Tomorrow, Jan. 1, 2016, marks the start of the New Year.
On the first day of 2016, we look forward to a better year than the one that just ended.
We resolve to become a better neighbor to another human being.
The best guide in dealing with our fellowman is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
Simply put: treat the other guy as if you’re him or her.
* * *
People who believe in karmic justice are less likely to hurt their neighbor than those who believe that their sins would be forgiven by confessing them to a priest and taking Holy Communion.
Yes, your sins will be forgiven if you confess them to a priest—by the priest.
But one has to reckon with karmic justice—what you do to another will be done unto you.
If you steal from your neighbor, you will someday become a victim of theft.
If you kill another person without justification, you open yourself to become a murder victim sooner or later.
Worse, your loved ones may suffer the consequences of your misdeeds.
The universal law of cause and effect—you reap what you sow—is inescapable.
* * *
When I was a police reporter, I saw several instances of karmic justice being worked out.
For example, there was once a bar that featured women in skimpy attire on stage, which employed killers among the waiters.
Customers who made trouble inside the bar or ran away without paying the bill were left alone.
When the unruly customers or those who welshed on their bill left the bar and were already a distance away, that was when they were made to pay for their debt.
Two or three waiters from the bar would follow the customers and stab them to death.
One day, bar owner’s son took a liking for one of the striptease dancers and took her home in his car.
The girl didn’t tell the owner’s son she was living in with another man.
The dancer’s boyfriend was at the doorstep of her home when she arrived.
Livid with jealousy, he repeatedly stabbed the son of her girlfriend’s employer.
* * *
Then there was this police captain at the Manila Police District (policemen circa 1980s, when I was covering the police beat, had military ranks) who doted on his daughter, a dentistry student.
Every day, this man would leave his office for a few hours at the theft and robbery section to fetch his daughter and take her home.
He was a vigilante cop or one who killed notorious thieves or robbers and made it appear they were killed in a shoot-out.
But this “good cop” went overboard: he also reportedly killed innocent citizens who crossed him.
Once, he shot a motorist over a minor traffic incident and made it appear the other guy was armed and was about to shoot him.
He was also suspected of having had a hand in the ambush-killing of a fellow police officer who defied his authority.
Years later, his daughter, the love of his life, was found dead inside her dental clinic, a victim of robbery.
This officer was a chief of the theft and robbery section while he was in the service; his daughter died in the hands of a robber.
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