t. Some spring into
growth in this life, while others are carried over into future lives.
The actions of this life may represent only the partial growth of the
thought seed, and future lives may be necessary for its full blossoming
and fruition. Of course, the individual who understands the Truth, and
who has mentally divorced himself from the fruits of his actions--who
has robbed material Desire of its vital force by seeing it as it is,
and not as a part of his Real Self--his seed-thoughts do not spring
into blossom and fruit in future lives, for he has killed their germ.
The Yogis express this thought by the illustration of the baked-seeds.
They show their pupils that while ordinary seeds sprout, blossom and
bear fruit, still if one bakes the seeds their vitality is gone, and
while they may serve the purposes of a nourishing meal still they can
never cause sprout, blossom or fruit. Then the pupil is instructed in
the nature of Desire, and shown how desires invariably spring into
plant, blossom and fruit, the life of the person being the soil in
which they flourish. But Desires understood, and set off from the Real
Man, are akin to baked-seeds--they have been subjected to the heat of
spiritual wisdom and are thus robbed of their vitality, and are unable
to bear fruit. In this way the understood and mastered Desire bears no
Karmic fruit of future action.

The Yogis teach that there are two great principles at work in the
matter of Karmic Law affecting the conditions of rebirth. The first
principle is that whereby the prevailing desires, aspirations, likes,
and dislikes, loves and hates, attractions and repulsions, etc., press
the soul into conditions in which these characteristics may have a
favorable and congenial soil for development. The second principle is
that which may be spoken of as the urge of the unfolding Spirit, which
is always urging forward toward fuller expression, and the breaking
down of confining sheaths, and which thus exerts a pressure upon the
soul awaiting reincarnation which causes it to seek higher environments
and conditions than its desires and aspiration, as well as its general
characteristics, would demand. These two apparently conflicting (and
yet actually harmonious) principles acting and reacting upon each
other, determine the conditions of rebirth, and have a very material
effect upon the Karmic Law. One's life is largely a conflict between
these two forces, the one tending to hold the so