Universal Laws by John Cullison Blog entry

Blog: John's Blog
by John Cullison

Universal Laws

What are they? Do they really exist?

Date: 12/14/2005 12:24:58 AM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 3142 times

I once asked a fellow to clarify himself, as his web site stated that there are three universal laws, but then he proceeded to name and explain only two. The three laws that he told me were universal were the law of free will, the law of cause and effect (karma), and (the one left out) the law of attraction.

I'm wondering if "opposites attract" is in there somewhere, too, but I'm pretty sure those were the three. The law of attraction was how likes attract, or how what you put out there is what you get back. It sounds similar to karma, if you ask me.

In evaluating my life, as I do far too often, once upon a time, I spent some time contemplating these alleged laws.

Karma is a pretty interesting "law". There's just one problem with it. It cannot simultaneously be a law with "free will".

Whenever I think of the rules of the game, "free will" seems to always be the most senior rule. If karma is true, then free will cannot be true, because a being is not free to choose not to be subject to the "balancing" consequences of karma.

I look at the various people who seek to enslave and destroy -- they know who they are -- and I keep seeing this repeating pattern with them. They never seem to get any sort of come-uppance. They just repeat the cycle over and over and over. Enslave and destroy.

Karma would seem to be a handy law to break the cycle. But it never does. Near as I can tell, karma as a law is something that many decent people agree to (i.e. choose to incorporate into their existences), but the destroyers and enslavers don't agree to it, so it never comes into play for them.

Meanwhile, the decent people are perpetually enslaved to karma. Mistakes happen, and it is never possible to properly balance any act in kind, but that doesn't seem to stop us from trying!

Consider, for example, a careless, accidental death that you caused to a new friend. Karma might dictate, depending on how karma is viewed, that you should suffer a similarly careless, accidental death to, say, learn the importance of not allowing yourself to be so careless.

And yet, how can it ever really achieve balance? If the person doing it to you is the person you did it to, you would know, at some level, that you "deserved" it. No amount of amnesia changes that fact. If the person doing it did not "owe" you, then that person is now earning himself a karmic debt. And, really, if you're thinking in terms of learning lessons, isn't seeing the effect of one's carelessness and consciously choosing never to be so careless again proving that the lesson was already learned?

At any point in time, the "perpetrator" and the "victim" both have the opportunity to learn from any given act. Even observant third parties could conceivably learn whatever it is they think they need to learn by simply observing the action and determining whether or not the end result was desired.

And going even one better, we have within us the capacity to imagine situations and play them out, without having to have anyone go through any sort of suffering at all!

So what does a "law" like karma gain us?

Note how some adherents use it. Usually, when I see karma invoked, it's well veiled, or thinly veiled, or simple, blatant revenge that the speaker really means (or just a joke that nevertheless has a slight ring of revenge). "You're gonna get yours." "Karma's a bitch." "What goes around comes around." Etc.

What about forgiveness?

Once upon a time, life experiences threw this idea of karma, and vengeance, right in my face. Jealousy can do that to ya. And then I realized how every one of these events that I believed were affronts to me, I actually allowed every bit of it to happen.

I had no one to blame but myself, in the grand scheme of things. "But he did...". I would chase the trail. "So I did, but he did, so I did, but he did..." No matter how many "but"'s and "so's" I could throw in there, the trail always led back to me denying my own instincts and intuition and awareness in the first place.

Man, was I ever pissed off.

And so no amount of attempting to invoke karma or revenge could possibly solve the problem. In fact, I realized that the last thing that I wanted to do was to continue the cycle. Any effort on my part to "get back" at the various individuals I had issues with would not have been -- could never -- restore any semblance of "balance". They'd simply start new cycles that could be used to justify revenge further down the line...

Ever the stubborn one, I realized that forgiveness was the only thing that would work. Break the cycle. Do I really want anyone else to endure what I went through, all that frustration? (I'm being intentionally vague on the details. *wink*) Let it go.

After calming down a bit, I then realized that forgiveness is just a mirage of the actual, correct step. I don't even have a name for it, but it has something to do with not attempting to incur a need to forgive in the first place. In other words, forgiveness doesn't have a chance to kick in, because there never really was anything to forgive. Just a lot of choices that led down various paths...

So then I made a plea, a prayer, a Universal request. No one may ever incur a karmic debt as a result of actions taken against me, past or future. I do not agree to be a pawn for karma! Even for the enslavers, should they suddenly get the urge to atone or something.

Not a real fun experience, because it sticks the burden -- or not -- of my own existence squarely on my own shoulders.

It was pretty liberating, though, after I got over how silly I felt. *grin*

So much for karma.

Free will, however, seems to be the only universal law that withstands anything I can throw at it.

Consider that free will is not true. If it is not true, then we are not responsible for the choices we make. We are then merely a product of our programming, however it is that we get programmed.

If that's the case, then what does anything matter? How can I be "blamed" for whatever choices I make that disagree with what anyone else "thinks" about my choices? How can what I do be "wrong", when it's just a matter of my DNA or my cellular impulses directing me to do it?

I can't think any person with any sense of spiritual awareness would agree that this is the case, but the "humans-are-just-animals" atheists might.

On the other hand, if free will is true, then it means that we are the product of all our decisions and choices, which must include every other so-called "universal" law -- meaning the other "universal laws" are among our decisions and choices.

Otherwise, it's not truly free will.

Since I haven't walked on water lately, however, perhaps I still have more to learn about this.