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I actually and truly believe in divine retribution. This poses a lot of added distress when trying to decide how to respond to pain. A lot of peoples say, “oh you’ll go to hell.” Or “that’s karma coming back to bite you in the ass,” or what not. But I truly believe in divine retribution. I wouldn’t say there is a jealous angry God who distributes it. But more that our actions create our consequences. If we give out ugly to the world, the world responds in kind.
I don’t have any strong convictions about how this happens. I don’t believe there is such a thing as eternal damnation, otherwise known as hell. Of course, I can’t know for absolute sure that there isn’t such a thing. But the notion goes against my experience and understanding of the nature of God. And I don’t believe in karma as in if I steal from you today, then God will burn my house down tomorrow. Or if I’m a jerk in this life, I’ll be a pig in the next. These common understandings may be part or all of the truth or not. I don’t know. But I do know one thing absolutely in my heart of hearts. What you give out comes back to you somehow, some way, somewhere.
In biblical terms, we say, as ye sow, so shall ye reap. This conviction gives me pause when I’m tempted to say the meanest thing I can think or to seek revenge. I think about what I want to say or do, and then I think, “would I like to get this back?” Really, I think this is the true meaning of the “golden rule.” As you do unto others, it will be done unto you. But I admit, it’s annoying to contemplate this in the middle of dealing with having been wronged.
Unfortunately, by the time I really understood this, I had already treated a lot of people badly. The untimely death of my stepmother and the gift of forgiveness she gave me on her deathbed, caused a profound transformation. More of that story can be read in my ebook. But she was not the only person I had negligently and arrogantly failed to honor and respect. I also have a loving stepfather to whom I was rude, mean and dismissive when he moved into our home. In my defense, I was a teenager at the time, but still… Interestingly both of these people responded to my nastiness with love and acceptance and mercy. Their example of granting undeserved forgiveness inspires me now when I’m tempted to be destructive.
I think of my gratitude for them. Especially when I feel like I’ve been good to someone who turns on me for no apparent reason. Since I’ve become aware of this, I’ve tried to accept that I do deserve unfair treatment on some level. Perhaps not from the person immediately tormenting me, but I do deserve it in general. And that’s not to beat myself up or be down on myself. It just helps me acknowledge that I have also failed to be kind to people for no good reason. I use this knowledge to generate compassion and forgiveness when I’m feeling persecuted. I look to my stepparents – amazing examples of how truly good people behave in the world. And I try to live up to the person they believe me to be. The person they find worthy of their love that I’ve never done anything to earn.
In Hinduism this is the way to “burn” your bad karma – accept it and choose to respond in a positive manner. This way we don’t create additional bad karma that will come back to us immediately or later. Swami Tadatmananda likens our efforts to do the right thing and create a desired outcome to swimming in a river. The ending point of the swimmer depends in part upon his effort, and in part on the direction of the current. The current, in this analogy (Swami Tadatmananda loves metaphors), is our past karma. This is one theory explaining the proverbial question why bad things happen to good people.
Jesus also taught this, explaining the principle with a simple statement. Saying, “He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Since that is empirically true, we can cease to wonder or ask why we’re facing difficulties. We need to ask only one question. How do we respond to difficulty in a way that dignifies the eternal love that breathes life into us in every moment? Asking the “why me” question only breeds indignant self-righteousness. Because often there is no immediate good reason that it happened to me. Or to you. So the ego looks for someone else to blame and make suffer as a result. And of course, if we seek to make someone suffer, we behave in a manner that actually does justify a bad outcome for ourselves. A vicious and never-ending cycle. But we can turn it around by making the very simple, yet excruciatingly difficult choice to return love for hate and kindness for evil.
Do you believe in divine retribution? Share your story in the comments. You can also contact me directly and privately here. And if you’re new to the mystical journey, check out my tips for beginning a spiritual practice here. Finally, don’t forget to like The Mystical One on Facebook and follow on Twitter!