Recently, a rather intellectual comment showed up on a post from last year. In checking out their blog, a conversation ensued on the inclusive nature of unity and they brought up the ‘Problem of Evil’. (cue foreboding music)
I thought it was worth exploring this here.
Firstly, to frame this, we need to understand that consciousness comes in flavours or states. Different states of consciousness bring with them different perspectives and thus, different ways of understanding and seeing the world.
For example, the very real dream ends when we wake up. We change states and what is real or false changes. Similar kinds of changes take place in each stage of spiritual awakening.
These stages are dominated by a movement from duality into unity. In Self Realization, we experience an internal unity. In God Realization, an external unity of God/Divine and the world. In Unity, a joining of internal and external into a complete and inclusive unity or wholeness.
In the discussion, it was observed that if Unity or oneness is completely inclusive, then it must include evil. This is quite true. But if we explore the nature of our experience more deeply, we will see the causal force that creates the ‘dark side’ and thus we can see its end and solution.
It was noted that some describe evil as lack, much as ignorance is the lack of knowledge and darkness the absence of light. I think this is a valid perception. But this only reveals its nature. There is a deeper perception that reveals its cause.
The key here is that evil is an effect. Some of our cultural references will suggest that evil itself is inherent. For there to be good, there has to be an equal evil. But this is only true in duality. Most evil is also parasitic – it feeds off itself rather than good. As a lack of, it cannot stand it’s opposite energy.
“A problem is never solved at the level it was created.”
— Albert Einstein
Previously, I’ve explored how global consciousness cycles over time. That time is not linear but rather moves in cycles of rising and falling awareness. This is more obvious when we see that time is an effect of the process of perception. Thus it is directly influenced by shifting awareness. We’re currently moving out of a low cycle. In the prior fall of awareness, people gradually lost their connection to wholeness and began to feel fearful. This caused a desire to try to hold or grip control. This gripping or resistance creates a sense of separate I. An inner reality separate from the outer. This causes a sense of identity which enshrines our separateness from oneness.
This is the dawning of duality – me vs. other.
As awareness became more opaque, this core identity grip became subconscious. It drives the lower emotions, the feelings that divide. Because it is our experience, mind creates a mental construct of a me, what is commonly called the ego. The emotions drive this. As it is the conscious aspect, we became identified with that mind construct, completely divorced from our true nature.
From the perspective of a mind-driven ego, survival is about judgment. Who’s right and who’s wrong. To be right, the ego will make others wrong. Or make self wrong because others are right, however illogical this is. We will act according to the egos judgments or story. It’s very easy to see this. Just pick up any newspaper. A long list of who’s wrong and who’s to blame. Also what’s wrong. We also see this in self-destructive behavior.
Because we are driven by more base emotions and place the me at the center of our universe, we act from that place. Our story allows us to feel justified, even when we overspend, eat poorly, gossip, and otherwise act in apparently irrational or inconsistent ways. The logical mind can see the issue but the story driven emotions feel justified to continue. We develop internal conflicts.
The more deeply divorced someone is from others, the more likely they will pursue a course of action that is disrespectful of others. It should be no surprise that the alienated become violent. This is the origins of evil, the very bad. And you can find the story of their behavior in their history. While it is not rational, we can see the pattern develop.
The solution is of course to step out from under the ego and it’s story. By connecting to our true natures within, the fog begins to clear. Seen through, the story begins to collapse. From that greater clarity, life makes a lot more sense. As the connection deepens, the underlying unity begins to dawn and we start to see through the duality of good and evil. We wake up from the bad dream.
The magic thing is, it is only necessary for enough people to reconnect with themselves. It doesn’t have to be everybody, or even a majority. Because we are one, it just needs enough people to awaken to their nature and it will stir the awakeness in group consciousness and move everyone “up”.
This process is easily seen when people gather for a common good – meditation, intention, healing, prayer, music. You feel inspired or lifted. This is the lifting that’s taking place for everyone now. And it is the dissolution of the roots of evil.
This may seem farfetched. But remember the cycles of time. The golden ages are much longer than the dark ages. They are a time without fear. A time with little duality. A time when evil was not even an idea. Some people can remember those times.
Davidya
Last Updated on December 11, 2013 by Davidya
On the enough people to awaken – there has actually been scientific research on this effect going on since the 70’s.
First, 1% of a population meditating
Then the square root of 1% doing yoga sutras. 2 groups I know of have been working to form a group of 8,000 for the world since the early 80’s.
No stats yet on the % awake. But they’re popping up all over 😉
Very interesting Davidya! Thank you! There are a number of people really advocating “shadow work”. Are you familiar with this movement? Primarily, they say you must see the dark or shadow side and embrace it.
Do you have any experience on this you are willing to share?
Always!
Ben
Hi Ben
Thanks again for your feedback. It’s appreciated.
Not a movement but I am familiar with the idea of the shadow or dark side.
Seeing and accepting all parts of ourselves is certainly part of the process. Allowing it to be as it is. I’m not sure I would use the term “embracing”. What you put your attention on grows stronger, so celebrating the dark may not be quite the right approach. However, when it is fully accepted, we come to love all aspects – including the dark. Then embracing is natural and no trap as its in context of the wholeness.
Experiences I’d like to share? (laughs) The dark side is not some big scary monster. It’s simply those aspects of ourselves we’re unwilling to look at, that we’re afraid of. Afraid of the pain. Yet we cause ourselvs more pain in avoidance.
Because we’ve been stashing resistance for a very long time, it can be like peeling an onion. Layer after layer – we think we’ve cleared some issue, then it comes up again. But if you pay attention, you’ll see we’re gradually going into more and more subtle layers of it.
The shadow is always fear driven but shadow stories often have a key emotion over the fear. In my own case, a story of blame. So there is a pattern of being blamed (expectation), avoidance of blame (inertia), and similar things like judgment. That lead to subtle issues of trust. As I’ve noted before, this has been going on since the last ‘fall’ thousands of years ago. So it’s no wonder it’s taking a bit of work. (laughs)
While we can gradually resolve the shadow through awareness, understanding it requires larger examples. In the last life, I had an expected family career and arranged marriage. The woman in question was in love with someone else, so I withdrew into an ashram to avoid the apparent consequences. However, I became a shit disturber so got in trouble anyway. (laughs) This life, some of the same players showed up and the opposite decision played out – the marriage and career happened. And there was some perception of being a shit disturber when I wasn’t. (laughs) When the process was complete and the dynamic seen, they ended.
Getting to know past lives is a very potent way to see your dark side. Everyone has done just about everything at some point along the way. (laughs)
On the other hand, some people have a simpler journey than processing thousands of years of unfinished business. (laughs)
I give this example because the dark side plays across a much larger stage than the angry thoughts you had this morning at about 8. It is a shadow across your soul’s journey. But one we can resolve now.
Hey Davidya, I’m kind of interested (why wouldn’t the ego be? :P) in getting to know past lives, sometimes I wonder why I have chosen this scenario at this moment.
I really enjoyed this article, I will have to meditate on it and let my true nature transmute it for me.. but could you talk more on past lives?
Hi LS
It is our nature to want to understand. It is part of our evolutionary process. The ego aspect is in wanting to find a fixed truth and control. The secret however is in allowing it to be as it is. Openness.
I’ve written on past lives a number of times. This article, discussion in comments, and various links cover some of that:
https://davidya.ca/2008/08/08/coming-back-to-past-lives/
The thing about past live is there’s a lot of “noise” out there. People talking about being famous, etc etc. Most of us have past life memories here and there. But they’re so fragmentary, we don’t recognize them as such. They arise just like a memory of being 18 or 12. But there is a different quality to them, a different sense of person – yet a continuity of being.
Keep in mind that it’s not the “me” that does the choosing – that takes place on a soul level and in context of the whole. The basic framework is simple but is very complex in effect due to the vast field of action and the momentum of time.
From what I’ve seen, first memories arise that are associated with current events. As such, they are typically something unresolved and there is often a quality of resistance, an unwillingness to see. That’s partly why many don’t see past lives.
As the memories get clearer, they start to expand from those fulcrum points and a bigger picture emerges. Why such motivations were present to create that scenario, for example. And the connection those events have to still prior lives. And so on.
Somewhere in there, we run into a historical fact that can be verified we’d have no other way of knowing about.
Within a few lifetimes, usually most of whats playing out now is seen. But even some of that has still prior causality.
In time, the overall flow of lifetimes become apparent. The rising and falling tides of awareness in lives. Some are noteworthy and remarkable. Many are mundane. Some horrid or where we do something horrid. As I mentioned in the article, we’ve all done just about everything at some point.
As the larger cycles of time become clear, we step past the last fall into times of the last golden age. And farther and farther back, many thousands of years- depending of course on how old your soul is. But if you’re reading this, it’s less likely to be young.
We may also begin to see the way certain events are nodes in consciousness that interconnect us with our past and the past of others. Many of these nodes we can call resistance, residual karma, or stress. Unresolved experiences or points of holding. They form a kind of mesh that holds us to our past. As we clear those resistances, the nodes dissolve and the mesh slowly collapses. We actually change our past. (remember it’s all consciousness)
It should be noted that some older nodes were formed in times of higher consciousness. These are more self-made memory bookmarks for quickly finding reference points in the long cycles of time where lives were vastly longer than now. Like when you make a conscious point of remembering an intimate moment, only these have an extra attribute.
As we step deeper into our essential nature and the bounds of separation loosen, time begins to collapse into the moment. Those node points are found to be concurrent and align in a single “person” in the present. One person having many experiences in many seeming lives, all at the same time. I’ve linked to a couple of videos in the past that illustrate what this is like – think of the many armed gods…
https://davidya.ca/2009/05/19/all-life-is-in-the-moment/
Those nodes of the mesh that interconnect us with other people are also found to be concurrent, drawing everyone together into one “person”. Thus we can “shuffle” through any life anywhere in any time. As we are all beings, we can experience what they experience, but from the consciousness we’re in, not theirs. (stepping right into theirs would be unsafe)
More deeply still is the experience of being all beings in all time at the same time. This is not really possible until we are the ocean of love that contains all things. Partly because it takes this point to get the overview. And partly it takes this to experience all suffering at once and not be overshadowed.
More deeply is the cosmic person and the role of all beings in that. Think of each of our souls journeys as a cell in the cosmic person with a certain role. Each of those person/cells is a mirror of the whole, built of numerous devata with a certain role. Each of the devata is similarly composed of numerous elementals. And so on. At the same time, all values are one and the same, so each person, devata and elemental is cosmic, not a part but the entirety of the whole. It’s kind of like zooming into a part and finding the whole, as in a hologram.
By this point we’re no longer talking about lives or past, so I’ll stop there. (laughs)
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