Getting Slapped Across the Back of the Head by the Karma Gods

The karma gods will get you. Do we imagine spiritual forces watching over us and keeping tally of wrongs that are done? Then, like modern day Equalizers, they spin a grim occurrence to turn the tables on the wrongdoers and level the playing field. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

In a way it’s like having Robin Hood waiting in the bushes to avenge when someone does an evil act to another. Then when it seems the law of averages has stepped in and the wrong doer is at the receiving end of an ill turn we say karma sucks and we’re smiling.

Last month something happened to me that had me fuming. I was the victim of a blatant act of disrespect from an equal, a parallel, in an environment where we need to have one another’s backs yet I was completely disregarded. I was so torqued that it was affecting my thoughts – more like infecting my thoughts – and I wasn’t concentrating on the task at hand, therefore I was screwing up and that was making me even angrier.

Someone said to me, the karma Gods will step in.

In that instant it occurred to me that the karma gods had indeed stepped in… and slapped me across the back of the head. That incident happened to me. I was at the receiving end of the karma stick and got bopped hard.

Buddhism describes the laws of karma as being consequences, not judgment and we are responsible for our own karma.

Interesting. And humbling.

In essence I’d had something taken from me (I didn’t own it but had claimed it and set it up to use for the day). Basically, I felt I’d been stolen from. According to the laws of karma my time to learn a lesson had arrived. My own actions in my past had set the universe into motion and nobody but me was to blame. So, previously in my life I stole from someone. And yeah I hang my shameful head and admit I have been a thief.

According to the laws of karma, until I remember how crappy it feels to have something taken from me and I vow to no longer, never ever steal from anyone ever again, these so called lessons will continue to be taught to me over and over again.

This person was (effectively!) my teacher for the lesson.

Needless to say my anger balloon deflated and I fell off my high horse onto my pointed head. I still had to tell this person that I didn’t like what they had done but I was calm and we’ve since moved on.

I’m not all about Buddhism because I don’t buy the idea of multiple lifetimes and don’t plan on being in the I wanna do this again lineup when I get to wherever I’m going after I die. And this is where I say I’m never going to figure out or make sense and most things I will never understand and so instead I do my best to make peace with I understand that I don’t understand but I do like to think about stuff. Make sense?

The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, and Billy Graham are only a few of many influential spiritual leaders who preached sincerity, integrity, kindness and forgiveness and we do well to be influenced by all of them.

Wishing you all lessons of karma that don’t hurt too badly.

Beautiful Instructions How to Live a Good Life from the Dalai Lama

From Spiritual Now

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
   –  Respect for self,
   –  Respect for others and
   –  Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
20. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.