The Experience of Good and Evil

Good & Evil

Oftentimes the concepts of good and evil get thrown around as if the term has lost its true meaning. What exactly is good? Can we quantify it? Is what is good for one person good for the next? If they aren't, then what constitutes mutual good? Since they aren't viewed the same from different perspectives, does one of them cease to be good due to the contrast of viewpoints? There is a saying that goes, "Every patriot is a terrorist in someone's eyes." So where exactly does one draw the line between good and evil? Or do they even exist as concrete ideas in reality?

Sometimes good can be perceived as a benefit that brings joy and harmony to a person's life, but is it limited to those areas? For something to be concrete, it should be able to transcend the bounds of simple perception, meaning that it should be universal in a sense for all that experience it. We can all identify the feelings of joy and the state of being that is called happiness, yet we often disagree about the source or cause thereof. Let's take a look at a simple relationship many can understand.

When a spider is catching a fly, is it committing an evil act? Is the spider maliciously attacking the very existence of the fly simply for its own satisfaction as a form of some sadistic joy? Well, no, it's simply trying to stay alive and eat food to nourish itself. Does this make the fly become the evil one? Again, no, the fly is simply living its existence in a manner it knows. So where did good and evil go from this equation? Well, put simply, it ceased to be a relevant aspect of the equation and beyond the simple confines of the spider and fly. Does that mean that good and evil ceased to be as well?

Surely, simply adding humans to the equation would fix the confusion, right? This is where it gets confusing. Morality in the sense of good and evil is about as real as the concept of time. Both are contingent upon the consciousness that perceives it, and both cease to be when there is no consciousness present to differentiate it. Put simply, it doesn't exist outside the confines of the human experience. We are the ones guilty of creating the concept of good and evil, no one else.

Surely there must be a way to understand the existence of these perceived experiences though. It is a battle as old as we can remember, after all. So where did the notion come from exactly?

If we look at ancient and spiritual texts, we see what many know as the battle of light and dark. Darkness took away the vitality of the Sun (light) and left us blind to what was "out there." In this sense, we can see how darkness could be perceived as evil since it hid the things that could do us harm from our field of view. Does that make it necessarily evil though? Or is it the human perception of evil that is being projected onto the darkness? 

In the same way that a magnet polarizes itself, so does experience polarize itself, but that doesn't make it objectively evil, merely relatively. Light, by its very nature, cannot exist without the darkness to separate it. Same goes for the opposite. This is where many of the ancient myths of the Solar God defeating the God of Darkness come from, but that is merely surface level since they relate more so to the creation of the universe and the dual nature of man's existence, meaning that man is both spiritual and material in his existence on Earth. This is where the true meaning of good and evil comes from: For the spirit to overcome the material coffin that houses it, ie the body.

Matter, to the ancient sages and adepts, was symbolically expressed as the concept of evil. This is because they understood that mankind's true nature of being was spiritual, meaning the spirit was man's true essence. The body was nothing more than a vehicle of sorts which was animated by the spirit. This went with everything else in existence as well. To overcome or conquer your material desires was a goal for many of them. To gain true mastery of one's Self was another.

So what does that mean for good and evil? Does that mean that they don't exist? Well, yes and no. They exist so long as humans exist to experience them in their lives, but they cease to be an actual "force" of polarity in actual existence. We see them as good and evil, but in reality, they just are events happening that cause other events to happen. We apply the notions of good and evil to them based on our experiences and location in life. Morality is fluid and ever-changing and this has never been truer when it comes to good and evil. It only appears to be chaos, when in actuality all is in order. So what is good and what is evil? Well, that depends on you...