beget like attitudes.
Our thoughts beget like thoughts.
Our approach begets a like approach.
Our acts beget like acts.
Our spirit begets a like spirit.
In other words, what you are “like” is what your life is “like.” You beget your life! Therefore, you can tell, by watching what is happening to you in your life, what you are really like. If you don’t like what is happening to you, it is a signal to you that you need to make a change.
For greater understanding in deciding what to change, we need to be aware that we may harbor conflicting emotions. Consider this statement from a reading: “For, in the application of love is love begotten: In the application of hate is hate begotten.” (347-2)
If we do both, hate some and love others, we will experience both.
Some of us may have sincere doubts about the validity of the first statement in reading 347-2 above, when we recall instances in which we loved another but the love was not returned. The law does not specify when, where, or from whom the love will come. In such a case, there may have been other factors (laws) involved that created that particular result. But according to the law, the love you put into that relationship is not lost but comes back to you at some other time, possibly through someone else. The law makes no exceptions. A friend’s experience during and after her divorce vividly portrayed this principle.
Louise was involved in a divorce action. Her husband became obstructive and vindictive, continually harassing her through their children. Instead of reciprocating, she remained understanding and supportive of him toward the children, even though she had had difficulties in making the transition from housewife to breadwinner. Eventually she met a man who was very understanding and supportive of her through her period of readjustment. They later married. It was exciting to see the law working in this case, to bring back to Louise—when she was in such need—the understanding and support she had so wisely manifested in her relationship toward her husband during the period of divorce.
There is no deviation from the law, as I discovered one day with my granddaughter Elisha, who was four.
It was my day to take her to meet the school bus for her preschool class. We were late. I asked Elisha to fasten her seat belt. Nothing happened. Polite requests and pleading were to no avail. Being slightly larger and stronger, I fastened it forcefully. She struggled against my effort. “Force begets force!” Grandpa was definitely in the doghouse—not a pleasant way to learn a lesson from someone you love! Two days later the Universe gave me the opportunity to try again. This time we were going outside, again in a hurry. It was cold. She needed to wear her snowsuit. She rebelled and resisted as I tried to help her with it. This time Grandpa, a mite wiser, said, “Honey, I am not going to fight with you about it. I love you,” and I fully meant every word of it; it was not a psychological ploy. I started to move away and go on with something else. She looked at me, her frown changed to a smile, her resistance disappeared, and she said simply, “O.K., Grandpa, you can help me”—and she held out the snowsuit to me. “Love begets love.” Our children and grandchildren can be our finest teachers if we will be aware that they, too, are manifesting the Universal Laws, reflecting to us as clearly as a mirror our own spirit, our attitudes, and our emotions.
Many people who have never heard of Universal Laws or of “like begets like” have an inherent feel or understanding for this law and express it in various ways. One particular form I have heard used in different locales is that “what goes around comes around,” a very apt statement of the law.
It has been my experience over many years that whenever I become cognizant of a law and start to use it or apply it or teach it or study it, the results from my use of the law come rapidly back to me and are very evident in daily happenings in my life. The experiences are as though the Universe, like a good teacher, is quickly returning the answers to my experiment to make the point clear that the law works and to encourage me to learn the lesson it has for me.
In the Unity movement the law of “like begets like” is referred to as the law of thinking or the law of mind action. It is defined as “that held in mind produces after its kind.” 5 Ernest Holmes in his book, Science of Mind, refers to it as the “law of correspondence.”6 These or similar titles are also often applied to other laws addressed in this book. What you title the law is not important, as long as you understand the law, realize that it works, that it applies to you, and that you are using it continually through your thoughts, words, and acts toward your fellow beings. Here are examples of how completely our lives are conditioned by this law:
| When you are tempted to say or think this: | Remember the law works this way:7 |
| “She has a nasty wagging tongue!” | If in your thoughts or speech you condemn another, you will bring condemnation upon yourself. |
| “Look, if you don’t do it this way, I’ll …” | If you choose to use force, there will be just as strong opposition against you. |
| “He is so careless!” | If you find fault with others, others will find fault with you. |
| “Well, they are thoughtless and selfish!” | If you speak ill of everyone else, then everyone will look and find that in you to speak ill of. |
| “I just don’t trust you!” | There must be trust given if you would have others trust and believe in you. |
| “I’ll never forgive you for that!” | If you would be forgiven, you must first forgive. |
THE RIPPLE EFFECT
Another important aspect of the law of “like begets like” is the “ripple effect,” beautifully described in A Search for God8 in this way: “As a pebble tossed into a lake sends out ripples that finally reach the farthest shore, just so do our acts, whether good or bad, affect others.”
Violet Shelley, former editor of The A.R.E. Journal,9 told me a true story of a sales manager that illustrates this ripple effect.
“Part of Joe’s job as a sales manager was to work with the salesmen, helping them with problems. Joe had flown into a territory and was met at the airport by a young salesman, Bob, who shortly thereafter, while driving Joe to his hotel, ran out of gas. Joe turned choleric, subjected Bob to a roaring tirade, and Bob hiked for gasoline. During the rest of his stay in the territory, Joe mentioned his outrage more than once. Soon after Joe returned to the home office, he had to go to the airport to pick up Mr. Aaron, vice president of the company. Leaving the airport, Joe all of a sudden ran out of gas. He was terribly embarrassed and expected a dose of his own medicine; however, Mr. Aaron said, ‘Never mind, Joe. I have plenty of paper work to do.’ The next time Joe went into Bob’s territory, Bob again ran out of gas. Horror-stricken, he waited for the tongue-lashing. Imagine his surprise when Joe calmly said, ‘That’s all right, Bob. I have plenty of paper work to do.’”
In that series of incidents we see “ripples” in the situation of running out of gas and in the mature response of Mr. Aaron (which carries through to Joe, then from Joe to Bob). Clearly, through the law of “like begets like,” we can set up a “ripple” effect that moves on to others we do not even know. We can be sure it will also eventually bring back to us that which we created, just as Joe had to face the same situation for which he had criticized another.
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