Good & Evil

2000-12-12 00:11:00

Rob says:

"JJ, I was thinking about the law all day today and I came to a few realizations. That the laws change as people evolve and that the laws help people to get together and learn about working as a union. If we didn't have laws, people would be doing their own thing where chaos and ego play. Is this correct?"

JJ:

Laws governing morality in particular change as we evolve. It was just a few yeas ago that there were laws against common sexual practices and adultery. As mankind has evolved he has come to the conclusion that such laws are not necessary, but that we as individuals can govern ourselves in these matters. Adultery is still a harmful act, but we have reached a state where we do not need a written law to tell us it is wrong or what the punishment should be.

Just a short time ago people were put to death for criticizing authorities, but now we realize that this has no place in an enlightened society.

Even so, what we consider as bad laws had their place for a certain level of consciousness of humanity and also many of our current laws will be seen as backward in a future age.

Eventually our laws will reach relative perfection where little or no change will be necessary.

I have enjoyed your comments on good and evil. For those of you who may be fairly new I might add that we have discussed this principle and the principle of duality quite a lot in the past. If you want to search The Archives, quite a lot of material should come up.

Someone mentioned the Alice A. Bailey teaching that good is that which takes us toward evolution and evil is that which takes us away from it. I've always liked this idea, but let me present the principle in a little different light than I have in the past.

Good and evil exist because creation exists, or we could say BECOMING exists.

To put it in everyday terms, we could say that if you are sitting around doing nothing then you are not creating and you are producing no good or evil. Now let us say you are tired of doing nothing and decide to build a house. The vision of the finished house is the dominating good that creates a magnetic pull on your energies causing you to work toward the finished house.

As you proceed with the work of building, the division of good and evil becomes obvious. All that transpires, which aids you in the goal of finishing the house, is good and all that hampers you is evil.

If your neighbor comes and lends you a hand for a few hours, that is good.
If the neighbor steals a tool - that is evil.
If the bank makes you a loan for materials, that is good.
If you get a batch of bad lumber that is evil.
If you get more done in a week than you expected that is good.
But if an emergency comes up and you have to miss a day's work, that is evil.

Granted that this may not be good and evil the way some look at it, but good and evil the way the literal religionist look at it is illusion. In the grand scheme of things good and evil has a very practical application.

Where the life of God is, there is Decision - Will - Creation. That which assists in furthering the creation of God is good and that which works against the creative purpose is evil.

Therefore good intentions are not enough to be on the side of good.

If your neighbor wants to help you build your house but goes to the wrong address then he is not really any help at all. Even so, if we want to be on the side of good we must discover the Will and Purpose of God and work in harmony with it.

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

-- "Invictus" by William Ernest Henly