hand, if you visualize the following day, and the relationship in question, as being without stress, you are setting into motion countermeasures of a vibratory nature that will actually change the picture and would never materialize the negative condition in the first place.
We could go on and on with examples that touch every facet of our lives but then, so can you, in the privacy of your own meditations.
We find then that disruptive incidents are not always our fault, nor of another nation, nor of the Cosmic itself; and secondly, that we have the power and option within our beings to chart our lives into the most favourable channels, and to so attune ourselves with the Cosmic Mind that we can sense the time and place of cosmic events that would affect our lives, either positively or adversely.
