Question: “Why do bad things happen to good people if what you put into the universe, you get back? Does the universe take things away?”
A good businessperson who is fairly successful and accomplished takes out a loan for half a million dollars but decides not to pay it back. What happens? They end up in jail. A bad situation for a good person.
All sentient beings are essentially good. They grow up to be good or bad according to the environment they grew up in. A bird eats ants for food, but when the bird dies, the ants eat it for food.
The universe has nothing to do with your goodness or badness and the things that happen to us. Life lives by the law of causality, so we can say that cause and effect is the natural law of the universe.
In Buddhism, cause and effect doesn’t only count for this life, but all our past and future lives at well. In this life, we are seeing the effects of the seeds that were sowed in past lives, and the seeds we plant in this life will flourish in future lives.
If we look at some of the successful people in business, politics or entertainment, some of those people are just horrible people whom some might say don’t deserve their lifestyle, but they have obviously did good things in past lives to have the lifestyle they have today. Likewise, we can subtly determine how we were in past lives by the way our lives are now. Is it good, bad, just okay; do we have a great talent or do things better than others; do we struggle in academics or professionally; etc.
Every positive or negative thoughts, speech or action we do plants a seed in our consciousness that will either flourish in this life or in any of our future lives. So even if we don’t get to enjoy the fruits now, we should at least be looking out for our future lives. One day you’ll be able to look back and thank yourself.
Smile and be well!