2000-12-18 10:51:00
Before I begin Part 2 on "The Four Evils," I thought I would comment on Melva's post.
She says:
"I have a hard time with the whole evil concept. I have a hard time believing in it. I know the Bible talks about it, as do all religions. So many times it seems to be a label for things we don't understand or that scare us.
"Hitler is the person we all associate with evil. Yet, what he did was precisely what he agreed to do. Would the world be where it is now had he not lived? I believe we all choose our lives and lessons. That means I believe Hitler chose his and that his soul had knowledge of and chose it also. I believe our souls always choose in accordance with divine will."
JJ:
Let me repeat here what I said about evil in Part One:
"It is important here that when we define evil that we do not envision demons dripping slime, for such a thought distracts from real understanding of the principle. An evil force is that which keeps us from moving forward in our evolution. In other words, evil pulls us backward and good pushes us forward."
It sounds like you are thinking of the old time religious definition Melva, but if you think of good and evil the way we define it here, which is also in alignment with the ancient wisdom, then evil as well as good does indeed exist.
As far as the Bible goes, "evil" comes from the Hebrew RA which is derived from RA'A which means "to break into pieces."
This also agrees with the ancient wisdom. That which takes creation or evolution in reverse indeed breaks things to pieces or destroys that which has been built.
The Archives contain numerous writings of mine about the contention that Hitler was neither good nor bad, but let me just add this.
If we define evil as a force which pulls us backward, or a destroying energy then Hitler indeed was evil. The only good that came out of World War Two were the lessons we learned because the forces of good were triumphant. If the forces of good did not gather and defeat this arch enemy then the good that seemed to come out of World War 2 would not have been. Instead the Third Reich would have reigned supreme for 1000 years as Hitler predicted and you and I would not be writing these types of thoughts upon a free Internet.
In a past age, in the days of Atlantis, the ending was a different story. Hitler was the leader of the "Lords of Dark Face," and his dark forces won the Great War against the Forces of Light. This led to the total destruction of that great continent.
The interplay of good and evil does eventually result in the outcome of what is called the "dominating good," but in between there can be much unnecessary evil, pain and suffering because we did not use our free will to bring the dominating good.
To say that there is no evil is to say that a creation cannot be destroyed. To say there is no evil is to say that there is no friction. To say there is no evil is to say that all progress is smooth with no hindrances ever showing up. To say there is no evil is to say that we are not living in a world of dualities, that there is no day or night, no form or space, no feeling or thought.
While this may be true in some ultimate reality that we cannot understand or experience, such a belief is a hindrance to progress in this one.
Melva's second statement deserves comment. Let me repeat:
"Hitler is the person we all associate with evil. Yet, what he did was precisely what he agreed to do. Would the world be where it is now had he not lived? I believe we all choose our lives and lessons. That means I believe Hitler chose his and that his soul had knowledge of and chose it also. I believe our souls always choose in accordance with divine will."
JJ:
The basic idea around this concept goes something like this:
Even the bad guys are good guys. God is perfect so everything that happens in the universe is a perfect occurrence in alignment with the will of God. Therefore Judas did not do a bad thing in betraying his master because even this was a perfect happening. Judas agreed to this and because of this he was just as good of a guy as Jesus was.
The Christians needed to be thrown to the lions and crucified so Nero came to the earth as a good guy in disguise and just played the role as a bad guy. In reality he was neither good nor evil, but just an actor on a stage.
The Jews needed to be tortured and killed so perhaps Hitler was the best guy of all because be volunteered for the most disgusting mission. He played the role of the evil dictator so we could learn some lessons.
Many people are accepting this doctrine in this age, but let me present to you the idea that this is one of the most deceptive and harmful teachings to come down the pike for some time.
Why?
Because if one accepts this belief then Cause and Effect and Karma are nullified. This means that it does not matter what you do. If you want to beat your wife that is "OK" because every bruise you put on her face is part of the Divine Will, and somebody has to do it so it might as well be you.
If you fail in an endeavor then that is part of Divine Will since all events are part of the Perfect Will. Maybe you should just give up and not try because it may be a part of the Plan that you are a failure. Thus you turn into an alcoholic so you give everyone else the chance to see what such a life is like and give them the opportunity become enablers.
As far as I can discover this teaching was not taught by the ancients and has never been a part of the ancient wisdom. The first I have seen of it was in Betty Eadie's book "Embraced by the Light."
She went through a near death experience and supposedly went to heaven where she was told that all people go there, even Hitler. Hitler, she was told, was as good as anyone else and merely agreed to his nasty mission, but in heaven he is a clean as the driven snow.
In the future we will talk about the afterlife in greater detail, but I will say this, that what Ms. Eadie experienced was certainly real to her, but it was not a true reality and the Jesus she walked and talked with was not the real Jesus. She experienced a taste of the astral world full of dream fulfillment. This was a taste of a world created for her by her desire nature which would feed her spiritually and prepare her for lessons in a future life.
The astral world is full of illusion, but also a heaven of sorts and to rise above this illusion one must see through illusion after illusion until the "celestial devachan" is reached and finally Nirvana as taught by the Buddha. When this is reached the seeker finally sees reality as it is.
This teaching by Eadie was also incorporated by Walsh in his series "Conversations with God," and between these two books this illusionary concept has received wide circulation and acceptance.
Is Hitler in heaven then?
No.
Where is he?
After you die your consciousness can only rise in vibration, or light, to the light of consciousness you have achieved on the earth. In between lives your essence goes in a circle from the earth to the astral zone and back up to the celestial spheres and then back to the earth again. When this essence rises above that which is your level of consciousness then you go to sleep and dream of Heaven or Hell. Most harmful or evil people quickly pass their level of consciousness and sleep to their higher nature where they are out of harm's way until they are born again.
Thus the entity we know as Hitler will not enter heaven as Hitler, for we are the same person after death as we were before and when the time comes for us to move up the circle we sleep in relation to the higher if we are not ready.
The higher parts of ourselves are indeed always in Heaven, but that consciousness which includes the whole self cannot go there until the proper lessons are learned and Karma is worked out.
Hopefully we will move on to Part Two next, but I thought you would enjoy these insights.
Copyright © 2000 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved