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                            Karma, The Three Fold Law, & Grace 

               "As you sew, so shall ye reap". "What goes around, comes around".
          "Whatever you send out returns three times".  These are all sayings
          very familiar to all of us, all of them examples of a supposedly
          Universal Law  of cause and  effect, action  and reaction.   Of course
          many of  the religious  systems try  to furnish us  with some  sort of
          "escape clause" that will  allow man to either alleviate  suffering fo
          past misdeeds,  or to escape  responsibility totally.   Let us take  a
          little closer look at these three ideas and ther inter-reationship.

                    It seems that, on one level, we do live ina mechanistic uni-
          verse,  one pretty  much  ruled by  cause-and-efect.   This  Newtonian
          universe  seems  to react  in a  very  mechanical fashion,  i.e. every
          action "produces  an equal and opposite reaction".  A good analogy for
          this is the example of one billiard ball striking another.  The energy
          from the striking billiard ball is transfered to the one struck and is
          used  to push against  the first, imparting motion  in the same direc-
          tion.  This brings the second law  into play, i.e. an object in motion
          tends to stay in motion untill acted upon by an outside force.

               The principle of Karma basically says the same thing; i.e. any
          negative or positive action or thought remains that way, until it
          expends its energy by acting upon the originator.  Of course this also
          makes implicit the idea that thoughts or mental energy have a reality
          of their own, one that interacts with the physical universe.  If this
          idea is accepted, it then implies the existence of at least one more
          "world" or order of the universe, one with a non physical "reality",
          and one where the basic fundamental rules of physics (as we know them)
          may not truly apply.

                    The magician can bedescribed as one who "walksbetween" these
          two worlds.  "Walking between two worlds" implies that an individal is
          connected with both and can move between them at will.  The purpose of
          magic is to manipulate one world for the benefit of the other, i.e. to
          manipulate the unseen world for the express purpose of influencing
          events in the physical.  Unfortunately there does not seem to be a
          "free ride" anywhere in the universe, and when an individual acquires
          the power to do this, they also aquire a great deal of responsibility!
               By accepting the power  to exert "leverage" in the  unseen world,
          an individual seems to also accept a multiplied succeptibility to
          influences initiated in that world.  This is why negative workings are
          so dangerous!  This may also be the reasoning behind the "law of three
          fold return".

                    Now comesthe hard part!  Ifall of this causeand effect stuff
          is absolute, how can any  individual ever hope to "pay off"  the debts
          for all of the "stupid"  things they have done not only  in this life-
          time, but in  many others?  Must we "pay  off" all past transgressions
          on a  one for one basis?  Is there  no ecape clause in this "contract"
          we seem to have for living in the universe?

               This "escape clause" is called Grace by the Christians and by
          other names  in other systems, but  it does exist in  all.  Basically,
          the idea is this:  "Once a lesson is completely learned and one grows
          beyond a need for this lesson, it need not be repeated, even if the
          'books' are not balanced".  This is the "Enlightenment" sought by the
          Buddhist that allows the "breaking" of the wheel.

                                                                            1209


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