| Selection - You Are the Universe |
| from Chapter 2: Invite Happiness with the Law of Effect and Cause |
Focus on Your True Identity
Our human consciousness is so complex that most of us do not even understand ourselves. How, then, can we be expected to fathom the true identities of our partner or spouse, our children, and others in our lives? In this situation, we simply continue to interact with one another in a confused, unharmonious manner.
At some point in the history of humanity, human beings diverged from the truth. We shut out the memory of our original, shining identity. We lost our original sense of harmony and oneness with others. Because of this, we had to create rules to help us function smoothly in this world. We created artificial guidelines and ethical systems for the purpose of peacefully interacting with one another. We devised rules to regulate and control each other’s behavior, and mold it within the framework of those rules. This led to all sorts of afflictions. After all, people cannot live happily when they are controlled by others or bound by rules. Since humans are, by nature, free beings, we find it unendurable to live a restricted lifestyle. This is why, however fine and good a rule might appear to be, there will always be some who cannot follow it or want to violate it.
The law of cause and effect might also be described as one of the rules that emerged during the long history of human beings’ existence. We might indeed say that the law has served to curb people’s anti-social behavior. Yet on the other hand, there is no denying that many have suffered from it.
The more conscientious people are, the more likely they are to be inhibited by the law of cause and effect. Some good people are so obsessed with causes and effects that others cannot help wondering why they find it necessary to blame and judge themselves so extensively. The law of cause and effect, which should be leading people to happiness, often has the reverse effect, driving good people away from the light instead of bringing them towards it.
The law of cause and effect may work as an effective deterrent for those who are described as malevolent or unscrupulous people. For well-meaning, conscientious people, though, I feel that the principle of effect and cause is more useful and more natural. While the law of cause and effect functions within the narrow scope of the finite world, the law of effect and cause extends far beyond it, reaching the infinite realm of the true, universal self.
The law of cause and effect emerges from a view of human beings as ‘children of sin,’ while the law of effect and cause comes from the view that people are children of God. Seeing people as ‘children of sin’ cannot rescue them from their miseries. True deliverance, I feel, comes only through a concept of human beings as children of God.
If human beings were truly the offspring of sin, our existence could never rise above a guilt-oriented consciousness. Whatever good things we might do, and however we might exert ourselves on behalf of humanity, we would be forever unable to attain true joy, happiness, and freedom. Whenever we returned to the fundamental question of our own human origin, we would again find ourselves locked within a narrow world of hopeless resignation. |
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