Good, bad, and evil are discussed endlessly. And yet good and bad are largely value judgments. Very little is truly evil.
I can cite the old English proverb, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison.” For example, a weight lifter might thrive on carbs, while a dieter avoids them.
We can also explore the gunas. Sattva guna is purity or clarity. It’s characterized by being clear, and golden effulgent. Tamas is inertia and is characterized by being heavy, sluggish and dark. We might consider things with a lot of tamas to be “bad” and yet we need enough to sustain the world. Without inertia, there would be no stable forms of experience. The world would dissolve into formless being. Without anything to experience or a means to experience, our growth would stall.
The key is balance. Through the dark age (kali yuga), tamas came to dominate, overshadowing sattva. The world became dark and muddy, making spiritual progress difficult. But as we rise, clarity is increasing with a better balance of sattva.
Even on a personal level, when balance is lost, we can fall into heavier or dark states of being. Corrections to rebalance may be experienced as punishment. But it’s a movement to a higher balance.
Even demons are largely just seeking heavier energies. They’re not evil per se.
Yet there is true evil. We’re unlikely to see much of that in our life unless there’s some related karma or our work takes us into dark places. Generally, evil is at the center, in the leadership behind collective problems. Evil prefers to stay in the shadows to minimize impedance. So it thrives in ignorance. And dies in the light.
Davida
Last Thursday in Gita class we saw a tape in which Maharishi explained that not only can sattwa be a block, but it can be a bigger block than tamas and rajas. If one is stuck in sattwa, one is not living wholeness. It was obvious from the comments in the Chat, that people were blown away by this concept.
Right – but thats a somewhat different topic. The article discusses the gunas in terms of qualities of the world, relative to value judgements.
But yes, “be without the 3 gunas” is a key to yoga, to spiritual progress. What do we transcend? The 3 gunas.
Sattva can be a block spiritually because it is pleasant and enjoyable. We can become attached to its flavours. But to develop spiritually, we need to go beyond them.
The quote at the bottom of the blog is also a reference to this.
But then, once established, we come back into the world and integrate our spirituality with it. Then sattva won’t be binding as we’re liberated.
Hi David! Interestingly, yet not quite on the table as yet in the general “spiritual” community, is that physically our brains are divided in half; left and right. The “fulcrum” is the middle way, the way of balance and unity within the body, life, and soul. Buddhism has emphasized this middle way as the road to unity, balance, and happiness, and in Vedic lore, although I cannot remember it stated as directly, reflects a similar emphasis.
Today, many tend to promote the right side when addressing concepts of spirituality and omit the left side as mere physical muscle. But as you are pointing out, the line extends equally to each side and we are seldom, if at all, ever at the extreme of either.
Relating to your examples of good and evil. I suggest (and you have discussed this previously) that we extend that to form and emptiness, the main ingredients within the spiritual movement. The idea of being one way, whether it be an initial drive for some or just an endless search by others, corresponds with your example above.
As usual, thanks for all you do in these difficult times.
Hi Bill
Yes, the Vedic approach can be found mainly in Vedanta and some of the Puranas.