Your Shadow

The shadow itself is not evil and therefore not your enemy. I realize that for many people there is a huge barrier in the form of “the other,” someone outside themselves whose evil is unquestioned.

Sixty years ago “the other” lived in Germany and Japan; thirty years ago it lived in the Soviet Union; today it lives in the Middle East. Such people find evil easier to explain by never losing sight of “the other”–without an enemy, they would have to face the presence of evil inside themselves.

Seeing the shadow in yourself defuses the whole notion of “the other” and brings closer the statement of the Roman poet Terence: Nothing human is foreign to me. Can absolute evil be banished so quickly, however? Polls show that a majority of people believe in the existence of Satan, and many religious sects firmly believe that the devil is loose in the world, secretly changing history through his malignant doings.

It doesn’t seem that good has a chance to conquer evil – perhaps their combat is eternal, never to be finally settled. But you can still choose the side you want to be on. That very fact removes the absolute from absolute evil, since by definition absolute evil would win every time, finding no obstacle in the frailty of human choice.

Most people don’t accept this conclusion, however. They watch the drama of good and evil as if it and not they have the power, sitting mesmerized by pictures of the latest epidemic of crime, war, and disaster.

You and I as individuals can’t solve the problem of evil on a mass scale, and this sense of being powerless magnifies the belief that good in the end really isn’t going to win. But to grapple with evil, you have to look at it, not in horror or as spectacle but with the same attention that you’d given to any problem you are seriously interested in.

Adapted from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).

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

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

C.M P.

11:51AM PST on Feb 29, 2012

Shadows are not evil...there has to be some light in able for them to exist.

send a green star

peggy p.

2:03AM PST on Dec 20, 2011

thanks

sandra m.

9:31PM PDT on Jul 24, 2011

My shadow's the only one who walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Til then I walk alone.

from "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"---Green Day

(previously posted this on wrong article)

Geetha S.

5:32AM PDT on Jul 4, 2011

Thanks for the thought provoking article.

Little D.

12:52PM PDT on Jul 2, 2011

Thanks.

Loo S.

2:00AM PDT on Jul 2, 2011

thanks for sharing.

Amy H.

2:27AM PDT on Jul 1, 2011

I'm talking to the man in the mirror...

Carina E.

2:35PM PDT on Jun 30, 2011

I've met my shadow a couple of times in my dreams - it wasn't fun - and after each dream where I refused to be afraid but stared her in the face, I have felt relief and a confidence that she's now is an important and a helping part of me.

Dana A.

8:56AM PDT on Jun 30, 2011

positive thoughts and positive actions are contagious..so put them out there

Andy K.

9:21PM PDT on Jun 29, 2011

You can fight evil by doing good, God wants charity and serving the poor is the best way of doing it, giving all your wealth away to the poor sets you on the way to Sainthood.