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We live in an unfair world. For the most part, the dice are thrown at birth. If you are raised in an upper-middle class family in Silicon Valley, your chance of professional and financial success are a million times higher than if you were born into a broken family with an alcoholic father in Cameroon. I have traveled to over 50 countries in the world and I can see how determining the environment we are raised in is.

All leaders understand that an organization is far more successful when its members believe they are treated fairly and that the system is a meritocracy, where progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth. Many good leaders strive to create order from the natural chaos of life, and ensure that group members are rewarded according to their actual contribution, themselves included. Unfortunately; many leaders in all branches of society are only making the pretense of justice through sophisticated manipulations and dissimulations, while continuing to follow purely selfish desires. This is why people are more and more disillusioned with politics as they see more and more clearly through the web of lies of leading political parties. But this trend is encompassing all fields of society.

I have had extensive experience with the US legal system and I can only see there the law of the fittest and not the law of justice. People are being fooled by the illusion of fairness in the legal system because laws appear to be neutral and impartial. However, people interpreting the laws are subjective and can easily fall into diverse manipulation, corruption or weakness of character. Most people that have had to endure the US legal system realize that the system itself composed of judges, lawyers and specialists was a more redoubtable adversary than the foe they intended to protect themselves from. I may sound harsh with the US legal system but it is actually better than many legal systems throughout the world that are even far more corrupt.

Following the same train of thoughts, many people, mostly atheists, are arguing that if God was omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, justice and love as all religions claim, then why would the world carry so much pain? We can witness so many real stories where “the good” are abused by “the bad” or where “the cheaters” win over the principled ones. This goes against everything we read or watched as a kid. We get to realize we were led to believe in justice so that we could better manipulated but that it is mostly an illusion.

However; there are many people that came from horrendous childhood environments and managed to overcome their challenging background to achieve extraordinary success. Motivational speakers abound in citing examples from famous people overcoming early struggles.  Though they are a minority, I personally know people who endured the worst possible childhood and who were later on able to raise on top of their field. But if we look at these outliers, these same people had some extraordinary talent that made possible for them to create new opportunities in their life. So to an extent, they were gifted with some good cards despite their environment. So even this argument is more the exception that confirms the rule that we do not live in a fair environment.

We make the mistake to equate financial & professional success as the ultimate goal in life. However, if we dive deeper within, we realize that genuine happiness is really what we are after. We only want to be successful as far as we think it is going to make us happy. We all know financially and professionally successful people that are miserable and ordinary people that live a truly happy life. So it appears that happiness may be far less dependent on external situations than we may think.

I can see in my meditation that behind the background of emotions we got to experience every day such as excitement, sadness, joy or disappointment, we can find another dimension of self, the one that is beyond the roles we play everyday. When we commune with our inner self, and we touch our core, what do we find there? Peace or torment.

Torment has many characteristics. It feels like something is missing, that we are out of integrity, we cannot sit still as a result and we are looking for ways to distract ourselves. Judgment towards others or self-hatred which is really the same thing, restlessness, shame, the desire to hide our shameful self by projecting a new persona, identification with negative emotions, feeling split and divided, the feeling unworthy of love, alone and disconnected are all attributes of this state. Actually; many successful people are tormented. Their professional activity or financial success may be simply a coping mechanism for hiding their unhealed traumas or not a direct creative expression of their being.

Peace, on the opposite, comes with the alignment of our personality with our higher self. In that state, we feel love effortlessly by the simple act of being alive. We feel complete, and we may be alone without feeling lonely. We have desires without compulsive needs. We have faith in our future, and we are grateful of the lessons learned even if they were painful. We feel guided and protected. We stay the same authentic person in all situations. We are able to be fully present. Our activities are a natural and direct expression of our being and not an escape.

Genuine and lasting happiness comes mostly from our inner-self and it will determine if we experience torment or peace. This is where divine justice lies. When life brings us joy, we can simply rejoice in it but as life brings us suffering, we have the choice of using this hardship and learning from it. We can then get more loving, compassionate, pure and wise. The conscious experience of suffering can help us narrow the gap between our personality and our spirit, to live a more authentic life and experience inner peace as a result.

One year ago, I lost the woman I loved which compounded the loss of my 2 children 2 years prior. This brought very deep torment to my soul. I struggled with guilt, sadness, betrayal, disappointment, bitterness, discouragement, and depression. I used the very same tools that I am practicing daily on my healing clients, to heal myself.  These tools include: inner work, introspection, conscious somatic experience of negative emotions, learning the lessons, surrounding the hurt aspects with unconditional love & presence, taking responsibility and initiating the appropriate actions.

During the past year, my external situation did not change. However; I am now feeling very different. I am finally AT PEACE. I realize this is the most important thing. This makes me believe that divine justice does exist because there is always a way to make a profit from suffering that comes our way. We are not choosing suffering consciously (though it can be argued that our higher self does) but when tragedy strikes, we still have a choice to look for the hidden gift. The fact that the painful external situation that revealed the inner struggle or unhealed traumas (the loss of love or children in my case) is not changing despite a drastic improved inner state is not a contradiction with the law of attraction because we live in an abundant universe. The law of attraction needs to respect the free will and the point of attraction of all parties involved. So, for example, if one has been alienated from his children, a loving stepchild may appear. Or if the former beloved does not come back to your life, an even more beautiful love will manifest. This is why it is so important not to be fixated on the outcome, but instead to follow one’s heart and surrender to spirit. Human justice may be imperfect so take refuge in divine justice, and inner peace becomes our ultimate reward. Help yourself, and God will help you.