What’s the Infinite Way viewpoint on reincarnation and karma?

Well, let’s see. Reincarnation. Reincarnation is a fact and it is not a fact. It is true and it is not true. On the human level of life we are incarnated and reincarnated, over and over and over again, lifetime after lifetime, until there is an awakening in some moment in some parenthesis here when we move out of the parenthesis into the circle of life, and know that we were never born, and that we will never die, but that we have always dwelt in that spiritual universe, that Kingdom within.

We may have to go through many transitions. In fact, we go through transitions right here in this parenthesis. From being a baby and a teenager to a grown up, mature individual. From going to school to going out into the world to work. All those things are transitions. And someday we make the transition of casting off this garment that we have worn, this appearance, to put on a new one, or to move into that circle of pure being. Sometimes our garment here gets pretty tattered and worn and we’re glad to slough it off, but it should always be just a movement from one experience to another.

But in some moment we must awaken to the truth — that we don’t have to be incarnated and reincarnated, because I have always existed, and always have been [because the I that I am has always existed]. Now, karma is a part of that. That we are reincarnated in the human picture according to our past experience. That is the human belief and it is a human law, so-called. As human beings we carry with us our karma, our “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”. And it is an inexorable law for human beings. You can’t escape, as a human being, the karma, the sowing that you do. But, when you awaken out of human consciousness and become aware of your identity, that is Grace, that is the grace of God that’s planted Itself, it’s divinity, in the midst of us. And when you awaken to that divinity within you, there is no longer any karma because it is wiped out. It is wiped out because you know who you are and the past is dead. And what Jesus said to the thief on the cross is your experience. “This moment, this day, thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” No retribution, no paying for past sins of commission or omission, it is all wiped out in the understanding of our true nature.

But, if we continue and are not aware of the truth and go to sleep again, we think we’re doing something. We are the sower and we reap. But when we awaken to our spiritual identity, we know that all we are is that I and that this physical sense that we carry around with us then can be but the instrument for Its activity. And that my mind is but a transparency for the divine activity, that of myself I can do nothing, then there is no karma because we’re not sowing anything, we’re not doing anything. Whatever we do is the grace of God operating in us.

Now, we began this series of talks talking about now. That now is the only time there is, and that when you live in the past or try to resurrect the past, you’re dead, you’re asleep, you’re not living. And if you live in the future the same thing is true. So why go back and try to remember the mesmerism and the hypnotism of the past? Is there any reason for that? You’re dwelling on something that was never a reality anyway. It was always a dream experience. So, to me it doesn’t make sense. So that is not the Infinite Way and I can’t speak about the validity of other teachings because I’ve never been on the psychic level, I don’t understand it, I don’t know it. I’ve had people come to me who have gotten caught up on the psychic level and that’s pretty bad. But let me say this. Every teaching, in fact every religion, that is the honest product of some individual’s unfoldment, probably has a place and perhaps a purpose for someone. But the trouble is people get caught on some particular level and never get beyond it. But there are steps along the way and I’ve said again and again, someday we’ll all know that we are spiritual beings. And we never had a past, and we never have a future, we have only now. Remember that you don’t have a past. Because in spiritual consciousness, in pure being, there is only now.

But people have to take bypaths along the way. And of course, for many persons, that sort of thing is a wonderful ego trip. And we want to hold on to our egos, we don’t want to give them up. That’s hard. But that’s the thing we have to die to, this personal sense, which isn’t anything at all, and the best way to die to it is to drop it and dwell on what and who we are. To dwell on the spiritual reality. And that’s an end to all this human history. But know the eternal nature of our being, its perfection, its wholeness, its beauty, its glory. Know that the glory I had with Thee since before the world began is the glory that I have now and always will have and that is the only moment there is right now. And now God is, life is, joy is. And that I that I am is planted in the midst of me that my joy might be full. Not that I might have pain and suffering and go back and wonder what I did that was wrong. But know that this minute I’m an instrument for the divine activity and dwell in that Kingdom within.

Sometimes when people get caught up in the mental level they have difficulty in awakening out of it. Remember that the mental or psychic level is the level of good and evil, for the mind can be good and it can be evil. But consciousness, the divine conscious of I am, can never be anything but perfect and knows no discord, no disease, no error of any kind.