Hi, I'm Rebecca Balcarcel.
Let's talk about Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Compensation."
He starts out by saying that nature compensates for any action, with a reaction, as we know
from Newton's laws and all that.
He also mentions positive and negative charges, heat and cold, light and dark, and the implication
is that this is true of human relationships as well.
He says every faculty, which is a receiver of pleasure, has an equal
penalty put on its abuse.
So every ability that we have, if we abuse it, there'll be a penalty, because this is
a law of nature.
This is different from the justice meeted out by humans to punish
each other.
He's not speaking of that.
He's only speaking of the laws of the universe that will compel justice to be done in every
situation.
He points to the example of a man who is too fierce and strong for society, by temper,
and by position a bad citizen, a morose ruffian with a dash of the pirate in him.
So he says, is there this kind of man?
Well, nature sends him a troupe of pretty sons and daughters, who are getting along
in the dame's classes at the village school, and love and fear for them smoothes his grim
scowl to courtesy.
So nature will pull him back from that extreme by bringing him experiences in life, and situations,
that will force him to soften, in this case.
Later Emerson says a perfect equity adjusts its balance in all parts of
life.
He sees this balance as a fundamental part of how the universe is put together.
Every act rewards itself.
So when he speaks at the very beginning about people in the pulpit, in churches, saying,
oh, you have to wait for your reward in heaven, before you can get rewarded for your good
deeds, he says, no, you're going to be rewarded right
away, or you're going to be reward in how your life unfolds.
The reward is already there in the act of doing something good.
So not only does it just feel good, and that sort of thing, but it
sets in motion things in the universe that will be good.
This is good news, because you don't have to wait to enjoy the fruits of being good.
You cannot escape them.
But the same is true for bad actions, and if this is sounding a lot
like karma, then yes, karma is very similar to what Emerson is speaking about, as far
as I understand karma.
To people who might say, well, wait a minute, don't bad people get away with stuff?
Emerson says, "Crime and punishment grow out of one stem.
Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens within the flower of the pleasure which
concealed it.
Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit cannot be severed.
For the effect already blooms in the cause."
As soon as you do something bad, you've already caused the bad
consequence to come to you.
It's part of one thing.
We can't separate off the act from the consequence.
They are a unit.
You can't have one without the other.
He says the specific stripes may follow late, after the offense, but they follow,
because they accompany it.
The stripes, he means the punishment, it will come, maybe late, but it will come, because
it's already wrapped up in the act itself.
Act and consequence go together.
He uses this to speak of the senses, and how we, as humans, tend to want to sever the act
and the consequence when it comes to indulging our
senses.
He says, "To gratify the senses, we sever the pleasure of the senses from the needs
of character.
The soul says eat.
The body would feast.
The soul says the man and woman shall be one flesh and one soul.
The body would join the flesh only.
The soul says, 'Have dominion over all things to the ends of virtue.'
The body would have the power over things to its own ends," so for
it's own purposes.
He's saying, we can't forget that when we indulge our senses, or misuse our senses,
already some kind of consequence is going to come to us, because again, it's all wrapped
up as one thing, and we can't sever the act and
the consequence.
Emerson says we tend to not understand this.
He says, "We see the mermaid's head, but not the dragon's tail."
We notice the pleasure, but don't understand the consequences.
In the middle of the essay, Emerson lists all kinds of proverbs and sayings that reflect
this same wisdom, like "tit for tat" and "eye for an eye,"
"measure for measure," "give and it shall be given you," "thou shalt be paid exactly
for what thou has done, not more, not less."
It's kind of common to understand that this is the way the
universe works, because humans have been dealing with this for a long time, and have seen this
to be true.
Later Emerson says, "You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong."
This seems obvious doesn't it?
That doing something bad will bring bad consequences to you.
Now he also says, "The exclusionist in religion does not see that he shuts the door of heaven
to himself in striving to shut out others."
Those who think that they are going to heaven and no one else is, they may actually be barring
their own way to heaven, instead of barring other people's way.
He also says, "Treat men as pawns and ninepins, and you
shall suffer as well as they."
So if you go around treating people as objects that you can manipulate, you will suffer too.
He says, "If you leave out their heart, you shall lose your own.
The senses would make things of all persons, of women, of children, of the poor."
You can't treat people badly without coming to harm yourself.
The senses are not enough.
Our senses would just treat people as things, when our soul knows better, that they aren't
just things, that they are fellow souls.
Now he himself hates to be in debt in a soul kind of way.
I can tell because he says, "Experienced men of the world know very well that it is best
to pay scott and lot as they go along."
He's not going to try to get away with not paying
what he owes, in any sense, in money in particular, but in other ways too.
If he accepts a favor and he feels that he's indebted, and he needs to give a favor, maybe
not to the very same person, but to someone, because in the laws of the
universe he feels that he's in debt, and therefore he's got to give.
Otherwise he'll remain indebted, and it'll be exacted from him if he doesn't go
ahead and give what is owed, owed to the universe.
He says, "A wise man will extend this lesson to all parts of life, and know that it is
the part of prudence" (that means it's prudent, it's
practical) "to face every claimant" (so everyone who claims something from you) "and pay every
just demand on your time, your talents, or your heart.
Always pay.
For first or last, you must pay your entire debt."
So if there are demands on your time, and he says, your heart or your talents, you must
pay those, because if they are just demands...
Now he doesn't say unjust demands, but just demands, meaning things that you truly
do owe, you need to pay, because the universe will compel you to, if you don't do it yourself.
He says the benefit we receive must be rendered again,
line for line, deed for deed, scent for scent, to somebody."
So the thing you receive, you're going to have to pay back.
Pay forward, we could say?
That would be investing ahead of time, doing something nice for someone before anyone has
done something nice for you.
Emerson would like that quite a bit, I think.