A loving parent would like to protect the child from the painful results of such errors, but the nature of a child insists upon learning many lessons the hard way, by experience, and the parent cannot prevent this. In fact, the child who is too closely watched and guarded will only rebel and make far more mistakes than necessary.

Like the child, the human Soul is constantly applying the test of experience to the endless temptations of Life. It passes from one lifetime to another, learning new lessons and gaining new wisdom. Sooner or later, it will figure out how painful certain courses of action and ways of living can be, and will avoid those things in the future. As a result, some things in Life are simply no longer a temptation for you, because you have learned its lesson at some time in your past, either during this lifetime or in some other incarnation, and you do not need to learn it again. Other things, however, seem impossible for you to resist and you will suffer much pain before you learn their lessons.

I realize that some of you still are not convinced that the human Soul returns to this world, again and again. Well, that is fine. Believe as you will. If metempsychosis is a reality, no amount of disbelief will make the process of rebirth stop. And, if it is not a reality, no amount of belief will make it so, either. But, of what possible use would all of this pain and suffering be if this one life were all we had?

It is often hard to remember that we are what we are because of the accumulation of our experiences, good and bad. Would you be willing to part with even one of these experiences, no matter how painful, humiliating, disgusting or mortifying? Would you be willing to go back to the stage of ignorance in which you existed before the event happened? And, would you be willing to commit the same mistake all over again?

It is easy to forget, sometimes, that certain events ever happened. But, if you were to lose the experience acquired from the event, you would lose a part of yourself. And, if you were to lose enough of these experiences, there would be nothing of you left.

But, you may be asking, of what use are the experiences of other lifetimes if I cannot remember them? Well, your past lives are what gives you many of your likes and dislikes, your tastes and inclinations, your unconscious sense of right and wrong. If such things were merely the product of current environment, we would not have so many great men and women coming out of the worst neighborhoods or so many bad people coming out of the nicest neighborhoods. Just as the child may not consciously remember why he or she should not touch the flame, the child still knows (from experience) that it is not something one should do. Likewise, you do not need to recall the specific events of a past lifetime in order to know the lesson that was learned from its experiences. Unfortunately, though, we sometimes do not learn these lessons the first time around and have to repeat them a second, or even a third and fourth, time before we can move on to other matters.

The Law of Cause and Effect will have an influence upon the conditions of a new lifetime in two ways: (1) prevailing desires, likes, dislikes, and ambitions at the particular stage of the Soul’s evolution, and (2) the unfolding consciousness of the Soul, pressing forward for fuller expression. These two conditions will determine how quickly the Soul returns to the earth plane, as well as under what circumstances he or she will be born. Usually, the Soul will choose a life that will allow it to fulfill its desires and ambitions, while still exposing it to a broad enough range of choices and temptations for it to continue learning the lessons it needs for advancement. This may produce a lifetime of hardships and situations that are difficult for the individualized conscious mind to believe it could have willing chose for itself. But, the things that we need for our spiritual evolution and what we want, or think we need, are normally two different things.

Our lives and interests are bound up with those of others. This is one of the great lessons of Cause and Effect. What we do effects other people, and what they do effects us. Those who play the game of hate must not complain when they are hated. Those who are enmeshed in the machinery of greed should not be surprised when they lose everything to a shrewder person than themselves. Those who build their whole life around a single, material object must not complain about the pain of loss when that object is taken from them.

But, how is one to escape this endless cycle of pain and temptation? Work for the sake of working, and play for the sake of playing. Do not become attached to the objects associated with either. Do your part gladly and heartily, realizing that the rewards are meaningless in the end. As impractical and impossible as this may seem, this bit of advice is particularly useful to those caught up in the hectic dash of the business world. Those who can understand this will be able to stand aside and see themselves fight and struggle, while their Souls remain untouched by the events. They will live the same life and do the same things as everyone else, but they will know the truth and keep themselves from being drawn into the machinery.

Many alarmists will cry out that the entire structure of society would crumble if everyone were to suddenly follow this path of non-attachment. Perhaps, and it would probably be replaced by something much better. But, there is little danger of such a thing ever happening in the near, or even distant, future. After all, truth is not a popular concept.

The primary lesson of Cause and Effect is, therefore, that each individual is but a single gear in the machinery of Life. And, as a vital and necessary gear, each person must accept and take part in the process of interaction with the other gears. Each gear is turned by the action of the other gears and, in turn, each gear turns the others. It is an endless process, which transfers energy from one gear to another, to another, to another, to another, and so on, until the force is transferred back through the machine to its starting point. Every action and movement has a purpose in the schematic of the Grand Machine. There is no such thing as luck or coincidence.

The Mystic allows him or herself to be moved by the Spirit, without complaint, knowing that the move is necessary to effect certain changes, the outcome of which he or she may never actually see. Like an athlete, the Mystic delights in the game for its own sake, perfecting his or her physical skills so as to make the game more interesting, not to win a prize or trophy. The secret is non-attachment. But, non-attachment does not mean the loss of enjoyment or enthusiasm. Quite the contrary. It allows one to enjoy everything, even hardship and trouble. Instead of robbing one of pleasure, it increases it a thousandfold by removing the desperate need for rewards or recognition.

To someone who is firmly grounded in the physical realm, and convinced of its reality, this may seem like a lot of foolishness and more likely to produce a half-hearted effort or outright failure. But, nothing could be farther from the truth. After all, who is more apt to do the best work, the person who works merely for a wage, or other material reward, or the person who is really interested in the job itself and finds delight in everything associated with it?

The Mystic is a person to be reckoned with in any type of endeavor. Such a person has an inner-strength unknown to the person attached to rewards and mere appearances. The Mystic is unafraid of risk, knowing that happiness is not the result of the final outcome, but of the journey itself. This gives him or her a courage impossible for people who stake their happiness on the success or failure of a particular project. The Mystic can turn his or her mind to another task with equal pleasure and interest, unconcerned with the one just completed. He or she is not attached and bound to it.

Even love, the most noble and rewarding of all emotions, can be a source of pain for the attached person. This is because the person does not know the difference between true love and desirous attachment. Possessive love (attachment) needs the presence of the one to which the emotion is directed in order to feel fulfilled. True love, on the other hand, simply loves the other person and allows him or her to go his or her own way. There is joy in being together, and there is contentment in loving when the person is away. To desire possession of another person only weighs one down and enmeshes him or her deeper in the cycle of Cause and Effect.

You cannot physically run away from the Law of Cause and Effect. Hiding on a mountaintop or deep in a cave will not make it go away. It may postpone the inevitable. But, sooner or later, the energy of your action will work back through the gears of the Grand Machine and return to you, good or bad. So, if your path has lead you into the midst of action, act!