All microcosms that are not yet able to participate in the process of the first resurrection remain bound to the law of reincarnation and also to that other emergency law — the law of karma, the law of cause and effect; the law that teaches: “what one sows one will have to reap”.
This means that, quite logically and scientifically, the life of the next personality will adapt itself to this life. Whatever man takes up he has to fulfil, whatever he unchains he has to accept. So a new phase of existence begins where the previous one ended.
No one receives a task that is too heavy, every life brings not only a burden but also a potential. Bondage to the past does exist, but at the same time a path to liberation is shown. Even though the past cannot be revoked, the law of karma keeps open the possibility of using the present in the right way.
Still, in a certain sense, the law of karma is a merciless law, for the hand of fate and the consciousness of one’s lot can weigh so heavily that one becomes totally disheartened. As regards the inevitability of this merciless law, orthodox Christianity and theosophy are in agreement. Much damage has been done through the fatalistic way of seeing the activity of the law of karma, because it takes away man’s courage.
In fact, all world religions, including Christianity, proclaim the law of retribution. It is a logical law and the only method of bringing man, from below upwards, to insight with regard to his state of being. However, this law need not be everlasting in its activity, as it can be counteracted and neutralised by another law: the law of the remission of guilt.
If you gain insight regarding your state and go the path of regeneration as it is shown to us by Christianity, the age-long burden, the debt of the past, can be taken away from you. The law of karma grasps and binds you as long as you invoke its activities. However, it will have to let go of you if you place yourself, rationally and morally, under the law of the remission of guilt, providing that this is an action of fundamental life-reversal.
‘Conversion’ as generally understood is a mystification, an emotional activity that cannot be liberating in any way with regard to the law of karma. The possibility of remission of guilt rests on a scientific process that is radiated by the Hierarchy in the practice of the Benedictio.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that reincarnation should not be identified with evolution. Evolution is an individual and conditional process. Contact with the law of evolution is obtained through Gnostic Christianity, for through His sacrifice, Christ added a new element to the earth and to the dialectical personality of man. Through this new element, man was given the ability to nullify the results of crystallization and then to begin again the process of evolution.
So personal evolution is dependent on your decision and your life of action in Jesus Christ. Then, karma is no longer a law of fate but is swallowed up in the Christ-force. It is the inexpressible love of God in Christ that keeps us in manifestation by means of emergency laws and afterwards comes to liberate us.
Liberation is certainly not an automatic process, but an intelligent process with many aspects, with which man in his entirety has to cooperate consciously. It is with this cooperation that the great work of the Hierarchy stands or falls.
The work of the Benedictio can now be seen in the proper light: it is the work of the Christian mysteries of initiation. The purpose of these mysteries is to make the first resurrection possible for many and so to form a nucleus of workers in the service of Christ. So it is mankind itself that has to liberate mankind. It is in this sense that we ought to understand the words: “Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling”. Ultimately, no one can go on without the other.
Initiation is evolution which has been accelerated so that the values obtained by it can be used for the great aim: the ultimate liberation of the whole of mankind. He who longs for it can practice the Royal Art.
Source: Elementary philosophy of J. van Rijckenborgh