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 in a mechanistic universe,
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 direction.  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 be described as one who "walks between" 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 comes the hard part!  If all of this cause and 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 lifetime,
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.  This is also the
core principle behind the idea of "Divine" forgiveness, but that is a
topic for another essay.       Paul G. Seynour, SYSOP 1:301/9