Proactive, reactive and the rule of karma.

Storms could be coming.

Once a traveling salesman came upon an old man standing next to his house with a hole in the roof. The salesman asked the man, “why don’t you fix that hole?” The man replied, “Well it’s like this: when it’s raining, it’s too late and when it ain’t raining, there’s no need.”

There’s a parallel between this story and a misunderstanding of karma. The misunderstanding emanates from the notion of “being here now:” the idea that there is no real past (it’s gone) and there is no future (it hasn’t yet come). There is only an eternal now. This perspective, while true, at times produces an attitude of inaction and waiting for storms to come.

The rule of karma says that we create our own tomorrow by thoughts and actions taken today, and today is nothing more than the collective actions of us all we chose yesterday. This rule is too often ignored and we become like that old man: doing nothing to prepare for the rain to fall and then realizing that it’s too late.

There is no contradiction between being thoughtful and proactive and the rule of karma. In fact, that rule clearly observes that if we want a better tomorrow we must act in ways beneficial to all today. What is contradicted is the idea of being reactive. Unfortunately far too many have gotten this backward and we have become a people doing nothing, and then being forced to contend with the effect of storms coming through our roofs. The storms can only be prevented with some wisdom and timely action today for the betterment of all.