I was watching a video yesterday about the great worldwide upheavals around 1812 . Having enjoyed that, I began watching another from the same channel, though this was about The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The narrator said that he was brought up a Christian but at some point, had thought that it was all wrong. He said that he had nothing to do with any of it, he had not asked to be here, and it seemed unfair that he got one chance to get things right and if he didn’t succeed, he would end up in hell. 

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is part of Buddhism and is about reincarnation. The Buddhists believe that everything is Karma; if you do good, then good things will happen to you and vice versa. When this life ends you are confronted with every deed done throughout your life and given either good things or sent to hell for a while. Then you are born again to go through things anew. During this time of rebirth, you are presented with different realities, to see where your soul needs to go, if the soul settles on Earth, then back you’ll come. It is said that you go to the places that you are attached to. If the soul craves sex, you will fall in love with your mother to be and end up in her womb and once born you’ll hate your father. Seems pretty sane to me. 

I have not read The Book of the Dead; I have though read commentaries and forewords of those who have. Once I saw that the good Mr Jung had written a foreword, I knew better than to waste my time. These texts are always quite convincing until you really try to make sense of them, and most people don’t, they are quite happy to rely on others to tell them what is correct and what isn’t.  

Philippians 2:12 work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 

Work it out for yourself, question everything and start at the beginning. What do you remember of the things that were before you were born? You don’t even remember being born; you gradually became aware that you were here, and you were a little person in a little body, who knew nothing about your environment. Everybody told you what to do; literally everyone. You grew a bit and were sent off to be told what to think and what to believe by people you didn’t know, who didn’t know you. Most of you believed everything they said. 

Well, they all lied to you, some with good intentions and others who were doing what they were paid to do. It’s the way of the world. The world works this way, and we all must go along with it, we have no choice. That’s not really true; you do have a choice; you always have a choice. You choose what happens to you. This world is all about choice, the world works according to cause and effect, you cause the effects that come and nobody else has anything to do with it. Once you have reached the age of consent, you cause all your happiness or sadness, with a few exceptions. 

I was barely in my twenties when my brother died. He was a few years younger than me at 17, when he left for pastures new. The death of someone close has a profound effect on a person. Accompanying it is a sadness no one can put into words as well as a realisation that this life is short and temporary. Does the death of someone close happen because of Karma? Of course not, so how do we explain the worst of all pain, coming to someone who has done no evil? 

When I was very young, six years old, I had to be taken to the hospital to have my left arm rebroken and set properly because my mother refused to take me to the hospital when I broke it. A week or so later I broke the other arm. Do you suppose that Karma was repaying me for the evil I had wrought? Of course not, so why did I have to suffer those things as a child? The New Agers all say it’s to do with lessons, you’re here to experience everything and perfect yourself, one day you’ll be perfect and become divine. 

(I was told not so long ago that if I remember things from my childhood, it is because I am burdened by them and ought to speak with someone about them. I remember everything from my childhood, my first day at Nursery and the whole of my school life from Infants onward. I am not bitter about any of it. I broke my own bones, no one did it to me. I have also broken three of my fingers, on someone’s face, three of my toes and an assortment of other bones. The worst pain in life is not physical and is experienced within, not in the world.) 

I have never met a single person who I would want to see given the power of a god. The very thought gives me shivers. You are not, nor will you ever be a god of any kind. If you want to see what happens when men are given power they aren’t capable of wielding just look around at the mess that’s been made of this beautiful world. The answer to everything is death. If one nation wants to trade with another, and the mighty Americans disagree, war and killing is the answer. Learning lessons indeed. For a few men to have wealth that they can never spend, others must starve. You disagree with this, but you are a part of the system that perpetuates it. There’s nothing you can do though; you’ve got to feed you family and you need your holiday so, on it goes. If Karma was at work, all the Western nations would be constantly suffering. 

Everything has a purpose and there is nothing that exists without a purpose, including you. Your life has a purpose and reason tells you this is the case. Does a tree exist without a purpose? Without the trees there is no oxygen, and we all die. There is nothing, not a single thing that exists without purpose, so what is yours? Have you stopped at all to consider that it might be important? Do you really suppose it is to surround yourself with more luxury than your peers? You’ll say it’s not, though most folk I know judge a man’s worth by how much crap he’s gathered around him, the type of car he drives and how well he’s dressed. And, yes, those professing to be Christian are among the worst. You might be imagining me as a hypocrite, having much and preaching otherwise, I am not; I have little and want for nothing. 

You are the children of God Almighty, what is it that you’re doing? This world is perfect, it has exactly enough food for everyone living here. Exactly enough for everyone to be clothed, housed and comfortable but some want more than others, so we live the way we live. Do you think the person who earns five million a year and lives in luxury works considerably harder than the one earning just enough to get by? No, they certainly don’t. 

So where is Karma at work? Why are the rich not suffering the Karma for the ones who have gone without for them to have so much? Or does it only work for some things? 

Until you have suffered because of the stupidity of another person, you can’t know how important it is to pay attention. I suffered as a child because my mother had better things to do than take me to hospital. We had no car at that time, and you didn’t call an ambulance for a broken arm. The bus trip would have taken hours and the wait for an x-ray and cast; another several hours more and she just couldn’t be bothered with it. She knew I was in pain because I told her constantly, but she had other, more important things to do. 

Wisdom does not come without pain and if you’ve never suffered, you’ll be pretty dim. Look at the clowns whining about the misuse of pronouns. They’ve never gone hungry, they never been in any real pain, so they think a bit of name calling is violence. I’ve got some violence for them if they want to learn about it. 

You don’t get a choice about being born; the narrator of the video was right. You didn’t choose to come here but you are pretty special, being children of the Most High God, so you must learn to be worthy of that status. You were created without your consent, but you get to choose everything else. To make it fair, you have free will but that doesn’t mean there are no consequences. 

Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

This is not Karma, nor is it the wrath of God, it is choice. You are free to do as you please, and you will reap the rewards of your own choice. This is cause and effect, not the punishment of God. God tells you the rules, they’re all written down for you. He says to you: if you don’t follow these rules, things will go very badly for you, but He does not force you to follow them. We have reached the point where we can get around these rules. Years ago, if folk were promiscuous, they would suffer from the disease it brought. Now we have antibiotics and anyone who frowns on our behaviour is a nazi. Years ago, if a child was killed in its mother’s womb it was done with violence to the child and frowned upon, now it’s all done with sterilised equipment and anyone who frowns upon it is a nazi. God is not mocked, just because the bad things happen a long time after the event, doesn’t mean they’re not the reward for your actions. 

The world became the way it is today because of what Adam and Eve did, it wasn’t because of what God did. God tells us through the Bible that He takes no pleasure in our suffering, nor does He want anyone to go to hell. God does not send anyone to hell, it is your own choice to go there. Throughout your life you are guided and presented with everything you need to bring you to the knowledge of the truth. It may not seem the right way to do things and it may appear unfair, as the narrator of the video pointed out, but we don’t know the correct way of doing things:  

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

When I was younger and knew far more than I do now, I heard the ”Fool on the Hill” song by the Beatles. It’s about a man who sees what the world is and has the answers to the problems, but he doesn’t tell anyone. I thought at the time that the man actually would be a fool, if he wouldn’t tell the people how to solve their problems. The thing is; the people don’t want to hear the truth and if anyone tries to tell them, they call him a fool. The truth makes no sense to them and the solutions are beyond their means and control. 

What happens if I eat too much chocolate cake? What happens if I decide that I only want chocolate cake and refuse to eat anything but chocolate cake? What happens if I enjoy eating chocolate cake so much that I eat it ten times a day every day? You’d try to tell me that it’s unhealthy perhaps, you might even attempt to stop me from having access to so much cake, knowing the foolishness of eating so much of it. Eventually though, you’d leave me to it and let me suffer the consequences and let me learn for myself. 

I would see the consequences of eating only chocolate cake after a month or two, but it wouldn’t seem serious to begin with. It would be a year or so before the stupidity of it became obvious and after a few years there would be serious medical conditions to deal with. We don’t face the consequences of our actions immediately; they appear over time. This is not Karma. 

The Bible tells us that a generation is 70 years, or 80 if we’re particularly strong. I have 20 or so years left here, and the time has passed in the blink of an eye. At the point when I know more than I have ever known, I will die. If the Buddhists are to be believed, I will then be punished for my bad deeds and come back, to go through it all again, with no memory of what I went through in this life. I will act differently because I will know subconsciously what happens if I act a certain way and I will eventually become perfect through this process. 

Where are all these good people who act differently then? I can’t find them and I have looked. The world is full of people with no self-control, it’s full of people who will take from one who has little, when they have enough already. Having enough is not what people want, they want an excess, and they want luxury. They want others to work harder so they can work less. They want others to know how important they are. 

Everyone has heard the phrase “You can’t take it with you” and we all know that it’s true. We work our whole lives to surround ourselves with rubbish that goes to someone else when we die. But few of us stop to consider what we can take with us. Yes, you can take things with you but only those things which are a part of you. What is a part of you? 

Most of us spend our lives eating chocolate cake and moaning about becoming fat. We blame God when we get diabetes and ask why He allows such suffering. Most, not many, most people leave this world the same way they entered, alone, naked and knowing nothing. How will you answer when asked “What did you learn?”. When faced with eternity and an abundance of all things, will you eat cake until you burst? Will you dominate others until they see how important you are? Will you bend others to your will and force them to see things your way? Will you let someone else suffer because you have better things to do? Would you want to spend eternity with people like that? 

Do I live my life according to these rules? Yes, I do. Do people think I’m stupid? Yes. Do they think I’m wasting my life? Yes, everyone thinks I’m a weirdo. I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t smoke, I don’t take drugs, I don’t lust, after women or money or objects or otherwise, I don’t argue with anyone and if I become angry, I will walk away wherever possible. I am content with what I have and grateful for it. 

Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat 

For all the talk of Pastors and Priests, most will not find the path. If they do, many will avoid it because it’s difficult to walk, you must walk it alone and the rewards come in a different life. The “churches” want your money and they want your attendance, they’ll tell you it’s all easy, Christ did it all for you, come on in, say a prayer and be saved. 

When Christ came as a man, the Scribes and Pharisees told Him He was wrong about everything. Everywhere He went, they followed, criticising the things He said and did. They used the Scripture He had given them to show Him the error of His ways. Men can make the Word of God mean whatever they want it to mean. If you won’t read it for yourself, you won’t know what it means. 

I attended a “Bible Believing Church” for a while; one day I stood with the Pastor as he watched an elderly lady park, perfectly legally on a public road, in a place that was not to his liking. He became very irritable, grumbling to himself, and marched over to put her right about it. How might things have turned out if that lady had already suffered the worst time of her life that day? How might the day have ended for her if the final straw for her was a bad-tempered Pastor, telling her off, when she had done nothing wrong? What right do we have to impose ourselves on others?  

This is the calibre of men who are trusted to be an example to others. Irritable, petty men with no self-control or dignity, folk who care more about their wages than the souls of men. The “churches” are run by people who are so full of their own self-righteousness, they’d instruct God Himself on the meaning of the Bible. They see your flaws but their own are hidden from them. Judge not, they’ll tell you while reciting another verse out of context. We certainly are supposed to judge but how can you answer that unless you know what the bible says? 

The Bible is very clear about what this life is for. It tells you how you ended up here, it tells you what this place is and how to get through it all. It’s easy to convince a man that the verses mean something they don’t mean, if he won’t study for himself. The “churches” don’t teach the Bible from beginning to end, because then the truth would be self-evident. They teach one verse at a time and tell you what those verses mean to them. They themselves have been taught the meaning of those verses by similar well-meaning but deceived men. Try reading any book that way, go and pick out any book you like and read a few paragraphs at a time picked randomly and see how much understanding you can get from it. You’ll get something, because meaning can be found in most things, but you won’t know what the story is about, and you’ll never discover what the author wanted to convey unless you read it as it was meant to be read.  

The meaning of the word church, in the Bible is; an assembly of people. It is not an organisation promoting particular beliefs and rituals and it is not a building. A Christian is a follower of Christ, not a believer of doctrine. Attending a “church” does not make you a Christian, reciting verses of the Bible does not make you a Christian, saying you accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour does not make you a Christian, saying a prayer does not make you a Christian. Doing the things Christ told you to do makes you a Christian. 

Do we suffer because of Karma? No, we suffer to gain understanding and wisdom. We suffer for correction and reproof from our God, who knows what is best for us. If you don’t want the correction, He won’t force you, it’s up to you. Cause and effect, not Karma, will get you eventually.