law is impartial about emotions and attitudes. Whether you express love or hate, the law will bring it back to you. The law works for all attitudes and emotions—negative or positive, pleasant or unpleasant. It is up to us to choose what we will manifest in our lives, but whatever we choose, the law will bring it back to us. When people were questioned or complained about what had happened to them, Cayce often responded, “You are meeting yourself!” In other words, this is what you did to someone, so when someone does it to you, you are truly “meeting yourself.”
THE SPIRIT IS THE KEY
We find the law’s effect on us difficult to accept when our experience is an unpleasant one. If someone were to cheat us out of $100, we might vehemently proclaim that we never cheated anyone in our lives. We need to analyze each incident carefully. We forget that we may have cheated others out of something more valuable than money by treating them unfairly, by withholding help when they needed it, or in failing to give them encouragement, understanding, or love at a critical time in their lives. “Like begets like” does not mean that the specific act will be the same. The Universe operates on spirit; the spirit involved will be the same. We can learn some valuable lessons if we study carefully what happens to us in order to discover the spirit involved. “Like begets like” could be translated as follows:
The spirit in which I act will create and return to me in the same spirit.
If I cheat someone out of money or love, what is the spirit involved? Isn’t it the spirit of self-first or selfishness? This can come back to me in many forms, such as others acting in a selfish manner by ignoring me or leaving me out or thinking of themselves first. The acts are different, but all result from the same spirit.
Also, when we are selfish, we are cheating or taking from another. At a deep level, we recognize the nature of our act and realize that we have set in operation the law that will eventually create conditions in which we will be cheated or deprived or robbed in some way. The result is doubt and fear that grow in us.
However, because we know the law is impartial, we also should consider the good situations that happen in our lives: being loved, praised or appreciated; others sharing with us, giving us recognition, or including us in happy occasions. The spirit that comes to us in these situations is of sharing, of love, and of thinking of others. For this spirit to come in any form, it must have been created by us sometime in the past. Be thankful and keep living, being, and doing in that spirit!
In his book Universal Law, Natural Science, and Philosophy, Walter Russell, a talented composer, artist, architect, and author in science and philosophy, shows one way to make the law work for you. He writes:
If you do not like your work, it gives back to you what you give to it; you become fatigued and devitalized. There is no task which manifests God which is not beautiful—if you make it so—for beauty is not in any task; it is in you. If you have to sweep the floor, do it gloriously; the floor must be swept. If it falls to you to do it, do it perfectly—with love—and it will bless you.10
UNWISE USE OF THE LAW
There are many ways we can use the law to our own detriment. Two unwise uses frequently cited in the readings are: being judgmental and faultfinding. These create a dilemma for us in application of this law because we all have developed, for very good reasons, the ability to judge and to detect faults. We, therefore, need to explore further how, when, and where we can use these abilities without creating difficulties for ourselves through this law.
WHEN IT IS APPROPRIATE TO JUDGE OR FIND FAULT
Are there times we should find fault—say, in business? Supervisors of employees have a responsibility to make certain that standards of quality and efficiency are upheld. This requires that errors or faults be called to the attention of the employees. The following excerpt from the readings acknowledges this fact, but cautions against doing it too often. The excerpt also suggests that it be done in a loving manner—that is, in the right spirit.
An office supervisor was given advice by Cayce about better methods of handling her work and was told: “… don’t find fault so often … Be sincere. Be patient. Be gentle, be kind.” (254-115)
This is not a discrepancy in the law; such faultfinding will come back to us, as every supervisor knows, most probably from the boss! But as long as you are dealing with your employees in the right spirit and for the right purpose, the criticism will come back to you in that spirit and for that purpose. The key is that you have agreed to a responsibility which requires that you exercise judgment and correct faults for the mutual good. This is far different than taking on faultfinding of others for whom you have no responsibility and aiming to straighten them out “for their own good.”
Dealing with employees in business is somewhat similar to parents dealing with children. Parents have a responsibility to guide and correct children, always in a loving manner, and to practice what they preach because “like begets like.”
In our dealings with others—as people together in business, as families, or friends, or any one of many possible relationships—we may need, in the course of affairs, to analyze, evaluate, and discern what others do based on the effect with regard to the purpose of the relationship. So far so good—as long as we accept them as they are without judging or finding fault with them as individuals; that is, without deciding that they are guilty, deficient, or less than we are. We do not have to agree with them. Each one of us sees truth differently; some in very strange ways, I’ll admit! But the way they see it is indeed their truth, and by that consciousness they live and act and have a perfect right to that understanding as we do to the way we see the truth.
The Bible also warns against judgments on our part and affirms the operation of “like begets like”: “Pass no judgment, and you will not be judged. For as you judge others, so you will yourselves be judged …”11
We should not, however, suspend judgment entirely. It can be beneficial to judge or find fault with things; it is detrimental to judge people. We need to judge possessions and other items to make certain they are serving us well, so we have a wide range for use of our abilities to judge.12
We have the right and responsibility to keep our own creations in decency and in order, and to decide when they are right or wrong or effective for us in accord with our purpose. To put it more specifically, if you have a washing machine, its purpose is to wash clothes. If it is broken, that is contrary to its purpose. Get it fixed.
WHEN IT IS DETRIMENTAL TO JUDGE OR FIND FAULT
Modern psychology today recognizes our need to analyze and evaluate, discern and compare, but it also verifies how destructive certain judgments and faultfinding can be when we make what it terms “value judgments.” Dr. Robert Anthony explains this in his statement on “The Destructive Power of Value Judging”:
The basic cause of most inharmonious human relationships is the tendency to impose our values on other people. We want them to live by what we have decided is “right,” “fair,” “good,” “bad,” etc. If they do not conform, we become resentful and angry … There is nothing we can do to alter other people’s values, concepts, or beliefs if their awareness is not ready to accept change. No one is obligated to change just to make the world a better place for you to live in. People may disturb or anger you, but the fact that not everyone objects to their behavior indicates that the problem is yours. You are resisting their reality and desiring to see things, not as they are, but as you would like them to be. This is the point at which you start value-judging. Nothing can destroy a relationship or break off communications faster than value-judging. If you wish to develop a positive self-esteem, it is imperative that you stop all value-judging. This begins with the right motivation: the motivation that all forms of value-judging are
