On Free Will,
Karma & Destiny
A new friend, a student from the university where I teach and study, once made this remark about her boyfriend and the future of their relationship, “Kung talagang kami ang magkakatuluyan Sir, kung iyon talaga ang kapalaran naming, kahit ano pa ang mangyari, kami talaga pa rin. Kung hindi talaga kami para sa isa’t isa, wala na akong magagawa.” (translation: if we really are meant for each other, Sir, if we are destined for each other, no matter what happens we will still be together in the end. If we are not meant for each other, there is really nothing I can do about it.)
At the time she said those lines, I was unable to discuss it further. There were things I had to do. Later in the day, I thought of writing my thoughts down. Aside from her, many people in this country think along the same line. Some religions even teach the belief that everything that happens is predestined. To them, people of this world simply act out a role whose script has all been written by the Hand of Destiny.
This topic on the Hand of Destiny, ‘guhit ng kapalaran’, tadhana or predestination involves two things: free will and karma. There is actually no such thing as destiny. These two things are quite a big topic. I will only share a basic few ideas.
God, our Father Above, out of His infinite love, created us. He gives us a Soul whose spiritual genes, so to speak, was exactly the same as His. When the soul decided to descend into this world to learn many things, it necessarily had to use a human body. From thereon, the Soul opted for a human evolutionary path towards acquiring more wisdom and a deeper feeling and understanding of love. Thus, we have two natures here – a spiritual nature and a human nature.
Oftentimes, when a person commits a serious mistake, he says, “I am only human. Sapagkat ako’y tao lamang.”
It is actually a half truth because we also have a spiritual nature. We also have a Soul. The Soul is the more important half our nature.
However, one of the Laws of Nature and of life in our world is that when the Soul or a part of the Soul enters the body, the lower consciousness, a product of evolution of our physical body, is not aware of this. The lower consciousness can not ordinarily reach the higher Consciousness of his Soul except during rare instances as in dreams, hunches and inspiration. We have different levels of consciousness. For the lower consciousness to reach the Soul, the person must develop himself/herself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually until his/her lower consciousness can open the inner door which leads to the Soul.
The Soul is given two things: one is immortality and the other is free will. We are primarily concerned in this discussion with the gift of free will and its relation to karma and the so-called destiny.
Because of free will we are able to do what we want to do. We can choose to do good and to follow the will of the Father. We can also choose to go against His will and do foolish, wrong and even evil things. In this world, we can either be a good or a bad father/mother, a good or a bad husband/wife, a good or a bad son/daughter, a good or a bad friend, etc. We can fool and hurt people or we can be honest and help people.
Whenever you think of and do right things, you become closer to your Soul. As a consequence, you also become closer to the Father. The opposite of course is also true. Whenever you think of and do wrong things, you widen the gap between yourself and your Soul. As a consequence, you are farther away from the Father. As you become closer to your soul, your Soul can more properly control your human nature – the needs of your body, emotions and mind. The more you control and master yourself, the greater is your freedom.
Whenever you do wrong things, your Soul has less and less control over your body, emotions (passions, desires, etc.) and mind. The less your Soul has control over these three aspects of your human nature, the less freedom you have because your lower consciousness becomes a slave to the needs of your lower human nature. As the soul loses control of the lower consciousness, the needs of your body for food and sex become excessive. This turns you into a lower form of animal. Your emotional need to love and be loved also becomes excessive. This leads to extreme jealousy and possessiveness which strangulates the person you love. Your mind further becomes excessively focused on acquiring worldly things, on getting wealth and power for its own sake, and not as means to serve others and develop oneself.
Many people believe that more food, sex, wealth and power bring more freedom. Consider smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol. Many smokers and drinkers of alcohol believe that they feel more free and more alive whenever they smoke more cigarettes or drink more alcohol. However, the truth is, the more cigarettes they smoke or the more alcohol they drink, the less freedom they have. They have become more addicted and addicts obviously have practically no freedom.
A renowned mystical poet, Kahlil Gibran, beautifully spoke of people who worship money, power and pleasures of the flesh. He said,
In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
All our thoughts and actions, whether good or bad, have results. A good thought/action inevitably produces good results. A bad thought/action inevitably produces a bad result. As written in one Holy Book, ‘What you sow is what you reap.’ A bad seed can not help but produce a sickly plant or tree. A healthy good seed can not help but produce a healthy plant or tree. In another religion this is called the law of karma. This law is an impersonal law similar to the law of gravity. It is a universal law and like gravity, no one escapes it.
Some poor people have asked, “I have been a good man, I have honestly worked hard and yet I have suffered and have continued to suffer a lot. I cannot feed my family properly nor can I send my children to schools of higher learning. On the other hand, corrupt politicians and greedy capitalists appear to enjoy life. Why is this so if the law of karma is true?”
There is one social phenomenon related to the law of karma which has not been adequately discussed by those who study and/or teach the Art of Living and Inner Wisdom. For one thing, social science is a relatively new discipline. Social science has uncovered the laws governing social structure where wealth, power and knowledge are concentrated in a few inevitably results in the suffering of many. No matter how hard a slave works, no matter how good a man he is, the unjust social structure makes him suffer. The saying “What you sow is what you reap” does not apply on the social level. The poor honest man, who plants many healthy seeds, does not enjoy the fruits of his labor. He doesn’t own the land he tills. The wealth produced goes to the landlord. Even when he has freedom to make his life, the circumstances around the social structure limit his freedom to improve himself.
In this country where there is a big employment problem and a serious maldistribution of wealth resulting in mass poverty, many people have virtually no option but to work abroad and become virtual slaves to abusive employers. Many women and children are forced to beg, steal, or worse, sell their bodies.
One religion believes that poverty is actually the karma of a person. A person who lived a bad life in another lifetime is being punished today by being born poor. This is a big lie perpetuated by the rich and the powerful to justify their social position. The truth his, sometime in the early beginnings of man, a few people having tasted what wealth and power can do, have decided by all means to maintain their wealth and perpetuate themselves in power. They have thought of ways and means to pass on their wealth and power to their children to their children’s children and so on.
One of the means they have used was the invention of myths and legends about themselves. In the process, the people who read about them have begun to worship them and their children and descendants. A lie, repeated over and over again systematically and regularly, especially by those who outwardly look respectable, gradually becomes accepted in time.
Hitler used famous respectable scientists to tell the German people that indeed, they were the superior race and that it was their destiny to rule the world. Tens of millions of people were killed because of this lie. Some respectable American leaders told the American people at the turn of the century that it was their “Manifest Destiny” to colonize the
The older German people knew that it was not true, that it was nonsense, but Hitler correctly pointed out that the young German people, whose hearts and minds could easily be influenced, would believe his lies after some years of indoctrination. Indeed, these young Germans later became his loyal, mindless and heartless soldiers. They killed millions of people including women and children. That is why it is very important that we teach people, especially the youth, whose hearts and minds are like pieces of clay that can easily be molded and remolded, not to blindly believe something or blindly follow someone. We must teach people to always have a critical attitude to ideas and life.
Good thoughts/actions must necessarily produce good results in accordance with the law of karma. However, such good results, such good karma, are not seen on the social level because social situations are mainly the result of the laws governing society. Good results happen on an individual and personal level. Its effects are within the individual. The most important result of living a good life, of having good karma is that it strengthens one’s character positively. Good karma enriches the Soul because the Soul acquires more wisdom in knowing what is right and what is wrong, the Soul develops more courage to do what is right and it feels a more pure kind of love. And since the Soul is immortal, such good results are never lost. In a limited way, good karma also helps a person in his economic concerns. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true. Bad thoughts and actions negatively affect one’s character. It is also carried on to other lifetimes.
Karma affects the personal relationships one develops through life. Family ties, deep friendships and love, and the sacred bond among those who study together the Art of Living and Inner Wisdom result in karmic ties. The opposite is also true. Deep anger, distrust, hatred between persons also end up in karmic ties. The good karmic ties are oftentimes repeated in the next lives so the concerned Souls can further develop each other grow. The karmic ties related to a problem manifesting deep anger, distrust and hatred must be resolved in the next life or lifetimes. Until it is resolved, until the person/s involved see their mistakes or shortcomings and learn the lessons to be learned, the problem between these persons come back again and again. Thus, in many cases, people who are close to you now are people who were once close to you in other lifetimes.
These karmic ties are often wrongly perceived or interpreted as the work of the Hand of Destiny. Many wrongly believe that destiny decides whether or not people in love meet again. They also believe that destiny also decides whether or not their relationship will end up in marriage. Some even believe that destiny decides whether they will be happy or not in their married life.
Similarly, my new friend believes that whatever happens to her and her current boyfriend depends on destiny. These are all wrong ideas. She has a karmic tie with her boyfriend. They have loved each other in one lifetime at least. They have met again now either to solve an unsettled problem or their Souls have decided to meet again to possibly continue a beautiful relationship. Their meeting is not due to destiny. It is the result of the free wills of two Souls who freely decided to see each other again sometime in their next life or lifetimes.
The problem of course is that normal people have no access to the consciousness of their Souls. Thus, they cannot know that their Souls met and decided to meet again at a specific point in time. People then wrongly believe that destiny makes them meet each other. In the life of a Soul, one lifetime is but a brief moment. Souls who have karmic ties, in consultation with their Spiritual Guides decide which lifetime in the future they think it best to meet again. While people usually make appointments in a matter of days, weeks, or months, Souls make appointments in terms of decades or centuries.
Whatever reason there is for two souls to meet again, after they have met “as scheduled” it is up to them to decide what to do next. It is now up to their free wills to decide and plan what happens next. Indeed, we make our own lives.
We can now see that there is no such thing as destiny.
On the social level, there is no such thing as someone destined to be poor. A person’s social situation is primarily determined by social structure. An unjust social structure correspondingly makes the majority of the people poor. At special moments in history, the exploited and oppressed can no longer be deceived. They gather enough strength to wage massive protest actions like the revolution of our Filipino people against Spanish colonialism. The exploited and the oppressed, out of their own free wills, decide collectively to end their sufferings.
Indeed, people can have the collective free will to change unjust social situations.
On the personal level, the gift of free will gives us the freedom to make our own decisions, our own choices in life. Such choices inevitably produce good results – karma. Karma then comes back to us on the personal level. It affects our character and the personal ties we establish with certain people as we go on through life.
There are two important things here we must always keep in mind: one is that karma is the result of a personal decision in the first place. It is the result of an act of free will. Second, karma can be changed. Even when karma affects our personal lives, we can always use our free will to make a new decision.
There is one more situation I wish to discuss which I frequently encounter. I have in mind those young people I have talked to who have sad childhood experiences – broken families or cruel parent/s. The belief that it is their destiny, kapalaran or their karma to have such sad experiences is nonsense. The children have nothing to do with the thoughts and actions of their parents. Sadly though, the thoughts and actions of their parents have a very great effect on the children. Parents who do great harm on their children physically, emotionally and mentally will have very bad karma and will pay for it. I advise the children of such parents to focus their hearts and minds on things that they have control of – their studies, their career, their choice of friends and the person they will love and marry. I advise them to let go of the things they have no control or very little control of – their parents’ lives.
Similarly, there is the situation of those so-called martyred wives who have husbands that are irresponsible, drunkards, gamblers and womanizers. Some wives in this situation believe that it is their destiny, kapalaran, to have such husbands. Such a belief is also nonsense. The thoughts and actions of such husbands are a result of their own free will. The wives are free to decide whether to stop such a dehumanizing relationship or continue to suffer. The wives must remember that it is never too late to end sufferings…it is never too late start a new life. It is never too late to fight for your happiness and piece of mind.
There is no such thing as destiny. There is no such thing as being destined to live a happy life or a sad life. On the personal level, we make our own lives. If we have made mistakes in this life or in our previous lives which may inevitably produce bad karma, we can change such bad karma by first learning from the mistakes. As we learn from these mistakes, we begin to have more realizations in life. We grow in wisdom. Next, we must make a strong resolve not to repeat the same mistakes. We must be brave in changing ourselves.
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