Everyday ethics: What goes around comes around
What goes around comes around.
It’s an old saying you’ve probably heard before. Sometimes the same thought is expressed differently: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” It holds a great truth which most know from everyday experience but don’t often stop to consider before acting.
We usually think of this as the law of cause and effect, or karma.
Most think of this saying in a positive way. If you share kindness it will be returned to you in some form. But we seldom take stock of the negative implications of the law: If you sow hatred it will return to you in some form sooner or later.
It’s become more obvious in our time to notice people wanting to take revenge against those whom they perceive as enemies. This usually happens when someone loses and blames others for their loss.
But here’s the other ancient truth expressed in many cultures and traditions, the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
This rule also is karmic in a way, suggesting that how you treat others will be what you want done to yourself. Think about it for a minute: If you treat others unkindly, that is really how you want to be treated. It’s the boomerang effect as an ethical law.
Or, as words attributed to Mahatma Gandhi say: “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
Gandhi also urged us to be the change we want to see in the world.
What might the world look like if we sowed love rather than hate, forgiveness rather than revenge, hope rather than fear? What comes around is then love, forgiveness, hope. Sounds easy to say but hard to live on a daily basis.
Here’s the trick.
Loving your neighbor as yourself means you must first love yourself. Too many don’t and share their self-loathing with others in hateful ways.
British philosopher Bertrand Russell put our task this way: “The moral thing I should wish to say … is very simple: love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like.”
If enough of us learn to respect one another, perhaps karmic law will show the world growing in tolerance.
If enough of us treat our planet with respect, perhaps it will return the favor with clean air and water.
“Love is wise. Hatred is foolish.” It’s the best way to break the karmic cycle and live fuller lives as individuals and societies. This is something to give thanks for today.