"Evil really only exists because good people do nothing", teachings from Emperor Halie Selassie I (aka Rastafari). We all have seen what our fellow humans are capable of doing, Evil is all around us. But it is the ignorance of those who do wrong, and the ignorance of those who educated them that opens a path for evil to get in their hearts. We are all human, so we are all subject to ignorance, hell, I don�t know about most of the things I talk about, so we are all ignorant in some level or another. I also don´t think Enlightment is about one person reaching Nirvana. You won t be able to reach Nirvana if your purpose is to stop your own suffering, that is not possible. The path to enlightment is a path of suffering, because as you become more and more enlightened, you become more and more aware of the Evil that is around us; and the little one can do to stop it. I believe that if you are enlightened, in this physical realm you suffer even more than a non-enlightened person, you can reach Nirvana in this life, but Enlightened people choose the path of suffering for the well being of others. Take Jesus for example, he was one of the most powerful enlightened human beings that have encarnated in this world ever, and he did not choose retirement in this life, he chose the path of suffering in this realm, the path of helping others. Basically, I believe enlightened beings reach Nirvana after death, and they can continue in Nirvana forever if they want to; but they chose not to. I mean, like all the enlightened people that the world have seen, they sacrifice their eternal happines in Nirvana to encarnate in this wretched world, to help other people to reach it; that otherwise wouldn t be able to do so. A poster said: "For all the gurus, buddhas and swamis and so on who have given everything up and lossed there attachments to all things wordly". To be enlightened, you don t need to give all those things up, what you need to give up is your own ego, which is very difficult for us normal folks. The clearest example, is how in the Bible, Satan was the most beautiful angel, but because of his pride, his own Ego, he refused to obey the Lord. Every man have the ability to do good (towards others) or to do wrong (Egocentric reasons); this lower nature in man is symbolized as Satan -- the evil ego within us, not an evil personality outside.
How about Nirvana and Enlightenment vs non-nirvana and non-enlightenment? Or is that irrelevent Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I disagree. I think "evil" people are born to be evil, they aren't taught, nor do they learn, .....they're "evil" from the day they're born. You can blame others for the "evil" people if you wish, but that's all it is ...passing blame onto someone else instead of placing it where it belongs. Baron Max
Agree with the Halie quote, 'evil' more often than not just apathy and ignorance, its very rarely people just being nasty for the sake of it. Yes some people are certain born evil (sociopathic), but the sociopath cant really cause much harm without an army of meek lackies backing him or her up. Its really the ignorant and the apathetic that ultimately give voice to evil through their cowardice and inaction. I also think the group dynamic plays a large part in it all. Moral responsiblity becomes almost non-existant when you get large groups of humans together acting as one. Noone will take any level of individual responsiblity for the actions of the whole. Look at any military trial in which people are put on the stand for human rights abuses, its a never ending chorus of.. 'but, but i was only obeying orders.' I think embrassment actually plays a big part in all this too, have you ever tried to be the one voice of dissent in a room full of at least 10 people? its not easy, its like you have to fight against your whole psyche telling you to keep quiet and not say anything. Youre also right about enlightenment being part of suffering i think. Look at all the great minds and champions of freedom and compassion. Martin luther king, ghandi, jesus, bruno, etc etc. Theyve all met untimely deaths, people will hate you for standing up for whats right unfortuntely, personally i believe its because people dont like to be reminded of their own imperfection and fallibility.
It seems like there are people who are born evil. But from there they really have the option of being serial killers. Unless there are all these other people who in one way or other go along. There are many degrees of this going along not objecting, believing the BS, not wanting to know, coming up with excuses for evil that is done (sometimes by the person him or herself) Active and passive contribution to evil. I don't think that those born evil would have a chance of being more than very small scale serial killers without the participation of people who are not born evil and people who are not even primarily evil.
Granty, what the hell are you trying so hard to say ...but can't? You've typed a lot of words, but what the hell does it mean? Baron Max
i]Angels/Good/Imbalance >>> GOD/Balance <<< Devils/Bad/Imbalance=Good deed/Love[/i] Angels/Good/Imbalance <<< GOD/Balance >>> Devils/Bad/Imbalance=Bad deed/Sin/Hate Can anyone define above? Can "GOD/Balance" above be salvation/nirvana/Enlightment/moksha? How can we please GOD/Nature so ourselves?
God created life, but life itself impersonated in a temporary matter creates the Ego of the matter. The perfect example is the ancient Satan metaphor; how the Bible says that Satan was the most perfect angel, but he refused to keep the law of good. The only reason behind this, is the Ego of the best angel, thinking he can be better than God by contradicting him. My point is how each of us have an Eternal soul, comparable in a Micro-level to the eternity of the Universe. This nature cannot be understanded with our brains trapped in this cheap and temporary representation of our souls. So there is soul/flesh, eternal/temporary, this is the Eternal Law of Duality represented in each of our manifestations. I believe Nirvana is the unification with God. Were there is no God, there is no light. And there is nothing in the vastness of darkness, only the nothing survives in darkness, and that is were the souls that spread darkness in this realm eventually go. My point is, there is life, and light; there is death and darkness. You can choose either one of those in this realm, and that is what you eternaly become, good or evil, light or darkness.
It may be imbalance in light and in dark which may be bad, niether light nor dark. One can think about ups and down of waves and a straight stable line in between those up and down. Individually ups or individualy downs can not make a complete wave but both can complete.Otherwise a straight line is complete. Ups and downs are just modification of straight line(may be of balance/GOD) effected by environment. Ups can be angels/good whereas downs devil/bad. Still all is needed to be converted into straight line, for which one may have to be free from environmental factors. We do enjoy most, when we are in perfent balance/homeostatis.THINK WHICH IS RIGHT, HIGHER, LOWER OR NORMAL GLUCOSE LEVELS.
I guess the only problem I have with the absence of ego rapturism is...why do the have to "go away". This universe is no good? Not worth making better? I just don't get it.
Good one. I believe my own Ego, is my only obstacle towards Enlightment. And it is the most difficult task to achieve, to get rid of one´s Ego. It is almost a miracle, to become a Christ. I don´t think I can put this explanation in better words than Rajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain (later known as Acharya Rajneesh, and finally: Osho), so here it is. VERY good explanation about this subject, and what I personally believe: http://deoxy.org/egofalse.htm
I find this fragment of the above link very interesting, and will put it here: "Society is not interested that you should attain to self-knowledge. The society creates an ego because the ego can be controlled and manipulated. The self can never be controlled or manipulated. Nobody has ever heard of the society controlling a self - not possible. " - Osho Homo nosce te ipsum
evil only exists because good people exist. pointless. it would be better if the world wasn't created so that idiots wouldn't have to around in circles all the time.
Huh? Hehe, nice way to put it, the thing is, if we go in infinite circles, there is no one else to blame than each of ourselves; it is nice to put the blame on God, not true thought.
It seemed like you were saying people are born evil and that what evil there is comes out of these bad babies who grow up to be bad adults, period. I don't agree. I do agree that some people are born bad. These people, without the help of many, many others, could cause only a small amount of the evil in the world. They need the help of people who can be easily manipulated, for example. The nazis would not have gotten far if they had not been able to convince people that certain things were true that were not true. They were also aided by many not-evil people's desire not to know the truth. It seemed like you were putting forward a very simple bad apple theory of the universe. I think that is naive. For example, having an educational system that punishes curiousity, challenging assumptions and questioning authority - as in Germany before WW2 but true to a lesser degree in many other countries, including the US nowadays - certainly contributes to people going along with, accepting, seeing as inevitable EVIL. The born bad apples are just a small part of the problem.
evil wouldn't have any meaning without its opposite, good. good people are good because they fight evil. they need evil so that they can be "good". and they create evil because they fight against it. when they fight, the evil needs to grow in size and power, to fight the good. no one can be blamed because no one chose to exist. not even god.
This is truth, but people may misinterpret this, in a way that you can do good or evil, and is the same. But this is not true. Evil people exist because they are ignorant, and they don´t know they are only harming themselves. If an evil person would truly know that he is going to have to pay for his actions, in the same way he spread evilness, it will be done to him. Nobody would do evil deeds. So it all comes down to ignorance.
I believe each of us have to take responsability for our own Karma, or at least accept it, because of the stupid things we have done in previous lifes.
