Structure of Good and Evil

We are shocked when "Evil" appears in such a ready formed way. It may be international like war, or a local murder, or more minor an aggressive threat or rude word.

Traditionally we just think well that person/people are bad or Evil.

In the mirror we do the same when people are Good.

But how does "evil" or "good" turn up?

Well this is a key misunderstanding. We tend to think of things as existing like a storm, or a new car, and we never stop to think of the long process by which these things come about. In the case of a storm there is a complex process of sunlight and moisture and lots of other factors that come together in the storm-- and we can't forget that we need to be there too, so we need look at all the forces that led us to be in the place where the storm happened. A lot takes place before something exists. And this is true for both good and bad. Altho it's not a mirror, there is a big difference between Good and Evil. That first.

Darkness is a lack of light. Light removes darkness in a flash. Physics will back up that darkness is not a thing, while light is a thing. Light has a wavelength and an energy. Darkness is not a thing, it is simply the lack of light. Things can be brighter or darker depending on the amount of light, not darkness.

Now the analogy doesn't quite work because Goodness is not a commodity. In fact Good pervades the whole Universe all the time. Evil is like darkness it occurs when that Good light becomes obscured. So its as though a candle lights the whole universe and its down to us whether we have our eyes open. This is what Genesis in the Bible captures when it places the nature of "Sin" within the hearts of Wo/Man and Eve and Adam.

So the question of Good/Evil is just the question of how open our eyes are.

Now in traditional thinking people just say well "open your eyes." What is stopping you? I've seen people say things like this. It shows a complete misunderstanding of how the world works, and even themselves. Presumably people who criticise Evil people think they are Good. But all good people can find someone better.

As Jesus says in John 8:7

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

I believe Confucius says:

When you see a man of worth, think of how you may emulate him. When you see one who is unworthy, examine yourself.

We are neither Good nor Bad. We are a shades of illumination, and being Good is a process of cleaning to be brighter. This is the thing we misunderstand.

Jesus reminds us that we have all sinned, and sinned so deeply that we will never be pure (through our own actions, God can forgive completely). Only God is pure enough to hand out judgement fairly. All human hands are tainted so are unworthy to throw that stone or pass judgement. Likewise Confucius points out that when we see people better than us we have a guide to improve, and when we see people who are worse than us again we have a window into our own faults.

And this is the point of the post. A good person is simply someone who has taken the opportunities shown to them to improve. And a bad person is simply someone who has not done this and has either let all the dirt accumulate and obscure the brightness, or has even become so deluded as to actively start to accumulate them and obliterate the light.

Eventually once the tiny little acts of good or bad accumulate you get a sudden existence. But it hasn't suddenly occurred its the result of thousands of parts we have put together over years.

And this is the danger of the mistake. There is a thought "oh its only minor, it doesn't matter." But a lifetime of minor transgressions becomes a major transgression.

So what is a "transgression." Well this changes depending on where we are. Jesus says in Matthew 5:

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Well that seems ridiculous to a standard western male. Its okay to have a roving eye and enjoy the "eye candy" that is on show. And women in the West play along and dress and make themselves up to look attractive, appealing and sexually pleasing to the eye. Yet women in the West will become crazy if a man actually cheats on them. This works the other way around too, how many men avoid the eye of women even married women. So most do not tolerate physical adultery, but will tolerate mental adultery. But some tolerate even physical adultery, and some do not tolerate even mental adultery. Its a sliding scale from physical to mental, and they are connected. Actions begin as thoughts. So as we become "better" we shift from actually committing adultery, to just thinking about it, to actually not even being attracted to any woman we have not made a marriage vow to. How far the West has slipped! But this applies to everything, and the whole process of moving from Evil to Good is a scale on which everyone sits. Even Confucius said he would never complete the journey. Buddha, interestingly did declare that the journey was at an end and that he had cleared out all obscuring dirt to see the light of goodness completely unobstructed.

Now why do people slip and fall down the scale from Good to Evil? Why do we not spend every moment of every day refusing the bad things and moving toward purity and goodness so our eyes are wide open and we can see the world in the full joy and bliss that it is.

So why do we not do this? The answer is Ego.

Because we believe in an actual separate entity cut off from the world around us that we link to ourselves, like taking a cup of water out of the ocean and giving it our name. Because we do this, we end up needing to know about it, and we stick labels on it. One of those is whether it is "Good" or "Bad." So we believe the water in the cup is good, and then suddenly we find we have done something bad and hurt someone. Now if its small enough we keep on with the belief that all the water is good, and carry on. But eventually, and it depends how big a cup of sea water we carry around with us, because enough bad things and we suddenly decide that the water in the cup is bad. Then we go on a drive to purify it, go some good deeds, go and fix the faults, say sorry do things to re-establish a belief that the water is good. And then we go back to what we were before. And so it ends up cycling. And if we carry a huge water tank of sea water with us those swings are going to be huge. Evil people rarely think they are evil, they have such a strong belief they are good that they can ignore all the bad things. Eventually it becomes so ridiculous to argue they are bad, that they factually admit they are bad, but not deep down. Deep down the water is so permanently labelled as "good" that the fact it is green and rotting doesn't get noticed.

This is the danger of ego. This is why it is the worst of all the poisons (the others being anger and greed, that is wishing to do harm, or wanting more than we need). With ego we hold on to an inside glass of water and close our eyes to the ocean.

So if we make that inside glass small, and instead respond to the little things that happen we can get a firm purchase on the slide from Good to Evil and actually move towards the Good. eventually we can put the ego behind us and break the glass so it joins the ocean. We nakedly face the world as it happens, seeing the ocean in its entirety all the good and bad mixed up and working to correct all the bad we find, not just keeping the good for our self and throwing the stones at the "bad people".