The present moment is always balanced.
I give and I receive at the same time.
When I’m sane and I give, I am filled with the joy of giving. A joy that is equal to the giving. That IS the gift. So we’re square. I am not due anything else in return. The return is immediate and in full measure.
When I’m out of my mind in past/future, I am out of balance. I give and I miss the receiving, and in my confusion, I wait to get something back. Something that will never come, except through me when I return to sanity.
The world seems to deliver me rewards and punishments for things I did in the past, but how can I know they’re tied to acts of the past? Where is the past? How can I know they aren’t just the benevolent now offering me the gifts of the now? How can I know the apparent “punishments” aren’t also the gifts of the now?
If there is no past/future, how can I be rewarded or punished for a past act? How can what I’m experiencing be anything other than the gift of the now?
The now is the only thing and it is a perpetual gift, happening forever.
When I fall out of now into past/future, I start trying to earn what I already have. When I try to earn what I already have, the universe’s response can be very confusing. It can look like it’s not giving me my due.
I experience a “good” that is somehow punished, a “bad” that gets rewarded. It makes no sense. I get no traction. I don’t know what the universe wants from me. I rage at it, fists in the air. “Why?!!” And I get no satisfying answer. Because I cannot be satisfied in this confusion.
What I’m missing is that there is no punishment or reward in the universe, only perfect balance. Equal custom-tailored perfection for all, always. I am not rewarded or punished FOR my ACTS. I am rewarded or punished IN my THOUGHTS and BELIEFS. When I believe I am punished, I am. When I believe I am rewarded, I am. And no one can do anything about it but me, because I’m the one doing it.
Whenever I’m ready to let go of the story that I have to balance the universe, I can question every thought of reward or punishment.
And when I do, I discover a world so perfect that there’s never a need for any more or less than exactly what is.