Induced Good Fortune

Cause, effect, and the calculus of karma.

On a Sunday in the summer of 2003, I spent the day with my friend Petra, as I had many times before. Gainfully employed and 20 years my senior, Petra typically paid for things when we met up. But not this particular Sunday. Despite my meager cash reserves, I paid for everything that day: coffee, lunch, and even a dreadful movie (Under a Tuscan Sun) that we walked out of. Like my father and his father before him, I’ve historically erred on the frugal side. Playing the profligate for the day was really uncomfortable. But I endured the discomfort because I wanted to test the principle that generosity begets generosity.

I was heavily involved with AA around this time, and I had a commitment to take a meeting to Bellevue Hospital’s lockdown psychiatric ward every Sunday. Around 5pm, I left Petra off at Grand Central, where she caught a train back to her home in Connecticut. I then walked a random route through the east thirties to Bellevue. On the walk, I passed an apartment building with a full contractor garbage bag out front. I walked past the bag, but it occurred to me that it might not be trash. People often leave useable items in front of their buildings in NYC. I went back and found the bag was filled with approximately $2,000 worth of shoes: Gucci, Prada, and brands of comparable value. The shoes were in good shape and, improbably, in my big size (I wore a 13 at the time). I grabbed the bag then proceeded to lead the meeting at Bellevue.

I cannot prove a causal relationship between my generosity that day —with Petra or the Bellevue patients —and my luxury shoe haul, but on the surface it was a compelling proof of the principle I was testing that day.

In Buddhist philosophy, the causes and effects of karma are often asynchronous. Just like a farmer sews seeds in the Spring to reap crops in the Fall, our actions (karmic causes) may not bear fruit (karmic effects) until much later—often, in future lifetimes. This relationship applies to positive causes and effects as well as negative ones. In other words, the privileges and punishments we experience today are, according to the Buddhists, the effects of actions taken during previous lifetimes.

I realize that me enjoying the effects of that day’s generous actions contradicts the Buddhist karmic cause-effect latency, appearing more like what John Lennon would call “instant karma.” And indeed, if you’re someone with a penchant for shitting on esoteric principles, you will undoubtedly find faults with my proofs and logic. But if you’re like me, if you find meaning in synchronicities and believe in things you feel but cannot see —then episodes like this are of great importance. Perhaps the bag was the effect from virtuous actions I took during previous lifetimes that just happened to ripen that day because I needed to learn a critical lesson about cause and effect. What I cannot buy is that finding those shoes, in my size no less, that day, of all days, was just a weird coincidence.

This 2003 episode has been top of mind as I’ve recently been given some valuable stuff: sunglasses, coaching, an iPhone, a smartwatch. Most of this stuff is replacements for stuff that I lost or broke and would have difficulty paying to replace. And while I could say I was given this stuff for “free,” I’m not sure if that’s accurate. This stuff may be the karmic effects of previous causes —ones that, if I have any sense, I will channel into additional positive actions. To quote an inscription by John D. Rockefeller Jr. at Rockefeller Center, “I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.” Good fortune (or positive karmic effects, for the sake of this piece) is not a gift to squander on ourselves, but a tool for creating more good fortune for all.

Understanding karmic cause and effect is a really useful way to understand the eternally befuddling questions: Why did this happen? Why am I like this? How can I change things? It happened because of previous actions. We’re like this because of previous actions. We can change things, eventually, by taking positive actions now.