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Breaking Down Evil

The process of bringing evil down to scale won’t be convincing until you apply it to yourself. So let’s do that. Take a volatile issue at this moment: terrorism. By any measure, to inflict terror on innocent people is an act of cowardly, despicable evil.
Now pull closer. Imagine yourself so inflamed by intolerance and religious hatred that you’d be willing to kill. (If you find that terrorism isn’t charged enough for you personally, examine instead a feeling you might have based on racism, vengeance, or domestic abuse – any issue that creates a murderous impulse in you.)
No matter how evil your impulse is, it can be broken down into steps to resolve it:
Darkness: Ask yourself if it’s really you having this impulse, the you whom you see in the mirror every morning. Awareness needs to go into the place where it has been shut out.
Secrecy: Confide your evil impulse to someone you trust.
Danger: Release your anger out loud, staying with it as it decreases. Anger is the primal drive of evil impulses.
Myth: Name a hero who would deal with your feelings in a different way and still remain heroic. Myth is nothing but metamorphosis; therefore, this level gives us a powerful way to turn demons into helpers of the gods, or defeated enemies of the angels.
Irrationality: Come up with the best argument for not acting on your rage.
Primitiveness: Without excuses or rationalizations, express your rage like a beast on a rampage. Let what’s primitive be primitive, within safe bounds.
The shadow has grown used to being repressed; therefore, to access this region of the mind doesn’t happen easily. The fleeting gap between sensation and interpretation is the birthplace of the shadow. When you go into the gap and see how intangible everything is, the ghosts begin to disperse.
Adapted from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).
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16 comments
add your comment »Someone wrote God was Hebrew. How funny! God only says " I am ", Jesus says : before Abraham was " I am." It is all about NOW this is eternity.
Evil exists and we all know it. We can do what we want, accept it, fight it, delete it or use it. Remembering that I am, therefore I can and therefore I will. It is all about choice.
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I had someone demonstrate their primitiveness this morning on my drive in to work. Since it is construction season here in Central New York, of course the highway was reduced down from 3 lanes to 1 lane. I took my turn and merged over as the law says. This B@$%& laid on her horn for over 2 minutes. That's a very long time to hear that noise. I timed it because I was in utter disbelief. The woman looked like "Betty Crocker" a woman with a very dark shadow just lurking inside ready to come out.
I think that people use that primitive nature to release rage more often than not. They have got serious problems and need to learn how to demonstrate the other methods of dealing with their bad tempers.
By the way I dont blame anyone for the choices I make, their mine and I stand by them.
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Once again the unreality dream of the PERFECT world. The unrealistic discription of human beings. Humans are the worst thing on the planet. No other thing kills or tourchers for PLEASURE or PROFIT. As for the attempt to justify the 9/11 reason, Who cares why they killed inocent people. THEY DID. All Religion is nothing more than a REASON to Act or Not Act and for control and PROFIT. Ask yourself the truth about it. GOD WAS HEBREW. Not Babtist, Christian, Catholic, Morman, or any other man-made senario. Their(muslims) religion is based on a fanatical Power mongal who felt females were to be used as they feel and anyone who defied him was to be KILLED. As for the Military referance, since the draft is no longer inplay, the service is VOLANTARY. What does MILITARY MEAN? You do as the commanding inity directs.Directed by the Government which you are PAID to follow. Disagree with that? Dont join just for the BENEFIETS.No one forced you to join as with us durring the draft. The group which protects our rights and lives is not a show place for political rightness or individual thoughts of grandeur. Beleive in GOD? Waiting for him to fix it all? WAKE UP. He gave you the power of reason and thought. USE IT. Don't beleive? Use your true instinctiveness for survival. Realize the world is not sugar nor will it ever be. Untill HUMANS are GONE. Since the beginnig of time HUMANS have fought for power and control in the name of GOD. After all, what better reason to use to obtain followers?
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We live in a fallen consciousness world. It did not start out that way remember the garden of eden. It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. My method is to remind myself that within the most despicable human being being more human then being is that within each person is the Truth otherwise they would not exist!
Existence is caused by the Truth of Love this is the undimensional aspect of the dimensional universe!
Raise your consciousness transcend be free and influence the reintergration of all existence.
the shadow does not exist unless we impower it to by reacting or changing our POLARITY when we react to the outer world we become negative and therefore responsive to the lower when we turn our face of response and become negative to the higher finer substance then we are exactly where we need to be in position to allow the distortion to dissolve. But whether we do or not matters not because the force of Life will move on and the Design will have its way we can either move with it or be moved out of the way and used at another level of consciousness. The design is inherently knowing of what needs to take place to achieve its HIGHER PURPOSES.
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Clara, I agree with you totally, it hurts me so deeply to hear of the never ending abuse dished out to defenceless animals,children and old people that there are times I feel I could do unforgivable things to these people, ofcourse I never ever would but I do get very angry.
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Anger is a secondary emotion which means there is at least one other emotion under it. Most of the time it is fear. Anger may be at the root of all evil but it is NOT evil. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. Thieves are not usually angry, just wanting what others have. Stealing is evil but not necessarily rooted in anger. It also does not appear that 9/11 was necessarily done by angry terrorists but men who believed they were doing what their God wanted them to do.
I think DC overstated the case for anger being the root of all evil. Think about it. When you were a kid and stole a candy bar you probably were not angry.
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We must accept that we are flawed beings and begin there. All beings begin at this most basic acknowledgement of truth. Once we do, we can courageously face down the rage that impels us to act, often before we even realize it's there.
Admit we feel it, face it, and let it course through us on its way back into the void from which it sprang. Learn from it and use its energy to achieve something positive. This is possible with patience, perseverance, and practice.
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Debbie N.,
My advice: first drop the "subjected to" (real "evil") and think of yourself as having agreed to be a victim. It's not only true, but seeing it as a choice is empowering. And what were you getting out of it? Christian ethics can make us feel we have to be martyrs, to be "good". I can only speak because I've been too often through "but I only tried to help others" -- though less devastatingly than you. (I lost several jobs and finally a career out of it: bad enough.)
Sadly, the martyr-thing can make one feel pretty good, to accept being abused and remain blameless and "good". But seen another way, it's refusal to take responsibility for one's own life and self-respect. And what "help" is it for another, to tolerate their abuse? To make abuse "OK"? So develop a feeling of having some right not to accede to every demand of very demanding people: a friend once put it to me as "learning not to give more than you can afford to give".
It wasn't that these things "were allowed" to happen: you allowed them. And it wasn't "bad luck". Christian ethics also tend to make us "transcend" too much while missing out the stage in between -- feeling your suppressed and denied feelings. And if you don't allow yourself to feel those, you can't transcend them: you remain stuck. It sounds like an excellent time to discover your anger -- with yourself too -- and feelings of betrayal, and possibly your rage. It may be scary: but you'll get through it. You're a survivor, not a vict
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I agree with Janelle O. I have less rage with anyone who might have hurt me personally than I do for animal and child abusers. Those who are innocent, and defenseless. I know I have no right to judge, but what do I do with the feelings I have for those who prey on animals and children. I do feel rage towards those individuals. With the tools, I feel I could kill those people. I wouldn't, but that is how much rage I have towards them. There, I've said it.
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It is my understanding that evil is something that we create; it is not something we are or some outside force that infects us. I view it as a case of action and reaction; cause and effect. That we have choices and are ultimately responsible for those choices. We can choose to dwell on what wrongs have been done on us or what wrongs we have done to others. Move beyond anger; don't let greed or a lust for power fog your decisions. Be clear in your choices; understand how those choices make you feel. If you wish harm to someone else, either through speech or action; is this not evil? Evil has never conquered evil; only love can conquer evil.
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