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Today's
Quotation:
There
is no evil in the universe which is not the result of ignorance,
and which
would not, if we were ready and willing to learn its lesson,
lead us to a
higher wisdom, and then vanish away.
James
Allen
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Today's
Meditation:
I
think that the concept of evil is given too much emphasis in
our lives. Yes, there are many awful things that human
beings do to each other, and there are some people who seem
to have abandoned all that we consider to be good and just,
but it seems to be too easy to regard something as
"evil" and therefore have a simple,
straightforward answer to something that isn't at all simple
or straightforward.
When
awful things happen, we can learn about how they came to be,
how they ended up happening, and then we can hopefully learn
how to avoid a re-occurrence of them in the future. If
we simply say that Jeffrey Dahmer was evil, then we don't
need to look at his actions and their causes, for we have a
simple explanation that keeps us from learning at a deeper
level.
Likewise,
there seemed to be evil at work on 9/11 in the States and
3/11 in Spain. In both cases, though, chalking it up
to the evil that people do gives us an excuse not to look at
the political, social, and economic causes that have led to
the rise in Muslim extremism the entire world over.
If
we can look at the causes of anything instead of simply
labeling it, we can learn, we can grow, and we can prevent
similar evil in the future. It's our choice-- the easy
way out, or the useful, productive way that may take a bit
more effort.
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