When we're being persecuted or taken advantage of, life seems very unfair. We tell our victim story as if the incident really happened and there is no justice in the world. When we either "get mad or get even", we're taking justice into our own hands. We perpetuate the seeming unfairness of life. We stick it to the world or get shafted.
So long as we react to evidence literally and take it face value, justice will remain hidden. Fairness is only revealed to a reflective mind. A sense of justice emerges from detached consideration of the panorama of components in the drama. While we are afraid of injustice, guarded against getting blamed or vigilant about further persecution, reflective practicing is unavailable.
When we begin to reflect on injustice, we switch from a linear to a recursive epistemology. We make sense of cycles that come back around to haunt us or to energize our continued efforts. We can see the sowing of seeds, the asking for trouble and the spawning of retaliation. We realize how "the alarming incident" is feedback from whatever came before. We relate to the returning, revisiting and recycling that is occurring naturally and incessantly.
When we make sense of events cycling back around, we see justice visiting the proponents of self-righteousness and disconnection. Each gets what they pay for by opposing the other side. Continual conflicts appear to be vicious cycles: unstoppable, draining and self-justifying. Everyone who reacts to the reactions they're fearing then gets what they deserve. The kind of justice served is called retributive or karmic.
With a recursive world view, we also discern virtuous cycles. The rich get richer and the satisfied get more satisfaction. Those of us that appreciate what we are giving -- gain more to be grateful for, comforted by and blessed by. Self perpetuating cycles are not all bad. We can grow in purpose and mutual benefit -- by going round in circles.
When our reflecting on happenstance yields a sense of justice, we have connected actions and consequences into a full circle. We make sense of what happens when particular things get seen, said or done. We go beyond "cause and effect" to the ways the effect reinforces or depletes the cause. We understand how trying to fix someone else will come back around to "fix the fixer".
With a robust sense of justice, we can let go of what happens. We live free of injustice by seeing "there's nothing to forgive" and everything to accept. We create our experience by our reflective practice. We take nothing at face value without paying an immediate price for our fear, reactions or judgments. Justice is served instantly by how we feel right now. When we are serving injustice, we feel stressed; when were proliferating a comforting sense of justice, we feel blessed.
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