In many spiritual or esoteric books, you read things like “there is no good and evil”, yet often, it is hard for our minds to grasp. In this article, I will attempt at explaining it in new ways besides the “we are all souls experiencing duality”, and less painstakingly complex then reading Nietzsche.
First, it’s useful to explore the concept from a “scientific” perspective, drawing on my article on perfect symmetry (my second article in this series which I invite you to read, as I will draw on the ideas I explore there). Perfect symmetry basically means that for anything that comes into existence, it’s opposite automatically has to exist. In mathematics, it’s pretty simple to illustrate: if 1 exists, -1 exists, if 2 exists, -2 exists. And thus you can have an entire Universe from “Nothing” so long as everything that exists adds up to nothing if superimposed or reunited with it’s opposite.
Now we can jump ahead to matter and particles, and the easiest illustration is that of electricity. Applying this rule it means that for every positively charged particle you have to have a negatively charged one, to maintain balance. So regardless of what happens in the Universe, how many lightnings strike, you will always have an equivalent amount of positively and negatively charged particles. They may be fooling around, transferring energy here or there, but in the end, if all is added up, it all checks out and amounts to zero or nothing.
Fast forward to humans. This is where our minds usually freeze. When particles exchange positive or negative charges, when objects are hot or cold, when matter is solid or gas, it all seems “neutral” in the end. We wouldn’t label positively charged particles as being “good” and negatively charged ones as being “evil”. We apprehend these opposites as ultimately “neutral” and interchangeable. At our level, for human action, we have a hard time to view things as being “neutral”, or just part of an interchangeable exchange of energy.
Of course, ultimately, if we look at the true nature of reality (see my article number 3), nothing exists except energy/vibration/information. All of our reality is hallucinated by our brain and is just a convenient interface that we create in order to “manipulate” pure energy. Whenever you pick up an object, understand that all that you are doing is an energy exchange: you give up some of your energy (we call it calories) in order to move an object (a bundle of pure energy) from point A to point B (you basically transfer your energy into the object to make it do what you want it to do, to shape it however you want to shape it). Every single one of our actions and thoughts is an energy exchange, which “updates” our hallucinated reality to be in conformity with our desire. We are like a form of “self-aware” bundle of energy, as if lightning or electricity had a self-awareness and chose how to use it’s accumulated potential. Or as if the electricity coursing through the electronic circuits of a computer’s processor was self-aware and chose which way to go inside the processor, thereby manipulating what was displayed on the screen, what came out of the speakers, etc (what our brain ends up seeing, derived from our five physical senses).
So here is the real hard part to swallow. WE are the ones that create an imbalance by “labeling” our actions as “good” and “evil”! We are actually the CREATORS of good and evil! It is as if we “slapped” an artificial label created in our minds, our thoughts to all of our actions, thereby “tainting” them and creating an imbalance which HAD to be resolved (due to the law of perfect symmetry). We add an artificial imbalance to an otherwise perfectly balanced situation. For instance, if you pick up an object, all is in balance, you have spent the necessary energy to materialize that reality. You have just transferred energy from point A to point B. To say it differently, it is as if you moved some water around in a giant pool (think about an ocean of energy where some “droplets” have the illusion that they are separated from each other, and interact with each other). In the end, it doesn’t matter. All you have done is moved stuff around, but nothing was “created” or destroyed, all is in balance. But now, if you attach a “good” and “evil” label to actions, it is as if you artificially created NEW energy or “vibration” (as some esoteric circles call this), as if you ADDED positive energy to a pool of otherwise perfectly balanced energy. Given that all has to remain in perfect equilibrium, this calls for the creation of an opposing “evil” energy to counter-balance it. You could say that this is the true law of Karma: returning to equilibrium by experiencing the opposite “action” to the one you have created.
Of course, you might say, this is bullshit since otherwise, we would always have to have a balance of 50/50 for all actions on Earth, yet it’s not like for every life someone saves, someone has to kill a person. Rather, it is an equilibrium at a UNIVERSAL scale. This is something which is clearly stated in Neale Donald Walsch’s “Conversations with God” books, basically stating that as people on Earth do more “good”, the “evil” can be displaced into other remote parts of the Universe (from the perspective of God, I guess there is no problem with that, but I don’t really like the idea as it sounds like dumping our garbage somewhere else in the Galaxy or Universe). Also, don’t forget that ultimately, it’s not so much a question of the ACT but a question of the VIBRATION/ENERGY and thought that is associated with the action. So if by killing a fly your guilt matches that of someone’s pride of saving a human life, that will do the trick! Remember, the artificial “energy” we add to our actions is… artificial! It’s made up by our minds! So all that matters, is that the “signature” or distinctive pattern of that energy is matched by an opposing one. It can even work with virtual actions, like “killing” the avatar of another player online with rage and hate can compensate for a “good” action somewhere else in the physical world. However, since “like attracts like”, this “virtual” compensation should only be a temporary fix and by no means a permanent solution. There is no guarantee that we will be able to “restrict” evil to virtual, simulated environments.
Now to the most important point, going beyond “good” and “evil”. The Greek philosophers and many other thinkers have understood how to go beyond good and evil for a long time: by following the Golden Mean or the Middle Way. Neither good nor evil. But how does it translate into practice? Simply by neutralizing the labels we associate with our actions, understanding that for each label, a counter-label has to exist. Right now, esoteric books talk about “following your Divine Self”, or “acting like your Highest Self”. Yet again, this means that someone must “follow his Lower Self”.
Does this mean we have to become a-moral? I do not believe so. Perhaps it is a matter of a progressive transition to more and more neutral labels until we reach a point where we do things for… NOTHING! This is the ULTIMATE goal, the moment where we truly become a GOD. God acts simply BECAUSE (he is the cause). HE IS. Or as other esoteric readings say: I AM. The mere fact of “being”, of existing, existence for it’s own sake. The steps to get there will be numerous but we will have to gradually learn to “neutralize” the labels we associate with our actions, and only then will we be truly FREE and have the Power of God. It will start with balancing good and evil WITHIN ourselves, recognizing that these two opposites live within each and every one of us in an EQUAL way. Failure to recognize this pushes the energy of “evil” on to someone else! We have created these two labels, so each and every one of us has to take responsibility for HALF of each energy! Otherwise this means that SOMEONE ELSE has to deal with a mix of 80% of “evil” and 20% “good”! Once we have recognized that “good” and “evil” live in each and everyone of us in equal proportions, we can CHOOSE (our greatest gift, the power of free will) to act in a certain way simply BECAUSE. First, you may need to say to yourself “because it feels right, or it feels good”, (notice the emphasis on the “feeling”, as opposed to using an expression like it IS good, which suggests some form of “Universal” truth) then you can move on by saying to yourself “because it feels right or good FOR ME” (thus recognizing that this act is YOUR OWN PERSONAL CHOICE and NOT an act which has some form of UNIVERSALITY to it). Because acting in this way DEFINES who you are. (Every act, ultimately, is an act of self-definition: you define who you are by acting it out) This step of limiting the “positive” or “good” aspect of an action to YOURSELF is an absolute necessity, as the balance is now kept WITHIN you and does not have to take place OUTSIDE of yourself (in the world we observe).
At this point, it is essential to make a distinction between the artificial or “fake” good/evil and the “real” good/evil. The artificial dichotomy is the one that we created in our own minds, via our own mental constructs. The “real” one, is the pre-existing darkness and light, past and future, the void and the All, nothing and everything… Doing “good” in the real way, which does not require the creation of an equivalent counter-vibration, is when you simply “steer” your actions towards the light, towards a pre-existing condition. And again, in this realm, good and evil are not very adequate terms. Is it better to advance towards the future or repeating the past? Is it better to advance towards the light then towards the darkness? That is a matter of point of view, but what is for certain, is that our inner compass(being hurt both physically and emotionally) will suffer more if we turn to darkness. So again, doing something because it “feels” good does not require an opposite “evil” action to take place. But labeling an action as “good” based on your artificial, socially constructed definition of “good” will require the existence of a counter-vibration or counter-energy. The Universe “naturally” tends towards balance and increased complexity. We are the living proof of that. The Universe or God wants to manifest, in reality, all that it IS. And so from that point of view, killing each other is “evil” simply because it delays the emergence of the “next” something that makes the Universe or God even more complete. Notice how “evil” is “live” spelled backwards, living your life backwards, or in other words, devolving rather than evolving! Which gives you a true insight to what evil is: a forceful interruption or reversal of evolution. Notice, also, that God is often described as pure Love. Spelled backwards, Love is Evol… Evol-love, evolove, evolve… You get the message. God’s dearest wish is to see all of the Universe evolve, grow, to be more and still more than what it already is. Isn’t that also what you wish for your children? You see them learning to walk, then talk, then handling objects, climb trees… And at every progress they make you feel so much love, joy and pride… That is how God feels about the entire Universe, and humanity as a whole.
Now to finish, I would like to come back to concrete cases like Hitler and observe them from the perspective of a higher being or a God. If we are indeed ALL ONE, that all of Humanity is just ONE big organism, then we may start to understand why people like Hitler exist, and why they are not “evil” by any standard, but rather A PURE NECESSITY.
Again, picture all of humanity as being individual cells inside the body of a Higher Being. How could you illustrate or interpret what Hitler has done? In very simple terms, it is the SAME process as that of a child playing with a knife and cutting himself. It is a part of a learning process through the experience of pain.
You do agree that the cells inside the body of a child suffer and die as the result of the child cutting himself or burning himself, correct? The pain he feels is a way for the child to learn from his mistakes, to grow. The cells that died will be replaced with other cells, right? The body of the child will heal, even though his body may keep the scars and memories of old trauma. All of the actions of humanity are of that kind: they are a means for humanity to learn by experimenting, in a physical/real way. Just like a child, we have the choice of learning the “easy” way, understand, intuitively, intellectually, that playing around with matches or a knife is dangerous and may cause us harm (playing with fascism, hate, discrimination, humiliation, inequality, crushing poverty…), or the “hard” way, experiencing the pain of cutting oneself directly.
And so Hitler is simply one human, one soul, which volunteered to “play” the role of a knife, so that humanity as a whole, could learn that a knife can cut and hurt you.
Each and every person’s body is a prime example of this learning process: it manifests physically, what we failed to solve psychologically. For instance, we are told that we need to exercise more, or eat more healthy foods. First, we have the chance to act on these truths intellectually (initiate the change without experiencing any physical symptoms), but should we fail to act upon it, our body will start sending us physical signals of pain, some cells may need to die in the process, sacrifice their life, so that we “get the message”.
So in conclusion, the moment we “invented” good, we necessarily “invented” evil. The Bible is very clear about this, in the scene where Adam and Eve take a bite out of the apple. It is the moment where “good” and “evil” appear and the game of energetic imbalance/balance is started. This game had it’s uses. It got us this far. If humans had transcended all dualities, all opposites from the get-go, NOTHING would exist! Man and women, for that matter, ARE a manifestation of this duality, these contrasting opposites. We wouldn’t have created these complex civilizations, we wouldn’t have been bothered to try to make life better on Earth. But now that we “remember” who we are, if we are truly miniature versions of God, then we have the Power to decide which dualities/opposites remain “useful”, and which we should ditch or transcend. For instance, we probably should not get rid of the duality of joy/sadness, as we can only experience joy in contrast to sadness. Or the contrast of pleasure vs. pain (there are many ways to experience pain which do not involve a “good” vs “evil” duality, like hurting yourself while playing a sport you love). Equanimity, “perfect stillness”, all of these terms are used by many esoteric readings and religions like Buddhism. But equanimity towards EVERYTHING, getting rid of all contrasts, would make for a pretty boring world. Perhaps it is time that we ditch “good” vs “evil” as these opposites have outlived their usefulness. Just like a child, as he grows, does not need to make the experience of all painful things to learn, so too, we, Humanity, as a whole, can transcend the necessity to experience good vs. evil to learn and grow.
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