rely a "mistake," not a crime. And Pain
arises not as a punishment for something done wrongly, but as a warning
sign of "hands off"; and consequently Pain is something by which we may
mount to higher things--to Something Better--and not a punishment. And
this idea holds, also, that on the physical plane physical law governs,
and physical effects follow physical causes; likewise on the mental
plane; likewise on the Spiritual Plane. And, therefore, it is absurd to
suppose that one suffers physical pain as a punishment for some moral
offense committed on another plane. On the contrary, however, this idea
holds that from the physical pain which was occasioned by the operation
of physical law alone one may develop higher spiritual states by reason
of a better understanding of the nature of pain in oneself and others.
And this idea refuses to recognize material pleasures or profits as a
reward for spiritual or moral actions.

On the whole this last mentioned conception of Karma refuses to use the
terms "reward and punishment," or even to entertain those ideas, but
instead sees in everything the working out of a great Cosmic Plan
whereby everything rises from lower to higher, and still higher. To it
Karma is but one phase of the great LAW operating in all planes and
forms of Life and the Universe. To it the idea that "THE UNIVERSE IS
GOVERNED BY LAW" is an axiom. And while to it ULTIMATE JUSTICE is also
axiomic, it sees not in the operation of penalties and reward--merits
and demerits--the proof of that Ultimate Justice; it looks for it and
finds it in the conception and realizing that ALL WORKS FOR GOOD--that
Everything is tending upward--that everything is justified and just,
because the END is ABSOLUTE GOOD, and that every tiny working of the
great cosmic machinery is turning in the right direction and to that
end. Consequently, each of us is just where he should be at the present
time--and our condition is exactly the very best to bring us to that
Divine Consummation and End. And to such thinkers, indeed, there is no
Devil but Fear and Unfaith, and all other devils are illusions, whether
they be called Beelzebub, Mortal-Mind, or Karma, if they produce Fear
and Unfaith in the All-Good. And such thinkers feel that the way to live
according to the Higher Light, and without fear of a Malevolent Karma,
is to feel one's relationship with the Universal Good, and then to "Live
One Day at a time--Doing the Best you Know How--and Be