Tag: good and evil

The Four Evils, Part 2

Joseph Dewey

The Four Evils, Part 2

Perhaps we seekers have a kinder and gentler view of evil than the many hard liners, but as humanity as well as the Masters define the term, both good and evil exist.

Now let us move on to Paul’s third evil that can pull the disciple backwards in his evolution and service.

(3) Rulers of the darkness of this world.

It is always helpful to example Biblical phrases in the ancient languages.

Rulers comes from KOSMOKRATOR. This Greek word is derived from two other words. The first is KOSMOS which is often translated as world, but more closely corresponds to what we currently call “the system.” It literally means the “current arrangement of things.” The second word is KRATEO which basically means “to seize with power.

The word “rulers” is a bare bones translation that does not give the full implication.

A more correct translation would read: “Those who seize power and control the way things are.” “The power brokers within the system” could be another rendering.

Darkness comes from SKOTOS which can indeed mean darkness, but also can be translated as “shadow” or “obscurity.”

“World” is mistranslated from AION which means “an age.” The English word eon comes from this.

Taking this into consideration let us give a more accurate wording of the verse. Instead of reading:

“Rulers of the darkness of this world,” it could more accurately read:

“Those who size seize the power of this age and work in the shadows.”

So who are these people that send out a frustrating negative force to the workers of light?

In our age some would call these power brokers “the conspiracy.”

Even though there is no unified agreement on how sinister, powerful or unified the conspiracy is, there is one thing most will agree upon and that is that there are definitely people of selfish intent working behind the scenes pulling strings to manipulate events toward their own ends to the detriment of the whole.

It does seem that every time a good work or a good worker comes forward to change the world for the better that some power comes out of the shadows to do everything in its power to stop them. In our time John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were mysteriously killed just when they were in the midst of progress.

Organizations who seek to change things for the better are often hit with law suits, tax audits and mysterious threats.

Disciples therefore must be aware that he or she not only have outward authorities of position and glamour to deal with but also invisible power brokers behind the scenes who may be impossible to identify without revelation.

Reader Comment:

“There is no Sanskrit word for which the direct transliteration into the English language is Evil. Therefore, the translation of the Buddha teachings you quoted is misleading.”

Unfortunately, I do not have the original Sanskrit available to check this out, but I will give you this. The concept of the religious ones today toward the word evil and numerous other Biblical words is quite a bit different from the original use thousands of ears ago. I’m sure this is also true of Buddha’s words.

Even so, when you examine the teachings of Buddha it becomes quite obvious that he often spoke of the dualities of good and evil quite consistent with the other world teachers. All the translations I have seen of Buddha’s teachings have him speaking of both good and evil with about the same fervor as the early Christians. Perhaps Buddha did not see evil in the same light as a fire and brimstone preacher, but it was still the most equivalent word that these experts in the language were able to find.

The quotes I posted the other day had numerous references to the concept and these were translated by Dr. Harischandra Kaviratna for the Theosophical Society.

This was in the introduction:

“Dr. Kaviratna, a native of Sri Lanka, is equally versed in Sinhalese, Pali, and Sanskrit, and since youth has been a dedicated researcher into the esoteric implications behind the Vedas, Vedanta, and Buddhist canonical and noncanonical literatures of both Northern and Southern Schools.

This quote from his translation gives a pretty standard view of good and evil:

“Make haste in doing good and restrain the mind from evil; if one is slow in doing good, the mind finds delight in evil.”

But here is one I find quite interesting:

“ It is quite easy to perform evil deeds which are not beneficial to oneself. But it is extremely difficult to perform a deed which is righteous and beneficial.

“If an evil-minded one, by reason of his false views, reviles the teaching of the Arhats, the Noble Ones, and the virtuous, verily he brings forth the fruit of his own destruction, even as does the katthaka reed.”

The interesting thing is that Buddha talks of evil here as a negativity which can bring “destruction” This is a very close harmony with RA, the biblical Hebrew word for evil which means “to break into pieces,” or to destroy.

Another translator, Paul Carus, used the word evil regularly in translating his words. Here is an example:

Avoiding the Ten Evils

The Buddha said:

“All acts of living creatures become bad by ten things, and by avoiding the ten things they become good.

There are three evils of the body, four evils of the tongue, and three evils of the mind.

[1] “The evils of the body are, murder, theft, and adultery; of the tongue, lying, slander, abuse, and idle talk;

of the mind, covetousness, hatred, and error.

[2] “I exhort you to avoid the ten evils: [3] “(1) Kill not, but have regard for life.

[4] “(2) Steal not, neither do ye rob; but help everybody to be master of the fruits of his labour.

[5] “(3) Abstain from impurity, and lead a life of chastity.

[6] “(4) Lie not, but be truthful. Speak the truth with discretion, fearlessly and in a loving heart.

[7] “(5) Invent not evil reports, neither do ye repeat them. Carp not, but look for the good sides of your fellowbeings, so that ye may with sincerity defend them against their enemies.

[8] “(6) Swear not, but speak decently and with dignity.

[9] “(7) Waste not the time with gossip, but speak to the purpose or keep silence. [10] “(8) Covet not, nor envy, but rejoice at the fortunes of other people.

[11] “(9) Cleanse your heart of malice and cherish no hatred, not even against your enemies; but embrace all living beings with kindness.

[12] “(10) Free your mind of ignorance

and be anxious to learn the truth, especially in the one thing that is needful, lest you fall a prey either to skepticism or to errors. Skepticism will make you indifferent and errors will lead you astray, so that you shall not find the noble path that leads to life eternal.”

Now it may be true that the original Sanskrit word may have a deeper meaning than the modern English – evil – but the opposite of that which is good is certainly implied by the context.

Dec 18, 2000

Copyright by J J Dewey 

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McCall Gathering, 2007, Part 28

Joseph Dewey
This entry is part 28 of 54 in the series McCall Gathering 2007

Other Differences in Light and Dark

Okay any other difference between light and dark?

Audience: Free will.

JJ: Yes, freedom, this is one of the big dividing ones. It is said that the war in Heaven where it talks about the war between Satan and God was fought over the principle of freedom. The side of Christ wanted to give free will to mankind and Satan wanted to keep it from mankind and control everybody because they would not be responsible and they could make a lot of mistakes with their own free will. His argument was that we will take away their free will and “I will assume command and I will make sure that none of the souls are lost or go down the wrong path and I will get all the glory.”

It is said that Christ said the opposite, He said we will give man free will and yes they will make mistakes but they will recover and they will learn on their own and I will be their teacher and give the glory to God and not take it upon myself.

The Father, or presiding One replied, “I will take the plan of The One who is to became Jesus, The Christ.” And so the legend has it that the struggle between having freedom and taking away freedom continues on the earth today and whether or not the legend is true is beside the point because what is true is that that struggle does exist right before our eyes today and yet, unfortunately, again every politician and every ruler in authority thinks that he or she is working for our freedom.

Now lets look at the most notorious guy in history. Do you think Hitler was fighting for freedom? He said this all the time, “I am fighting for the freedom of Germany, for your freedom and mine. He would say this regularly, but was he? No he was fighting so he could have control and tell the people what to do. In his warped mind he thought that once he got completely in charge of the world that he would lay out the rules and people would actually have more freedom. Actually, the only ones with more freedom would be the Nazi leaders.

The Brotherhood of Light teaches the principle of freedom and teaches it correctly. Such a teacher just does not say that I am going to give you freedom. The truth is that you cannot really give freedom to anybody. What the Brotherhood of Light does is they say I am not going to take your freedom away. The dark brother says I am going to change things and if you read between the lines you will find that he is going to take your freedom away and then in the next sentence he will say this is going to give you greater freedom. But this is a deception, what he does, he tells you it will give you greater freedom but it does not.

It is like what the politicians do with our taxes. They say, we are going to increase this tax here that is going to give you less freedom and less money to spend, less power over your own destiny, but we are going to give this benefit and the people that get this benefit will have a lot more freedom. The people that get the benefit are usually around 1% of the population of the country and the people that are going to get taxed are a 100% of the taxpayers of the country. So the amount of freedom taken away is much more than the freedom given.

The Light Brother will say that he is not going to take additional freedom away but “I am going to work to increase your freedom without taking anything away.” Freedom is a key word here because it is a key dividing point between the light and the dark. One thinks we need a good strong powerful central authority that is more intelligent than everybody else and can tell everyone what to do and set them in line, forcing them to do what is right. The side of Light trusts in the intelligence of the average person and wants to give them more control over their own destiny.

JJ: Okay what is the next difference between the Light and the dark.

Audience: Good and evil, the dark brothers want to take things back to a time where they have complete control and the Light Brothers want to move the human race forward.

JJ: Good! The Brotherhood of Light moves us forward in our progression. Again lets go back to Hitler, what did he want to do? Did he want to establish democracy on the earth? No, what did he want to establish?

Audience: The Empire.

JJ: The old Reich and the kingdom type government, the empire where you had a supreme commander telling everyone what to do and they had to do it or they would die. That is what he was working toward and that was going back in the past as far as government is concerned. He was also going back in the past with race. He was going for racial purity and was going to eliminate anyone who did not fit into his idea of a pure race. DK explains that this was also going back in the past that in the far distant past that this was what humanity actually tried to do. As a matter of fact if you even go back to the Old Testament you will read that they tried to keep all the races pure back then. So DK says that this time has past that Hitler was trying to return to the racial purity teachings of the past. The Light Brothers move forward.
What is another difference between the Light and the dark?

No answer.

I will give you one more that that is important, the Light Brothers are inclusive. On the other hand, Hitler was exclusive, he wanted to exclude the Jews, to eliminate them so we could cleanse the planet and have a fresh start, To the Brotherhood of Light, Jews are our brothers just like everybody else and we must treat them as equals. Blacks do not deserve to be slaves and, in other words, Abraham Lincoln represented inclusiveness because he worked towards the freedom of the slaves and uniting a nation. They include as many people as possible in whatever goal as part of the work of Light.

Okay anything else? I will tell you one thing, a trick that the dark brothers try and I will present their side. They work with labels and sound bites, and, in other words, they label people. This person is a hater and needs to be put down and silenced, they say. They will use labels and instead of saying, we disagree with this person and lay down a logical argument of why he is wrong. This is what the Brotherhood of Light does – they use Light to correct the person if he is wrong, where if the dark brothers disagree with someone they will attach a label to him – he is a sinner, he is a reprobate, he is a republican, democrat, liberal, conservative or whatever.

They will use whatever label sounds bad. They will apply the label to them, like hater, stupid, uneducated. The New York Times used to call Abraham Lincoln an ape all the time. Bigot is currently used a lot, and racist is a big one. I see so many people called racist today that don’t show any evidence of being racist at all. I find this very irritating but these are labels that they use and circulate them and if it gets circulated enough many believe them.

Hitler used to use this method of attack; he would label the Jews as being part of a conspiracy as an excuse to take over all the wealth and also label them as an inferior race. I do not remember all the labels but he had a number of them that he applied to the Jews and he operated on the idea that if you stick a lie on somebody long enough then the general public would soon accept it as the truth.

When Hitler became chancellor of Germany only a handful of people hated the Jews, not too many at all, but because he labeled them like this and no one really countered his argument then pretty soon the majority in Germany began to be affected by that label and began to feel good about persecuting the Jews.

Audience: Labels can also be used to put a positive label on something to further the agenda.

JJ: That is a good point also can you think of an example?

Audience: Like the whole green movement for instance.

Copyright by J J Dewey

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McCall Gathering, 2007, Part 4

Joseph Dewey
This entry is part 4 of 54 in the series McCall Gathering 2007

The Transition from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius

JJ: So what we have is one force pulling us back into the Piscean age and another pushing us forward into the Aquarian age with these two forces struggling against each other. The epitome of the struggle was World War II which was the true Armageddon of our age. We had Hitler trying to take us back into the past where we had a very strong powerful dictator, king like authority telling everyone what to do and making all the rules. On the other side, we had a democracy where we had free elections in the nations and we had a step forward in freedom. We had free nations against the kingly nations in the past.

During the Piscean age we were ruled by the kings, what you might call the age of the kingdoms. An age where great authority ruled, great authority ruled politically, religiously, and in all the organizations. And we see this conflict of the two ages play out. We saw the political conflict in World War II and it has not ended for it is still there. Now we have the Taliban who want to take us back to where one man makes all the rules including the primitive rules for women where a woman cannot go out without a man, cannot be educated, women have to wear veils over there faces and heads along with many rules about what men can and cannot do.

So with a lot of the forces that we are dealing with right now we have there primitive dictators and tyrants not only with the Muslim nations but also with North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and others. The forces want to slowly creep in and take away our freedom internally also. The dark forces are working every possible angle to take us back into the Piscean age where we have a strong authority telling everyone what to do and when that authority speaks the thinking has been done and the authority must be followed without thinking. That force is doing everything possible to take us back there.

The other forces for progress are in the political arena, freedom, brotherhood, science, manufacturing, representing abundance for all and progress in every way. The force of progress is moving us forward where we have greater freedom, greater abundance, and greater opportunity. The other force is pulling us in the other direction. Both forces are found among all groups of individuals to some extent. In the Republican and Democratic party both forces are at play in both parties. Both parties are condemning each other and often when they condemn each other they are both guilty about the same amount each time.

Both of the parties on the political spectrum have forces for good and evil in them. There are forces in both for going forward and going backward. We have to examine the ways of thinking in each area whether it be, politics, science, religion or whatever and find where the people are that are trying to pull us forward and those who are trying to pull us backward. Who are the ones who are trying to take away our freedoms and bring less freedom and give more power to the central government more power to the potential king who rules over us.

This is the dividing line and we are close to the midway point right now and that is why there is such a struggle in the world today and it is in a fairly unstable condition like a powder keg where anything could go off at any moment. Let’s say a nuclear bomb went off in Washington DC tomorrow. It would completely change everything and who knows what would develop from it.

We are at a very dangerous point right now and the disciples of the world must learn to see that which is good and that which is evil. Good is not only that which brings us more freedom but also, it takes us forward in our spiritual evolution. To move forward in our spiritual evolution we must have freedom within ourselves, maximum freedom to decide. One of the problems with humanity is we are like pendulums, we swing one direction or the other.

So if we teach and preach freedom too much then the seeker will get the idea that he must be a completely free spirit and have no rules. We need a certain amount rules and regulations for certain things. We need to keep the burglar from entering our home; we need to keep the murderer from killing people; you need a certain amount of structure.

We just cannot go all one direction or the other and what we look for as we move into the Aquarian age is maximum freedom. You want to at the most practical freedom as possible and work towards that as a goal. None of us will ever have total freedom to whatever any part of our nature wants to do. We will always have freedom to do what our soul wants to do because what our soul wants to do can be done. But what our lower self wants to do can often times not be done because it does not understand the true nature of freedom.

What the soul wants to do can be done. What the higher parts of ourselves plant in our mind can be done and there will be enough freedom to do this, individually or collectively if we apply ourselves.

So we are living in a world where the disciples must learn to recognize what is good and what is evil. It is very interesting to think that poor Isaiah was not able to find one single person that was able to recognize the difference between good and evil because everyone in his day called that which was evil good and good evil. It would be interesting to go back and talk to Isaiah and ask him what they were calling good and evil in his day. For one thing, they called him evil. (Chuckle) And they called many of the prophet’s evil and as the prophets appeared throughout history, generally those who heard their message (because it was a message that they did not want to hear) called them evil.

He was telling them what they had to do to change and people do want to change. It is very hard to change. I think of the things that I have changed in my life and usually when I have actually come down to making changes it was because I went through a period of great stress and great pain. Much of which forced me to make the change was to avoid future pain. Then several times I got a little wiser and thought why do I only change when I am going through tremendous pain? What if I change before the pain comes and maybe I can avoid the pain? This is what we need to work toward – see the changes that must take place so that we can make them before the pain comes.

Let’s take diet for instance. I was raised on a really bad diet and both of my parents were out drinking every night and me and my little sister had to fend for ourselves. The main thing I would like to eat was cinnamon toast and to make that I would use white bread bleached to death with hardly any nutrients in it, Oleo margarine which was bad for you, and a lot worse than butter, refined sugar and cinnamon probably the only good thing in this mixture. I had making these down to a science.

I used to go to Albertsons grocery store during my lunch hour and eat about 5 or 6 maple bars that were very thick with frosting on them. For lunch I would eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I really did not have a good diet at all. All through high school I was always feeling kind of weird. People would say that I needed to eat better and I would think, well, I do not want to eat that awful tasting stuff.

Finally, in my first year of college I came across this very elementary book on health and it taught the advantage of eating whole wheat bread, not eating refined sugar, and several other things, but I just did those two things, I switched over to whole wheat bread and quit eating refined sugar and it took about two weeks and that feeling of weirdness which was probably just my blood sugar, started going away. So that weird feeling that I was going through finally made me pick up a book thinking, well I will check this out. The discomfort that I was always feeling caused me to check out this book and when it dawned on me to check it out, it lead me to make changes. When I saw that it worked I thought well, why don’t I make some other changes before the pain comes so I started reading more books on health and experimented with different foods.

Copyright by J J Dewey

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McCall Gathering, 2007, Part 3

Joseph Dewey
This entry is part 3 of 54 in the series McCall Gathering 2007

The Transition from the Age of Pisces

to the Age of Aquarius

JJ: It is a fact that in each age people are deceived as to what is good and what is evil. Isaiah said this, “as the people call good, evil and evil, good, they take the light for darkness and the darkness for light. There is none that does good, no not one.” So you can visualize him going around and preaching his message and no one understood what was good and what was evil. It was very simple, for it goes back to the Garden of Eden. The serpent offers them the temptation of the forbidden fruit and Adam & Eve take it. After they had taken the fruit the gods come and say what?

Audience: Man is to become like one of us to know good from evil.

JJ: Well that is an interesting statement, is it not? You become like God when you know good from evil. The man is to become “like one of us” to know good from evil. To know good from evil is to have the power of the gods. And remember the word God in the Old Testament in the story of the Garden of Eden, comes from Elohiym, which means gods, plural. So the gods came down, and the gods spoke; and said that the man is to become like one of us, plural, to know good from evil. We could substitute that in today’s language and say that the Masters spoke and one Master said to another Master, behold the man is to become like one of us, to know good from evil. And we move ahead from Genesis a couple thousand years and Isaiah says that there is not ONE person that I have met that knows the difference between what is good and what is evil. Why is it so difficult? We look at people today and say; well everyone thinks they know the difference between good and evil.

Audience: If they did then we would not have politics.

JJ: (Laughter) Yes, but see we think we know the difference between good and evil because we look on the past as to what is settled between good and evil. We now look on the past and we see slavery was evil, that’s very obvious but it was not obvious when we were in the midst of it. It is what we are in the midst of. It is where the forces of good and evil are moving right now that determine the good and evil of our day. Forget what is good and evil in the past, we know that stealing is bad and adultery is bad and robbing your neighbor is bad, hurting someone physically is bad, certain things are established as naughty things that we should not be doing, right. Certain things are established but that is not, knowing the difference. That is established because we have been told that from the time we were kids. There are certain things that are ingrained in us that society as a whole has learned. But, then there is the point in the present. In the present there is a point where we are struggling to surface a new good or we go backward to an old evil. That is where knowing what is good and what is evil that gives you the power of the Gods. That is what is really important and this is where few people can see the difference.

JJ: Now let’s go back to the 1930’s in America. Hitler was surfacing and how many people could see that evil was materializing in the world?

Audience: Winston Churchill could.

JJ: Right, not very many people could see, Winston Churchill was visiting Germany and there was a town nearby where Hitler was giving some type of speech and if I remember right he came across some type of flier, read it and when Churchill read this flier he had a really bad feeling. He did not know why he had a really bad feeling, so he looked into Hitler and he had a much worse feeling. (Chuckle) Churchill was probably the first man of note that saw that something was amiss with this guy Hitler and that Hitler was a gathering storm to be concerned about.

So, for the next seven years he spent trying to warn his country about Hitler and what a danger he was. Now, Churchill tried to get France and England to use their forces to put Hitler out of commission before he could become a power that they would have to deal with. As a matter of fact a couple of years before World War II started Churchill warned people and said, “We can put Hitler down now and have a few thousand lives lost, or we can wait and loose millions of lives.” He had that much foresight to see what was on the horizon, of what was to come.

Churchill had the foresight to tell what was good and what was evil. On the other hand, there were many other people who could not see the difference here between the good and the evil. Look at JFK, many thought he was a great president, but his Father, Joseph Sr. thought Hitler was a great guy. He did business with Hitler and supported him. Henry Ford built cars for Hitler and made business arrangements with him. Manufactures & industrialists catered to Hitler and thought it was good business and did not see anything wrong with it. They thought that Hitler could be dealt with and thought that he could be reasoned with and when word started to filter in that Hitler was persecuting the Jews and torturing his own people everyone thought that they were just lies being spread and if that were true we would know about it and of course they did not look into it.

They could not see the evil that was beginning to surface until it was too late. When it did come it hit them like a very hard knock on the head. Russia alone lost 20 million people. Larry, do you remember how many people the United States lost?

Audience: Larry: The United States lost the fewest.

(Transcriber: Wikipedia quotes the estimates the death toll between 62 to 78 million. U.S. estimated death toll from 500, 000 to 800,000. Russia and China had the highest death toll estimates at 10 to 20 million each.)

JJ: Yes, we lost the fewest but didn’t we lose hundreds of thousands I believe. England lost a lot. I think the death toll was at least around 60 million killed in World War II. It has been a while since I read it. If the evil could have been seen in advance it could have been just a couple thousand, so that is the difference and hardly anybody could see it.

Just before World War II there was a big peace movement, Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the big leaders in this peace movement and she did not really support her husband in going to war and thank God that FDR had enough intelligence to see that once the handwriting was on the wall that Hitler had to be dealt with even though his own wife did not see it and did not support FDR in putting Hitler down. Eleanor Roosevelt was a big star in the peace movement herself, Charles Lindbergh, a hero, was totally against going to war and he fought tooth and nail to keep us out of World War II. Even during the war he was against it. It is amazing how many people just could not see the evil that was right in front of them.

Sometimes if seeing an evil means we are going to have to face it, and is going to be a great struggle, then we do not want to see it, and because we do not want to see it, we do not see it. We have the same thing today with different evils facing us in the present time we are in.

The basic evil always boils down to one thing and that is, it is always around the principle of freedom. That which is good increases freedom and gives more freedom of thought and ability to have prosperity and make money, to think for our selves, and decide for our selves. That which is evil takes this away and restricts us. It will give freedom to the few while the many will suffer many restrictions. The people that want that freedom to have the authority of the beast over everyone else, these are the people that will never let you know that your freedoms are going to be lost.

They always speak in the name of freedom. Whenever Hitler got up and spoke, he spoke about all the freedom everyone was going to have when he won the war. “We are going to give Germany tremendous freedom.” Well a handful at the top had a tremendous amount of freedom but not the masses. The masses would be very restricted and the people that were the wrong race would be enslaved and eliminated completely.

And so this evil could not be seen and much of it is due to deceit. Always remember that those who want to take away your freedom will never tell you, “hey we are going to take away your freedom and there is going to be a handful at the top who are going to tell everyone what to do and we are will have all the money, power, wine, women and song and the rest of you will slaves.” They will never say that though, they will always say, we are going to give you more freedom and when we eliminate this bad guys then we will reward the masses greatly.

Of course that does not happen. Look at North Korea, only one man has freedom there and that Kim Jon Ill. He is about the only guy that has freedom in country with a population of over 20 million people. The people are so poor there that they are eating the bark off of trees and many are just completely starving to death. We send food over there to help them out and the military takes it and the common people get nothing. We try to give it to the common people but Kim Jon Ill feels that he has to have everything better than everyone else.

His rice is selected grain by grain by slaves who sift through it and by hand select the larger grains for their great leader. The poor people that are picking out the grains are starving to death themselves while being forced to do this labor for Kim Jon Ill so that he can have one dish of rice. These poor people have to eat bark off of trees and grass and things like this and watch their children starve to death.

So it is amazing how none of these tyrants weather in the present or the past will admit that they have not served their people well. They will not admit that they have taken away the freedom from their people. When the people of France came to Marie Antoinette she said, well, let them eat cake. She said that because she thought the people were taken care of, she was in such an isolated world that she was not aware of how her actions were causing people to starve to death. She was just so insulated that when she was told that the people did not have bread she said, well, let them eat cake!  That so enraged them that it caused her death. It was more than the starving people could handle to have a statement like that thrown at them when they realized how much illusion she was in.

Transcriber Note: Wikipedia & Urban legends claim that there is no record to confirm that Marie Antoinette actually said the now famous phrase; “Let them eat cake.” The following is from Wikipedia: Although commonly attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette,[1] there is no record of these words ever having been uttered by her; they first appear in The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his putative autobiographical work (completed in 1769, when Marie Antoinette was 13), where he wrote the following in Book 6:

Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit : Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.

Finally I recalled the last resort of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, and who responded: “Let them eat brioche.”

Rousseau does not name the “great princess” and there is speculation that he invented the anecdote, which has no other sources.

(JJ Note: Our transcriber, Robert, is correct but the principle still applies. Marie Antoinette was living large and out of touch with the deprivations of the people and this fueled their rebellion.

This brings up an interesting point. The Internet has been blamed for much misinformation, but what is overlooked is that it is also the means of correcting many falsehoods like this one. No one seemed to question Marie Antoinette’s statement until the truth began circulating on the Internet. Now most people are aware of the it. It is still possible she said something like this, but there is no solid proof).

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Good & Evil – Light & Dark

Joseph Dewey

09

Nov 8 1998

Good & Evil – Light & Dark

I finally have a few minutes to respond to some of your posts, and let me assure you the highlight of my day is when I get a few minutes to spare so I can check your latest postings. I read them all and appreciate them all. I knew we would gather some intelligent people here but am pleasantly surprised at the consistent quality of those who have joined us.

JK made some interesting points about light and dark, good and evil. I’ll comment briefly upon his “third Choice” which was “to exist within the dark, the light and All That Is.” In one sense this is not a choice. Because we are a reflection of God and have an essential oneness with Him, a third “choice” can only be a situation that exists for us whether we choose it or not. It is the result of the originating choice of the One Life.

In another expansion of John’s thoughts I will ask: How many lives exist in the universe?

Answer: the number that can be imagined by the Mind of God. Every possibility is manifest somewhere and every possible experience can be lived. You as an individual are going through an experience unique to yourself, slightly different from any other life in the Universe. The One Life of whom you are an extension savors it, whether good or evil. Several have been talking about good and evil, so I will add some thoughts here. Speaking of evil, even the Bible itself says evil was created by God: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7

Many believe we should not see good and evil as even existing. They believe that because in the Ultimate Reality all is one and all is peace, we can escape the evil others see and do by concentrating on this Reality, and denying the idea that evil exists. One of the few criticisms I’ve received of the book is from people telling me I should not be teaching about a Dark Brotherhood because it just adds power to an illusionary belief. They say that Dark Brothers do not exist unless we conjure them up. The basic belief from this camp is if we do not give any belief to the dark side it will not exist.

The answer is there are many realities, and in this Ultimate Reality God is One, and you and I are only unmaterialized possibilities. In the Beginning God reflected Himself toward infinity. This fantastic number is only limited by your imagination which is God’s imagination. All forms were created by the interplay of two energies – the principle of duality -which is the principle of illusion. In all creations of form there is light and dark, positive and negative, good and evil, hot and cold etc.

Because all form is created from the dualities – and we are the power of Decision to “know good from evil” – to say evil does not exist would mean good does not exist also. Good must co-exist with evil to have meaning, just as light needs darkness to be seen. In the Ultimate Reality neither one truly exists; they’re both illusions. Your body doesn’t really exist either. But in this reality we live in, you’d be crazy to jump over a cliff in the belief that your body can’t be hurt because it doesn’t exist.

The very consciousness that our power of Decision uses as a vehicle is also a part of the reality we exist in, and it must function within this realty. If consciousness tries to function in a reality that only exists in theory to itself – and has not the means to even realize such reality – then consciousness will not expand, but suffer stagnation and go backwards. Look at the great men and women of history. Did they deal with the reality they found themselves in or some other far-reaching existence beyond their consciousness?

If you are playing a video game and have put all your conscious attention to that game, then you can only win by following the rules you find to exist. Theoretically you can undo your attention and decide not TO BE in the game, but this goes against your DECISION to play the game. The great Decider has put us in the game and we must play. The only way to not play is to withdraw, change our Decision, and cease to exist as a conscious entity in form. Whether we realize it or not, we are too involved to withdraw at this point. None of us, if we could see the big picture, would want to withdraw into the formless void before we have “seen the travail of our soul and become satisfied.” What does all this rambling mean? It means that we are in this reality and we must deal with it by the rules of the game we discover along the way.

My first major encounter with the Dark Brothers (which is not in the book) happened at a time that I was not even thinking about good and evil. It hit me at a totally unexpected moment and involved a life and death struggle. From that point on, I realized that good and evil was not something we could escape by just ignoring it – for I ignored it – but it did not ignore me. I found that power over the Dark Ones comes not by pretending they do not exist, but by discovering the laws that allow the Brothers of Light to dominate them. The true Dark Brothers have no time for little old ladies who see the devil under every rock, the ultra religious who see Satan in everything, or those who have little talent to challenge their agents on the earth. There are only a handful of disciples on the earth they have any interest in thwarting. They manipulate the masses through their own disciples, the knowing and unknowing.

The basic difference between good and evil is this: Good is that which takes us forward on the path of Spiritual evolution toward greater freedom, livingness, intelligence, light and love. Evil is that which takes us back into the past to lesser freedom, lesser livingness, lesser intelligence, light and love. Evil is the reverse reflection of good, corresponding to the fact that “evil” is “live” reflected in reverse. Hitler was evil because he wanted to take us back into an age of the Kingdoms where the right of the king or dictator was more important than the good of the individual and the whole. Churchill was good because he sought to move us into greater freedom where the individual could work for the good of the whole according to his or her own decisions.

Many involved in the New Age movement see good and evil as concepts left over from the dark ages. By the standards of the black-and-white interpretation of the fundamental religionists that may be true. But from the reality we currently live in, this principle is alive and well, and will not go away by ignoring it or pretending it does not exist. The key to mastery is to learn the laws that govern light and dark and use them to make your decisions and dreams come true. Even the Masters, the Christ and the Ancient of Days himself have to deal with good and evil on their own plane.

The evil that the higher lives have to deal with is beyond what we lesser brothers could comprehend as even being a negative thing. In eons hence, when our purpose in form is fulfilled, we will look back on our history and see that the dualities of good and evil, light and dark, were but guides that led us to a glorious peace between the great eternities.

This principle will be covered in greater detail in a future book, which will reveal some very interesting enlightenment when John takes Joe on a tour of the Universe microcosmic and macrocosmic.

Truth of the Book

The truth about the writing of The Immortal was presented at the end of Book I. Did John really appear to me? That is the mystery of the book.

I will say this. The best is yet to come and after a half dozen or so keys are revealed even the doubters will believe that I have some extraordinary source of material. This will not be a rehash of what everyone else is already saying. That is not the way the Brotherhood works. They do not like repeating themselves.

Copyright By J J Dewey

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The Left, the Right and DK, Part 10

Joseph Dewey
This entry is part 10 of 73 in the series 2015

The Left, the Right and DK, Part 10

Good and Evil

Many seekers make the mistake of believing that good and evil are easily identifiable and understood, but this is far from the case. So also is the difference between the left and right hand paths. Many confuse evil with the common word “bad.” Yes it is bad to lie cheat, steal etc, but evil from a higher spiritual standpoint is something different and grasped by only a few. In fact, In David’s’ day understanding was so rare that the psalmist declared, “There is none that doeth good, no not one.” Psalms 14:3

And Isaiah told us that true good was rare because it was distorted and not understood, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20

According to the Genesis story the understanding of good and evil was such a mystery that Adam and Eve did not have a clue as to what it was until they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Then after they acquired this knowledge the Gods made an amazing statement: “Behold, the MAN IS TO BECOME AS ONE OF US, to know good from evil.” Gen 3:22

So the true knowledge of good and evil gives us humans the power to become as the Gods – notice the plural wording “one of us.”

Since the true knowledge of good and evil is rarely understood and it is a key to the consciousness of God let us attempt to comprehend it. DK gives us some hints. He says, “Evil is due to wrong perception and erroneous interpretation of that which is perceived.” A Treatise on White Magic, Pg 630

We tend to think that various ideologies are good or evil but of them DK says, “The platform of the leading ideologies is not necessarily wrong or wicked; it is the imposition by force and by a police state of an ideology, and its use by powerful men or groups for their own benefit, plus the keeping of the people in blind ignorance so that no free choice is theirs—which is fundamentally wicked and evil. Rays and Initiations, Page 744

So limiting freedom and keeping people in ignorance is a prime ingredient of evil.

After identifying evil with involution and disciples with evolution DK says this:

“Evil lies in the refusal to leave behind when conquered; it consists in remaining immersed in matter that is dominated and hath no more to teach; it is the clinging to forms that should not hold the evolving spirit, in vibrating to a rhythm too heavy for the point reached; it is the holding on to things behind instead of stretching up to those ahead and before; it is a desecrating of knowledge gained and a prostituting of it to what is realised to be a retrograde and unworthy step; it is choosing to talk in the dark or twilight when just ahead the light can be seen; it is the choosing of a life of ease and no struggle, a going with the tide, when the inner voice points the way along a rocky and difficult path to a goal acknowledged to be desirable; it is acquiescence instead of aspiration, a standing still instead of going forward, a closing of the eyes instead of straining them to see a wide horizon; it is knowing and not using knowledge.” A Learning Experience; Mary Bailey (quoting unpublished notes from DK), Pages 60-61

Thus they key to understanding good and evil is the realization that evil takes us backward, or toward dense matter and good moves us forward toward Spirit. The power to discern the difference is a key to higher consciousness.

Speaking of good and evil often produces a very strong negative reaction from those on the political left, as well as many new agers and even some Bailey students. Many new agers claim there is no such thing as good and evil and many on the political left simply do not want any of their actions judged or discerned by anyone in those terms.

Many from the left only associate those of the political right with evil, Hitler and Nazism while giving a pass to tyrants, mobs rioters and many forms of depravity and criminal activity as long as they do not interfere with their political power.

While the left often pigeonholes the entire right (which is about half the population) as evil Nazis, the right generally does not retaliate in kind. Few from the right categorize all leftists as evil, but instead merely label them as misled. For most on the right the word evil is reserved for those who support the enslavement of the human spirit or the killing of the innocent.

DK, on the other hand was a definite believer in good and evil. Again, in the Great invocation he utters the prayer, “And may it seal the door where evil dwells.”

The teaching of the differences between the Brotherhood of Light and the Dark Brotherhood are at the core of his writings. He did not hesitate to call evil by its name and strongly equated Hitler and the Nazis with evil for they were definitely fighting for the triumph of materialism. After the war he said:

“The leader of the conflict against evil in high places is the Christ, the Head of the Hierarchy. What is the attitude of the Christ at this time?… He knows Himself to be the inner spiritual Commander of the Armies of the Lord. His is the responsibility of awakening the souls of men to their presented opportunity and to the need of bringing to an end this ancient conflict between the Lords of Evil and the Messengers of Light. His has been the problem of teaching humanity that, in order to demonstrate true love and to provide scope and opportunity for a civilisation in which love, brotherhood and right human relations are governing factors, those essential steps must be taken which will accomplish this….

“The sword of discrimination is wielded by the initiates and the disciples of the world, and by its means the distinction between good and evil, with a consequent presentation of free choice between the two, has been laid before humanity, and the lines of demarcation have been made abundantly clear in this world war. Externalization of the Hierarchy, Pages 433-434

By most any definition of the terms good and evil exists in the world. If this is not recognized then how can evil be replaced with good? One cannot defeat an enemy if he does not understand or recognize what the enemy is.

Again, speaking after the war he said, “the forces of evil will now endeavour to utilise the character of humanity as a whole (at its present total point of development) to hinder the Forces of Light, prevent the attainment of world tranquillity and world understanding, and thus delay the day of their own final defeat. This defeat, when accomplished, must include the three worlds of human evolution—mental, emotional and physical. For long these evil forces have used psychology in order to reach the ends they had in view, and have used it with amazing success; they are still using it, and can be depended upon to employ its methods to the uttermost. They use the press and the radio in order to distort human thinking; they present half-truths, impute false motives, rake up past grievances, foretell (with foreboding) imminent difficulties; they foster ancient prejudices and hatreds, and emphasise religious and national differences. In spite of much shouting, demanding and proposed organisation, there is no truly free press anywhere; particularly is it absent in the United States, where parties and publishers dictate newspaper policies. The main reason why there is no really free press is based on two factors: first, the fact that humanity is not yet free from its predetermined reasonings, its basic ignorances of factual history, or of nations and their psychology; humanity is still controlled by racial and national bias and by prejudice. Secondly, the fact that all this is nurtured and kept alive by the forces of evil, working upon the inner side of human affairs and dealing mainly with the psychological angle because it is so exceedingly potent. This they will increasingly do as this planetary war draws to a close; they will seek to offset the work of the Hierarchy, to hamper the activities of the New Group of World Servers and to cloud the issues involved to such a degree that the men of goodwill everywhere will be bewildered and will fail to see the clear outlines of the factual situation or distinguish between what is true and what is false. Forget not, the forces of evil are exceedingly clever. Externalization of the Hierarchy, Page 451-452

The political left often criticizes the right for attempting to define good and evil and discerning who is on the side of the freedom of the human spirit. True, there are often flaws in their assessments, but at least they are trying to be on the side of God and Spirit and many would agree with DK on the subject.

Copyright by J J Dewey

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The Left, the Right and DK, Part 5

Joseph Dewey
This entry is part 5 of 73 in the series 2015

The Left, the Right and DK, Part 5

Sex and Family Values

There is a significant difference in the philosophies of the political left and right concerning sex and family values, though there is some middle ground where they both agree. That middle ground is becoming slimmer all the time and is basically this.

We should love and support family members as much as possible and do our best to see children get the best possible care and start in life. Basically both sides claim to support the Golden Rule in relationships though both will often fall short.

The differences however, are significant. Concerning family values the right has placed a lot more focus on them, often to the extent that they are criticized for trying to monopolize the subject. They are also strongly criticized by the left when any individual from the right falls short of those values.

It must be realized though that such a criticism is often a cheap shot, for all fall short of perfection from time to time, so we should not discourage anyone from attempting to reach a high standard because someone in the group is a bad example.

So, why is the right criticized for monopolizing family values?

It is not because they are unwilling to let the left have their say but because they are the ones talking about them, trying to live them and placing emphasis on them. You rarely hear groups from the left even mentioning family values as a part of their philosophy. If the topic is brought up it is usually in the context of how people of the right are hypocrites because they do not live up to the standards they set.

The bottom line on the monopoly idea is this. If the people from the left do not want the right to have a monopoly on family values then they should lay claim to some of those values themselves and promote them as they did when DK was writing through Alice A. Bailey.

Now the divisions on the proper role of sex are even a greater divide.

A high percentage of the right believe that sex should be limited by certain constraints. Many believe it should only be had in the marriage relationship. On the other hand, the left widely believes in few if any constraints. The basic mantra there is “if it feels good, do it” and you will not be criticized or condemned.

Concerning birth control the right has become more liberal (as a whole) over the years and leave it up to the individual, but are not big on promoting it, especially if it leads to promiscuity.

The left takes a much more liberal view in assuming all should be supplied with birth control, free of cost if possible, to accommodate all who wish to have sex at any age from teens and above.

So, which side does DK and Alice A. Bailey gravitate to on this issue?

Here Alice A. Bailey echoes sentiments similar to DK which sounds more like the political right than the Left.

“It is needless, surely, to add here that the true student of meditation should not tolerate in his life promiscuous or illegitimate sexual relations. The aspirant to the life of the spirit conforms not only to the laws of the spiritual kingdom but to the legalized customs of his age and time. He, therefore, regularizes his physical every day life so that the man in the street recognizes the morality, the uprightness and the correctness of his presentation to the world. A home that is based upon a true and happy relation between a man and a woman, upon mutual trust, co-operation and understanding, and in which the principles of spiritual living are emphasized, is one of the finest aids that can be given to the world at this time. A relation that is based on physical attraction and the gratification of the sex nature, and which has, as its primary objective, the prostitution of the physical nature to animal desire, is evil and wrong.” From Intellect to Intuition, pages 258-259

Here DK reinforces this idea:

“Again, a divine son of God can surely function as freely and as effectively when in the married state as in the celibate; he will however brook no prostitution of the powers of the body to the grosser satisfactions, nor will he offend against established custom, nor lower the standards which the world has set for its highest and best.” A Treatise on White Magic, Pg 420

“They have tried—at the other extreme—to exhaust normal sexual desire by promiscuity, license and perversions, damaging themselves and laying up the basis for trouble for many incarnations ahead.” Rays and Initiations, Page 670

In addition, DK was against the too liberal use of contraceptives that lead to unregulated promiscuous sex similar to the right today.

“Again, we have evidence of a growing realisation of the race along this particular line (of population growth); that realisation is as yet distorted and much misunderstood and is today producing the promiscuous use of contraceptive methods. As the intelligence of the race is developed (and that is going on apace), as the Laws of Rhythm and Approach are grasped, it will then be found that there are certain innate reactions which will negate conception, and that then the mechanical means will no longer be required.” Education in the New Age, Page 134

In addition he tells us that a lack of self control in sex leads to a weakened physical body:

The dissipation of the vital powers through loose living and incontinence is the great sin against the physical body. It involves the failure to recognize the importance of the procreative act, the inability to resist the lower desires and pleasures, and a loss of self control. The results of this failure are apparent throughout the human family at this time in the low health average, in the full hospitals, and the diseased, enfeebled and anemic men, women and children everywhere to be found. There is little conservation of energy, and the very words “dissipation” and dissipated men” carry a lesson. Light of the Soul, Pages 198-199

So, overall here, DK sides much more with the example of a conservative like Tim Tebow, who regulates sex to within marriage, as compared to the typical liberal rock star or Hollywood type where everything goes.

Revised Feb 24, 2020

Copyright by J J Dewey

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What Is Good and Evil?

Joseph Dewey
This entry is part 45 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Forty-Six

What Is Good and Evil?

This may seem like a silly question to ask. After all, isn’t it obvious what good is as well as evil? Good is doing … well, good things like helping the poor, doing good deeds, loving people etc. And evil is hurting people, abusing animals and committing crimes. Figuring it out is pretty simple, isn’t it?

Not so much.

We often forget that every war that has been fought in the history of the planet has been over a different interpretation of what good and evil is. For example, Hitler thought the democratic system of the West was evil and his more authoritarian dictatorship was good. He also thought it was a good thing to exterminate an entire race of people, the Jews, whereas the rest of us saw this as a great evil.

And just look at the struggle we have in the present time to convince others what is good and evil. Here are three examples.

(1) Many believe it is good to make any sacrifice necessary to prevent climate change, even if it means higher taxes, more spending and lots of inconvenience.

Others see this as a great evil piece of propaganda designed to tax us to death, steal our money and take away our freedoms.

(2) Many see the implementation of lots of social programs as a good thing that even Jesus would have praised.

Others see them as a great evil that robs us of our wealth and freedom. They also think Jesus would agree with them.

(3) There are those who think it is a very good thing that the Jews have gathered in the Middle East and created a nation of their own.

Then there are many who see this as a great evil that must be destroyed at any cost.

Obviously what is good and evil is not such a simple thing after all. The prophet Isaiah wrestled in frustration at the people’s lack of understanding on this subject. He complained that peopled called “evil good, and good evil; they put darkness for light, and light for darkness; and put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isa 5:20 The scriptures further say: “There is none that doeth good, no not one.” (Psalms 14:3)

In other words, the seeing of that which is truly good or evil is so subtle that there have been times that the whole population of the world was deceived about it.

So, is that which is truly good so difficult to see that the truth is hidden from the eyes of the many? Indeed the answer is yes and the Bible backs this up.

After Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil God said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” Gen 3:22

This is one of the most profound statements in all scripture. Knowing good and evil is such a wonderful thing that it will cause us ordinary humans to “become as one of us.” And who is “us?” That would be God or the Gods depending on how one interprets the scripture.

The Jerusalem Bible gives an interesting variation of translation:

“Then Yahweh God said, Now that the man has become like one of us in knowing good FROM evil…”

One reason this and several other versions use “from” instead of “and” is largely because of the meaning implied by YADA, the Hebrew word from which “to know” is translated.

YADA implies a knowledge gained through discerning or coming to a recognition or understanding.

Therefore, “to know good and evil” implies much more than just leaving paradise and being subject to pleasant and unpleasant sensations. The animals do this much. YADA implies that he who becomes as God will rise above the animals and acquire the ability to discern the good and the evil. Such discernment would result in knowing good FROM evil as well as good and evil.

Think on this. We are told that he who acquires the knowledge (YADA) of good and evil will be as the Elohiym, or God.

This explains why the prophets told us that there were times when no one understood the difference between good and evil for their understanding was upside down. In other words, people are not very godly in their understanding of it and often have it all wrong.

So, again we are faced with the question – what is the real truth of the matter? What is the true good and true evil?

Before we tackle that we must first understand why good and evil is so difficult to discern. The reason it is so problematic is that the customs, the thinking and the consciousness of the people change with each passing generation, century and age. That which is good or evil at one time can become the opposite at another. Allow me to give several examples.

(1) Eating too much sugar is bad for you, but if you were starving to death and all you had to eat to save your life were cookies, then eating them would be a good thing.

(2) Moses taught the people that eating unclean animals was wrong, but then later Peter was shown a vision that it was good that he eat these animals.

(3) As civilizations began to form in ancient times it was seen as a good thing that there be a strong central authority, such as a king.

But as humanity progressed, and people began thinking for themselves, having a king was seen as wrong and the participation of the people in some type of democracy was good.

Because that which is good changes with circumstances and the consciousness of the people this means that good and evil cannot just be spelled out in black and white, but must be discerned.

To be able to make that judgment or discernment accurately requires a gift from God that few people are able to exercise at all times. We can though give out a guiding principle that will help the seekers of the world see correctly. Here it is.

Good is that which moves us forward in the direction of greater health, happiness, peace, love, understanding and spiritual living. Evil is that which takes us away from these things.

Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Believe me it is not. To have the power to choose the good on a consistent basis indeed requires tapping into the mind of God.

Let us hope that more of humanity will be successful at this so we can one day achieve, “peace on earth, goodwill to all.”

 

Copyright 2014 by J J Dewey

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Is There Good And Evil?

Joseph Dewey
This entry is part 44 of 57 in the series Mysteries

Question Forty-Five

Is There Good And Evil?

The average person in the West will look at this question and answer, “Well, duh… Yes, of course there is. That’s a silly question.”

The reason this question is included is that many of the people of the world believe there is no such thing as good and evil. They get this idea from numerous teachings of eastern religions, and those who have rejected Christianity and Islam have increasingly accepted the idea.

Many who accept the idea that there is no good or evil do so as an automatic rejection of standard religion they feel was crammed down their throat as a kid. Those who feel this way often accept alternative new age and eastern thought without first sifting it through the mind, applying good judgment.

Here is the essence of the teaching, which is often credited to Taoism.

All things are created from duality, which manifests as the yin and yang, light and dark, good and evil, positive and negative, male and female, hot and cold, up and down, etc. But in between the two extremes of duality, such as manifest in the wavelength, there is a point that is neither up nor down. This point existed before the universe was even manifest. It then exists during manifestation and is still there when creation disappears.

The reasoning then goes like this. Because all creation we see about us is a temporary manifestation of the Great Invisible Tao then it is all illusion. This means that all things manifested from duality do not really exist. To find the real you must find the space between the two extremes and go there in your consciousness.

Then advocates take this a step further and claim that good and evil are “two sides of the same coin” and there really isn’t any difference between the two.

This thinking can create a real problem to anyone possessed with common sense. If one believes there is no good or evil then the manifestation of that which society sees as evil is likely to cause little concern. If a new Hitler were to arise such a believer may rationalize that the guy is not evil because evil is an illusion making him no worse than a Winston Churchill. Many who incorrectly digest this philosophy therefore do not struggle for the good and fight against evil and would allow tyranny to flourish, if given the chance.

We must be open-minded here and ask – is there any truth behind this teaching? Yes, of course, there is truth behind all the teachings of the world. The key, as always, is to use good judgment and take those ingredients, which are true and put them together in a way that makes sense.

Let us look at what is true. The universe is indeed created on the principle of duality. Without the existence of positive protons and negative electrons, light and dark, heat and cold the universe indeed would not exist.

But does the universe really come from a point of nothingness? If so, how can that nothingness be acted upon to create the duality of existence? Even if the universe came from a point of nothingness you still have a duality. You have the point and then you have that force which acted upon the point causing it to vibrate into existence. That is still two things, or duality.

Let us use a guitar string to illustrate further. The string is one thing representing the foundation Tao. If we pluck it we create the illusion of three strings. If you look at the vibrating guitar string there appears to be three strings. There is one in the middle, one to the left and another to the right.

We realize that there is only one string but there is only the illusion of three strings. Now this apparent illusion of three strings from the guitar as well as the singer’s vocal chords creates some great music.

Does this mean that all music we hear is an illusion and does not really exist? Does the idea that a string is not really three, but one, mean that duality does not really exist and there is no good and evil in the universe?

Let us examine further. Yes, the guitar string is one item, but is it a line or point with no existence? No. You can touch it, pluck it or even tie up a package with it. Let us say we make the string smaller and smaller so it is thinner than a human hair. Is it still something? Yes. Now, suppose it shrinks to nothingness. Is here anything left to vibrate? No there is nothing, neither can anything act upon it. Therefore, nothing acting upon nothing does not create one string let alone the illusion of three as many believe.

Conclusion: even though the foundation of duality seems to be nothing in a state of vibration, logic tells us this cannot be the case. There is still duality. You have the invisible something as a beginning string and another something causing the string to vibrate. Our Source is not nothing, but something acting upon something.

There is some illusion within duality, but duality itself is eternal and always in play. There is that mysterious source of all substance and then the force that acts upon it. That is two things, not one.

Since duality is real then existence is real. Even when we dream we have a real experience and if life could be defined as a dream we are still having a real experience based upon a real foundation of duality.

This means that good and evil is not pure illusion but is based in reality. However, in order to correctly judge good and evil we must first understand what it is. We will cover this next.

 

Copyright 2014 by J J Dewey

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Principles 11 & 12

Joseph Dewey
This entry is part 11 of 98 in the series Principles

The Ancient Law of Evil Sharing

& The Law of Dominating Good.

These are two important branch principles that spring from the principle of duality.

Many have said in the past that good and evil are really two equal forces that cancel each other out, but such is not the case. Behind that which is good is a force called the “dominating good.” In other words, in the whole scheme of things good dominates over evil.

In the example of building the house we see both good and evil at play, but overall good (the building proves) dominates and more often than not the house gets successfully completed and performs its destiny.

As I have written earlier there are only two basic forces in creation that cause duality to manifest and these are the positive and negative forces. Wherever matter or form exists these two forces are close to being equal but never exact. There are slight differences of energy even in the neutral particles. In the microcosmic world we find  ions, incomplete electron shells, molecules and cells that are a little off balance in charge and seek their opposite in charge to complete themselves. We even see this among humans where the males and females feel they need their opposite energy to balance them in a relationship.

Even so, when we observe good and evil as a duality we see that they are not exactly equal, but in the end good dominates over evil. It may seem at times that we are moving backwards, but because good always dominates this means that spiritual evolution always goes forward in the end. We may go nine steps backward while taking ten forward thus creating one dominating step toward the good.

We as human beings share the two aspects of the law.

It is only of recent date that humanity has had the amenities that make life easier for us such as automobiles, airplanes, instantaneous communications, television, computers, the Internet, tin foil, toilet paper and many more conveniences.

Much of the civilized world no longer tortures its citizens or enemies, has slaves or refuses to recognize basic human rights. Instead we are marching forward in the creation of democracies, civil rights, becoming environmentally conscious, sensitive to animal mistreatment and seek to use technology to create a paradise on earth.

Until recently such a possibility was only a pipe dream. Just a few short centuries ago life was cheap and very uncomfortable by today’s standards. Many had to spend all their waking hours concentrating on making enough money just to survive another day. Forget about television and computers; it was a luxury to just have a book or two in the house to read. Forget about air conditioning and central heating; it was a luxury to have some wood or chips to provide a polluted heat to keep them from freezing to death.

In the days of the Roman empire the life expectancy was as low as 27 years of age. Life was dangerous and uncomfortable to all but a few. Today we live almost three times as long.

There are three main reasons for this.

  1. Better dental and health care with dental being much more important than is realized. In ancient times many people died in their thirties because they either had rotting teeth or lost them and were unable to eat solid food. A huge number of people suffered painful infections that eventually killed then because of bad teeth.
  1. More plentiful food and nutrition. In many ways today our food is less nutritious and the old days, but it is more plentiful in the civilized world and we are less likely to suffer malnutrition.
  1. Even though we still have war on this planet there are a lot fewer people who have to go to war. Percentage wise there were times that half the population risked death by war compared to close to zero percent in many civilized countries today. War cut off 20 years or more of the average life span in many countries in past ages.

All these difficulties in the past and many in the present effect all people to a degree whether they be good or evil. This is why it is called the ancient law of evil sharing. No matter who the person was the evils and difficulties of the day affected them.

If we can escape a world wide conflagration with weapons of mass destruction the tide will turn on this planet so good can dominate and just as humanity shared past evils they can share in the future good.

Even if we happen to suffer setbacks of future wars humanity will eventually correct itself and in the end good will dominate. Why? Because humanity has the basic intelligence necessary to eventually see the error of its ways and correct itself so good will prevail.

As individuals we see in our own lives how we share in both evil and dominating good in our own spheres of endeavor. When we begin any project, career or business we stumble at first and make many mistakes. Eventually, however, we learn the ropes, make things work and succeed. In the end each of us has power to make the good dominate in the endeavor of our choice.

This law of dominating good causes progression to NOT take the form of an endless repeating circle, but an ever-expanding spiral of circles. Thus at each new turn of the spiral consciousness has expanded and we continually have new worlds to explore and new gains to acquire.

He who overcomes his fear of failure does so because he realizes that the lesson learned through the failure is more valuable than that which has been lost.

Let me repeat the story of Edison here: A reporter once approached Thomas Edison as he was working on the light bulb and said, “You have been working on this silly light bulb for years and have attempted 10,000 times to make it work and they have all failed. After 10,000 failures are you now prepared to admit that this light bulb idea is just a dream?”

Edison wisely answered, “My dear friend. I have not failed as you have said. Instead I have successfully identified 10,000 combinations that do not work. I am 10,000 steps closer to success and do not have many more to go.” Edison thus did not fear failure because he saw a gain behind each failure that was greater than the loss of time, money and prestige he had invested.

Edison had faith in the “Dominating Good,” or a belief that God is good.

Or more simply put we must have “faith that God loves us and wants what is best for the human race.”

 

No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main… any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee.

 John Donne, Devotions XVII

Copyright by J J Dewey

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