Part 1: The task, the consequences, the methodology & the illusion of injustice
Part 2: Law enforcement 101: the enforcer
Part 3: Law enforcement 201: "in kind"
Part 4: Law enforcement 301: "in proportion"
Part 5: Law enforcement 401: inner civil war
Part 6: Law enforcement 501: The neuro-science of karma
6 Law Enforcement 201: “in kind”
In this section I will illustrate in more detail exactly why and how our conscience acts to ensure that we receive “in kind” to what we give.
I’ll also illustrate why our conscious mind fails to pick up on this but our unconscious mind does not.
6.1 Bad karma
If we believe that happiness can be achieved by causing harm to another an act on it, we will feel the pain of guilt and that pain will persist until we either (a) seek to atone for our misdeed or (b) find a way to numb the pain by switching off our empathy for the person that we have harmed.
To choose the former path is to choose to return to harmony with our conscience and permanently eliminate the source of the pain and re-enable our ability to connect with others.
To choose the later path is to choose to maintain the disharmony and to search for methods numb the pain and limit our ability to connect with others.
The reason that we often choose the later path is that it actually works – in the short term. There are various means that we can use to switch off our feelings for the person that we have harmed. When we use them we can feel as if we have broken the rules and gotten away with it.
The more often we do this the more we strengthen the belief that pleasure really can be achieved by disregarding the feelings of others and taking what we want. Our life experiences *appear* to support that belief. And so we continue behaving in this fashion. We continue to take what we want and to get rewarded and to increase our ability to avoid the emotion of guilt and each time that we do we strengthen our belief that we have gotten away with it.
But we are deluding ourselves.
We are like the mouse who is being led to the mouse trap by a trail of cheese. Each time we take another piece of cheese we are rewarded with pleasure but we are moving closer and closer to having our neck snapped by the mouse-trap.
The more often we have gotten away with defying our conscience and being rewarded by it the stronger our belief becomes that this is the path to happiness.
But the more that we do it the more that we notice that the pleasure we used to get from this behavior is not as intense and does not last as long.
We find that a greater portion of our lives is spent in a state of anxiety and depression and all that we have to look forward to is the intense pleasure that comes from taking.
We may begin to use drugs, alcohol, sex or food to get that momentary burst of pleasure that comes from taking but it never seems to endure.
We are unhappy and we don’t know why.
And because we have become so adept at hiding from the truth our ability to see the true reason for our unhappiness is impaired. Rather than accept responsibility, our instinct is to look for someone else to blame. After all, we are “entitled” to receive happiness without giving it – are we not?
When we decide to switch off our empathy for those we have intended to harm we are killing our ability to love and thus destroying our ability to experience the very state of enduring joy that we think we are seeking by doing so. This is the fundamental delusion that characterizes the human condition and the defining characteristic of the age of barbarism.
The reason that we are led into the temptation of immediate gratification is that it works. But when our minds are resolutely and narrowly focused on immediate gratification we fail to see the long term consequences of our decisions.
And the long term consequence is that each time we hurt somebody and refuse to make amends we are shrinking our bubble of empathy. The circle of people that it is safe to connect with becomes a little smaller.
To avoid the pain of guilt we are forced to put the person that we harmed out of our minds. That means distancing ourselves from not only them, but everything and everyone that reminds us of them.
But the more people that we wound and the more deeply we wound them the more difficult this becomes because we are forced to further constrain the range of the thoughts that we think to those that will not cause pain and to constrain our interactions in the world at large in order to prevent ourselves from having those painful thoughts.
Each time we do this our bubble of safety becomes smaller and the world at large becomes a little darker and more menacing.
We see enemies everywhere. And because our ability to judge the true intentions of others has been constrained by our decision to avoid connecting with them, we begin to consistently misjudge their good intentions for bad and act accordingly.
In this fashion we create the very thing that we fear.
The further down this path we venture the more hellish our world becomes.
We delude ourselves into believing that we have gotten away with it but the pain of guilt continues to grow like a monster beneath the surface.
6.2 Good karma
The Buddha said it best …
“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
Unlike the temporary pleasure that is achieved by “taking”, the happiness that that is achieved by “giving” can endure for a life-time.
When we choose to find happiness for ourselves by giving to others and experiencing the sympathetic joy of the receiver we are strengthening the belief that enduring happiness comes from increasing our empathy for others because the more deeply we connect with them the more deeply we can share in their joy.
It helps us to see clearly that happiness is not a scarce resource that must be taken.
Rather each time we give to others we increase the net happiness in the universe.
6.3 Conclusions
Our conscience acts to ensure that we receive “in kind” to what we give.
When we seek to bring unhappiness to others we generate bad karma for ourselves.
When we seek to bring happiness to others we generate good karma for ourselves.
Our conscious mind fails to pick up on this because our narrow focus on the immediate gratification we receive when violating our conscience seems to support our misguided belief that happiness can be achieved by bringing unhappiness to others.
Despite this, our unconscious mind knows that our long-term happiness/un-happiness varies in direct proportion with our harmony/disharmony with our conscience.
In the next section I will explain how our conscience ensures that we receive both “in kind” and “in proportion” to what we give.
Part 4: Law enforcement 301: "in proportion"
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