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The Eleventh Lesson: The Law of Karma.879
invariably comes from Right Action. As it progresses it learns how hurtful
certain courses of action are, and like the burnt child it avoids them thereafter.
If we will but stop to consider for a moment the relative degrees of
temptation to us and to others, we may see the operations of past Karma in
former lives. Why is it that this thing is “no temptation” to you, while it is the
greatest temptation to another. Why is it that certain things do not seem to
have any attraction for him, and yet they attract you so much that you have
to use all of your will power to resist them? It is because of the Karma in
your past lives. The things that do not now tempt you, have been outlived in
some former life, and you have profited by your own experiences, or those
of others, or else through some teaching given you by one who had been
attracted to you by your unfolding consciousness of Truth.
We are profiting to-day by the lessons of our past lives. If we have learned
them well we are receiving the benefit, while if we have turned our backs
on the words of wisdom offered us, or have refused to learn the lesson
perfectly, we are compelled to sit on the same old school-benches and hear
the same old lesson repeated until it is fairly driven into our consciousness.
We wonder why it is that other persons can perform certain evil acts that
seem so repulsive to us, and are apt to pride ourselves upon our superior
virtue. But those who know, realize that their unfortunate brethren have not
paid sufficient attention to the lesson of the past, and are having it repeated
to them in a more drastic form this time. They know that the virtuous ones
are simply reaping the benefit of their own application in the past, but that
their lesson is not over, and that unless they advance and hold fast to that
which they have attained, as well, they will be outstripped by many of those
whose failure they are now viewing with wonder and scorn.
It is hard for us to fully realize that we are what we are because of our
past experiences. It is difficult for us to value the experiences that we
are now going through, because we do not fully appreciate the value of
bitter experiences once lived out and outlived. Let us look back over the
experiences of this present life, for instance. How many bitter episodes are