At the origins of the good and the evil
There are many definitions of what is good and what is evil. It is not surprising: people have always been answering this question. There is only one question that could be more popular: “What is the meaning of life?”. Unfortunately, none of the answers was convincing enough to be accepted by the majority.
However, if we talk about morality, we could see that in all ages and among all people and cultures there was something in common (except for some nuances or special cases). In other words, ideas about what is good and what is evil were similar. For example, love, kindness, generosity, honesty, loyalty, courage, wisdom, freedom, safety, peace – are commonly believed to be good; when hatred, anger, greed, deceit, betrayal, cowardice, stupidity, slavery, danger, violence – evil.
It would seem that a common language was found. However, the reality turns out otherwise. People with such similar moral concepts constantly fight with each other as long as these concepts exist. Why? Because having common concepts is not enough. They represent only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. What lies at the bottom of the iceberg? – World picture from which, in fact, these concepts emerge. Which world picture? Here comes an issue – there are a lot of them. And they are all different. Accordingly, there are also a lot of explanations, justifying these pictures. The justifications play the major role. The difference among them leads to disagreement. For example, two people wear the same clothes; it would seem that there are no contradictions. But they could fight, trying to justify, why there is a need to wear such clothes. The identity based on appearance creates an illusion of the absence of contradictions. Just an illusion. And it lasts until the first crisis.
Therefore, various social and spiritual enterprises based on the principle of the resemblance of views are short-lived or stop at the stage of formation. It’s natural. This similarity in appearance is not even the tip of the iceberg, but only a pattern. It arises from totally different fundamentals —from different world views. The differences in views about the world and the destiny of humanity leads to differences in understanding of the goals and methods of achieving them. Here come the contradictions, leading to conflicts. Attempts to combine something based on resemblance of the moral and philosophical concepts, do not hold up against criticism.
Recently a popular opinion appeared. It states that there is no objective criteria to distinguish between good and evil — and therefore objective morality does not exist, and that everything is subjective. They claim that good or bad depends only on a particular person in particular circumstances. This view is extremely comfortable for egoists, villains and immoral people of all types because it gives them an unlimited sanction to any form of licentiousness and any crime. This point of view is suitable for their megalomania and their desire to see the world rotating around them. But from the standpoint of common sense it is absurd, because it pulls a person out of context of Nature and its laws — as if he is on his own, and these laws do not apply.
Indeed any man is a part of Nature, flesh of her flesh; one of the factors of the evolutionary process. This cannot repeal the words “I disagree!”. And it is easy to understand the following: what is good for Nature is good for humans as its particles. In other words, objective criteria of good and evil and objective morality exist. They are embedded in Nature and its laws.
According to the Teaching what is good for the environment (in the scale of our planet, the Universe, or Existence) is a common good, which promotes evolution and creation. Evil is all that impedes and leads to destruction. And evil (at the level of the planet and the Universe) comes from the manifestation of the global principle of evil. At the level of Being, evil is a tendency to nothingness, in other words, it is a trend towards global destruction. It confronts evolution, which improves its Existence and does not allow destructive processes intensify to a degree that threatens the existence of Life. That is, evolution, build and strengthen life is a blessing, and the destructive tendencies that hinder the evolution and life-threatening, are evil. This is true to the level of Existence, and in relation to the infinity of Being and also the level of our Universe, and even more local level – our planet. At each of these levels, evolutionary processes are struggling with destructive processes, which are the tendency to nothingness.
Human nature is also a battleground of these two forces. We have the Spirit within us, the most perfect of all substances of the Universe, the soul of the Creator, the bearer and conduit of the universal principles, the engine of evolution and, at the same time, its purpose as an object of improvement. This good power is manifested in a person with a level deeper than the level of the subconscious, (in our Doctrine it is called “Spirit-o-consciousness”), forming the best that is in us.
This is what sometimes unconsciously gives us the pure idea of what is good and what is evil. This explains the universal similarity of the notions of good and evil, vices and virtues. This is something that is inherent in the Spirit, the particles of which, abiding in different bodies, at the same time form a single whole. People always felt it, but could not properly explain. However, the explanation was necessary. Therefore, different cultures and religions gave their own interpretation, based on the picture of the world they had. Hence the difference in rationales of similar moral concepts and principles.
However, in each and every human there is a tendency to nothingness. That’s the worst part of our nature; which is called “the dark beginning”. It is very active and there is a constant struggle between it and the good principle mentioned above. In this case, it is not enough to determine what is good and what is evil, but also to make the right choice — the choice in favor of good. And this is often the most difficult part.
Each of us is a particle of Being, and in each of us there are two fighting forces: a force of perfection and a force of destruction. These forces are not attached to us by a Supreme being according to his will; neither they are those that were developed in ourselves. They are present in us initially, as they are in Nature; they have always been and will be in us. It’s a part of our universe, our planet and the mankind – different levels of structural organization of Life. The primary laws —the Four Great Principles, and anti-evolution (trend to the manifestation of nothingness), work in all these levels. They work in the same in humans as they work in the Universe, acting directly, without introducing any supernatural intermediaries. The laws of Being work within us and we are Being ourselves. There is no need to search for the global origins of good and evil somewhere far away in the universe – they are within us. We are the source of these principles and we might use any of them any time we like.
But although a man is only one of the levels where these struggle takes place, one of the battle fields, there is one crucial fact: it is a field of battle, which is aware of itself. Even the Creator (i.e. our Universe) currently does not recognize itself as a personality, but humans do. Moreover: humans are not only able to perceive the world, themselves and what is happening, but also to make a strong-willed choice between good and evil.
In other words, they are able to control themselves inside and outside. They themselves decide whether they should be good or evil, and thereby determine the future of the Universe. What is more, humans along with other conscious being in the Universeу are the main battlefield for good and evil. In the unconscious part of Nature, the tendency to non-existence is not so strong; only in conscious beings, thanks to their free will, it unfolds in full force, and the struggle reaches the strongest intensity.
Although humans, in comparison to Being, the Universe and the Earth, seem to be the most insignificant of the battlefields between good and evil, in reality this is not true. They are at the forefront of this battle, and take the brunt of the attack. The most important victories over the forces of destruction are won by humans, first of all, in themselves.
Each of us carries two sources within: the source of good and the source of evil. Not only we drink from one of those, but also irrigate the world from them. And the garden of the world brings those fruits that grow through our irrigation. Here you can simply say: what kind of fruit you grow in yourself, so grow in the world. It depends only on us whether life or death will bear the fruits of our common garden.
© Atarkhat, 2016