Cosmic Kindergarten: Lesson 5: WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

Last few Sundays, we have been talking about the earthly lessons for a heavenly life on earth. We are sustained by the earth. The plants that grow on earth's soil provide us with the air we need to survive. The food that the earth produces gives us sustenance. That is why earth is called mother earth. Just like a mother teaches her children lessons, earth has a few lessons to teach us. I have identified 10 such lessons. We have covered 4. Today I am going to talk about the 5^th lesson which is what goes around comes around.

Can anyone tell me at what time was sunrise today? the right answer is: The sun does not rise. Neither does the sun set.

We have heard the phrase sunrise and sunset all through our lives. The weather forecasters talk about it all the time. The words, sunrise and sunset are printed in the weather section of the newspaper. The bible talks about sunrise and sunset in Ps. 11.31 “From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised.”

I don't blame you for believing all that, because it is based on apparently solid evidence and experience. We get up in the morning, and look east, and we see with our eyes the sun rising up...and in the evening, especially if we go Hollywood beach, we can see the red sun slowly setting into the ocean.

Despite all that visual evidence and experience, sunrise and sunset are not scientific realities. There is nothing wrong about talking about it poetically and prayerfully, but, at the end of the day, we have to admit that sunrise and sunset are optical illusions.

We feel it is rising and setting, not because the sun moves, but because the earth moves. But since the earth is so huge, we don't feel that movement; but just because we don't feel something, doesn't mean it is not happening. It takes 24 hours for the earth to turn around on its axis once, which we call a day and night.

It has been happening for millions of years...every day..the earth keeps turning..what goes round comes around. It never fails...if it fails to come around, we won't be here to talk about it.

So, what goes around, comes around. You can count on it. In science, it is called the law of cause and effect. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” It is called Newton's 3^rd law of motion. There are several scripture passages that confirm this earthly lesson:

Gal 6:7: Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Job 4:8: As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

Jer 17:10: I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

2Cor.9:10: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Mk. 4:24: And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

So the message from the bible and from science, and the earth is that we should take responsibility for our actions, because actions have consequences. If you do A, B and C, D,E and F are going to happen.

The notion that I reap what you sow, helps me to be careful about the choices I make and the behaviors I engage in. It helps me to live more as a creator of my life rather than a victim of circumstances.

It helps me redefine my relationship to God and my role in this world. There was a time in my life when I thought of God as a distant figure—Almighty God who sits in a far away heaven. He watches over me like a big brother, keeps a record of everything I do. He blesses me for my good deeds and punishes me for my bad deeds. After I die, if I had been a good boy, this God, allows me into heaven, and if I had been a bad boy, He sends me to hell.

I have moved far away from the notion that God is the creator and we are mere creatures.

When we see ourselves as mere creatures, we feel so helpless and powerless.

I don't think God wants us to be mere creatures. If you read the bible carefully and look at the creation story, you will find that we are created to be co-creators with God.

There is big difference between being a creature and co-creator.

When it came to creating humans, God said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock and all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Gen 1: 27)

Someone that “rule over all the creatures” doesn't look like another creature to me.

Look at the next verse: “God blessed them and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.”

Again, somebody who is given the job of ruling over the earth and subduing it cannot be a mere creature. So our relationship to God is not a master-servant relationship.

In fact when talking to his disciples, Jesus said: “I don't call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing. But I've called you friends, because I've made known to you everything that I've heard from my Father.” (John 15:15)

So I see equality and partnership here.

Jesus told his disciples: “You are the light of the world.” He didn't say, I am the big light, the sun, you are just small candles. You are the light...he was calling on them to take responsibility for lighting up the world. To be like Jesus, creators and and bearers of light.

So our relationship to God and Jesus is not a master-servant relationship.

We are not mere, helpless, victims in this world, we are co-creators with God. If we don't partner with God in creating heaven on earth, it is not going to happen. It is where the earthly lesson, you reap what you sow comes into play.

Think about this. How do new human beings arrive on earth? God doesn't say, “let there be more Americans, or let there be more Europeans,” and suddenly thousands of Americans and Europeans show up on the face of the earth.

You know how the creation of new humans happens these days. Unless a man and a woman come together and do what they have to do, no new life is going to be created. I am not saying God has nothing to do with it. I am not being arrogant about it. All I am saying is that we are not helpless victims but active participants in the creative process. All I am saying is that God usually doesn't do for us what God cannot do through us. God wants us to be co-creators with God, not mere on lookers. 

God is seeking partners, not panhandlers!

Remember these words of Rumi: We are not a mere drop in the ocean, we are the ocean in a drop!

God wants us to live by using the power that God has already given us by creating us in His/Her image. As theologian, Diarmuid Omurhu, says: “The God who related authentically is not some type of divine parent wishing to rescue wayward children. The divine human relationship is not a co-dependent one; the relationship of the covenant is adult to adult, a model that is largely unknown to the formal religions.”

The psychological phrase, co-dependence is very different from dependence which is a good thing. A codependent person is fixated on another person for approval, and sustenance. It is an unhealthy clinginess. It is used to describe abusive relationships

DSM-V, gives nine criteria for a co-dependent personality with an essential feature of a pervasive or lifetime pattern of dependent and submissive behavior. That definition emphasizes the excessive need to be taken care of, leading to submissive and clinging behavior and fear of separation and consequent punishment.

For many people their relationship to God contains most of those elements.

A codependent person is someone who cannot function from his innate self and whose thinking and behavior is instead organized around another person, in this case God as separate from him.

If we accept the idea of us being co-creators with god, then we have to re-think the idea of punishment. Again, the traditional understanding is that God is separate from us and god is either going to reward us or punish us after we die. If we agree that we are co-creators with god in creating heaven on earth, then we have to take responsibility for creating hell on earth too.

I don’t believe in punishments. I believe in consequences. Punishment comes from outside.. Consequences means I am reaping what I have sowed.

It is called Karma. It is a Sanskrit word. Karma is about all that a person has done, is doing and will do. Karma is not about punishment or reward. It makes a person responsible for his own life, and how he treats other people.

The notion of Karma removes God as the external punisher and puts the responsibility on us. As I said, it makes us co-creators of our life for both good and bad.



So, the fifth earthly lesson is actually the golden rule given by Jesus in the sermon on the mount: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There is a cause and effect quality to it. You want good things to happen to you? Make good things happen for others.



Everyday, Planet earth teaches us that what goes around comes around...we see it with our eyes every morning..whatever is happening to the planet is also happening to us, because we live on it.

Our thoughts, feelings and actions have a moving quality to them. A cyclical quality. If our thoughts about people and life are good and positive, they will generate positive feelings which in turn will lead to positive actions. If they are negative, they will have a negative impact.



What goes around comes around...Let us make sure that what goes out of us is good so that it will return to us as good.

Try your best to be a blessing to others, so that you will be blessed in return.

As Eckhart Tolle says: If you want the best the wold has to offer, offer the world your best!