f this present life, for instance. How many
bitter episodes are there which we wish had never happened, and how we
wish we could tear them out of our consciousness. But we do not realize
that from these same bitter experiences came knowledge and wisdom that
we would not part with under any circumstances. And yet if we were to
tear away from us the cause of these benefits, we would tear away the
benefits also, and would find ourselves back just where we were before
the experience happened to us. What we would like to do is to hold on
to the benefits that came from the experience---the knowledge and
wisdom that were picked from the tree of pain. But we cannot separate
the effect from the cause in this way, and must learn to look back upon
these bitter experiences as the causes from which our present
knowledge, wisdom and attainment proceeded. Then may we cease to hate
these things, and to see that good may come from evil, under the
workings of the Law.

And when we are able to do this, we shall be able to regard the painful
experiences of our present day as the inevitable outcome of causes away
back in our past, but which will work surely toward increased
knowledge, wisdom and attainment, if we will but see the Good
underlying the working of the Law. When we fall in with the working of
the Law of Karma we recognize its pain not as an injustice or
punishment, but as the beneficent operation of a Law which, although
apparently working Evil, has for its end and aim Ultimate Good.

Many object to the teachings of the Law of Karma by saying that the
experiences of each life not being remembered, must be useless and
without value. This is a very foolish position to take concerning the
matter. These experiences although not fully remembered, are not lost
to us at all--they are made a part of the material of which our minds
are composed. They exist in the form of feelings, characteristics,
inclinations, likes and dislikes, affinities, attractions, repulsions,
etc., etc., and are as much in evidence as are the experiences of
yesterday which are fresh in our memory. Look back over your present
life, and try to remember the experiences of the past years. You will
find that you remember but few of the events of your life. The pressing
and constant experiences of each of the days that you have lived have
been, for the most part, forgotten. Though these experiences may have
seemed very vivid and real to you when they occurred, still t