In the musical ‘Hamilton’¹, when prearing for the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson twice refers to the third Newtonian law: “Every action has its equal opposite reaction”². In the context of the election, this points to the emerging two-party system of the United States. In the context of the ongoing rivalry between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, it prepares the audience for the escalation of their conflict, ending in the fatal duel on July 11, 1804. In the context of the inner struggles of the musical’s characters, it reflects on the bitter fact that those who take sides, by that very act, always also create enemies.

Some 300 years after Newton’s death and well over 200 years after the election of 1800, we have come to think of action either as a standalone move (as in Nike’s “Just Do It.”) or, more often, as a means to an end. We mostly think of doing things in order to achieve other things – or we even start with the proverbial end in mind and then line up our actions so they will lead towards our goal³. When we do not reach out goal, our most common conclusions are that we have simply not done enough, not worked hard enough – or not focused on the right stuff. With this teleological understanding of action, the idea that each and every action is inextricably entwined with its counterforce is given up in favour of a notion of unilateral direction. I can basically do whatever I want in order to reach my goals – merrily assuming there’s no side effect or (worse) backlash to be expected. This goes for pursuing my career dream of becoming a climate influencer, for pestering my crush on all available social media channels, or for attacking human beings in order to claim land I consider rightfully mine.

However, around 2,000 years before Newton was born, there was already a much more sophisticated understanding of action and reaction: The Buddhist concept of karma. Far from the trivial: “What goes around, comes around” interpretation it sometimes suffers today, karma encompasses a whole science of causes, conditions, and effects and their interplay⁴. In a few sketchy words, there’s sum of all our past actions that is stored in each of us, the subset of those whose effects are currently activated, the chain of effects set into motion by our current actions, and the very immediate effects of what we do right now. All of these can influence our future selves as well as our future actions, and they can come back to us through our environment as well as through our tendencies to act (or not act) in certain ways. As a consequence, being unaware of and inattentive to the latent or salient reactions triggered by our actions is what results in what Buddhist call “births in the lower realms”: A downward spiral of less and less pleasurable outer and inner life circumstances.

Of course, we can do better than this. Even those of us who do not claim to be omniscient and clairvoyant can stop and pause before they act to take that spilt second moment of considering the likely reactions to our actions. And maybe then take the decision to act differently – or not at all. Which, of course, leads right back to the central characters of ‘Hamilton’: Action-oriented Alexander Hamilton, who’s not throwing away his shots, and hesitating Aaron Burr, who still waits for it, waits for it, waits for it…

Not surprisingly, my fourth wish for 2024 is: Let’s pay attention to action & reaction.

---

1. This is the fourth of six posts in a micro-series on wishes for the year that is about to start. The posts are neither scientific nor fictional, so anything written here could be completely wrong or absolutely real. The photos illustrating the posts are taken at the coast of the Baltic Sea, in or near the small village of Ahrenshoop where I happen to spend a short winter vacation. They have nothing whatsoever to do with the content of the posts. ↩︎
2. If you haven’t seen it yet, “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda is available on Disney+ (and, of course, still playing in New York, London, and a few other places). ↩︎
3. This way of thinking was popularized by Stephen Covey in his “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (1989), where it comes as a package with “Be Proactive”, “Put First Things First”, “Think Win-Win”, “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood”, “Synergize”, and “Sharpen the Saw”. ↩︎
4. If you’re interested in reading up on this beyond the googlable content, a nice starting point is “The Words of My Perfect Teacher” by the Tibetan 19th centruy master Patrul Rinpoche (1808-1887). ↩︎