First, it’s good to remember that the world is structured in layers. The more manifest or physical, the more inertia it has. Inertia has a quality of heaviness and darkness to it. Flow is reduced to a standing vibration.
That heaviness is required for physical structure and for it to be sustained in our experience. The key is balance. From a Yuga perspective (the cycles of time), an 80/20 rule holds – 80% light, 20% dark is in balance. You need enough dark for there to be form but not so much that the dark overshadows the light. We’re rising out of a period where dark was predominant and the light more hidden.
But darkness isn’t evil any more than night or space is evil. It’s simply dark. Some of our natural emotions are darker, like fear and grief. They have necessary parts to play, as the film ‘Inside Out‘ so beautifully illustrated. Those heavier, less pleasant emotions can help resolve incomplete experiences and bring us back to the light.
But dark can also lead to evil, which is acting against the light, creating harm.
Evil favours darkness to work in secret and because light weakens it. It likes to culture darker emotions because it feeds on that kind of energy. It favours fear, doubt, and delusion.
It’s easy to see where someone is coming from if we pay attention to the feel. When they speak, do we feel uplifted and inspired? Or angry and fearful? Do they share accomplishments or a litany of complaints and things to be fearful of?
Now, sometimes it is necessary to share our grief or to get people angry so they’re motivated to change. That’s where we look to the results. Is the result a relief or a positive change? Or fear our society is falling into the mud?
Harm is not just physical. It can also be emotional and mental. Innocuous things can create unintended harm because we acted from shadow rather than light, we acted against rather than for.
“I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.”
— Mother Teresa
Many classic religious stories are about the light overcoming evil. But all too often people consider darkness inherently evil and avoid it or seek to destroy it. This is resistance and does not lead to resolution. Instead, we want to make our light strong enough, then bring light to our shadows. That takes a willingness to go into our dark places. Not by destroying them but by bringing the light of attention. That will dissolve our shadows and complete the unresolved.
Often, it is our greatest challenges that lead to our life mission.
Many spiritual communities struggle with shadows. Everyone wants to stay in the light, leaving shadows unaddressed. Anything else is dismissed as ego or unstressing. And that means the shadows will rise up and cause trouble and divisions. Shadow work and healing have to be part of the process or we’re just bypassing. That will limit progress.
All that said, this assumes a duality. More expressed levels of the world have all sorts of polarities. But more deeply, there is no duality. All is inclusive. All is light. But not everywhere is like that and you can’t apply the reality of one level to another and not have some dissonance.
The complexity increases when we realize evil is also relative. People speak of “little white lies,” for example. Or they fudge the truth a little. The connection between truth, consequences, and happiness may not be obvious. And if harm results, was it so little?
Inversely, violence can sometimes be necessary to combat a greater harm.
The more we’re able to embody light, the less presence evil will have in our lives, aside from the karma that is unfolding. And the more the light, the greater a lighthouse we become for others.
The basics are simple. But the scenarios that arise can be very complex and nuanced. It can take discrimination to see the truth and not act out as so many are today. Be with the light. Feel into it. The light will find a way.
Davidya
Last Updated on March 2, 2020 by Davidya
Beautiful message, beautiful words. We must keep facing into our shadows, shining the light of love, everything there wants to come home, to dissolve into the wholeness that is everything and nothing. The ground of peace. This is our mission, to be the lighthouses. Each a unique expression of God.
Thanks, Aliyah. A beautiful comment too.
Light of truth,light of love,light of peace…..
Well said.Thanks .
Simply beautiful and direct. Flame on!
Flame on, Annie, with the light of truth to pierce the darkness, the light of love to soothe the rough edges, and the light of peace to bring joy.
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All the same light, coming through different layers. 🙂
“Many classic religious stories are about the light overcoming evil.” “…violence can sometimes be necessary to combat a greater harm.” I am reminded that the Bhagavad Gita, arguably the most revered text of the Vedas, is a story about a civil war.
Right, TO. But closer to home, something like WWII. Nasty, but consider if the fascists had not been stood up to. Less justly, we also got involved in secondary politics like in the Middle East, a mess thats still trying to resolve.
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The Gita was also about a Yuga transition into a lower age. It was important to clear the darkness so the coming age started well. Otherwise it would have gotten worse rather than having an uplifted time.
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The dynamics now are a rising age but the similar opportunity for a higher age within that if we can clear the darkness enough. The outcome of current events will indicate if the many meditators and the awake are enough or theres a little more drama needed instead.
Thank you
🙂
David,
Very well written. As you say Darkness can refer to evil and suffering. Light would then be goodness and happiness.
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Darkness can also refer to ignorance as opposed to the light of knowledge. When you look at life through dark glasses of your self, through lenses clouded with your ego and individuality, you confuse the apparent with the real. You must remove those glasses to see this life as it is.
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Darkness can also refer to the unknown, which far exceeds the light of the known. Astrophysicists say that dark matter is 25%, and dark energy about 70%, of the critical density of this Universe. When they learn what they are they will no longer be dark.
Hi Ron
Good point. Consciousness has an effulgence and also inherent intelligence. That can express as knowledge bringing light to a subject.
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Lack of understanding is ignorance, the darkness from lack of the above. In a similar way, lack of self knowledge and the ignorance of our true nature leads to suffering.
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There is also distortion of information serving to confuse. This is more like a fog to create delusion. It’s not just darkness.
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Yes, and the unknown hasn’t been lit by understanding or experience, so we’re in the dark.
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Agree on “dark matter”, etc. That’s not real science, having to explain the gaps in the equations with invisible substances. Gaps that are larger than the observer matter. 🙂
“The rest – everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter – adds up to less than 5% of the universe.” That is a quote from a fascinating article by NASA.
Yes, Ron. For the current formulae and model to work, over 95% of the universe is missing. Rather than revising the model, because it works well for modeling the physical, they’re adding on theoretical invisible matter and energy.
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The flaw is a materialist paradigm (and bias) getting in the way. Early scientists recognized an “ether” but this was later rejected as there was no physical devices that could measure it. Now, it’s academic poison to bring it back so they theorize “dark” substances because of clear pre-physical influences.
Hi David,
I’m always reading, but like to let an article sit with me for awhile sometimes. It’s a beautiful piece, and sometimes when it appears we are affected by those darker elements of society, I found that sentence about the “lighthouse” to have really touched me of late. 🙂
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I think I might know somewhat the answer, relating to this post https://davidya.ca/2019/03/27/vulnerability/, but what is the most effective way to be with those darker members of society?
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For example, how is it best to be with psychopaths and bullies, if they are unavoidable in the first instance? So far I simply let any charge associated with such individuals resolve, and remain as open awareness in such company.
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However, such individuals prey on any sense of vulnerability, seeing kindness as weakness, and exploit it to their own ends, so vigilance is always required. This individual is the brother of a close friend, and he primarily causes problems for her, so I know him by this association. Of course, their karma is each their own, and I cannot take on her’s.
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However, in my own approach, as he is a physically dominant man, I would be unable to counter well with physical defence, if such a regrettable extreme situation arose. I trust that light however, and have let go to something as you describe here:
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“Counter-intuitively, if we’re open, we become transparent energetically and any attempt to control or attack us on that level just dissipates.”
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On another note, as I have been purifying a lot lately, have you come across issues relating to purification and insomnia? The more one can’t sleep, the more I open to the charge of fear/panic of not being able to sleep, but that seems like a big charge not resolving quickly, with more stuff keeping on arising.
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The more the desire for sleep, and the fear one can’t, the more one cannot sleep (laughs). It then becomes hard to move the attention from the tense charges and knots, towards distractive thought which may help with sleep.
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It’s only the odd sleepless night here and there, but was just wondering if too much purification can cause such issues. I listen to Craig Holliday’s youtube where he has addressed such issues, but he says just remain as open awareness in such instances, but that can invite more purification of disturbing energies, possibly not conducive to sleep.
Hi David, I’m having difficulty understanding what evil itself is…how would you define it?
Hi Carolyn
It’s defined in the article, although not as obviously as I’d thought. Evil is acting against the light, creating harm. Darkness is absence of light, like shadow. But it’s neutral. It doesn’t create harm unless it moves to act against the light.
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This is distinct from how we might define something as good or bad although some moral and ethical questions lean here. For example, we might call a food or shopping experience bad but they were not necessarily evil. If someone tried to poison us, that would be evil as harm is involved.
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Similarly, a major works project may create jobs but if it destroys an eco-system then it’s overall effect is harm. This is one of the ways we’ve not been good stewards of our home. There are ways to produce things with much less destruction. Or an economy that treats people as disposable, putting wealth over life.
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It’s simple, really. But it’s a basic principle we’ve forgotten.
So evil is when harm occurs, whether there is conscious intent or not? Or does the intent to do harm have to be there? I guess I’m trying to tease out areas that seem gray, like unintended harm, willful ignorance that creates harm, etc.
Intent is key. We can inflict harm by accident. This is usually karma. It becomes evil by intent. Unfortunately, unconscious acting out is still a flavour of intent, so the consequences are greater.
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Wilful ignorance is an intent to darkness. That can lead to evil. But how do we know intent? Even in ourselves, that can be obscured. This is where you get into gray area.
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But gray doesn’t mean innocent and free of consequences. It just means less clear.
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People do crazy things with what they consider good intent. But if the result is harm, the consequences will be proportionate. We don’t escape results because we believe foolish things.
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It sometimes surprises me that people think harm is best fought with more harm.
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And yet, sometimes harm is needed to destroy a greater harm. The story of the Bhagavad Gita is a great example there. There are just wars and evil wars.
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I guess we could say like follow the money, follow the harm. Follow the results.
Oh and can people themselves be evil or just their actions/the separation their egos are identifying with? Is evil a force that some souls have allegiance to against the Light?
I don’t mean to take us too much through the weeds here, but these are questions I’ve been struggling with the past few years. I never thought that evil truly existed until more recently..I was viewing everything harmful as a result of trauma and separation from the Light/Self/God…which is true but also wondering if there is a more sinister intelligence.
Hi Carolyn
Well, there are a lot of variations and nuances. We can create evil results with wrong intent, like in placing our egos needs over others. All of us have done some of that. But that doesn’t make us evil, just evil-doing. We can be redeemed and can correct those consequences.
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Truly evil beings do exist but because they are dominated by tamas, they’re not usually very effective. We might call them a force that some people align with, typically again for selfish reasons.
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They can create shadow and confusion in others.
By deep identification with such forces, people can become truly evil but this is pretty rare. Usually it’s just aspects that shadow a person, like greed, power, etc.
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The Star Wars idea of the “dark side” is a reasonable example.
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The soul within both dark people and beings remains untouched. It is released when they die. But they can come to carry a heavy load. This is why you see “bad things happening to good people.” We all have some history on both sides of the track.
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Separation from the light creates darkness and ignorance. This creates pain but it’s largely self-inflicted. But then we have a choice. Do we work back to the light? Or do we fall to the dark side?
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I wouldn’t call the sinister “intelligence” as intelligence is a quality of the Divine. It arises in the process of experience or devata value, that which is structuring the world.
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We may use intelligence for evil but that will always come to correct itself as intelligence is Divine. And the consequences roll.
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Again, evil is inclined to use shadow – ignorance, falsehood, and fear – to obscure their actions rather than intelligence.
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The world is currently going through a major period of consequences from past harms. Do we choose to perpetuate falsehoods or seek to undo our “trespasses?”
Thank you David!