Life is ALWAYS Fair

I'm an armchair computer geek, have been since I bought my first computer (a Commodore Vic 20) in the early 80s. I was one of AOL's first customers. In fact, I was online before you could charge down a entry ramp to the Information Superhighway unescorted; I used Prodigy as a gateway. "Blogging" is the latest online phenomenon to grab my attention. I'm utterly intrigued by the fact that anyone with something to say--a kid or a corporate CEO--can speak to the world, and the world can speak back. How cool is that?

I knew I had to do my homework, if I was going to do this blogging thing; so I dropped in on one of my favorite sites, Beliefnet.com, where a number of blogs, both conservative and liberal (as in generous?), reside. One blog called out to me: it was Swami Uptown's. I snickered. Was he related to the hilarious metaphysical comedian Swami Beyondananda? I couldn't wait to experience this Swami's wisdom.

Swami Uptown's June 27, 2005 post ("Size Counts--But We're Not Talking About Brains, Are We?") reflected on the un-Christlike behavior of the Christians who created the war in Iraq. This was not a blue-blood intellectual rant against the unenlightened souls who produced the mind-numbing, interminable war epic. Swami Uptown (brainiac journalist and author Jesse Kornbluth) wanted to know what's up with the rest of us:

"I have been saying for more than a year--to my great surprise, I seem to be the only one saying it consistently on Beliefnet--that the spiritual world is, like the real one, a small, closed system. The hatred you aim at me will, if it misses me, zing around the world and hit you in the back of the head. The depleted uranium we use in weapons overseas is blown by dust storms to our shores. The terrorist we do not convert with our goodness learns from our duplicity that it is good and just to strap explosives to himself and kill our children.

"It's the Golden Rule, just flipped. Jesus warned about this. It's at the heart of the Buddha's teachings. Really, it's central to all important religions: Do unto others...because what goes around, comes around."

As they say, and as the good Swami so eloquently illustrated, common sense ain't very common. We know about the Golden Rule; we've heard "what goes around, comes around" a bazillion times; still we don't believe it. If we did, we'd always treat others the way we'd want to be treated. Always.

Kornbluth--er, the Swami--postulates that we're looking for proof. After all, we don't always see folks getting what they deserve. (Where have you read that before?):

"Think of the truly awful people you have known who died, rich and successful, in their own beds. [However], more often than not, we see at least a flash of that law called karma."

Ah yes, the "k" word. We learned all about that in Drama Queens, too, didn't we? But, wait a minute. Did the Swami just say "more often than not"? Does he mean that folks can somehow elude the Universe's natural balancing act? If so, methinks the Swami wrapped his turban too tightly.

As we know, karma is the natural consequence of an act. It's the immutable "whatever you do comes back to you" law of the Universe. It operates whether we "see" it or not. And, oh my goodness, don't we like to "see" our villains get what's coming to them by the time the credits roll? We might even want to write and star in those scenes ourselves.

We voluntarily entangle ourselves in their drama (and their karma), instead of turning our cheeks and the rest of our body costumes in another direction, exiting the stage, confident that the immutable Law of Karma will write a more powerful ending to the painful scene than our meager brains could ever compose.

Part of the intoxication of Earth's drama is that when we're on its stage, we're so "in character" that we believe that we are our body costumes, rather than mirror images of the omnipresent spirit known as God. So we expect to see consequences crash down on bad actors by the time they leave the Earth stage. When that doesn't happen, we dismiss the Law as bogus, and conclude that Life is unfair. Arrrgh! It can even confound those who are more enlightened.

Kornbluth, for example, observed that the folks who brought us this war of Biblical proportions proclaim their love and devotion for a God who smites. (They should, he says, because they created that God in their image). On the other hand, by claiming that karmic law isn't consistent, Kornbluth seemed to forget in whose image they (and we) were created.

If we were made in God's image, instead of the other way around, that means that war architects and supporters who kill in volume, as well as more pedestrian murderers, thieves, spouse and child abusers, rapists, spammers, phishers, and other con-artists, computer virus creators, adulterers, and all who intentionally harm others are just as eternal as God is. Their "live-by-the-sword-die-by-the-sword" comeuppance might greet them in their current roles. Then again, it might not.

But before we conclude that karma is hit or miss, let's not forget that time is a manmade construct. In Spirit, there is no such thing; so it's never too late to repay a karmic debt. You can run out the clock by leaving your body, but you can't leave your soul, and you can't escape the long arm of Universal Law.

With all due respect to the dear Swami, I think the folks in the Bush Administration should be admired for their bravery. Instead of us squirming in the seats of this educational theater, waiting for the curtain to fall mercifully on this poorly planned and executed script, I think we should be on our feet, wildly applauding.

What a spectacular, karma-winning performance they've given! What a mind-boggling personal sacrifice each of them is making so that millions throughout the world can learn that violence begets violence. What a dramatic demonstration that whatever you do really does come back to you.

We should be grateful for the powerful lessons we're learning from the audience. Surely, we wouldn't want to be on stage with them. Would you want the karmic debt these guys are amassing each day as the body count rises, the poor get poorer, and the environment becomes more endangered? Better they than the rest of us, I say.

Bottom line, loved ones: All is well. We outlive our dramatic roles on planet Earth, but we don't outlive Eternal Law. Due to the Law's natural ricochet effect, Life is, was, and always will be fair. That's the first No-Drama principle. Number two: because Spirit is omnipresent, God is never far. Third, death of the body is not THE END of a soul's life. And finally, absolutely nothing is unforgivable.

A God who is Unconditional Love would have created this world no other way. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.