Buddhist theory of Karma describes a 'great chain of being," postulating a kinship between all observed species of beings, and a pattern of development of one life form into another. ...Individuals mutate through different life forms from life to life. A subtle, mental level of life carries patterns developed in one life into the succeeding ones. Species develop and mutate in relation to their environments, and individuals also develop and mutate from species to species. This karmic evolution can be random, and beings can evolve into lower forms as well as higher ones. Once beings become conscious of the process, however, they can purposively affect their evolution through choices of actions and thoughts. Although there are undeniable differences (between Darwinian idea of evolution and the theory of karma), the karma theory gives an evolutionary explanation of how beings are the way they are.
Karma means action that causes development and change, and so is close to what we mean by evolution. ...in Buddhist science, [karma] has nothing to do with fate --it is an impersonal, natural process of cause and effect. Our karma at a given moment of life or death or the between is the overall pattern of causal impulses resulting from former actions connected with our life-continuum. These form a complex that impresses its effects on our bodies, actions, and thoughts. In turn, our ongoing actions of body, speech, and mind form new causal impulses, which determine the nature and quality of our life in the future. This complex can be called our evolutionary momentum There is an old Tibetan saying, "Don't wonder about your former lives; just look carefully at your present body! Don't wonder about your future lives, just look at your mind in the present!" .. This expresses the sense that our present body has evolved from a long evolution driven by former actions, and our future embodiments will be shaped by how we think and what we decide to do in our present actions.
The time of the between, the transition from a death to a new rebirth, is the best time to attempt consciously to affect the causal process of evolution for the better. Our evolutionary momentum is temporarily fluid during the between, so we can gain or lose a lot of ground during its crises.
Source:
The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between (The Tibetan Book of the Dead). Composed by Padma Sambhava. Discovered by Karma Lingpa. Translated into English by Robert A.F. Thurman. (New York, NY: Quality Paperback Book Club, Bantam Books, 1998), pp.27-29.
