Part II: The Spirit of Wisdom (and the Corruption of Madness)
Good and Evil
Regarding the ways of good and evil it is important to understand that choosing between one or the other is not like picking a side where both have their unique merits. Neither is it within your best interest to align yourself with whichever one more closely reflects your own desires and goals. Good and evil are not ideals, but rather states of being. They are not equal forces locked in combat with each other, fighting to win an uncertain victory. No, evil is a derivative of good. It exists only because good exists and its mode of operation is to corrupt, consume, and steal that which good creates in order to satisfy its own selfish desires. Evil cannot create anything on its own, but only repurpose that which good created first.
The defining attribute of evil is selfishness, which is the engine of death itself. Evil looks at all of the good in the world and thinks, rather than taking only what is needed to prosper and grow in goodness it will take everything it desires, and rather than sharing it with all that is good—so that good may continue to spread and to grow—it will do whatever it pleases.
Evil does not see that it would receive greater blessings and riches than it could ever take by its own hand if only it were to be patient and allow good to flourish and share its ever-increasing bounty with all living things. Selfishness can only see as far as its desires allow it to see, which makes it unable to understand the truth of the infinitely expanding riches that pour out from the One Great Spirit. These riches are not merely wealth, good health, power, influence, and the praise of others, but true prosperity that extends beyond the physical and into the eternal. In this way, the One Great Spirit blesses everything according to what it is ready to receive without holding anything back.
The shortsightedness of evil thinking is what leads to death. By fixating only on what it can see and rejecting the wisdom that allows it to live in harmony with all things, it also rejects everything that it cannot see but would have received. This includes the continuous flow of life into its being. In its madness, evil has not only stolen for itself every desire within its reach, but it has also stolen from itself its connection to all life by demanding autonomy, and despising harmony.
Even the One Great Spirit does not demand autonomy, but shares itself between its three members in order to show that autonomy, selfishness, and isolation lead to death. Life cannot flow freely and multiply if all living things do not work together.
This is the difference between the Source of All-Creation and its corrupted derivative. Evil wants all it can see, all for itself, and perhaps a little bit for those it deems worthy to share with on its own terms. Good wants all that is good and profitable to be shared among all that there is.
The defining attribute of evil is selfishness, which is the engine of death itself. Evil looks at all of the good in the world and thinks, rather than taking only what is needed to prosper and grow in goodness it will take everything it desires, and rather than sharing it with all that is good—so that good may continue to spread and to grow—it will do whatever it pleases.
Evil does not see that it would receive greater blessings and riches than it could ever take by its own hand if only it were to be patient and allow good to flourish and share its ever-increasing bounty with all living things. Selfishness can only see as far as its desires allow it to see, which makes it unable to understand the truth of the infinitely expanding riches that pour out from the One Great Spirit. These riches are not merely wealth, good health, power, influence, and the praise of others, but true prosperity that extends beyond the physical and into the eternal. In this way, the One Great Spirit blesses everything according to what it is ready to receive without holding anything back.
The shortsightedness of evil thinking is what leads to death. By fixating only on what it can see and rejecting the wisdom that allows it to live in harmony with all things, it also rejects everything that it cannot see but would have received. This includes the continuous flow of life into its being. In its madness, evil has not only stolen for itself every desire within its reach, but it has also stolen from itself its connection to all life by demanding autonomy, and despising harmony.
Even the One Great Spirit does not demand autonomy, but shares itself between its three members in order to show that autonomy, selfishness, and isolation lead to death. Life cannot flow freely and multiply if all living things do not work together.
This is the difference between the Source of All-Creation and its corrupted derivative. Evil wants all it can see, all for itself, and perhaps a little bit for those it deems worthy to share with on its own terms. Good wants all that is good and profitable to be shared among all that there is.
| Deeper Than Shades of Gray |
When we are able to clearly comprehend good and evil, it becomes obvious that no neutral ground exists between the two. Due to our limited vision, however, we struggle to see life this way.
To us it seems like we live in a world painted in shades of gray where it is often difficult to determine what is right and what is wrong. When we look around at what is going on in the world, it appears that most of humankind’s actions and motivations are neither completely good nor completely evil, but rather some combination of the two. Certainly, it is easy to recognize some deeds as darker than others, but in areas where people try to do what is good it can sometimes seem impossible to determine what is the best course of action.
This is because what we as humans perceive as a single action, or a single idea is really a complex mosaic of thoughts, emotions, desires, wisdom, madness, personal biases, and psychological barriers that have been shaped by our past experiences and individual natures. These individual deeds or concepts that we see rise to the surface are brought forth from the heart of a person’s being—their pasts, presents, and desires for the future.
Most of us are aware of this truth, at least on a very basic level, and in seeking to understand the motivation behind another human’s actions, we may be able to uncover some of the underlying influences that have shaped them. Someone who is very wise can maybe even look back through many layers and start to see the individual threads of good and evil that were weaved together to produce a single act. Sometimes our limited understanding is enough to determine how we should respond to a certain person, idea, or action in a general sense—whether we should be wary or welcoming, whether we should support it, or discourage it. But, to understand any person, idea, or deed fully is hopeless from a human perspective.
To help to visualize this truth, imagine a single instance of good as a tiny white dot, and a single instance of evil as a black dot of the same size. Now, imagine that every detail that influences a single thought are made up of these little black and white dots. And let’s say there are 1000 dots contained in a single thought. When we zoom in very close, like looking through a microscope, we can see the individual dots that make up this thought; some of them are white and some of them are black. But, when we step back and view the whole thought with the naked eye, it now appears gray because the individual spheres are too small for our eyes to distinguish from each other, and they get blurred together by our imperfect vision.
Now, let’s suppose this thought is joined by a collection of thoughts, and together they form an action. If the action we are observing is made up of 100 different thoughts, each consisting of 1000 little black or white dots, that means it would take 100,000 dots to paint this action. Assuming the black dots and white dots are not evenly distributed, we might be able to identify some darker and lighter shades of gray when we view this action with the naked eye, but to see every dot—to comprehend every influence of good and evil—is impossible. How many dots do you think it would take to depict the complexity of an entire person, which is a collection of many thoughts and actions—a million, a trillion, even more?
Truly, these numbers are irrelevant and even a single thought is infinitely complex because life is infinitely interconnected. We simply lack the capacity to trace its sources back that far. We also lack the capacity to comprehend how its rippling will go on to influence the course of eternity.
It is because of this infinite complexity that life appears to us to be painted in shades of gray. Alone our limited understandings will never be sufficient to navigate the path of good and pitfalls of evil with any certainty. This is why harmony is good and selfishness is evil; why cooperation is good and autonomy is evil. It is only through uniting ourselves with All-That-is-Good that we can hope to reason beyond the limits of our individual understandings and recognize good for what it is and evil for what it is. In this way, we are able to discern wisdom from madness and life from death.
To those of us who choose to follow the path of the Way, the Perfect Guide is always at our disposal enabling us to move forward with confidence, despite our ignorance. With His guidance we can see the truth beneath the shades of gray—insomuch as we are willing to listen to the counsel we are given.
To us it seems like we live in a world painted in shades of gray where it is often difficult to determine what is right and what is wrong. When we look around at what is going on in the world, it appears that most of humankind’s actions and motivations are neither completely good nor completely evil, but rather some combination of the two. Certainly, it is easy to recognize some deeds as darker than others, but in areas where people try to do what is good it can sometimes seem impossible to determine what is the best course of action.
This is because what we as humans perceive as a single action, or a single idea is really a complex mosaic of thoughts, emotions, desires, wisdom, madness, personal biases, and psychological barriers that have been shaped by our past experiences and individual natures. These individual deeds or concepts that we see rise to the surface are brought forth from the heart of a person’s being—their pasts, presents, and desires for the future.
Most of us are aware of this truth, at least on a very basic level, and in seeking to understand the motivation behind another human’s actions, we may be able to uncover some of the underlying influences that have shaped them. Someone who is very wise can maybe even look back through many layers and start to see the individual threads of good and evil that were weaved together to produce a single act. Sometimes our limited understanding is enough to determine how we should respond to a certain person, idea, or action in a general sense—whether we should be wary or welcoming, whether we should support it, or discourage it. But, to understand any person, idea, or deed fully is hopeless from a human perspective.
To help to visualize this truth, imagine a single instance of good as a tiny white dot, and a single instance of evil as a black dot of the same size. Now, imagine that every detail that influences a single thought are made up of these little black and white dots. And let’s say there are 1000 dots contained in a single thought. When we zoom in very close, like looking through a microscope, we can see the individual dots that make up this thought; some of them are white and some of them are black. But, when we step back and view the whole thought with the naked eye, it now appears gray because the individual spheres are too small for our eyes to distinguish from each other, and they get blurred together by our imperfect vision.
Now, let’s suppose this thought is joined by a collection of thoughts, and together they form an action. If the action we are observing is made up of 100 different thoughts, each consisting of 1000 little black or white dots, that means it would take 100,000 dots to paint this action. Assuming the black dots and white dots are not evenly distributed, we might be able to identify some darker and lighter shades of gray when we view this action with the naked eye, but to see every dot—to comprehend every influence of good and evil—is impossible. How many dots do you think it would take to depict the complexity of an entire person, which is a collection of many thoughts and actions—a million, a trillion, even more?
Truly, these numbers are irrelevant and even a single thought is infinitely complex because life is infinitely interconnected. We simply lack the capacity to trace its sources back that far. We also lack the capacity to comprehend how its rippling will go on to influence the course of eternity.
It is because of this infinite complexity that life appears to us to be painted in shades of gray. Alone our limited understandings will never be sufficient to navigate the path of good and pitfalls of evil with any certainty. This is why harmony is good and selfishness is evil; why cooperation is good and autonomy is evil. It is only through uniting ourselves with All-That-is-Good that we can hope to reason beyond the limits of our individual understandings and recognize good for what it is and evil for what it is. In this way, we are able to discern wisdom from madness and life from death.
To those of us who choose to follow the path of the Way, the Perfect Guide is always at our disposal enabling us to move forward with confidence, despite our ignorance. With His guidance we can see the truth beneath the shades of gray—insomuch as we are willing to listen to the counsel we are given.