Does 'Cause' lead to 'Effect'?

‘As you sow, so shall you reap’ goes the saying. Though this sounds wonderful, it is not practical. We say: ‘I put in so much effort, therefore I should reap this much result.’ In actuality, it is not about how much effort/energy we put into a particular task or situation. Because it is not us; rather, it is the Universe. We add a drop of water to the river, and the river increases in volume. But the effect of that drop of water is lost in the volume of the river. Yet, we expect that one drop to have a butterfly effect. How can it?

We have all heard the story about the last straw on the camel’s back. A man said his camel was very strong, and he began placing straw on the animal’s back. Each single strand of straw on its own was almost weightless. The camel stood there stoically while the man kept on placing more and more straw over its back. And then suddenly, when he placed one more straw, the camel’s back broke. It was not that one straw that broke it’s back; rather, it was the cumulative effect of the entire load. But the man thought it was that one strand of straw and maybe he shouldn’t have placed that last straw.

Similarly, it is the cumulative effect of all the drops of water that makes the river flow. Yet we expect our drop to be the one! Why should cause and effect matter at all? After we sow seeds in a field, we may or may not reap the harvest. We may die before it is time to harvest. Or the birds might come and eat the grain. So how can we say: ‘As you sow, so shall you reap’?

This saying is fraught with expectation and negativity. And then we become angry with everything around us and at the Universe at large because we have not reaped as we have sown. Because we have an expectation, therefore it leads to so much dissatisfaction in our lives.

A lot of clichés are fraught with negativity, and we learn to live by them and make them the codes in our lives. Let the only code be ‘Just Be’. Instead of worrying about what we sow, let us live with the faith that ‘what we reap is what we need.’