Good and Evil: More Depth

Mystics believe that the arche (basic principle behind the cosmos; Mind) is entirely good, as perfect Lovemind. The strategy or tactic for dealing with "evil" is to say that it is a label created by misunderstanding, by limited spiritual vision. For, when interpreted as an expression of the larger spiritual picture as "karma," all "evil" has its place.

This goes back to the principle of free will. A complex cosmos does not usually yield simple answers, no matter how much we might wish to the contrary. So, God(dess) decided, in the beginning, to create creatures with free will. Being absolutely free Herself, She was able to grant full freedom to each and every one of her "sub-minds" within Her great Mind.

That is when this cosmos really gets interesting. For beings of enormous Power and infinite free will were able to do whatever they chose to do. These were also beings of great and trustworthy wisdom. So, they dove into the dreamworld realizing fully that nothing could ever change them
or alter their pristine spiritual nature. They had fullest confidence in their ability to recover from,to break out of, whatever condition that they created. Nothing could ever harm or hurt them.

But the "virtual reality" of this dreamworld was a little too perfect. It drew them in, as in a deep sleep, and fooled them. They grew to believe that they were awake when they were asleep, and that the dreamworld was the real world. This is why Genesis says that Jehovah (the god of illusion) put "Adam" into a deep sleep, but it never says that he woke up.

When combined with the selfhypnotic amnesia selfinduced, it created a terrific blow to the knowing stability upon which they had relied as souls. This was, of course, the full intent; no game would ever be exciting unless and until they could forget that they were invincible and invulnerable, that nothing in the dreamworld could ever touch them.

So, in utter delusion, they dreamed the worst fate possible: Complete oblivion, non-existence, death of mind and consciousness, return to nothing. This was such high stakes that it made the game incomprehensibly exciting.

Of course, each time that they died to the physical world, they remembered that they were everlasting, megapowerful, nonphysical Souls. And so,at the beginning of each life, the forgetting had to be reintroduced and reinforced hypnotically; now, at every birth, the new
baby is wiped almost completely clean of all memories. For had the memory of having been powerful souls come back with them,the game would be over.

Mystics say that karma exists, in r-reality because it is the creator or dreamer of m-reality. Karma is a great plus to the cosmos. It creates education for even the most evil and ignorant. It is the medium, in fact, by which the entire cosmos will be rescued from avidya, or ignorance, and hence, from all evil behavior. so, it would be inaccurate to say that karma is "evil."

Karma is the gift of the soul and Spirit, a gift to Her children that will impel them into growth and wisdom. So, not only is karma not evil; it is a definite and positive good.

But, it might be argued, karma creates evil. It does indeed create war, violence, abuse, harm, hurt, deliberate pain. But, these must not be seen simply, as through the human perspective. the cosmos is a very sophisticated "place." It is not a place, or state, of simple "black and white," "either-or" thinking. Instead, what is truly "bad" from one perspective can be good from another.

When the mystic discusses good and evil, in the moral sense, she is more conscientious, and more limited, than the average person. She is regulated by a more strict conscience. She must be, for shehas given up regulation by "external," human, or religious law. So, she will be careful to obey speedlimit laws, for example, while these are laughingly considered optional by most persons. She will avoid not only sexual activity that betrays Love, but will not even flirt with behaviors that lead down that painfilled path. She is ultracautious never to cause harm to any living creature-- not physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual harm. Ahimsa is a major guiding principle in her life.

But when we discuss matters of existential good and evil, this is where she uses the sliding scale of shifting perspectives. So, although she refuses to believe in moral relativity, being guided by the absolute of ahimsa, she recognizes that, as an overall perspective, conditions or events might appear evil from one perspective, but be good from a larger or expanded one.

The mystic must be always guided by Love. So, she will never use these principles to justify apathy or rationalize complacency. She can never be apathetic or complacent, for Love forces her to act whenever any creature is suffering.

She must act, is compelled to act, for Love. she must strive to alleviate suffering whenever she finds it, in any sentient creature. Still the basic problem remains: How can Love possibly be in charge of a world in which there is so much misery, unfairness, unkindness, cruelty, and evil?

This she explains entirely by karma. No soul will ever experience any event which she has not "predesigned" into her karma. Some, indeed much, must be experienced because she previously gave suffering to another soul; this is reflexive karma. Other karma is not simply reflexive or reflective; it is chosen and optional.

Many great mystics have incarnated into imperfect bodies in order to sharpen some spiritual quality. They had no reflexive karma, but chose those bodies to sharpen a spiritual characteristic.

The most horrific event can be interpreted as the outworking of karma in a just and balanced cosmos. And, since karma is the outworking of Love, even the most ghastly events can be seen as balancing the cosmic Mind, and not as sheer "evil." For there is a huge difference between "evil"
and "achieving cosmic balance."

Although karma is the will of Love, it is not always Its active will; usually, it is the permissive will of Love. (This is always so when people suffer.) But the great Mind is not deliberately creative of all this karma. For much karma is automatic, built into the laws of the world, as gravity is: Good automatically produces good, and evil, evil. In the outworking of karma, there is no interventionistic God manipulating things and events. Karma is not even dreamed up by the cosmic Mind, but rather, by the lower Soulmind.

There would seem to be two ways of attempting to solve it: The mystic says that this is r-true (true inMind), but certainly not m-true (true in illusion). She never claims that "evil" is "mere illusion," which grants the lower nature a means to do whatever it wants, no matter how it harms others or the self. for evil is real; it exists in most minds; it is absent in only perfect, stainless Mind, the One.

From the cosmic perspective, this is real and true. It is as real as the neophysics claim that there is not a "solid" object in all of creation. But the problem of evil is not solved in any way by simply dismissing it. Instead, it must be actively countered or neutralized at every step by kindness, goodness, compassion, and the family of Love-qualities. Love erases evil, and, when complete, erases even karma.

The mystic could also agree that evil is a partial eclipse, or partial absence, of God, Mind, or Love. But she must insist that no event or being in the entire cosmos can exist without some "particle" of God within, so that Light can never be wholly or totally absent in any location; God is omnipresent.

The mystic also uses a similar argument, that the "bad" is not "absolutely bad." It has some redeeming qualities. For it requires a very rare overview to be able to see the "good" within all karma. Without this perfect interior vision, the mystic can and must only reassure herself that all karma is serving Love. For it serves the Love-education of all souls. And some souls learn easily and quickly, but not all do. Learning important answers is not always a gentle art, as it becomes for one who has learned to listen. For these reasons, a truly enlightened soul will never fall into the dangerous snare of amorality (no moral standards) or immorality (distortion of true moral standards), but will be guided by a stronger and more immediate and helpful standard of morality (goodness.)

The mystic does not try to "justify" evil, as in the rationalizations of the psychotic zombie-nazis. The mystic recognizes evil as m-real, and struggles hard to explain it rather than "explain it away." Mystics are realists, and must encompas evil in any cosmic understanding.

This notion that good and evil must come as a pair is not a sophisticated explanation. In stead, it is more an absence of any real explanation. It might be the last resort of those who have no fuller or deeper explanations.

The mystic could indeed concur that freedom, or free will, is indeed crucially important. It is so important that it can explain most of the gargantuan "evil" in this m-world. This is the deeper meaning of the words of Christ, "You will know Reality [the truth], and Reality [the truth] will set you free." Freedom, even on a personal level, is one of the very pillars of mysticism. To grow up, to fully develop, as a free being, is what the cosmic Journey is all about.

The belief that "evil" exists to create courage or strengths is a fairly shallow argument, a red herring that distracts from the real issue. It is not feasible to suggest that babies are slaughtered, little girls raped, or good men tortured, to provide "contrast" or "temptations." These horrors call for a more substantial explanation, one rooted in the very foundation of the cosmos itself-- deeply, in other words, in Mind.

The thought that good could not exist without evil is not a deep or complete enough explanation. For the contrast-factor is unneeded. One simply does not have to fall down before she realizes that she is being lifted into the air. One does not have to be celebate for years to enjoy an amazing sexual experience. One does not have nearly to die of thirst to appreciate a good drink, nor starve to appreciate delicious flavors. This is "extremist thinking," not valid explanation.
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