Understand Your Shadow In Order To Overcome Evil

One effect of divine grace, as Jesus taught it, was to counter evil. Just as judgment is left to the Lord, so is punishing evil. Jesus uses conventional vocabulary at times when he speaks about Satan and possessions by demons, but what rings far more true is his teaching that evil should not be resisted.

Learning how to overcome evil without resisting it involves a process. Jesus isn’t calling for instant conversion to pacifism, nor is he asking us to be blind to the terrible effects of evil when it goes unchecked.

What he is teaching changes as you pass through the stages of your own spiritual path. Reality is different in different states of consciousness, and that includes evil. You cannot pretend to love your enemy, yet when you come closer to God-consciousness, such compassion comes naturally.

It’s helpful to remind yourself that evil isn’t a monolith or a constant. It has many shades and degrees, and once they are fully examined, evil turns out to be your own shadow self expressing outwardly what you haven’t resolved inwardly.

Evil, like everything else, depends upon perception. As your perception changes, evil shifts. It’s very important that this shift occurs, because if you remain locked in a rigid hatred or fear of evil, you push your own shadow further out of sight. No matter how hard you struggle to overcome evil, unless you understand your own shadow, it will find new ways to bring back the thing you hate and fear.

Brooding on your negative traits isn’t going to bring the shadow to light. One act that will is confession. The only way to disarm the shadow is to relate to it in a different way, and when you reveal a secret to someone, your life in hiding begins to shift.

Adapted from The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).

Read more: Deepak Chopra's Tips, Spirit, evil, shadow

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Shelly P.

12:12AM PST on Mar 8, 2012

I am still trying to absorb this....it is something I need to work on. Thankyou for sharing this article with us!

send a green star

J.L. A.

6:54PM PST on Feb 25, 2012

an interesting approach

Ida J.

9:27AM PDT on Sep 26, 2011

thanks

4:20PM PDT on Aug 15, 2011

Christian, what if there had been no Judas, no Pilate, no Roman soldier?

Such co-operation between the powers of light and darkness.

And the evening and the morning were the third day.

4:15PM PDT on Aug 15, 2011

Verona Selena Linderstein,
Mistress of Satan,
Empress of the Undead.

You have taught me much
You are my dark self.

Without the crucifixion
there would be no
resurrection!