Principle 2: Karma May Not Be Real -- Yet it Works
Lessons from treating others well
Having established we do not live alone, how we treat others becomes important. In my life I have thought about how I do not believe in karma in the literal sense (if you are Buddhist and believe otherwise, you do you, and I respect that, and if you are a Swifty and karma is your boyfriend, peace).
No, I don’t believe that what we do in this life affects future lives, but the good news is what I describe here will help any future life anyway, so we can get all Pascalian in here.
When I say karma works, I mean it like this: you hold the door for someone, and they hold the next door for you. Perhaps they would have held that second door for you if they got there first, but your action certainly encouraged their action.
To get more earthy, if you are in a public restroom, and the person(s) before you did not flush the toilet, you are discouraged from flushing it as well — or at least you are not as encouraged to do so as you would have been had the bowl been sparkling clean.
The poor fellow above decided to be destructive of the domino Stonehenge, and in time his actions will affect him. But even apart from how it will affect him, it will negatively affect ever other person who showed up to see domino Stonehenge.
As with Principle 1, this is not transactional, quid-pro-quo. Living a decent life toward others is a good thing to do even if no one around you reciprocated. Living by principle means living that way regardless of what others do.
Even if no one reciprocates, letting the car merge ahead of you, or picking up the trash in the street that no one else bothered with, or volunteering to help a person struggling with a heavy load, it all helps smooth the day-to-day living we experience. Don’t you feel good when you see someone treat others well? Even if you did nothing else about it, it still made you feel good to see principled living.
We all have our bad days, and being human (if you are a non-human reading this, boy will you enjoy my other substack) we all make mistakes. When you have the opportunity to do something good and you don’t do it, don’t you feel just a little tinge of regret about that? Try to follow your good impulses. It will make you feel better, it will make the recipient feel better, it will make nearby observers feel better.
In Substack terms, good karma means liking posts you enjoy, and commenting on the ones that move you, and subscribing to the ones who delight you, and becoming paid subscribers if you can afford to.
Truly we have all seen how encouraging it is to others to do so. Go thou and encourage likewise.
Great post. And I’m a big believer in Karma. lol.