Facing Evil along the Way

Brother, take not one step in the descent to hell. For having taken one, you will not recognize the rest for what they are. And they will follow,

(A Course in Miracles)

When a hurricane sweeps the country and homes get destroyed and people die in the process, is this event evil? If a lion hunts down a gazelle and eats it, is it evil? What if a cat plays with a mouse for a few minutes before it eats it; is that evil?

When the thunder roared a few thousand years ago, the Northern Europeans felt that Thor was swinging a hammer. To that day, some devoted Hindus only roll their eyes when catastrophe strikes, "Oh, Kali Maa has Her way", they would say. Natural disasters may just be the accumulated karmic debt that has to be released from time to time. So even these disasters could be viewed are nothing but a releasing thunderstorm. Viewed from that perspective, are they really evil?

The word "evil" may only make sense on a human scale. A lot of our actions are subconscious; they happen because we have been programmed by ourselves and others to do it. Does that constitute as evil? Probably we should reserve this expression only for truly conscious steps away from the light. Perhaps it even takes some spiritual maturity to reach that stage; I honestly don't know. But as you do, you will feel a dark cloud descending on you, just as the Course in Miracles stated. 

I have written often about shadow work just because I feel that it is under-appreciated in our spiritual community. If you strive for the light, your shadow naturally pops up; that's the yin and yang of spirituality. I know this distinction is subtle, but shadow work shouldn't involve taking deliberate steps away from the light. It is more the awareness that you are in the process of missing a beat along the Way with the intention to pick up the broken China on the floor the next morning. Shadow work is the state of being conscious of the battle of spiritual super ego and soul desires. If in contrast you take deliberate steps away from the light, you may need others to lift you out of the hole again.

I would conjecture that eventually we all get a bit tired of all the climbing spiritual stairs and light working. There comes a time when we even can grasp the darkness and thunderstorms without judgment and without getting involved. As we stop moving towards the light, the shadow stops in its tracks as well. We let the Tao of darkness and light do Her thing and are happy either way. By stopping to aspire to be beyond the world we operate in we in fact transcend good and evil. 

Evil Doesn't Exist if it is Meaningless to You

Whoever fights monsters should see to that in the process he doesn't become a monster. If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back at you.
(Nietzsche)

I am actually a little surprised that this quote comes from Nietzsche given that we don't exactly associate spirituality with him, but it is true. Evil only exists if you give power to it. Yet, shadow work is something perhaps every spiritual traveler has to go through. We want to be our better self, but this very want implies that we are negating stuff that is hiding deep inside of us. Sooner or later it will pop to the surface and by latest then will we have to engage with it - whether we like it or not.

Shadow work is a dance. You don't want to repress it, but you also don't want to zoom into your darkness. Yet, once the demon is out in the open, darkness dissolves naturally if you just let it be and don't give power to it.  Yes, stepping away from it can be hard, but you will find that many friends will help you at this crucial juncture.

Never judge people who are full of darkness; you haven't walked in their shoes. But if they continue to pop up in your neighborhood, there must be something you haven't yet addressed in yourself, otherwise they have no business crossing your path. Don't be afraid of shadow work, just confront whatever comes your way to the best of your abilities. Rain or shine, the Tao always takes good care of you as long as you put your best foot forward in everything you do. And yes it is true, evil doesn't exists if it is meaningless to you.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

You may remember Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, the story of someone who schemes and lies himself through life but who magically keeps his innocent appearance. Only much later does he realize how ugly he looks beneath the facade - it is a monstrous vision indeed!

There is a lot of wisdom in this book. Unless you are a magician, after 40 years you are responsible for your face, as Eric Fromm once remarked. But I think this erosion of natural beauty is not so much about the ego which our spiritual community loves to attack; true "ugliness" originates from crimes committed against life. The stealing, cheating and scheming, or perhaps worst of all, the robbing of innocence. If you just run after your ego's passions you can look old at times, worn down perhaps, or sometimes just plain, but with a little wind in your back, with a little success, you get your old fire and your youthful look back. In contrast, the schemers, criminals and cheats can only hide their ugliness if they even manage to fool themselves. Still, the "ugliness" will come out one way or another, sometimes in form of an illness, or sometimes with bad breath. But there is good news, you can always let go of your psychological baggage if you embrace life instead.

We have no right to attack the ego, the ego is still an expression of life so let people fulfill their mission if they feel the passion to do so. We can only give advice to those who are sick or find that they no longer recognize the person in the mirror. The uplifting message we can tell them is that Oscar Wilde's scary story is just fiction. Everyone can turn this ship around; just stop going upstream and go downstream instead. Experience how easy and how much fun it is. Going with life is natural and easy, while going against life is evil. You know that "evil" is "live" spelt backwards, right?

Who Are You?

The Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.
(Tao Te Ching)

I have just returned from a trip around the world and now routinely wake up at 2 am. Have you ever observed what stuff is going though your head when you wake up at that ungodly hour in contrast to, say, waking up on a sunny Sunday morning after 11 hours of sleep?  Who are you when you had a few set-backs in a row in contrast to a period when everything seems to be going your way? And who are you when you are surrounded by dark energy in contrast to playing soccer with your children on a beautiful Fall day?

Spirituality says there is an entity beyond these ever changing states that you can connect with. Taoism is ability to spot and weather these states. It is the ability to be serene in the ups and downs of life. We are not saying that you should be stoic or emotionless when bad stuff happens to you, we are saying that if you really observe carefully what is going on, you can discover connections that the ordinary folks just don't see.You can the rise of karmic debt as well as its payment, just as you can discover that "good" and "evil" are two sides of the same coin.

So who are you? You are the one who observes the yin and yang in action, the one who is open to both good and evil.  Dark energy may approach you, but it doesn't stick, just as you shrug your shoulders when you face a winning streak. Not because you are indifferent, but because you already see the momentum shifting while others are still celebrating. This observer may not quite be the Self, but wherever the Way is, the Self is nearby. Once you understand that the Way is where you are, you always have life to look forward to, never mind whether you had a good night's sleep or not.

The Tao of Darkness and Light

The Tao doesn't take sides;
It gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.
(Tao Te Ching)

How would you feel when someone implies that you are not attractive? What if you "accidentally" upset someone who is important to you? Or what if someone you love suddenly falls really sick? What if you have to deal with someone who is mean?

Walking the Tao does not shelter you from the yin and yang of life. Darkness and light necessitate each other. Often your spiritual journey starts in earnest because you can't take it anymore, because you are tired of running into a wall and you scream at the world and God "why me?", and for the first time that you can remember someone actually answers.

Walking the Tao is a journey of healing. The light shines away the darkness over time,  fear is being replaced by peace, a foul mood turns into joy and laughter. When you read about the Tao you are likely to hear so much about the good stuff, the joys along the Way, the miracles, the synchronicity. Yet, a little darkness has to be part of the Way as well.

 After we walk our spiritual path for a while, we unload most of the accumulated pain, we experience joy, happiness, love, goodness, beauty and light wherever we turn. In fact, we can become addicted to that feeling. So one day we will naturally realize that this good stuff is another kind of limitation as well. While we are on earth, Heaven on earth will have to be an utopia.  This notion would reject suffering which is part of life. By portraying us as magician we would put ourselves above others which is simply not the case. We are all one.

With the realization that the yin and yang is part of life we manage to open ourselves up. We welcome everything, good and bad, with equanimity. We become vulnerable. No one expects you to suffer; no one wants you to be weak in the presence of evil, but please show respect and love for everything that She brings your Way. By being open to good and evil you become a true master.  We suddenly let go of the notion of how things should be and we walk the Tao whole-heartedly, only to find that everything is perfect as is.

By Christian and Su Zhen

Acknowledging Your Idol Along the Way

Did you know that the word evil  is live spelled backwards? So it turns out that for us spiritual path travelers the concepts of evil and sin make little sense. Everyone who has ever had a glimpse of the Tao know that this Force bends backwards to make you fall in love with life and your soul siblings, so to consciously do something evil means that you pretty much deliberately walk in the opposite direction of the Tao. You can try, but you will soon find a lot of broken China on the floor.

Mistakes are different from 'sin' and 'evil'. You knock down a precious vase, but then the Tao shows you that it is much less of a big deal than you think and the next day you are again encouraged by Her to put your best foot forward. More than that, the Tao will show you why those 'accidents' happened in the first place and what kind of homework you still have to do to avoid mistakes like that in the future.

A Tao traveler surely has demons -  interferences along the Way - and they hurt when they pop up because they temporarily shut you off the Way's energy source. Perhaps we have even more demons than the Agnostic next door because we want to go somewhere. We want to be enlightened, we want to be holy and full of love and peace. So we mind when we find that we are different from the image we aspire to be. Well, a demon pops up to remind you that you haven't quite managed to bring the whole 'I' along. This puzzle was written many thousand years ago, yet it is still a perfect description of the war inside:

I do not understand my own behavior; I do not act as I mean to, but I do the things that I hate. Though the will to do what is good is in me, the power to do it is not; the good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing - which I do not want  - that is what I do.
(Apostle Paul)

You want to end this war inside? Well, accept the desire you have, the longing, the lust, the greed, the fear. Face it, accept it and you have a shot at transcending it. Fight it and it will never go away. You can only end a shadow boxing match when you stop moving your hands. So coping with your shadow is very simple really: accept who you are and then put your best foot forward. And if you meet an idol along the way, nod in its direction and then go your merry Way.