How Evil Serves Good

To incarnate into this realm of experience is a real bitch. Of course there’s all sorts of joys and pleasures and excitement but there’s also pain, and terror, and the antithesis of all that is Good, the thing we call Evil. This negative polarity is the source of so much suffering that our minds have difficulty fathoming its larger significance. So in order to contemplate this concept it’s necessary that we attempt to define Good and Evil in simple terms.

From a certain perspective it can be said that good stems from absolute virtue, integrity and all conditions, powers, forces and circumstances of all that is best and proper. To be without sin, virtuous, and kind. A good life is one where a person can look back and not be outraged by their conduct. One where the conscience is clean and without stain or regret. This is not to say that we must be absolutely perfect because no life is without mistake but to live in such a way where the good deeds outweigh the missteps.

Evil, on the other hand, is simply the absence of good, just as darkness is the absence of light. This means that evil is not an active force in the world, but rather a lack or vacancy of something positive. It’s the negative polarity and necessary for good to exist. Evil serves good by providing contrast. Without the concept of evil, the good would not be as apparent or appreciated. So good and evil are not opposites, but complements. They are two halves of a whole, and it is only through the experience of both that we can achieve balance and understanding.

Most of the things we call Evil are simply ignorance to the truth that we are all connected to Infinite Source and this emanation is overflowing with love and creativity. Our sense of separateness from this Source is represented by our ego and is the reason we suffer. The ego is a necessary part of individuated consciousness and while it’s our pilot through this realm of experience, it sometimes thinks it’s running the show. When we respond to life from a place of selfishness and egoic unconsciousness then the negative polarity is ignited and the potential for evil increases.

When we strive towards good we sometimes find that an adversary to that goal appears. As if some imaginary force begins to apply constant pressure in opposition to our will. In this way, Good and Evil are inherently linked but this connection brings up some challenging questions. If these things exist then what is the cause? Is there a Source of these emanations? Is a deity the cause of this? Can a supreme being prevent Evil and if such a being exists shouldn’t it ultimately serve Good?

The Haywain Triptych (upper left section) by Hieronymous Bosch

Let us assume that if a Supreme Being exists then it would have to be all powerful and to be in that state it must be beyond polarity, that is to say it must exist in a position of Oneness that is above the duality of Good and Evil. So the concept of Good and Evil is conceived by man because of his faculty of the mind and its propensity towards comparison. We may believe that we have the capacity to judge what is Good and what is Evil but in reality we have no real means to make this determination. Good and Evil are really man’s way of attempting to bring some meaning to the misunderstanding surrounding the concept of infinite life.

If we take this further we can try to imagine a state of being beyond such concepts or duality. Let us envision a place beyond material reality, a place that exists in a superposition of Infinite Oneness. We can call such a place the realm of Spirit. In this dimension we are beyond time and space and exist in a state of pure consciousness with an unfiltered connection to Source. Let’s assume that in this state there are no limitations of any kind. Spirits are expansive and creative and boundless. All is perfect and flowing. A condition of omniscience prevails and we are one with all there is. If this is a place of pure love then needless to say it must be an experience of absolute bliss. But to be in this state for eternity could become boring and repetitive and we might want to test ourselves. We must also recognize that a state of eternity is impossible to even fathom because in that condition all exists simultaneously so the experience of infinity is transcendent beyond comprehension. Let’s say that from this position we decide we’d like to have an experience or an adventure, like playing a game. So a machine is constructed that will help us test our merits. We’ll call this machine Physical Reality. Physical Reality is bound by laws of duality and these constraints allow for there to be a pushback against this loving, creative principle of Spirit. In order for this experiment to work you would have to forget that you’re an omniscient Spiritual entity so you could enter the machine and experience the constricts of Time. Entering Space Time suggests not knowing what’s ahead so we could develop our faculties of patience and test our ability to develop a skill and put it to use through our labor. This would be the only way to experience glory and triumph by testing your resolve through difficulty. This forgetting comes with a consequence however. We run the risk of missing the point of this machine of separation. We may become addicted to this realm and the experience it provides. If we become too concerned with our own separateness we might not realize that we’re all connected and this selfishness can result in harming another and in many ways that is the definition of Evil. This is where the Laws of Karma come into play. We are gifted with Freewill but it comes at the price of karmic retribution so we can learn from our choices. So in this sense, Physical Reality is like a maze that distorts perspective and the proper navigation of the labyrinth can return us to Ultimate Truth.

This is where the pushback comes into play. As a separate entity with a goal you must meet an adversary to that objective along your path otherwise there would be no point in the pursuit and that adversary will appear as an external event or another individuated form of consciousness. Of course underneath it all is this immense spiritual Oneness, but inside the game we’re shattered into billions of fragments each with a purpose, each with an agenda and a goal. Perhaps one person’s agenda is to create resistance to your goal of becoming an award winning pastry chef. Maybe you’ve made a deal in the spiritual realm with another spirit to provide this pushback for you out of love. Why even endeavor to become a badass pastry chef if there isn’t some kind of hurdle en route to this dream. In this realm, that hurdle manifests as an individual that tests you and you consider to be your enemy but in the Spirit realm you’re homies and you’ve asked this of each other. I think this is what Jesus meant by the phrase “Love your Enemy” because they may be providing necessary resistance to achievement of your life path. Of course that’s only one way to look at it.

Another way is the view held by the Gnostics. They believed that the True Creator invented a machine that created Physical Reality. They call this machine The Demiurge. Somewhere along the way the Demiurge became confused and because it was imbued with the power to create Physical Reality, it mistakenly believed that it was the True God and turned away from the love of the Creator and in this distortion, Evil became possible. In his blindness, the Demiurge is unaware of the higher spiritual realm and acts as a tyrant, trying to keep humanity trapped in the material world and ignorant of their true divine nature. In a sense, The Demiurge can be looked at as a larger metaphor for the Ego. It’s like the Ego of God. The Creator needed a way to understand itself through reflection. It needed to feel a sense of other through separateness, the opposite of Oneness. Each of us is part of the Oneness of the All but we feel like we have a sense of self that is singular and to a certain extent that’s true. We have a personality and a name and the story of our life. That’s the mask we wear to help the Creator know itself but if we feel like it’s only about us as an individual then we might do something that harms another because we are not seeing that we’re all connected at the core to this great Source. In this way, sometimes our pursuit of Good can result in Evil, like when someone bombs an abortion clinic killing people to save the unborn or a suicide bomber takes out a passenger jet in the name of God. For the Gnostics, the Demiurge makes this possible.

Mithra in the Form of the Leontocephalic Kronos by J. Augustus Knapp

Ultimately, we all face adversity in life and we all face challenges on our path and some of those difficulties are unimaginable and excruciating and beyond reason and can only be considered Evil. But perhaps there is a larger significance to these machinations that we cannot comprehend from our limited view. There’s a necessary purpose in the negative polarity that helps us to identify and appreciate its opposite and through facing and overcoming challenges, we can find balance. Maybe we’re just playing a part in a play that is designed for the growth of individuated consciousness and in order for the advancement towards all that is Good and Loving, we must come up against all that is considered the absence of it. This thing we call Evil.