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Posted: May 2nd, 2008 at 7:09pm
Richard Hooper—A Heretic in Babylon
Sedona, Arizona
5/2/08 A Question of Good and Evil
Do the polarities of good and evil exist as actual realities in the Universe, or are they merely constructs of the discriminating mind? If, like the third Chinese patriarch of Zen pointed out, we did not distinguish this from that, good from evil, right from wrong, reality would be one and the same. The Zen master’s point being that with such equanimity of mind, we would be at peace.
The symbol for Tao—the yin and yang—suggests that opposites are not a static realities, but are intermixed and constantly transmuting from one into the other. That is why there is a small black circle in the white (yang) half of the Tao symbol, and a small white circle in the black (yin) half. To really understand the relevance of this symbol, we need imagine it as if it were animated. In that event, we would see the small circles expand in size (simultaneously,) until the white half of the circle becomes black, and the black half becomes white. At the precise moment that this process becomes complete, small circles of the opposite color again appear in each half of the circle. Then the cycle repeats itself indefinitely. Even without animation, the Tao symbol plainly suggests that good (or any other polarity) exists within evil, and evil exists within good. At the very least, good has the potential of evil within it, and evil has the potential for good.
Taoists were not the only ancient people who expressed this idea. In the Gnostic-Christian Gospel of Philip we read, “Light and darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers of one another. They are inseparable. Because of this, neither are the good good, nor the evil evil.”
Such philosophies about good and evil are worth consideration because they encourage us look more deeply into the true nature of reality. Once we understand that all opposites are necessary components of the whole, we see the world in an entirely new light. We realize that good and evil are not separate forces, but integral parts of the same reality.
How we view good and evil ultimately depends upon our world-view. We either see the Universe as One integrated Whole, as Hindus and Buddhists do, or we see it as two separate realities originating from two opposing forces: God and Satan—good and evil.
If one holds this worldview, there is no answer to the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” If God is good and all powerful, why does He allow evil to exist? This quandary is represented very well in the Biblical book of Job.
Job is a man who has it all: good health, great family, loyal friends and financial security. Job believes that all his blessings come from God or, more specifically, are the result of his faithfulness to God. But as the story develops Satan, who at this point in Hebraic theological development is still an angel in good standing, doubts Job’s faith. So Satan goes to God and asks permission to test Job in order to determine whether or not Job’s faith is genuine. Will Job remain faithful to God in the face of adversity? Or will he curse Him? God thinks that’s a good question, so He gives Satan permission to stick to Job.
Satan then causes Job to lose all his servants, his crops, and his animals. He causes a roof to collapse on his sons and draughts, killing them. Finally he makes Job quite ill. Job’s life is now quite miserable. Yet Job does not “sin with his lips.” He does not curse God, but defends Him.
Job’s wife doesn’t understand her husband’s faithfulness to God in light of these new developments. She tells her husband that he should “curse God and die.” But Job responds, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”
Then Job’s friends come to visit. They think that Job’s fortunes have turned because he has sinned against God. But Job insists that he had done nothing to deserve all this tragedy and suffering. So, like Job’s wife, his friends think that Job should curse God. But Job refuses. Finally, seeing that Job has passed every test, God praises his great faith and restores his health, wealth and family ten times over.
The moral of the story is simply that we should not give up faith in God no matter what our circumstances of in life are. Yet the Bible is a very odd place to find this very ancient work. By all rights, Christians who are biblical literalists ought to consider the Book of Job heretical. In Job, Satan is not a fallen angel, nor is he opposed to God. His is, in fact, one of God’s “sons!” Metaphorically (which is the way the Book of Job is meant to be understood) Satan is the adversarial aspect of the Godhead.
Like much of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament,) the book Job is polytheistic, having originated at a time in history (1000—800 BCE) when the Hebrew tribes had yet to adopt the idea of a single god. “Evil,” in Job, then, is not some outside force opposed to God and working against Him. Evil is God’s own creation, and He uses it whenever He wishes—ostensibly to test people.
That being the case, doesn’t Job’s wife have a valid point? If God is a “person” in any sense of the term, why shouldn’t Job curse Him for His sadism? Or better yet, if God is evil as well as good, why believe in Him at all? My father became an atheist during WWII because he could not believe in any God who would allow six million Jews to be exterminated.
Job looked at evil differently. He recognized that while God is the architect of everything in the Universe, including “evil,” what God does is ultimately for our ultimate good. Job’s faith in God was not because he considered God was “good.” His faith in God was because God was God, and father knows best. “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Job allowed Tao to be Tao, and did not resist its yin qualities. And although he went through a period of great suffering, in the end Job’s faith paid off. And that’s the message.
Hsin Hsin Ming, the Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen put it in a slightly different way: “When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend. And when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.” In this sense, “evil” is not evil.
More on good and evil manana.
Permalink
Sedona, Arizona
5/2/08 A Question of Good and Evil
Do the polarities of good and evil exist as actual realities in the Universe, or are they merely constructs of the discriminating mind? If, like the third Chinese patriarch of Zen pointed out, we did not distinguish this from that, good from evil, right from wrong, reality would be one and the same. The Zen master’s point being that with such equanimity of mind, we would be at peace.
The symbol for Tao—the yin and yang—suggests that opposites are not a static realities, but are intermixed and constantly transmuting from one into the other. That is why there is a small black circle in the white (yang) half of the Tao symbol, and a small white circle in the black (yin) half. To really understand the relevance of this symbol, we need imagine it as if it were animated. In that event, we would see the small circles expand in size (simultaneously,) until the white half of the circle becomes black, and the black half becomes white. At the precise moment that this process becomes complete, small circles of the opposite color again appear in each half of the circle. Then the cycle repeats itself indefinitely. Even without animation, the Tao symbol plainly suggests that good (or any other polarity) exists within evil, and evil exists within good. At the very least, good has the potential of evil within it, and evil has the potential for good.
Taoists were not the only ancient people who expressed this idea. In the Gnostic-Christian Gospel of Philip we read, “Light and darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers of one another. They are inseparable. Because of this, neither are the good good, nor the evil evil.”
Such philosophies about good and evil are worth consideration because they encourage us look more deeply into the true nature of reality. Once we understand that all opposites are necessary components of the whole, we see the world in an entirely new light. We realize that good and evil are not separate forces, but integral parts of the same reality.
How we view good and evil ultimately depends upon our world-view. We either see the Universe as One integrated Whole, as Hindus and Buddhists do, or we see it as two separate realities originating from two opposing forces: God and Satan—good and evil.
If one holds this worldview, there is no answer to the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” If God is good and all powerful, why does He allow evil to exist? This quandary is represented very well in the Biblical book of Job.
Job is a man who has it all: good health, great family, loyal friends and financial security. Job believes that all his blessings come from God or, more specifically, are the result of his faithfulness to God. But as the story develops Satan, who at this point in Hebraic theological development is still an angel in good standing, doubts Job’s faith. So Satan goes to God and asks permission to test Job in order to determine whether or not Job’s faith is genuine. Will Job remain faithful to God in the face of adversity? Or will he curse Him? God thinks that’s a good question, so He gives Satan permission to stick to Job.
Satan then causes Job to lose all his servants, his crops, and his animals. He causes a roof to collapse on his sons and draughts, killing them. Finally he makes Job quite ill. Job’s life is now quite miserable. Yet Job does not “sin with his lips.” He does not curse God, but defends Him.
Job’s wife doesn’t understand her husband’s faithfulness to God in light of these new developments. She tells her husband that he should “curse God and die.” But Job responds, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”
Then Job’s friends come to visit. They think that Job’s fortunes have turned because he has sinned against God. But Job insists that he had done nothing to deserve all this tragedy and suffering. So, like Job’s wife, his friends think that Job should curse God. But Job refuses. Finally, seeing that Job has passed every test, God praises his great faith and restores his health, wealth and family ten times over.
The moral of the story is simply that we should not give up faith in God no matter what our circumstances of in life are. Yet the Bible is a very odd place to find this very ancient work. By all rights, Christians who are biblical literalists ought to consider the Book of Job heretical. In Job, Satan is not a fallen angel, nor is he opposed to God. His is, in fact, one of God’s “sons!” Metaphorically (which is the way the Book of Job is meant to be understood) Satan is the adversarial aspect of the Godhead.
Like much of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament,) the book Job is polytheistic, having originated at a time in history (1000—800 BCE) when the Hebrew tribes had yet to adopt the idea of a single god. “Evil,” in Job, then, is not some outside force opposed to God and working against Him. Evil is God’s own creation, and He uses it whenever He wishes—ostensibly to test people.
That being the case, doesn’t Job’s wife have a valid point? If God is a “person” in any sense of the term, why shouldn’t Job curse Him for His sadism? Or better yet, if God is evil as well as good, why believe in Him at all? My father became an atheist during WWII because he could not believe in any God who would allow six million Jews to be exterminated.
Job looked at evil differently. He recognized that while God is the architect of everything in the Universe, including “evil,” what God does is ultimately for our ultimate good. Job’s faith in God was not because he considered God was “good.” His faith in God was because God was God, and father knows best. “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Job allowed Tao to be Tao, and did not resist its yin qualities. And although he went through a period of great suffering, in the end Job’s faith paid off. And that’s the message.
Hsin Hsin Ming, the Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen put it in a slightly different way: “When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend. And when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.” In this sense, “evil” is not evil.
More on good and evil manana.
Permalink
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