Daily Meditation: Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Reincarnation - an application of the law of cause and effect

11/18/2014

The universe is governed by the law of cause and effect. Each act and each event is a cause leading to a consequence, and each act and each event is itself the consequence of a cause. So cause and effect are inextricably linked, but a human life is too short for us to observe this immense succession of cause and effect at play. Just as today we see events which are the consequence of causes we do not know because they occurred well before our present lifetime, so too we cannot foresee the distant consequences of certain events taking place now. So at present we find ourselves faced with situations some of which are causes and some of which are effects, which is why the meaning of so many events eludes us. As for reincarnation, it is really only a specific aspect of this law of cause and effect. As people’s lives do not end when they leave the earth, not only do the consequences of their actions follow them into the world beyond, but when they reincarnate again these consequences remain alive and active. So we cannot claim that such-and-such a person does not deserve the good conditions they enjoy in this life and that someone else does not deserve to be the victim of injustice, because we know nothing of their previous incarnations. As long as people do not acknowledge reincarnation, they will understand nothing of divine justice.