Law of Compensation

The law of compensation is firm with no flexibility of the rules. This law is very straight forward, as it means we cannot have successes without failures or hardships without gains. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 ~ 1882) explains compensation in clear terms: “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”

For anything and everything gained, there must be a loss. A simple example is in order to have fire we use wood which means we replace the wood with fire and heat. Now in order to cook we must replace the heat from the fire with the cooking of food. We then lose the food to bring nourishment to our bodies. This continues till the energy is so small we move on.

The Law of Nature

If we killed off all the insects we now changed the equilibrium of nature and all of a sudden you would find many different animals and plants dying off. In order for us to use this law we must realize that what ever we place in the world has to be replaced or better known as, we reap what we sow.

How does this work in our lives? If you plant seeds of emotions, those emotions will grow. If you plant seeds of love, you will be loved, and if you plant acts of kindness, others will treat you kindly. But if all you looked for is anger, all you will find is hostility.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”

We find that many people forget to put the two meanings together and find themselves out of balance. You will see a thing like one man is rich but bored and another is poor, yet happy. Or, how about Martin Luther King who achieved great success but died young; and others less successful but live long lives. Or, you may have seen the President of a huge company extremely rich, but with no time to enjoy life with his family.

I believe that the seeds we plant are known as “karma,” meaning their actions bring a reaction. In the spiritual sense, it means both our actions and the consequences will flow from the seeds we plant.

Belief In Karma

Many mistake The Law of Compensation, as God’s way to punish the sinner and reward the faithful. It simply means we have consequences in everything we do. If we trip off the steps, we may skin our knee, not because we are bad, but because the cement is hard and rough. Learning about the law will assist us in avoiding unnecessary pain and unhappiness.

Once we understand the law of compensation, where anything gained is replaced with a loss, we can free ourselves from envy of others and live content in producing a balanced life for ourselves.

The Law of Compensation
Brings Change!

Only the person going through the growth can answer that. We realize that there is no gain without loss, in understanding this law, if you ask yourself “What am I willing to give up?” You now can grow with the knowledge that something must go to be replaced with the gain.

We understand that our success depends on what we are ready to give up, to gain the success and benefits that are waiting for us. So, you can ask yourself the right questions such as, am I willing to sacrifice time and comfort to reach my success.

Instead of looking at temporary setback, challenges and any other problems we encounter in our growth, we can know that hidden in our problems are blessings waiting to be discovered. In the same way, if we understand the law knowing we may face difficulty and hard times, we can look past them and know that the success and benefits are waiting for us to move to them.

An important mistake that many make is that of comparing their lives with others. This is caused by focusing on others success and benefits forgetting that they had to endure losses to get to where they are.

HOME