Good or Evil – Who decides?

For many years I have talked about that if one is to be following the concepts of unconditional love and acceptance, we must also love and accept those who appear to be doing evil. This is perhaps one of the biggest moral issues that humanity faces. There are big evils that catch our attention as with terrorist and dictators and war mongers or corporate raiders, but we each in our lives face what I like to call little evils.

Many religions teach that in compassion and kindness put into practice not just lip service, that evil and war would disappear. We point to people like Ghandi and Martin Luther King that passive resistence to evil will overcome evil. Yet there are others who point to the travesty of the Nazi movement and the murder of millions and without fighting evil with military power this evil would have taken over the world and thus there are justifiable ends for us acting in unkind ways for survival.

Always when there is an enemy (perceived or delusional) it is important to make the enemy less and dehumanize them to justify our anger, fear or aggression. On a large scale we do it with propaganda on a small scale we do it with gossip and self talk about how bad we have been treated or someone else has been treated.

It is easier to be angry when faced with evil than to look with compassion and seek to understand what causes an individual or a nation to manifest this behavior. This is an absolute with the only exception being mental illness: No one does anything bad unless bad things were done to them.

Here is another truism: When bad things happen to us, many times we have set ourselves up to attract negative behavior into our lives. This is not a bad thing if we use these events of negativity to learn and grow. However, if we keep repeating the same behaviors and drawing people into our lives that support our believe that life is against us or that we are cursed or we are unlovable, then we are not learning the lessons that are the reason for relationships to exist.

When penitentiaries were first created by the Quakers in the United States, it was thought that if people who were doing evil were to be confined to meditate and contemplate their behaviors they would find answers within themselves and be rehabilitated. Now we have learned the opposite is true. When we place dysfunctional people together they will reinforce and teach each other greater fear, hate and socially unacceptable behaviors.

There is only way a person can be rehabilitated or become healthy and that is through self-motivation to take responsibility for one’s behaviors and start to act and believe in ways that manifests a new way of responding to life and other people. While I totally believe that psycho-therapy is a great support in this process, ultimately the change happens within and is self-driven.

Unfortunately there are so many people in our world who are so wounded and damaged that the thought of helping them heal and find the path to love and trust again that the task seems daunting. However, if we take the responsibility to change self we will change how the world around us is manifest.

If we desire love, we must learn to love self. When we love self, others will love us.

If we desire trust, we must learn to trust self. When we trust self, others will trust us.

If we desire respect, we must learn to respect self. When we respect self, others will respect us.

If we desire good not evil in our lives, we must learn to live a life that is good and avoids evil. When we learn goodness than goodness comes to us.

We must remain vigilant that we do not gossip about others or listen to gossip because then we perpetuate the power of evil and fear. We must remain vigilant about propaganda and thus when we do this we learn to see when the government, big business and so forth our manipulating our fears and controlling our reaction to life and the other humans that inhabit this planet with us.

Good or Evil? It is up to you to decide which you will have manifest in your life.