Fate, Karma, and Consequences

I was brought up to understand that you should treat others as you would be treated. It’s a very simple concept. If you go around beating up people, you make enemies, and eventually, one of them is going to come after you. So, in order to play it safe, be nice and try to get along. But that doesn’t always work because with so many people on the planet, that no matter how nice you treat people, you’re bound to run into some character that’s looking for trouble. It’s just that you stand a better chance of surviving this life without getting stabbed or shot if you just act nice.

If you act badly, push people around, cause pain and suffering, eventually it’s going to catch up with you, and you’ll wind up dead or in prison. I think that’s called Karma. But what about fate? Maybe it’s fate that some people are just bad news and it’s their fate to wind up suffering the consequences of their behavior. I heard that there’s a big book up in heaven that has your fate written in it. What you’ll make of yourself, who you’ll marry, how many kids you’ll have, and how you’ll die. It’s all written down. Somebody planned everything that’s going to happen to you. It’s been said.

Yet, if you’re due to become a total creep, and you know that this can’t end well, can’t you just change things? But if you can do that, then maybe it was fate that you first become a down low, cowardly, sneaky creep and you suddenly transform yourself into Mr. Wonderful and in the end, the pearly gates will open for you.  

But I think that it’s really the law of consequences. I think there are both good and bad consequences. In the end, it’s the afterlife that’s important. Everything you do has consequences. And the things you do are both external and internal. The external are the things that people can be a witness to, or there is evidence of. And they can be both good or bad such as committing a crime, or helping the poor and homeless. People see these things and react to it.

But there is the internal. You can act outwardly good. Go to church. Donate to charities. Volunteer and so on. But inwardly you may have bad thoughts. Hatred, avarice, jealousy, and so on. I really believe that you must act good outwardly as well as inwardly. Inward thoughts will become outward actions eventually, but even if they never do, at least you are aware that you are not the person that other people see. God knows the true you even if no one else does.

Priests are generally supposed to be seen as good people. We call them Father. We can go to them with our problems. Outwardly they are good but if inwardly they have unclean thoughts, it can cause problems. I’ve seen a hidden camera sequence on a Rabbi, who is supposed to be a pillar of the community, get caught while trying to meet with a teenager for a sexual encounter. I saw his reaction on getting caught. It was not pretty. Consequences. His Karma. Was it his fate? Was it written?

I think he could have avoided it.