We all have a gut feeling that our actions, good and bad, have consequences that come back to either bless or haunt us. It’s an innate aspect of our humanity. “The air you breathe into the universe is the air that it will breathe back, and if your energy is right, it will renew itself even as you give it away” Mary Jo Leddy. Jesus, for instance, puts it this way: Jesus says: “The measure you measure out is the measure you will be given.” Put another way, “The air you breathe out is the air you will re-inhale.” If that’s true, and it is, it explains a lot of things. Why are we inhaling so much bitter air? Perhaps it has to do with the air we’re breathing out. What are we breathing out? Of course, we would like to think that we’re breathing out the air of gratitude, generosity, forgiveness, honesty, blessing, self-effacement, joy, and delight. We’d also like to believe that we are breathing out the air of concern for the poor, the suffering, the unattractive, the bothersome. And, we’d like to believe too that we’re big-hearted people, breathing out understanding and reconciliation. It would be so lovely if it were so. We are blind to what’s really going on inside us and are unconsciously breathing out the air of arrogance, self-interest, pettiness, jealousy, competition, fear, paranoia, dishonesty, interest in others only when it’s convenient, and are emitting signals that others are a threat to us as we seek attention and popularity, and jostle with them for sexual, financial, and professional position. The real air we’re breathing out is fraught with self-interest, jealousy, competitiveness, pettiness, fear, and less-than-full honesty. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, we’re saying to each other: “I’m brighter and more successful than you.” “I’m better looking than you.” “I’ve had more life experience than you.” “I’m sophisticated beyond your naivete.” “I hate you for your good looks and good luck, none of which you deserve.” “I really don’t like you, but I’ll be nice to you until I find a way to free myself of this relationship that circumstance has dictated.” We would never admit that we feel these things, but too often, that’s the air we’re breathing out. The measure we’re measuring out is the measure that we’re receiving. So our solution is to be the big of heart, who breathes out what’s large and honest and full of blessing. The world will return a hundredfold in kind, honesty and blessing that swells the heart even more. But the converse is the miserly of a heart and dishonesty of spirit, that the world will give back too in kind: pettiness and lies that shrink the heart still further. That’s the deep mystery at the center of the universe: The air we breathe out into the world is the air we will re-inhale.[1]
[1] Excerpt from Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s reflection, “The Law of Karma,” February 2004.