How did your individuality come to be you? How is it you have the talents you have? How is it you are influenced by urges within you? How is it that one person becomes what is a called a great success, and another does not do well in terms of the world? How is it that one can come from a favorable background and not do well, and someone from an unfavorable background with all the odds against him can do exceedingly well?
How much is fate, you ask, how much is karma?
Beloveds, it is not fathomable. You cannot understand what you cannot understand.
Certainly, one thing influences another, yet there is no cause. There is life. There is Is-ness. And yet, at the same time, as you have heard, there are no accidents. And so you wonder: How can there be your free will and destiny at the same time?
What makes one person an artist to the extent that he must paint or sculpt? What makes another dabble? All these things cannot be explained or understood by the logical mind. Your mind cannot follow this particular train of thought.
Certainly, there are things that are meant to be, and other things that are not meant to be. And yet, of course, you are meant to be, or you would not be. And yet you choose, and yet you are chosen, and you neither know you chose nor that you were chosen. You are a discoverer of choices as you go along, sometimes choices made long ago that you have long forgotten.
The connections remain a mystery in life, and yet they are part of a plan from such a vast perspective that you cannot comprehend it. This is a different kind of plan from the plans you know.
I will say a few things, however.
I have told you that there is no karma, as the world understands karma. Goodness and mercy follow those who give, and goodness and mercy also follow those who do not give. Good is given to all. We can truthfully say that the reward is in what you do and not what comes after. You don't require reward for your goodness. We can say that the deed itself is your reward. What you call difficult times are not a punishment, nor does it behoove you to consider them such. I am not a Father Who punishes any more than I am a God who metes out a reward according to a world standard. Certainly I serve a greater purpose than reward and punishment. I do not judge, so on what basis would I parcel out reward or punishment? What kind of God would I be to punish you for an error? What kind of God would I be to reward you for a good deed that was yours to perform and from which you already gained the merit of joy?
And yet you are rewarded.
Beloveds, when I tell you to get beyond the past and past offenses, what kind of a God would I be if I did not follow My own advice?
Memory has a greater aspect than what you commonly assign to it. There is memory in every cell of your body. You do not usually have conscious recognition of this vaster memory. You may call it DNA. Your DNA has its role to play, and yet it is open to change. In a way, it is as if you have a complete memory, and yet you have forgotten it. And every once in a while a light goes on, and you have a spark of memory. I am not speaking of déjà vu, you understand. I am speaking of an instant recognition of joy. It is as if your heart says: "Ah, I remember this! I get great joy from this." And so you fly through the air, or you play the piano.