live evil

A couple of weeks ago there was a Zoom discussion with Reverend Janis on evil. In the Science of Mind philosophy, there is no evil, only God. So, the task is to wrap my mind around war, famine, etc. as God. I love the way evil when spelled backwards is live, and that devil is lived backwards. This gives me the idea that some experiences are life affirming (live) and others are not life affirming. It is my choice on how I view those experiences. Seeing an experience from my human view changes perspective when I look at the bigger picture, a spiritual view. The image that comes to mind is earth from space. I don’t see good nor bad, I just see what is. It is a stretch to rise above the human conditioning where I see things as black or white, good or bad, to shift and see everything as God.

During the discussion the Chinese proverb “we’ll see” was mentioned. A farmer has a variety of experiences, which his neighbors see them as the worst, or the best experience, not as being neutral. The farmer’s reply after each of the neighbors’ opinions was ‘we’ll see.” The neighbors had the microcosm view, and the farmer had the macrocosm view.

I think of the bible verse “temptation is the root of all evil” and what is temptation, but a choice. Just because a thought is in my mind doesn’t mean I have to act on it. There is still the option of yes or no. And this is where an examined life comes in, the choice of an examined life and to live in a higher consciousness. I also don’t have to like or agree with the decisions others have made. We do have the feelings of fear and love. I see war, discrimination, not seeing God in everyone, everything, as a choice of fear.

When the war in Ukraine started, I just wanted kidnap all the bullies in the world and stick them on an island where they could duke it out. Let them see what it feels like to live under the conditions they are forcing others to live under. I expressed this in Practitioner class and thought I was going to get expelled! And on further thought I thought of Putin and he doesn’t see God in everyone, because if he did, I don’t think he would treat people the way he does. It made me think how lonely he must be, to not feel Oneness.

Thinking about difficult, hard to see God in everything/everywhere situations, I go back to the seed metaphor and extend it a bit. To get flowers, you need good, rich soil, compost, and compost is made with manure. But the manure can’t be used when it is fresh, or it will kill the flowers, it takes time to decompose breakdown before the nutrients of growth enable the flowers to flourish. From pain grows compassion.

Bob Sima’s song, No Mud No Lotus (inspired by Thich Nat Hahn’s book with the same name) is a tune that has accompanied my thoughts lately. Some of the lyrics are below.

No mud no lotus haven’t you noticed
The patterns of the pain in your past
The things that broke you, they also awoke you
To the questions you needed to ask
The sleepless nights and the dizzying heights
And the dreams some of which came true

Tough breaks, heartaches, perfect mistakes
Created this version of you
Everything you go through grows you, exposes who you are…

The wound is where the light gets in
Revealing the masterpiece just beneath the skin
In the glow of your own light, your petals open wide
You bloom right where you are

Everything you go through grows you, exposes who you are

–Maria