- Due to the horrific events playing out on the world stage,
I find myself unable to avoid the subject of "evil." Some of
my readers have objected to my use of the term "evil," because
it "triggers" something in them which makes them feel uncomfortable,
and sometimes even makes them stop reading. Their reaction has made me
wonder whether I should use a different word so as not to trigger them,
or is activating people the whole point of my writing? When I contemplate
this question, however, I am left with the feeling that there is no other
word that more accurately describes what I am pointing at than "evil."
I find myself wondering, is there something being revealed to us when,
for example, people are triggered by the mere mention of the word "evil?"
-
- When I mention the word evil, I am not talking metaphysically.
I am not theologically qualified to do so. When I talk about evil, I am
talking about psychological evil, whose effects are all around us. Splitting-off
from and projecting out our own darkness is an inner psychological process
that explicates itself in the outer world by feeding the seemingly endless
destruction in the collective body politic. In using the term psychological
evil, I am being pragmatic in that I am referring to the senseless and
unnecessary violence being enacted all around us whose source is to be
found nowhere but within the human psyche. Psychological evil has a dis-integrative
effect on the whole (both inwardly and outwardly), and is hence, anti-life.
-
- Talking about the real-world manifestations of evil,
Jung said, "The Christian world is now truly confronted by the principle
of evil, by naked injustice, tyranny, lies, slavery, and coercion of conscience.
Evil has become a determinant reality. It can no longer be dismissed from
the world by a circumlocution [an indirect, roundabout mode of expression].
We must learn how to handle it, since it is here to stay." We are
clearly being asked - make that demanded - by the universe to come to terms
with evil.
-
- Evil animates itself, psychologically speaking, through
humanity's unconsciousness. Evil's power is only operative in the absence
of consciousness. Evil, through our psychological blind spots, plays with
our perceptions so as to hide itself. In order to not be destroyed by
evil we have to understand the nature of the beast we are dealing with.
Like that great maxim of medicine says, "Do not attempt to cure what
you do not understand." We have to bring evil to the level of conscious
awareness. To quote Jung, "how can evil be integrated? There is only
one possibility: to assimilate it, that is to say, raise it to the level
of consciousness."
-
- Evil cannot stand to be seen, for when it is truly seen,
it is not unconscious anymore, and its seeming power over us gets taken
away. Just like a vampire can't stand the light of consciousness, once
we see evil, we take away its autonomy - it can no longer act itself out
through us unconsciously. The energy locked up in evil then becomes available
to serve what is best for the whole, which is to say it becomes transformed
so as to feed and nourish life, instead of creating death.
-
- Jung said, "Today as never before it is important
that human beings should not overlook the danger of the evil lurking within
them. It is unfortunately only too real, which is why psychology must insist
on the reality of evil and must reject any definition that regards it as
insignificant or actually non-existent. Psychology is an empirical science
and deals with realities." In this statement Jung is not making a
theological statement having to do with the metaphysical reality of evil.
He is simply pointing at the psychological reality of evil, whose outward
effects are evident all around us.
-
- How much longer can we deny the reality of evil within
our own psyche? Our denial is itself the manifestation of the very evil
we are denying, while at the same time, our denial engenders the very evil
of which our denial is an expression. The fact that evil is so rampant
in our world is undeniably a reflection of something within ourselves.
This is why Jung said, "We need more psychology. We need more understanding
of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself.
His psyche should be studied, because we are the origin of all coming evil."
-
- It is quite interesting that evil is such a major player
in the world and so few people are actually acknowledging its leading role,
let alone contemplating its dynamics. To again quote Jung, "One must
be positively blind not to see the colossal role that evil plays in the
world." What we are calling evil has been playing itself out throughout
history, but now it has come out of hiding in the shadows and is staring
us in the face for all who open their eyes and look. Jung pulled no punches
when he said, "Evil today has become a visible Great Power."
We can no longer avoid confronting evil, as our very survival as a species
depends upon it.
-
- Jung continued, "The view that we can simply turn
our back on evil and in this way eschew [avoid, shun] it belongs to the
long list of antiquated naiveties. This is sheer ostrich policy and does
not affect the reality of evil in the slightest." This "ostrich
policy," in addition to having no affect on diminishing evil's very
real effects, is unwittingly strengthening evil's seeming power and sovereignty.
-
- It is a big mistake, a true sin - a missing of the mark
- for us to run from and avoid relationship with the evil we find within
us. Jung said, "As long as Evil is [considered] a non-entity, nobody
will take his own shadow seriously.... The future of mankind very much
depends upon the recognition of the shadow. Evil is - psychologically speaking
- terribly real. It is a fatal mistake to diminish its power and reality.
Evil verily does not decrease by being hushed up as a non-reality."
-
- Jung is talking about the profound urgency for each of
us to come to terms with our own shadow, which always has both a personal
and archetypal dimension. The archetypal dimension of the shadow has a
greater breath and depth than the merely personal. Archetypal evil non-locally
pervades the entire field of consciousness in which we all partake. If
we are not in conscious relationship with our own shadow, we are unwittingly
feeding and supporting the collective archetypal shadow spreading throughout
the collective field.
-
- Insisting that we shouldn't talk about or put our attention
on evil is one of the ways that evil keeps itself in business. Evil convinces
us that to put our attention on evil only feeds it. This deception is so
convincing because in one sense it is true. Evil only has power because
we invest it with our attention. And yet, our looking away from evil is
the very thing that allows it to generate itself and act itself out through
our unconscious. A seeming conundrum: looking at evil appears to strengthen
it, but looking away gives it power over us. Being unaware of evil due
to unconscious denial is very different than consciously choosing not to
give it our attention, however. Evil becomes bankrupt and unemployed when
we see how it incarnates itself through our unconscious so as to disguise
and cloak itself.
-
- One way that evil hides itself is by instilling in us
the spiritual belief that evil isn't real, it doesn't really exist, that
all that is real is "God." This deception is so seductive because
on the ultimate level of reality, the fact that evil doesn't exist and
that all that is real is "God" is true. On the absolute, ultimate
level of reality, categories such as good and evil lose all meaning as
opposites to each other. From the ultimate point of view, there IS no such
thing as evil. Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the world's foremost scholars
on Islam, makes this same point when he says, "evil is real as much
as we, who are relative beings, are real, but it is not real as far as
"The Real' is concerned. That is, in God there is no evil."
-
- What we call evil is simply the result of our own clinging
and grasping. Our own inner darkness is not evil, but simply part of our
totality. It is our contracting against any part of ourselves, whether
it be dark or light, which generates the seeming problem. Evil's origin
is our self-contraction against our own inner boundless radiance. Our self-contraction
is itself an expression of the Divine working through us. Our self-contraction,
while appearing to obscure our true nature, is actually a "disguised"
expression of it. From the absolute point of view, everything IS spirit.
Russian philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev expresses this paradox when he said,
"It is equally true that a dark source of evil exists in the world
and that in the final sense of the word there is no evil."
-
- On the relative level of reality, however,
evil is as real as real can be. A big mistake some metaphysically-oriented
people make is to solely identify with the absolute, and marginalize the
relative. Recognizing that there is ultimately no such thing as evil, they
refuse to acknowledge and deal with it as it manifests in the relative
world of flesh and blood. They try to magically "wish" the very
real effects of evil out of existence by denying that it exists, which
is a form of denial that strengthens the reality of what is being denied.
In their denial they have created an artificial split between the opposites.
All spiritual wisdom traditions point out that the absolute and relative
levels of reality are not separate from each other; they interpenetrate
each other so fully that they are truly one.
-
- THE LION'S GAZE
- There is an intrinsic problem with illuminating evil,
however, as articulating the nature of evil can actually invoke it in the
field. This is to say that even mentioning the word evil can constellate
that very quality in the reader, as well as in myself. It then becomes
a question of how do we "relate" to the very darkness within
us which has been evoked? Do we react in fear, in which case the seeming
evil has power over us? Or do we turn the light of consciousness onto the
part of ourselves that is the source of the darkness, reflecting upon the
very darkness which has been called forth within us?
-
- One of the most beautiful teachings in Buddhism
is called "The Lion's Gaze." The following example is given as
an illustration: when we throw a stick around a dog, the dog runs after
the stick, but when we throw a stick around a lion, the lion runs after
us. The throwing of the stick in this example represents when something
inside of us gets triggered. When we are triggered, it is as if a button
inside of us has been pushed which activates an unconscious, compulsive
knee-jerk reflex. Running after the stick like the dog, which is to "act
out" being triggered, is to put our attention outside of ourselves.
"Oh, I don't want to read about evil, it triggers me. I'm going to
stop reading about it." This is to relate to what is triggering us
in the outside world as "the problem." Having the gaze of the
lion, however, if we become triggered by the word evil, for example, we
turn within ourselves and self-reflect, looking at whatever it is within
us that has gotten activated. The lion is not afraid to go right to the
source of the trigger, which is never outside, but always within ourselves.
Assuming the fearless gaze of the lion, we relate to the situation that
has triggered us as a gift, as it has helped us access a part of ourselves
that up until now has been unconscious, and hence hidden.
-
- Shedding the light of our own awareness on what has become
activated within us by, for example, our contemplation of evil, is the
very act which transforms and liberates the evil within us back into our
wholeness. Being in touch with our intrinsic wholeness is to recognize
that we include both light and dark. Because evil exists in the non-local
field of consciousness itself, we are all susceptible to its snares. Paradoxically,
our awareness of our susceptibility to evil cultivates the humility which
immunizes us from evil's harmful effects. The way to deal with evil is
to be in touch with our inherent wholeness, what Jung calls the self, which
acts as a sacred amulet or talisman, so to speak, shielding and protecting
us from evil's pernicious effects.
-
- Evil is an archetypal content of the collective unconscious,
and like the mythic Medusa, can be too much to look at directly (whether
it be in the outside world, or within ourselves), as it can be too traumatizing
and hence, experienced as overwhelming. Just like seeing Medusa's reflections
in the mirror, we can dis-spell the power of evil in the world by putting
our attention on the reflex-ions it activates within ourselves.
-
- It is impossible to see the outer manifestation of evil
and stay a detached, passive member of the audience. Being an archetype,
evil has an infectious quality; once we see it, we are no longer the same.
Once we see evil in the outside world, a resonant frequency within us becomes
ignited and set aflame. We can then approach evil's reflex-ion by looking
with the lion's gaze at what has gotten triggered within us. It is by recognizing
evil as it gets reflexively activated within us by the outside world that
we assimilate it into the wholeness of our being.
-
- Once we recognize, embrace and thereby metabolize the
evil that has been triggered within ourselves, we non-locally lighten the
darkness pervading the entire field of consciousness, as the evil within
and without are inseparably interconnected as aspects of one unified process.
In addition, by becoming consciously aware of our own darkness, we become
self-empowered to effectively deal with the evil in the outer world in
new and more creative ways that were previously unimaginable. Awakening
to the darkness within us, we can connect with each other in lucid awareness
and actively mobilize our collective genius so as to genuinely transform
our world.
-
- As we become more deeply acquainted with the evil within
us, it is discovered to be a potential catalyst for the growth and expansion
of consciousness, which is to say that evil ultimately serves the good.
Jung recognized that whenever evil appeared in an individual person's process,
some deeper good always came out of the experience that would not have
emerged without the manifestation of evil. Could the same thing be true
on a collective scale? To quote Jung, "we assiduously avoid investigating
whether in this very power of evil God might not have placed some special
purpose which it is most important for us to know." We would not have
had an expansion of consciousness if it weren't for the emergence of evil
and our struggles with it. In Goethe's masterpiece "Faust," Faust
asks Mephistopheles (who represents the Devil) who he is, and Mephistopheles
replies that he is "part of that force which would do evil, yet forever
works the good." In coming to terms with evil, evil is recognized
to play a key role in the divine mystery of the Incarnation (of God) through
humanity.
-
- It is imperative for us to find the name for what is
happening in our world. To find the name of the demon is to exorcise it.
This is the power of the logos, of the word. Like it says in the Bible,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God." (John 1:1). Finding the name is a creative act which
has the power to change the universe. Jung said, "For mankind it was
always like a deliverance from a nightmare when the new name was found."
We need to realize that the hour is upon us, and that we are being asked
by the universe to deal with the evil in the outside world by finding its
name within ourselves. Seeing the evil within ourselves allows us to get
a "handle" on it.
-
- Could it be that our unconscious re-action against even
the mere mention of the word "evil" is touching a deeper, hidden
part of ourselves so as to reveal it to us? Is our being triggered the
very portal through which we can potentially learn how to effectively deal
with evil? Is evil reflecting itself back to us through our reactions to
it so as to transform itself, and us, in the process? Is the emergence
of evil in our world the revelation of the very part of ourselves which
we need to know in order to awaken? The answer to these questions is to
be found by turning the lion's gaze of awareness towards the darkness which
is being triggered within us.
-
- Once we genuinely see the evil inside of us, we don't
have to feed it by fixating our attention on it, as this would only be
draining. Realizing that we can choose where we put our awareness empowers
us. Once we see our own darkness, we can consciously choose not to focus
on it for too long. We can then invest our energy in-visioning the world
we want to co-create with each other, dreaming it up into actual materialization,
a truly evolutionary act.
-
- Jung said, "for in the self good and evil are indeed
closer than identical twins!" In the wholeness of the self, good and
evil are indivisibly united, endlessly turning into one another so as to
be ultimately indistinguishable. Jung commented, "In the empirical
self, light and shadow form a paradoxical unity." The perspective
which realizes that good and evil are not opposites but inseparably united
is the aforementioned ultimate, or absolute state of consciousness. Could
it be that this is the deeper meaning and teleology (purpose or goal) of
evil in our world: to wake us up to our identity with divinity? Once enough
of us realize this, we are able to creatively connect with each other and
collectively transmute the destructive effects of evil into the liberating
light of love itself. How miraculous!
-
- Paul Levy is an artist and a spiritually-informed political
activist. A pioneer in the field of spiritual awakening, he is a healer
in private practice, assisting others who are also awakening to the dream-like
nature of reality. He is the author of "The Madness of George Bush:
A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis," which is available at his
website www.awakeninthedream.com. Please feel free to pass this article
along to a friend if you feel so inspired. You can contact Paul at paul@awakeninthedream.com;
he looks forward to your reflections. © Copyright 2007.
|