Why good things happen to bad people and vice versa - a different viewpoint

This question is often asked, because it is a reality. A lot of times, the most undeserving get all the blessings, especially the most cherished of all — good health and a long life. But some of the kindest, gentlest souls are serrated by the loss of a loved one, financial misfortunes, or a painful, debilitating illness. Sometimes, misfortunes come in a row to people who don’t deserve even a paper cut. And why is it that some people who are evil personified live a life that is heaven on earth?

I believe that life isn’t fair, but that we have the power to even out the equation — the scale that has joy on the one side and sorrow on the other — in our lifetime. Or that if we cannot tip the scales in favor of happiness, that we can gift ourselves with the positive attitude that can take the imbalance and live with it.

Over the recent holidays, dermatologist Sylvia Jacinto gifted me with her book, Why Good Things Happen to Bad People and Vice Versa, an easy-to-read book that seeks to answer one of the most difficult questions propounded on earth. The book offers a different viewpoint to those seeking answers to that question. I daresay the beliefs she shares in the book will ruffle and irritate some of ours. But I also daresay these beliefs will be like pebbles thrown in the puddles of your mind. They will make gentle splashes, from which ripples will radiate.

Whenever I consult with her, Dr. Jacinto shares not only the techniques and secrets to a blemish-free face — she shares thoughts on an enlightened and lighter life. She has the most serene smile I know.

A grandmother, she is Exhibit A of her expertise —her complexion is flawless and unlined, her movements light and energetic (she has a flamenco dancer’s figure). She can do some procedures on your face without topical anesthesia because her touch is gentle.

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Dr. Jacinto began her soul-searching when her marriage hit the rocks. She turned to God, but she also started reading books on meditation and devoured more new age books. She went to a Science of the Mind seminar by Charley Barretto. She familiarized herself with the Law of Circulation (“Whatever we do comes back to us”) and Law of Multiplication (Whatever we do is “multiplied, as in the story of the multiplication of the loaves and fish by Jesus Christ”).

“I had to look for more answers as to why these awful things were still happening to me. I felt I was a good person. I had not done any harm nor wished ill on anybody. I was a medical doctor and had been helping poor patients daily, plus teaching in a well-known medical university for free. Why were these bad things still happening to me?”

After her marriage ended, she questioned God, “I was never a bad person, even in thought or word. How could God be so unfair and unjust?”

“I realized then,” Dr. Jacinto writes, “that the negative events that were happening to me were my karmic reap from my negative deeds in my previous lifetimes.”

Yup. She believes in reincarnation, a belief buttressed by research, immersions with gurus and experts on the subject and her own travels around the world. She was changed forever by the book of Dr. Ian Stevenson, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, wherein the author personally interviewed 20 children in India who remembered their past lives (with details corroborated by the still living relatives whom they claimed were their husbands/wives or family members).

Dr. Jacinto also read the books of Edgar Cayce, who claimed that most of his patients’ physical complaints were based on past life experiences. A patient with chronic unexplained stomach pains, for instance, was said to have killed a Christian in a Roman arena by piercing his stomach with a spear.

“Accepting that reincarnation is a reality explained all of the negative situations happening in my life,” she writes, adding, “I also found the explanation why even strangers in strange places would be attracted to me. I must have known them in my past lives.”

This awakening is what inspired her to write the book.

“I want to share my realization with everyone travelling this road with me. Many of them are in anguish, in despair, over the life situations they are experiencing but have no answers to the ultimate question: ‘Why is it happening to me’?”

According to Dr. Jacinto, “If you are wondering why many people whom you see as doing many ‘bad things’ are having the ‘time of their life,’ it is because they are still reaping the good karma from the good deeds in their past lives.

“And why do ‘bad’ things happen to ‘good’ people? It is also because they are also still reaping the fruits of their negative deeds in their past lives.”

Citing sources, Dr. Jacinto says we cannot know or see what “deeds” these were, but God knows and has recorded them all.

How about illnesses? They are either “karmic,” she writes, and they happen to us to teach us “lessons” in this lifetime.

Perhaps, knowing that the illnesses we suffer are meant to teach us lessons in this life so we can be better persons in the next, is a balm for our pains.

“Once the lesson is learned, the ‘cleansing’ or negative experience (in body, mind and spirit) disappears,” believes Dr. Jacinto. “We can have the happiest experiences once we pass over our ‘negative’ experiences with joy, gratitude and discernment.”

We don’t have to live with our lot, says Dr. Jacinto. “‘Depositing’ good deeds is also a way of mitigating negative karma. As opportunities show themselves in our daily lives, do not let them pass by unnoticed. We must grab them!”

She writes that every person has “about a hundred lifetimes.”

Every lifetime we live is supposed to make us better (thus the “lessons” that come our way).

“The end goal of reincarnation is perfection of the soul or spiritual body,” believes Dr. Jacinto. According to her book, the yogis and living Ascended Masters (like the Dalai Lama) are mostly in their last lifetimes.

“Why do we come back? We all have a mission we want to fulfill. Until we fulfill our mission (which we do not consciously remember), we cannot transit (or in human terms, “die”),” she writes.

This isn’t incompatible with my Christian (Catholic) faith, which teaches us that we have a purpose in life for the greater glory of God. And when we are spared from accidents and cured from illnesses, we often ask ourselves if we still have an unfinished mission on earth — made in heaven.

So why do bad things happen to good people? Whether it’s because we are paying the debts of a past life, learning the lessons that are going to make us near-perfect in the next life, it is comforting to know that all things happen for a good reason.

Even the bad things.

(Dr. Sylvia Jacinto’s book Why Good Things Happen to Bad People and Vice Versa is available at National Book Store. For inquiries, call tel. no. 912-2466.)

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)