There are man-made laws (approx. 300,000 federal laws, not counting state, county, and city laws), which you could break and get away with if no one saw you. All these thousands of laws have not stopped people from their criminality. Nothing really has changed. Criminals simply find ways to get around them. If you break the law and get caught, you could land yourself in prison. But, even if you are guilty, you might get a good lawyer who gets you off. You might get away with your law-breaking. Many do, as you know. This is the way it is on planet Earth.
But Cosmic Laws are much different. Justice is swift. Breaking the Cosmic law of goodness and decency instantly lands you in jail. Psychological jail. No lawyers, courts, bail, or postponements. Your mind becomes imprisoned, and the sentence is instantaneous. Cosmic Laws are totally different, for there is no escape from justice. Vernon Howard calls these mental criminals.
So, just the thought of revenge, hate, or jealousy is a punishable crime against myself. The sentence is a cloudy, uneasy mind that can find no rest, only distractions (self-imprisonment). It would be wise to investigate this to see if it is true. Only the man who is tired of torment and suffering (being in prison) will be interested. Allowing wrong thoughts into my mind is dangerous and unnecessary. Simple self-observation tells the real story. The goal is to live unafraid and free.
The biggest problem is that people have overwhelmingly convinced themselves they are already free and they are doing just fine. But we are not talking about finances or power over others. We are talking about that dreaded emptiness when there is no noise, no distractions, and no thrills. So they never know what could be, for what they now have is the same old lives every day, because this is what they have settled for. There is something more than what you now are. Your imagination cannot think about what is higher, but it is sure it can.
Vernon Howard says, “Don’t sneak around in life, afraid that someone might hurt your feelings. This is sleep and a self-crime. A wide-awake human cannot get their feelings hurt. Catch yourself acting like this and stop it. Don’t want to be a criminal anymore.”
Vernon’s “Practical Exercises for Inner Harmony, exercise 7, and exercise 12 , both connect with seeing Vernon’s mental criminal idea.