GENTLY WHISPERED ~
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and who suffer from ill health. On a karmic level, all of these frustrations can be traced back to the negative karmic tendencies that were established in previous existences when the mind expressed itself in ways that led to some kind of unskillful action. Perhaps these beings killed many other sentient beings. This action, as complicated or uncomplicated as the circumstances might have been, will give a karmic reaction that will reappear in a retributive way in some future life. Persons who have behaved in such a manner will experience a shortness of life, either through illness or by being killed before their natural time of death. Or, it might be that in a previous time a person may have stolen or robbed a great deal of wealth from others and therefore will experience a resultant poverty in some future time. Basically, the law of karma describes all causal phenomena as the effective result of previous action, whether this result is positive or negative. Beyond the context of only this lifetime, we are able to trace both positive and negative karmic tendencies that were established in previous existences which directly lead to our present lifetime's experience. If strong positive karmic tendencies were developed through the practice of generosity or cherishing and guarding of life, etc., the result would lead to the experience of longevity, health, prosperity, and the ability to become successful and to obtain one's goals. Consequently, while we indeed share the common experience in being human, our experience of the human realm remains very much a personal one, being individual to each person. Many people, even those from various spiritual traditions, feel that there is no such thing as previous or future existences. Undoubtedly, they take this opinion because these former or future existences are not apparent and because this truth lacks an empirical basis for substantiation. Their disbelief is very understandable because neither the past nor the future is something that can be seen at the present moment. But then, the mind that experiences the past, the present, and the future cannot be seen either. If karmic fruition propagates this succession of rebirths and is something that originates and arises from the mind, it should not be surprising that it is as intangible as mind itself. Forget about previous and future existences; we do not even see