Why is there so much evil in the world?

[Gerard]

It is a question that has been lingering in my mind for a long time and addressed in another forum. Different opinions were given but no consensus was reached. Maybe it will happen in here.

 

Ignorance, delusion, karma, demonic influence in our planet ( ), dark side of Tao?

 

Why a rotten apple spoils the whole basket and not vice versa? That is why a good apple will never cure a whole basket of rotten apples?

 

What is the ultimate reason?

 

Personally, it is something beyond my comprehension.

Edited May 7, 2008 by durkhrod chogori

[Yoda]

Yesterday a hawk flew off with a squirrel here on Degoba...

 

Whatever one's call is about this sort of thing, one thing that I sincerely believe is that there isn't *nearly* as much negativity in the world as we are told by the TV. Even with all that predation in the animal world, they don't sit around stressing about things and have fun for the vast majority of the time. Even the chase itself is pretty invigorating and the squirrel really shakes his ass in the predator's face when he gets away. But they don't really show this side of the emotional equation on the nature shows do they? We are led to believe that an animal's life is full of ominous soundtracks and lots of stress and worry. I think that they can still feel the spiritual dimensions and appreciate that this life is just a part of the equation.

 

Your pal,

Yoda

[Procurator]

.... Different opinions were given but no consensus was reached. Maybe it will happen in here.

 

....

 

.... . why a good apple will never cure a whole basket of rotten apples?

 

 

because apples are desperate for a consensus. Edited May 7, 2008 by Procurator

[karen]

Why look for consensus? Take whatever ideas resonate and let them percolate within yourself.

 

Why is there evil - why is there any form of resistance at all? If you exercise, you need something to work against in order to develop your strength. We live in a world of polarity. We learn through resistance. There isn't evil in the sense of something that's intrinsically "bad," because it's not for us to judge. What we do judge, as objectively as we can, is what belongs where.

 

People stealing my stuff; disease invading my body - these things don't belong there, so I approach them as an adversary. You can think of evil as an adversary that we get to deal with in order to strengthen ourselves ultimately, spiritually.

 

Ignorance, delusion, karma, demonic influence in our planet ( ), dark side of Tao?

 

Why not all of those? The intellect wants to pin things down to one idea. Think of the possibility that all those ideas are different aspects of the same thing. You can't use the intellect here - you have to use a higher function of mind, which we're not used to using consciously.

 

Why a rotten apple spoils the whole basket and not vice versa? That is why a good apple will never cure a whole basket of rotten apples?

The law of entropy. But while the apple is on the tree and alive, that doesn't happen, because the life force resists the law of entropy. But the life force is something that most people are actually afraid to embrace fully. That would mean to have full freedom and responsibility for oneself, and most people are at various stages of development but not ready to claim their full birthright, due to traumas and various blockages that have fragmented themselves, littered along the landscape.

 

When we're whole, we're seamless and no foreign forces can invade. But when we're fragmented to some degree as most of us are, we have vulnerabilities to foreign forces. That's what ignorance means - the "fall" from grace, a breach in our integrity. Now we're susceptible to disease, false belief, and fear.

 

But that's actually the only path to freedom, the same way that a child has to grow up and become independent and has to meet new challenges that they didn't have when they were attached to the parents. Our evolutionary impulse is to grow up, spiritually.

 

We're at a time in our evolution of consciousness that we need to deal with fear. On one level a false fearmongering is going on, but on another level, whatever we encounter in the outer world is only a reflection of our inner state of mind. We're perceiving things as fearful because we're ready to deal with our own deep fears in the process of cashing them in for a higher spiritual purpose.

[wudangspirit]

We only know beauty as beauty because there is ugliness

We only know good as good because there is evil....

 

It is nature to have Yin/Yang balance. You cannot know these things unless you have a comparison in post heaven knowledge. In Taoism we try to learn to see things for what they truly are and not what we "think' they are by post heaven knowledge.

 

Try not to attach to these things or make judgments and tell yourself "they just are". You'll be able to float to the top of the whirlpool that drags most of us down.

 

This is a great topic and discussion.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Tao Bless,

 

Wudangspirit

 

 

It is a question that has been lingering in my mind for a long time and addressed in another forum. Different opinions were given but no consensus was reached. Maybe it will happen in here.

 

Ignorance, delusion, karma, demonic influence in our planet ( ), dark side of Tao?

 

Why a rotten apple spoils the whole basket and not vice versa? That is why a good apple will never cure a whole basket of rotten apples?

 

What is the ultimate reason?

 

Personally, it is something beyond my comprehension.

[Guest allan]

It is a question that has been lingering in my mind for a long time....

 

Ignorance, delusion, karma, demonic influence in our planet ( ), dark side of Tao?

 

According to various planchette messages from Daoist heavenly immortals, they say that 'when there is Tao, there is Mo (demons)'.

[gendao]

When there became separation, there became "me" & "you."

When there became "me" & "you," there became "for me" and "for you."

And "for me" became "good" & "for you" became "evil."

 

And you can therefore not eliminate one without the other.

Only both together when you enter the state of non-duality where nothing matters anymore...

Edited May 7, 2008 by vortex

[Patrick Brown]

There is no such thing as evil only ignorance and confusion. The way leads to simplicity and clarity. The whole idea of monasteries was to give a refuge for the enlightened as the confusion and chaos that ignorance brings to this world kinda grates on ones soul. Having said that we are reminded that we should move with the present so denial will only make the pain worse and it becomes the duty of the enlightened ones to follow the way and be seen thereby setting an example.

 

This Monty Python sketch is funnier that most people realise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsb5W0m3S-Y I'm not sure if the insight in that sketch was anything to do with the minds of Monty Python but then again you never know! Anyway leave Master Po out of it. ;0)