9 Immutable Universal Laws: Destiny is Who You Are

The universal laws are the Truth because that which does not change. Man cannot create laws. Man can only make rules and regulations and follow the laws of creation that are above him.

Law is the process by which the unmanifest becomes the manifest; it is the process by which the observer becomes the observed, the seekers become the truth, and the dreamer becomes the dream.

All creation, everything that exists in the physical world, is the result of the universal laws that govern all living things.

Table of Contents

1. The Law of Virtue and Karma

Contrary to popular belief, virtue (gained by good deeds) and karma (gained by bad deeds) are not theoretical concepts, but they materially exist in another dimension. They are as real as your inner strength, inner courage, and inner commitment.

How can you say a person is loyal, trustworthy, or strong? It turns out that these qualities physically exist in another dimension; it’s just that your eyes do not yet see.

Virtue is a white material while karma is a black matter, which in Buddhism is referred to as “the karma from evil deeds.” These two substances exist in the same dimension associated with your body simultaneously.

What kind of relationship do virtue and karma have? We obtain the white one, virtue, through doing good deeds, overcoming hardships, and enduring mistreatments; the black substance is accrued by committing bad deeds, doing wrongful things, and mistreating people.

Nowadays, some people will do anything for their own gain, including all manner of evil. They will do all kinds of evil things for money, and they will also commit murder, pay someone to kill, practice homosexuality, have sex with multiple partners, and abuse drugs. They do all kinds of these things. But doing wrong costs a person virtue.

To appreciate why we value virtue so much, just pause to consider a longstanding religious belief that blessings will come to the virtuous, in the next life if not in this life. The amount of blessings and virtues that one built up in one’s past lives determines what fortune is in store in this lifetime or in the next.

If one lives a blessed and virtuous life now, it can translate in one’s next lifetime into a high position and salary, or it might translate into different kinds of wealth and fortune. And this would also include whether one has a happy family or even how one’s children turn out, and so on.

This is the fundamental reason why some people are wealthy and others poor, why some hold positions of high rank while others are destitute and homeless. The universe is fair. Those who do good are blessed for it, while those who do wrong will face the consequences—if not in this life, then in the next. For this is an immutable law of the universe!

In Past Life Astrology by Judy Hall, there are 15 different kinds of karma that may affect your life:

Merit Karma (Virtue): This karma is like the credit in your bank account: the reward for your good deeds, learned lessons, charity to the needy, etc.
Recompense Karma: This is the compensation for what you have sacrificed to help others. For example, if you sacrifice your personal desire to take care of someone else in your previous life, that person could come back to help you or be your best friend in the present life.
Redemptive Karma: There are many people incarnated into this world to help others to become successful. They are truly respectful masters whose desire is to clear off the collective karma of the mass.
Retributive Karma: What goes around comes around. What you did, do, and will do to others will come back to you, especially your negative actions driven by greed, jealousy, and hatred.
Attitudinal Karma: Your ingrained attitude, emotions, beliefs, or habits can also have karma. It can manifest as an attachment to a doctrine or a ritual leading to either positive or negative results depending on what you’ve believed in.
Organic Karma: This karma reflects injuries or conditions from other lives. Your past diseases will affect your current illnesses or injuries. For example, if you had a tendency to self-indulge in your previous life, this can manifest as obesity or liver problems in the present.
Karmic Treadmill: This is about the destructive patterns that have not been solved, such as alcoholism or addiction.
Work Karma: You are likely to continue the profession of your previous life.
Symbolic Karma: Your present life condition is the representation of what you have done in the past. That is, you earn what you deserve.
Communication Karma: How you communicate with others can also lead to karma, such as grace, gentleness, politeness, gossip, lies, hypocrisy, mockery, etc.
Omission/Ignorance Karma: This karma is about what you should have done but didn’t do. This is when you refuse to learn the lesson by behaving in a resistant way, so the karma will come back and forth to make sure that you learn the lessons.
Relationship Karma: Who you were associated with in your past lives can have significant impacts on your present life. You likely meet the same souls from the past in different human forms in this current lifetime.
Pacts and Promises: This karma is about the promises, pacts, or contracts that you’ve made with others. For Ascended Masters, this pact can be made before they’re incarnated as human beings.
Karma in Suspension: This is the “karma on hold”, which means that it is in suspension to be dealt with at another time.
Karma in The Making: What you are doing right now at the current moment will affect your future.

2. The Law of No Loss, No Gain

“No loss, no gain. Everything comes at a cost.”
Li Hong Zhi

When a person speaks abusively to someone he might think that he’s the better for it and has let out his frustrations. But as the universe works, “no loss, no gain”.

To gain, one has to lose. If you do not want to lose, you will be forced to lose. And by whom, you ask? It will be enforced by the underlying qualities of the universe. So you can’t get away with not paying, wish as you may.

Here’s what happens in a scenario like I was just describing. When one person speaks abusively to another or pushes someone around, he will give his virtue to the other party. The more he swears at him, the more virtue he gives him. The same is true with beating up or bullying others. As one hits or kicks another person, one will give one’s virtue away according to how badly one beats up the other person.

The average person can’t perceive the workings of all this. And so he might be enraged by the abuse, and fight right back. But if he punches back, he will be returning the virtue that he had just been given, and as a result, neither one gains or loses anything from it.

But then suppose the second person thinks, “You have hit me once, so I should hit you twice. Otherwise, I won’t feel avenged.” Well, if he punches again, another portion of virtue will fly over from his body to the other party.

This is why Jesus has taught that if someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

For spiritual practitioners, virtues are even more precious because these substances can be transformed into gong (higher energy) to develop psychic abilities.

“Gain” is to gain conformity to the nature of the universe. In turn, “loss” is to abandon negative thoughts and behavior, such as greed, the pursuit of wealth, lust, desire, killing, fighting, theft, robbery, deception, jealousy, etc.

(The Law of Virtue-Karma or No Loss-No Gain comes from the teachings of Master Li Hong Zhi)

3. The Hermetic Law of Mentalism

“The All is Mind; The Universe is Mental.”
The Kybalion

The Hermetic Law of Mentalism indicates we are living in a mental universe. It is the mental plane that manifests the material plane, not vice versa.

For example, it is your thoughts and intentions that dictate your actions, not the other way around. If you have any bodily sickness, you need to check the “disease” or “dis-ease” or “uneasiness” of your mind. When you have a stomachache, you need to check your thoughts. And when you remove the bad thoughts, your stomachache will be healed.

Hence, here is the sequence of physical manifestation: intention -> thought -> action -> habit -> character -> destiny.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, He created him; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:27

When God created man in his own image, he imagined man in His Mind. From his imagination comes image-nation, which are the nations we have in our world today.

How does man create, then? Most of us believe we can only create something out of something or through our reproductive organs, but can you create something out of nothing?

Yes, you can, from your own mind.

Like virtues/karma and other inner qualities, your thoughts materially exist in another dimension. It can move things around the world based on your Will. The entire universe, as well as everything in it, exists as a thought form before it manifests. According to the law, the universe is mental, manifesting the physical.

The physical world is simply a reflection of your thoughts and level of consciousness. When a man wants to realize the existence of his mind, he reduces it to a particular concept that works in the material world. He is here to solidify and work on the thoughts that brought him into physical existence.

When he perceives the world to be a happy world, it is a happy world. When he perceives life to be a painful life, it is a painful life. The Law of Mentalism suggests by changing your thoughts and mindset, you can alter your reality and manifest your desires.

You need to think first before any action, and think righteously. Lower thoughts such as greed, jealousy, and hatred correspond to lower realms of Hell while higher thoughts such as love, compassion, and kindness correspond to angelic realms.

You feel the fire when you have lower thoughts – it’s guaranteed that way. Your material world is what you mentally project out from the inner world.

According to Wisdom Tavern, here are the 3 main factors of creation:

The source of all creation is the Spirit or the Universal Mind.
The process of creation is the Universal Mind in motion.
The object of creation is the physical universe.

4. The Hermetic Law of Correspondence

“As above, so below; as within, so without.”
The Kybalion

The Hermetic Law of Correspondence indicates “as above, so below; as within, so without.” It is the law responsible for how astrology, face reading, or palm reading works because we are a copy of the universe.

Our human bodies are merely the microcosm of the universe, and the universe is the macrocosm of our human bodies. We are all made of the same energy, atom, and essence that create the stars, planets, and galaxies. All animals, trees, rivers, rocks, and mountains are within you (Y.O.U = Your Own Universe).

The Law of Correspondence emphasizes there is a relationship between everything that exists in the smaller world and the larger world. In other words, whatever exists in the physical world exists in the non-physical world and vice versa.

Every action begins with the act of thinking, while thinking begins with a thought received from the Spirit – the Universal Mind. Your actions have the power to influence your mind and so do your mental activities have the power to change your behaviors and deeds. This is called correspondence.

What we call “life, matter, and energy” are the manifestations of the unmanifest. In other words, all creations are the manifestation of the Unseen, transforming itself into the manifest, the Seen, and the visible.

What is without is within. What is visible is invisible. Life is not what you perceive as the outer world; life is inner because every experience is inner. Inside the physical body, there is a spiritual body. Inside happiness, there is suffering.

The symbol of the Principle of Correspondence is the Hexagram, which is made up of 2 opposite triangles. The upward-pointing triangle represents the “as above” principle and the masculine aspect of nature, while the downward-pointing triangle represents the “as below” principle and the feminine aspect of nature.

You can see this symbol contains 4 fundamental elements that create our universe: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. When you inhale, you can feel the element of Air, which is cool and fresh, and the element of Earth, which is the atoms/substance. When you exhale, you can feel the element of Fire, which is hot, and the element of water, which is the humidity and moisture of your breath.

The hexagram is also the representation of the north pole of Saturn, the perfect six-sided hurricane, 60 miles deep, that could swallow four Earths. That’s how powerful it is.

What affects the Heaven (macrocosmic level) will affect the Earth (microcosmic level), yet what affects the Earth may affect the Heaven. It is the higher plane that controls the lower plane, not vice versa. This principle means everything that happens in our human society must be done according to the Will of Heaven.

For example, in the past, men were not allowed to know about the Truth or the Great Way of Cultivation. Ancient people believe whoever gives advice to a headless man is himself in need of advice. You were not allowed to know who you truly are and how to return to your original nature until this critical time in our human history.

This was not because of secret societies or the devil, but it was done based on the Will of Heaven, because everything in our human world must be progressing as it should. Nature does not rush, yet it accomplishes its purpose.

5. The Hermetic Law of Vibration

“Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”
The Kybalion

The Hermetic Law of Vibration embodies the truth that everything is in motion; everything vibrates; nothing is at rest; and everything must change.

From the chair you’re sitting on to the phone you’re looking at, everything is in motion. If you leave a plastic bottle on a table, you may see that the bottle is inflexible and that it’s not moving, but in reality, the bottle is moving, because its atoms are moving.

At the solid level, the atoms stay very close to each other. They vibrate but at a slow rate. When you burn the plastic bottle, this increases the speed of the atoms, moving them further apart. Hence, the bottle is burned down as its atoms are separated, but its atoms are still living.

Similar to human beings, your essence is still intact when you die, only your bodies are disintegrated.

But a degree in Bachelor of Science is just a B.S degree. In the Bible, Adam is a secret code for Atom. When God puts a deep sleep upon Adam, it means God slows down the atom so it becomes denser in this physical plane. As the atom becomes slower and denser, it becomes solid (visible). As the atom vibrates faster and higher, it becomes air (invisible).

The air that you breathe in is as materially real as your phone, house, and car, yet you can’t see the air. Hence, you drop from a higher plane to a lower plane as God puts a deep sleep upon Adam (or Atom), from a being of light to a being of matter.

The Law of Vibration also explains that spirit and matter can occupy the same space; they are just different in terms of the degrees of vibration. The light of the Sun can go through your body as much as the sounds of music can go through your ear.

This indicates aliens are right beside us. They are just operating in different vibrations in the same space because the time-space concept is different for each dimension. You can only enter another time-space through true spiritual cultivation.

When your eyes are open, you will see that rocks, trees, soil, and water are in fact all alive. They are all moving and in motion. Nothing rests. If they notice you can recognize them, they will even greet you.

As everything is vibrating, this hermetic principle also suggests change is a natural course of nature. To grow, you must change. For new doors to open, old habits must cease.

When you move from one action to another, you change. When you learn from the mistakes of the past and apply them to the future, you change, and vibrate higher. If you don’t want to change, stop breathing, because the moment you breathe, you change.

When you try something and it doesn’t work, and try another thing and it still doesn’t work; it is not the thing that doesn’t work, it is “you” that doesn’t work.

6. The Hermetic Law of Polarity (or Duality)

“Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half‑truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.”
The Kybalion

The Hermetic Law of Polarity indicates everything in this world has a dual nature: soft-hard, young-old, masculine-feminine, etc. There can be no light without darkness, no death without life.

However, these two sides are essentially one just as a coin has two faces, but it is still a coin. Your human body has a left side and a right side, yet it is still a human body. There are two extremes of the same thing; they are not separate but different from each other in terms of degree.

The concept of polarity/duality can be seen clearly in the yin-yang symbol of the Daoist system.

Although yin and yang are opposite to each other, inside yin we have yang and inside yang we have yin. This means that your good actions contain negative elements within them and your bad actions have some good effects, even though the effects are small. Where there are 7 Heavenly Virtues, there are 7 Deadly Sins. Nothing is absolute.

Things are subject to the Law of Duality on this Earth unless we can raise our awareness and spirituality above the 33rd realm of existence. There, you will be free of reincarnation, and this is where you finally return “home”.

In this physical world, duality is actually an illusion. Why? Light and darkness are not one and the same. A person can have all the darkness around the world, yet with all of this power, he cannot even extinguish the light of a single candle.

Therefore, goodness always overcomes evil as much as the divine always governs the devil.

The Law of Duality is relative, too: US$ 100,000 of assets in Vietnam may be considered wealthy, but in the US, this can be considered average. A hot, sexy lady may be highly valued among low-level men, while high-level men value chaste and elegant women.

What is considered good for material men (money, fortune, possessions) may not be considered good for spiritual men, because these things cost virtues.

Virtues are what make your psychic power possible and your return “home” achievable. Without virtues or good deeds, you can’t return “home”. Spiritual men also want to get rid of their worldly attachments, so any attachments to material things are considered bad for them.

7. The Hermetic Law of Rhythm

“Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum‑swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.”
The Kybalion

The Hermetic Principle of Rhythm indicates everything moves in a pendulum‑like movement: a powerful swing to the left is equivalent to a powerful swing to the right.

This is the rhythm that will swing you back and forth between the two polarities. If you want to aim high, you must be willing to overcome your low times.

The stronger your character is, the harder the tests life throws at you. This explains why most successful people have to go through extreme hardships and suffering because they have to pay for what they want to achieve. The opposites of success are challenges, failures, and trials.

For any spiritual advancement, you must prove your inner substance. It’s not about the challenges, but how you overcome your challenges that count.

A king once asked a queen how far is the distance between happiness and sadness?

This is because the moment you want to be happy, another moment you will be sad with the same intensity. Happiness and sorrow are made of the same substance but differ in degree and vibration.

For instance, if you smoke a lot of weed and are addicted to that high, you will be forced to face that kind of low when you wake up from your illusions. Your all-time high must be equivalent to your all-time low. There is no way around it because this is the immutable law of the universe, unless you take up spiritual practices and sincerely work on improving yourself.

The Law of Rhythm also states everything in the universe moves in cycles or patterns. Between every high and low tide, in and out breath, systole and diastole, day and night, there is a rhythm or pattern that keeps recurring. History usually repeats itself.

This was the reason why Confucius came up with the Doctrine of the Mean, indicating the wisest men will follow the Dao, the Middle Path, or the Way and seek no extreme. This doctrine emphasizes the importance of moderation and that one should never act in excess.

They understand that “the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left”. If you’re currently facing hardships, you can be confident that it can be a blessing from the universe, because the universe may have great things in store for you in the future.

It’s like you can’t be lucky or unfortunate all the time as the universe doesn’t work that way. There is time to lose as well as there is time to win. As duality is 2 poles of the same substance, the Law of Rhythm will switch you from one pole to another.

Rhythm compensates or counterbalances so that you can always reach the point of equilibrium. When your life is out of balance, there will always be messengers who deliver the necessary messages. They will be right inside you and communicate with you through thoughts, emotions, ideas, or intuitions.

8. The Hermetic Law of Cause and Effect

“Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.”
The Kybalion

The Hermetic Law of Cause and Effect indicates for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Every cause has an effect, and that effect in turn becomes the cause of something else in an infinite cycle of events.

Cause produces effect, and effect also produces cause. Trees bear fruits, and fruits also bear trees. There are opportunities in problems and there are problems in opportunities. When the economy collapses, it is one of the best opportunities to get prosperous while others are panicking.

The law indicates nothing in this world happens by accident. All the good and bad things coming into you are because of you – the Cause or the Creator of your own life.

Even something seemingly “random” can be traced back to originating circumstances that allowed it to manifest. Chance is simply a term for a cause you fail to recognize. You will reap what you sow and you will have to be responsible for your own actions.

The Law of Cause and Effect also happens on a collective scale chain of causes and consequences. If something happens in the US, it will likely cause some effects in China too. This law is closely connected to the Law of Virtue and Karma, which typically works on 4 main levels:

Personal Karma: This is the karma of an individual soul that can carry from one life to the next.
Group Karma: This is the karma that will cause you to meet your previous friends, groups, or organizations in your previous lives.
Collective Karma: This type of karma is related to the human race in general.
Cosmic Karma: This is the most powerful karma of all because it can override other karma. It is the need for each individual to realize themselves and to evolve spiritually to become who they are.

To apply the Law of Cause and Effect, you must sow what you want to reap. If you want to grow the tree of happiness, blessings, and peace, you must sow good deeds as seeds. You can’t steal and harm others to get what you want. If this is the case, you must lose.

Even homeless people can’t get free food if they don’t have enough virtue or blessing to exchange for it. There is equality in the world but there is no guarantee that it happens in the physical world. If we do not get what we deserve in this life whether positively or negatively, we will get it in the Hereafter. You shall not be dealt unjustly even as little as the weight of an atom.

While you may think the Law of Cause and Effect only works on the physical level, it works on the mental level as well. If you pay attention, you will see that 90% of your thoughts today are similar to those of yesterday. Chance simply means you’re not aware of the inner cause of your problems.

To solve your problems, you need to get rid of the root cause of your issues, not its leaves and stems. If your lung hurts due to excessive smoking, you need to stop smoking instead of going to see a doctor. If people are not treating you right, you need to see how you’re treating others. So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.

It’s important to know not all karma is active at once. Sometimes, your karma is “on hold” so that you can pay it back later, which is one of the reasons why you reincarnated in this life – to pay back what you owed in your previous life(s).

If you don’t learn the lessons the universe is trying to teach you now, the same events and situations will happen again in your life. You might have to come back here again and again to learn the same lesson, the lesson you should have learned.

9. The Hermetic Law of Gender

“Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.”
The Kybalion

The Hermetic Law of Gender indicates everything in this world has a gender. The sun is male while the moon is female. If you take a look at the atom itself, it is made of proton (+) and electron (-), which are the masculine and feminine that create the whole universe. As the atom is the basis upon which everything is built, everything in this world is the embodiment of the Law of Gender.

The word ”gender” is derived from the Latin root meaning “to beget; to procreate; to create; to produce.” “Sex” refers to the physical distinction between male and female living things, which is merely a manifestation of gender on the physical plane.

The Law of Gender is what makes Tantric practices (or Tantra) possible by harmonizing the masculine-feminine between the two sexes. Tantric unions strive to achieve a balance of yin and yang by gathering yin to supplement yang and vice versa, through mutual supplementation.

However, both Buddhists and Daoists hold that the human body innately has both yin and yang (you are both male and female in principle).

This is especially apparent in the Daoist concept of yin-yang: It is due to the presence of both yin and yang in your body that makes it possible for you to develop psychic powers, an angelic body, cherubs, spiritual bodies, and other supernatural beings.

This holds true for the male as well as the female body. Within a man, there is a female side and within a woman, there is a male component.

Hence, we can progress to great spiritual heights without adopting Tantric practices because using them runs the risk of falling prey to evil and lapsing into a dark practice, if it’s not handled well.

These practices are normally used by a monk or lama only at a very advanced stage of Esoteric Buddhist practice, and so he will be spiritually accomplished. He will be guided through the practice by a Master Teacher. And because this individual’s mind will be righteous, he will be solid, able to handle it well, and not succumb to evil.

By contrast, someone who is not very spiritually developed has no business using Tantra, as he would surely fall prey to evil. His character wouldn’t suffice. He would still have worldly, covetous thoughts along with sexual desire, and that would be the plane on which he dwelled. So it would be sure to turn out evil.

The Law of Attraction is but another expression of the Law of Gender. The feminine attracts the masculine by nature. In physics, this is the underlying principle of how the magnet works, as the north pole attracts the south pole. When you put two north poles together, they repel.