It is a significant feature of recent times that we are encouraged to probe question and think about every aspect of life. We may remind ourselves this was not always the case. For thousands of years this activity was the prerogative of philosophers and theologians the people were expected to comply with the opinions and beliefs of their time and place. In the last few hundred years the philosophers and clergy have been gradually supplanted by the scientist.

Now in our present times the ideal of universal education encourages each one us to establish our answers for ourselves. Knowledge in principle, is equally available to all and nowhere is this illustrated more clearly than in the unregulated flow of information through the world wide web.

If a guideline for life is to be meaningful today clearly it has to withstand the scrutiny of logic and reason. It also has to be sufficiently far reaching and universal so as to remain valid in the contact of our technological and multicultural societies. We are challenged by the different outlooks and beliefs of our friends and neighbors to widen our perspective and find universal principles that unite us on life’s common ground.

This book asks the reader to open his or her mind to consider what may be for some a new perspective a universal spiritual view of life that sits comfortably with a scientific approach. It is a perspective that helps to resolve some of the great contradictions we all face. The book’s message that life is fair and we only ever get what we deserve will not make sense however if we look at life through a narrow window. The author therefore asks us to step back and perceive life more broadly. He presents to us the way mystics see life and shows us how their vision complements and enriches a scientific world view.

By “mystics,” he means those people who, throughout history and in all parts of the world, have spoken of a level of spirit that is common to the great religious traditions. They are people who—through direct perception or illumination, not thinking or analysis—have experienced the formless loving power in which all life has its source. Building on our reason and logic, if we take their vision and understanding as our framework, we find that all life is endowed with meaning and purpose.

“Life,” the book says, “does not make complete sense to because we have no sense of the completeness of life.”

Mystics describe reality in terms of two fundamental principles: love, the very stuff of existence, the positive power that energizes everything; and justice, the law of cause and effect that weaves and dyes the complex patterns of creation and ensures that its fabric never wears away.

The focus of this book is the principle of justice—and most importantly, that correct understanding and application of the workings of this principle are essential if we are to experience the divine potential of the more fundamental and all-embracing principle of love.

Using metaphors drawn from our daily experience, the author describes how the law of action and reaction, of cause and effect, reaches much further than we commonly understand. As he presents us with a vision of the vastness of life and conveys how the principle of justice operates at subtle spiritual levels of which we are not normally aware, he leads us to understand why things happen in the way they do. Looking at life from this perspective, we find that practical questions of right and wrong can be resolved, and we have the basis for a logical and Universal moral code.

It is simple: Positive actions produce positive results; negative actions produce negative results; no action goes unanswered; and the principle of perfect justice links everyone and everything through all time and space. At the individual level, once we understand that we only get back from life whatever we give, it makes sense to act positively if we want a positive, happy life.

Since killing is an action that always carries its consequence of pain and suffering, a life of non-violence-—- including not eating animals—is a natural outcome of this understanding. Vegetarianism is also the preferred choice for many who simply choose to live in harmony with what they sense to be the essentially loving, or positive, nature of creation. Compassion, the active concern for the wellbeing of all life, is the crossroads where we can lift our human lot to a higher experience of being. It is our opportunity to give ear to the divine instinct within each one of us and, through the way we live, transmute the principle of balance and perfect justice that rules the world into the experience of love.

Before asking the reader to consider what may be for many a new perspective, the author questions some assumptions that underlie our common perceptions of everyday life. Next he sets about providing a more comprehensive picture of life, including those aspects which we cannot readily see. With this foundation he then turns to the implications of divine justice for everyday life, and discusses the importance of carefully choosing what we eat to sustain ourselves. Research on the health effects of meat eating is also presented to support the book’s arguments relating to vegetarianism.

Also included are two essays which expand upon the central themes of Life is Fair: morality and the law of karma, or divine justice. The first essay examines the nature of right and wrong, and how a “moral compass” would work if such a device actually existed. The essay on Karma the fairness machine will be of particular interest to those who want to know how the moral law of justice ensures that we always reap the consequences of our actions.

The society is privileged to include at the end of the book three short stories by distinguished authors the Pulitzer prize winners Alice Walker and James Agee and a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, Isaac Bashevis singer. With striking literary accomplishment each author conveys a message about the oneness of life. It is a fact that by what ever measures we use to define ourselves by species culture, gender, lifestyle or convictions we also separate ourselves from all others. We remove ourselves from those we think are not like us. If they suffer it means nothing to us for they are something else beyond the reach of our compassion. We are who we are they are who they are.

Why do we suffer when someone we love is suffering? Because we feel connected to them. These stories are included in the book because each one takes us across a barier we might not normally cross. They draw us into the heart of the other’s experience and raise the question. Are the fears the confusion the joy and the love felt by others so different from our own feelings?

In the conviction that a respect for all life marks an important step on the road to self knowledge it is with great pleasure that the society presents this clear and modern explanation of how the moral law of justice works.