Karma's Four Outworkings

Jesus once told a parable about a farmer who went out to sow seed for a new crop and what subsequently happened to the seed (the Parable of the Sower, recounted in Luke 8:4-15). Interestingly, in this parable we learn of only four possibilities that could have happened. Though the seed is perfectly good and has the potential to yield an abundant crop in each case, three scenarios are described, in which the seed, for one reason or another, fails to produce. In one of these scenarios the seed that the farmer sows, perhaps being carried away by a gust of wind, ends up falling on a nearby path (instead of in the field) where it is soon gobbled up by the birds. In another scenario the seed happens to fall on some soil that is rocky and hard and has no depth to it. So while this seed does initially sprout and begin to grow, because the soil is shallow it cannot put down roots and soon withers and dies. And in the third scenario though the seed fell in good soil, there were, unbeknownst to the farmer, the seeds of thorns and thistles lurking beneath the ground—seeds that would soon sprout and grow up alongside the farmer’s seed, eventually choking out the life of the farmer’s crop. Only in the fourth scenario are the conditions just right for the farmer’s seed to sprout, take root, and grow into a productive plant. So roughly only one-fourth of the farmer’s seed actually bears the fruit of a good crop, while three-quarters of the farmer’s seed is virtually wasted.

In Christian circles the most agreed-upon interpretation of this parable is that the farmer represents God, the seed represents God’s Word (especially the word about salvation in Christ), the field is the human heart, and the fate of the seed is determined by each individual human being’s response upon hearing the Word. But as we have already seen, many of Jesus’ parables have deeper meanings than they appear to have on the surface of things. He called these deeper meanings the secrets of the kingdom of God and told his close circle of disciples that while it had been given unto them to learn of these secrets, most people were not afforded that same grace and instead were being presented with the parables at face value to interpret however they felt inclined.

Knowing then that Jesus might very well have had a deeper meaning behind the telling of this parable, let us consider what that meaning could have been.

Jesus was a master of spiritual truth. He knew spiritual life in and out. He knew that the key to understanding all spiritual truth is the evolution of consciousness—that without having the evolution of consciousness before us as both our starting point and goal, our capacity for spiritual understanding would be shallow and our interpretations of deep spiritual teachings (such as most of Jesus’ parables were) would be more humanly (intellectually) inspired than spiritual. So unto those who have been given the secrets to the kingdom of heaven, the beginning point in understanding any deep mystical spiritual teaching is always the evolution of consciousness, as it was for Jesus. Therefore let us see how this applies to the Parable of the Sower.

The evolution of consciousness is why we are all here. We are not here (alive on this plane of existence in a human incarnation) to have a good time, get rich, raise families, etc. All that is a smokescreen for our true purpose. That was why Jesus was not concerned about such common life pursuits but rather was intensely focused on the spiritual destinies of all those under his tutelage. He came to make known to us the Way to eternal life. And what is eternal life? It is the fruition of all spiritual experience.

By its very nature, the evolution of consciousness does not happen overnight. Rather it is a process—a process that can seem long and drawn out, depending on our own spiritual state. And this necessitates that we have all the time we need to undergo this process. Though the life we are presently living may seem long to us, the spiritual reality is that one lifetime is generally not enough time to fully undergo this evolutionary process. In fact, for most of us multiple lifetimes are required. This means that we have all had past lifetimes, during which we were pursuing consciousness evolution just as we are in this lifetime. And while these past lives may have been largely spent on frivolous vain temporal pursuits, it is likely that we made at least some progress towards our real goal, thereby getting us a little further down the road.

Here then is one deep secret being revealed: in each lifetime we almost always make at least some degree of progress toward the goal of consciousness evolution, and that progress is imprinted upon our endowment of spiritual consciousness and incrementally retained. So while we may have been utterly deluded about our real purpose during our past incarnations we not only made progress, but that progress was incrementally retained, thereby moving us closer to the goal. In other words, in each new incarnation we are not starting from scratch but rather we are, in essence, picking up from where we left off in our last incarnation. This carryover of progress toward the goal of consciousness evolution from past lives is called karma.

Meanwhile, it is also true that our lack of progress in any given lifetime is a karmic outworking. What all this means is that when we were born into this present incarnation we carried with us not only our progress from past lives but also the stigma of our lack of progress. That is why karma is a two-way street. It can be a positive force in our lives, moving us closer to our goal, or it can be a negative force of shame and resistance. It all depends on how far we have already progressed as to which of these polarities will be dominant in our present experience. This degree of our progress from past lives also determines whether we might actually reach the goal in any given incarnation. If we are already close to reaching the goal when we are born, then the chances of this ultimate positive outcome are very good. But if we enter this life with only having made minimal progress in past lives, it is likely that this lifetime will also be unfruitful in that regard.

This was the revelatory knowledge that Jesus was moving in. So let us consider how this knowledge could have had a bearing on what he was trying to teach us in the Parable of the Sower.

Let us start with the field. In the agreed-upon Church interpretation the field is the human heart. But behind this interpretation lies the karma-less assumption that all human hearts are basically the same. In other words, when the Word of salvation in Christ comes to us human beings it is simply assumed that we are all starting from the same place. Thus it is not our heart condition that varies; rather it is only our subsequent response. And where do the four responses come from? Well, that too is simply assumed. It is assumed that in the case of the seed falling on the path and being eaten by the birds the person whose response lines up with that tends to be utterly unspiritual and carnal. It is assumed that in the case of the seed falling upon hard dry ground that person must be shallow and without the ability to put down roots of self-realization. In the case of the seed being choked out by weeds and thistles it is assumed that that person tends to love the world more than God. And in the last scenario wherein the seed bears good fruit, it is simply assumed that that person must somehow possess the moral-spiritual discernment to recognize the best Way to go. But what if this assumption about the condition of human heart being the same in all of us is faulty? What if that condition is determined not by our general biological humanity but rather by our spiritual karma? Such a possibility changes the entire tone of the parable. It means that this parable is not so much about our individual response but rather about the outworking of our karma. In other words, the four unique responses are actually pre-determined before we are even born. And the fact that there are four different responses pertaining to human spiritual receptivity is not arbitrary; these are, in truth, the only possible responses for us based on the outworking of our karma.

In any given lifetime we are sure to be exposed to the Word of truth. That is the nature of life on this plane. With all its distractions and frivolities, it is a plane where spiritual truth is omnipresent and all around us. So it is not if we happen to hear the Word that sets in motion the various scenarios of this parable, it is when we hear—that is, when we become conscious of the fact that the Word of truth is impacting our experience. For some people this consciousness may be so fleeting that they quickly dismiss it as irrelevant. But other people simply cannot escape it. They are presented with it over and over again and in many different guises. Then their karma takes over from there.

If we have made very little progress in our past lives toward the goal of consciousness evolution, the Word will not even reach our heart (the field). It will be as if it fell upon a part of our psyche that we have neglected for so long it is not even considered to be a part of the field. Therefore we probably won’t pay any attention to it, and when that happens it won’t be long before the seed of that Word is be snatched away. This is because in the spiritual realm that which we do not value is soon taken away from us and given to someone else—someone who is seriously moving toward the goal in this lifetime. Thus Jesus once said (to the great chagrin of those humanists who think that divine justice is all about equity among peoples): “Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” (Luke 8:18). Interestingly, when explaining this particular karmic outworking to his apostles Jesus compared the birds in the parable (which came and ate the seed on the path) to the devil, saying that the devil comes and takes away the Word of spiritual truth from their psyche. And if there is such a thing as a spiritual adversary called the devil, we can be sure that it not only takes away (gobbles up) the Word of truth; it then replaces that Word with some twisted version of truth that only spiritual darkness can conceive of. So it is not only that this karmic outworking leads to fruitlessness; it also opens the door to the demonic activity of unwholesome dark spiritual beliefs—a development that can cause that person’s spiritual condition to go from bad to worse.

If we have made some progress in our past lives but have never been inclined to learn about ourselves and our inner world we will probably receive the Word willingly so that it begins to grow. But because we have no root in ourselves it won’t get very far in its development. When life’s trials and tribulations come upon us we will immediately resort to our unconscious human strength and shun the spiritual power inherent in the Word planted in our heart. And when we ignore it like that, it soon withers and dies.

If we have made yet more progress in past lives, we may receive the Word in this lifetime with a glad and hopeful heart, so that it grows strong and appears as though it is sure to bear fruit. But then at some point our association with this world (an association that none of us can sidestep) begins to ensnare us. The practical worries and concerns about having our needs met consume us, so that we feel that we have no choice but to put spiritual life on the shelf for a while. We may vow to return to it at a more opportune time, but unfortunately making such a choice often reveals a flaw in our priority system—a crucial flaw expressive of a karmic outworking that can derail us from reaching the goal in this lifetime. This particular karmic outworking is not set in stone. It can be overcome through a reevaluation of our own choices. The problem is that such overcoming does not come easily. And the more we give ourselves over to trying to solve our practical concerns in our own strength, the more we become entangled in the net of our own circumstances. Slowly but surely we can feel our resolute idealism going out of our experience, like air going out of a bicycle tire. And when that happens the hope of reaching the goal in this lifetime is usually abandoned and forgotten.

But if our karmic outworking is expressive of having made wonderful progress toward consciousness evolution in our past lives, it is not unrealistic to believe that we can reach that goal in this lifetime. It may take years of having new experiences and once again being exposed to the Word of truth. But what will happen over the course of those years is a gradual enlightening of our spiritual faculties, so that as we go through our experiences they all begin to point to the one solution that Jesus called laying hold of eternal life. And if our destiny is indeed to reach the goal in this life, there is little that can derail us from that goal. We will have already prepared the soil of our heart so that the Word (the sower’s seed) can come in and put down deep roots. And while the practical concerns of this world may at times weigh upon us, we will never again let our priority for attaining spiritual fruition be waylaid or shelved. We will guard that priority in our heart as if it were a hidden treasure of great value. It even happens sometimes that if it is our destiny to reach the goal in this lifetime we find ourselves being mysteriously delivered out of binding circumstantial quagmires by some unexpected and unseen divine intervention. This is not unheard of and merely shows the power of our own not-to-be-denied karmic outworking.

These are the four karmic outworkings that pertain to our receptivity and response to the inevitable exposure to the Word of spiritual truth that will happen to us in any given lifetime. Of course, there are many other karmic outworkings that also color our experience. And Jesus touched on these other outworkings in some of his other parables. But there are few outworkings that carry the crucial impact upon our eternal destiny that our karmically governed response to God’s Word (the farmer’s seed) does. And that was why Jesus gave this simple parable such a prominent place in his overall teaching. He wanted us all to be not only delivered from our karma’s negative fruitless outworkings; he wanted us to be delivered from our karma altogether. And such a deliverance as that comes only when we reach the goal of consciousness evolution—out from the Adam man and into the Christ man.