Blurts & Spasms

In my current framing of “Good vs. Evil,” I find myself circling closer and closer to the idea that there is only one continuum, and that is love. Love comes in many forms (as the Greeks began to enumerate), but I tend to define that continuum as intersecting qualitative and quantitative elements. Those include a) prosocial intent, and b) skillfulness. These are themselves multifaceted (for example, intent can have many separate intentions mixed together, and skillfulness has a diversity of metrics and feedback mechanisms), but at one end of the spectrum we have low-energy, low-clarity prosocial intent and poor skillfulness or operationalization (we might call this “dim” or “occluded” or “muted”), and at the other end of the spectrum we have high-energy, high-clarity prosocial intent and much more reliable skillfulness and operationalization (we might call this “bright” or “radiant” or “brilliant”).

In this framing, this is all the same emanation from the Godhead. It’s all some form of love. But “evil” tends to manifest at the initial dim/occluded/muted end of that spectrum of love, and “good” tends to manifest at the bright/radiant/brilliant end of that spectrum of love. But it nevertheless all love – all emanating from the Divine. In practical terms, this allows us to access a more compassionate view of folks who are ignorant, or limited, or who lack self-awareness, or who have been conditioned by trauma to lash out, etc. These are not “evil” people, but by default they struggle to escape the darker end of the love spectrum. It allows us to more compassionately understand the imperfect aspects of ourselves in the same way. And yes, there are also the mentally ill, who, without conscience and with seemingly horrific malice, perpetrate profound antisocial ills in society – but their brokenness is not “evil,” it is simply a tragic corruption of the dimmest form of love.

So, in answer to your question, I hold that there is a “good” within us that approaches the infinite, and it is innate, but it can be occluded, or deconditioned, or corrupted, or remain so unskillful and diffused as to appear inaccessible or absent (to us and to other people). Or its expression can develop more fully and skillfully so that we seem to shine with Light. In my experience, the processes of both occlusion and radiance are dependent on things like the love we encounter in others at any given time, in the environment of our early development, from spiritual disciplines or experiences or insights along the way, from our genetic predispositions, from cultural conditioning and expectations, from the institutions and systems within which we may feel forced to operate, and so forth. So it is both nature and nurture. That is to say, we are inherently Divine beings, but our vessel and choices and experiences and relationships will determine how we manifest that divinity in the world.

Now, there is another dimension of the good vs. evil question that approaches the more absolute. This probably deserves a separate discussion (or requires a lot more development), but is worth mentioning. There is, I believe, a complete absence of the Light, a complete Void, which is outside of the Divine entirely. And there is also complete dissolution in the Light itself. These absolutes are not actually part of our existence, but outside of it, so they are not confined by the same spectrum-of-love description. That said, glimpses of these realms are accessible to us in this one through peak experiences and spiritual perception-cognition, and they both seem to have a similarly profound impact on our psyche: If we can accept those experiences and their correlation with spiritual consciousness (I realize that’s a heavy lift for some woefully incomplete shorthand, but please bear with me…), then we tend to respond to both with an amplified understanding of the being-ness of others (and all things), and a strengthened desire to increase skillful compassion towards them (and all things). Why does this happen? Because we exist – wholly and completely – within the continuum of love, so our agency is confined to operate within that continuum. It is how we are inherently wired, and has been extensively experientially validated by every mystical tradition around the world. At least…this restriction of agency is almost universally true, outside of extreme outlier practices and skills. Again…all of this is a much broader and deeper conversation, but it does hint at a possible expansion of what “good” and “evil” may mean beyond what we routinely operationalize day-to-day.