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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
There is no focal point, no embodiment of
Evil in the world; no external, central
figure to whom we might point as scapegoat,
absolving ourselves with, "He is the cause
of all our trouble." We ourselves provide
locus of danger and threat in the world.
Unenlightened Man himself is the origin
of all calamitous events befalling us.
return to the main-page article on "Satan"
"a perfect formula for personal irresponsibility"
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Question:
How do I respond to people who fear that I am going to hell because I don't believe in hell?
Answer:
Dear Tia, Sometimes hell seems to me to be preferable as a place in which to spend eternity, if the only other option is to spend eternity with people who think like the ones you refer to in your question!
... the Devil is now and always has been a mythological figure, who comes into the Judeo-Christian story very late in history after the exile. It reflects the dualism of Zoroastrianism, which the Jews met when the Persians conquered the Babylonians who were at that time holding the Jews in captivity. When Satan first appears in the scriptures he is an angel and is in the employ of God testing Job on God’s behalf. Only later does he become a fallen angel who rules the world and into whose hands we dare not fall.
... the convenient ability to blame an external being for any moral lapse is little more than uninformed piety. It sees God as a punishing parent and seeks to escape the divine wrath by saying, “It was not my fault, God, the devil made me do it.” That is a perfect formula for personal irresponsibility.
Bishop John Shelby Spong
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But what about those who perpetrate evil in the world?
It will be asked, "Weren't the Nazis evil? Aren't mass murderers evil? Wouldn't we be better off if we got rid of them?"
All things that would cause us harm must, of course, be either avoided, hindered, or stopped; even, as a last resort, with deadly force.
However, the issue before us is not one of denying that certain activities, or certain people, might become threats to the common good. The heart of the issue is something else - what is the cause and origin of what we call Evil?
Carl Jung, BBC interview, 1959 : "We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself ... We know nothing of man, far too little. His psyche should be studied because we are the origin of all coming Evil."
In every human being resides the seeds of evil; every human being has a Small Ego to contend with; every human being, if sufficiently provoked, without spiritual awareness, in the right circumstances, is capable of any crime, any atrocity, ever committed in history. This is the unpleasant truth.
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'we are the world, we are society'
Very often, Krishnamurti would caution his audiences against blaming others, seeing ourselves as "above." It's not easy to stand down as there’s much aspersion to cast. Right now, we witness the world marching toward totalitarianism, to a degree not seen since the days prior to World War II. Many of us are angry, and we want to believe that if we could just get rid of “the bad guys,” the ones causing all the trouble, then life would be good for all of us “good guys.” But this is illusion.
The seeds of evil, not always unsprouted, reside within each of us. If sufficiently provoked, if blinded to the light within, each person is capable of any atrocity, any brutality, and more, that we’ve seen in history.
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the seeds of evil
Star Trek: Next Generation, episode "Violations"
| "No one can deny that the seeds of violence remain within each of us. We must recognize that - because that violence is capable of consuming each of us." |
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In other words, “We are the world. We are society.” We are not exempt, as we too reflect the human condition, and we take the vectors of perdition with us wherever we go. And until we learn to “go within” to access the inner light, there will be no peace and happiness; not on an individual basis nor for the world.
See the Krishnamurti page and especially his "summary" discourse.
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Let us not be deceived. We all live on the same continuum of spiritual development. Some, more than others, are farther along that path of the soul's unfoldment and perfection; some are more mature, some less so; some had better formative environments, better parents and teachers; some - the walking-wounded as wise - have already learned from prior bad choices, by bitter experiences in life, and, having suffered this aversion therapy, are now "good"; but we all travel the same path, that grand continuum of soul development. And all have their assigned homework that must be turned in before graduation.
There is no external Great Evil to be isolated and located as one's "enemy," the extermination of which will bring world peace to all of us good guys. It's not like that. Yes, there are people who do very bad things, but we delude ourselves to suggest that they constitute the center of Evil in the world.
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Editor's note: We must not misunderstand. Just because we have the potential to commit Evil, does not mean that we should label ourselves "miserable sinners," "wretches" seeking unmerited grace, "worms" - the likes of whom God, if at all, but with effort, could hardly love. These are the mind-control games Despotic Religion employs to control people. The "seeds of Evil" residing in the Small Ego is but a temporary stage in our development. Our core-being is perfect, radiant, and glorious, having been "made in the image."
Fundamentally, there is no "us versus them" but only the universal quest of each individual struggling toward the Light.
And to misconstrue the process; to exclude oneself from the path of enlightenment; to imply that Evil rests only within some external "bad other," some deluded notion of Satan; to deny that within one's own self, too, are the same seeds of darkness; to pseudo-piously assert, "I thank thee God that I am not like other men"; is to stunt one's own growth and to trap oneself in psychological dysfunction.
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