Essays, etc.

Tom O’Connell is a Cape Cod writer, lecturer and educator. He writes the column “On Addiction” for The Cape Codder, served as national correspondent for The U.S. Journal of Drug & Alcohol Dependence, and hosted his own show “It’s Your Life” on Boston’s Channel 25. He teaches writing at Cape Cod Community College and is the publisher of www.sanctuary777.com (Sanctuary Unlimited) where his e-books and nearly 200 of his lifestyle essays on addiction and recovery appear.

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Essay #1 ... The Mystic and the Fool: Thoughts on Good and Evil
by Tom O'Connell

Introduction

As the millennium opened I had just celebrated 20 years as a member of the Secular Franciscan Order, and it was a time of much reflection. Coincidentally, a friend asked me then for some insights into the nature of Good and evil (intentional lower case for the word “evil”), a subject that became more and more challenging as I tried to express it in a letter. The letter began as a collection of my own thoughts based on experiences and insights gained during more than two decades spent as an addiction journalist. Eventually, the letter turned into an essay.

During my years of exploring the ramifications of addiction, which was described by AA’s founders as a “soul sickness,” I found that the notions of Good and evil had a central place, along with obsession and compulsion. But even though my education in the Good and evil aspects of addiction was thorough, this did not mean that I had all the answers to the mystery of why God appears to permit evil. However, I do have some observations and considerations to offer.

These are the thoughts of a philosopher-journalist, not a theologian. And they are simply thoughts, not a manifesto. More recently, I have made some minor refinements in the original text, for the sake of clarity. I hope readers will find these thoughts useful in their own efforts to understand the distinction between “Good” and the condition that we describe as “evil.”  I believe the ability to make such a distinction is especially important in these times when, in the media and elsewhere, we are faced with such a barrage of perceived “evils” that our awareness of the prevalence of Good in the world that God created may be impaired.

The Nature of Good and Evil

I believe that the nature of Good and evil defies simple explanations or analysis because it falls into the realm of mystery. But as I have thought about the subject I have come to believe that we each have in us some of the elements of the mystic and the fool. I think of the mystic as my higher self which includes the heights of love, reasoning power, insight, and intuition. This personal mysticism gives me a closer connection with God. Yet the fool, which I think of as my lower self, emerges from the basic instincts and drives that can push me into engaging in behavior that gives me the sense of being separated from God.

When I was a College of Arts & Sciences student at Boston College in the ’50s, many of us pursuing the “ratio studiorum” had more credits in Philosophy and Theology than we had in our majors. And our Jesuit professors cautioned us to be always alert about defining terms when trying to get a point across. So I will start with the word “mystic.” A mystic believes in divine mysteries and often is a person who has experienced union with God in a profound way. We can describe a “mystic” as a person with spiritual insight. And we can think of mystics being in touch with the unseen and the invisible as they function in the realm behind the veil of limited awareness.

A “fool” can be defined more briefly. It is a person who lacks judgment, or sense. Interestingly enough, many people who think they have good sense believe that mystics are fools! Mystics, on the other hand, tend to believe that those who are not on their own wavelength are simply functioning at a different level of consciousness.

Personally, I think we all function with elements in us of both the mystic and the fool. And regardless of which role prevails at any given moment, we are still faced with the mystery of Good and evil. Therefore, to attempt to discuss it intelligently I am going back even before my own time to a wonderful Webster’s International Dictionary which was published in 1923. In those days there was more interest in words such as “Good” and “evil.” Unfortunately, in recent dictionaries some of the old flavor has been lost.

“Good” is interpreted as “belonging together,” “suitable,” “favorable,” “fortunate,” “virtuous,” and “devout.” A longer definition says, “that which possesses desirable qualities, promotes success, welfare, or happiness...”

“Evil” has a variety of meanings: “Anything impairing happiness, or welfare or depriving of Good.” “Having qualities tending to injury and mischief.” “Defective; unsatisfactory.” “Unsound; diseased; unwholesome.” “Producing or threatening pain, sorrow, disease, injury or calamity.” “Moral badness or offense.” “Deviation from virtue.”

Take your pick! For now, I choose to see “Good” as “loving, favorable, virtuous.” I choose to see “evil” as “unloving, unfavorable, a deviation from virtue.”

The idealistic word “Good” has many dictionary and theological definitions. But if you look at the derivation of the word from ancient languages you will see the word “god.” So  “Good” can be seen as another word for God, the Creator, the Supreme Being, or the Divine spirit who describes himself as the God of Love.

“Good” may also refer to God’s attributes which are in all of us, since we were created as God’s children. Just as each ray of the sun is connected to its source, I believe we are all connected to God, who is the Source of our Light, whether or not we are aware of it.

Although it’s hard to define, we know Good when we experience it. We know it in our hearts and minds. Good includes kindness, compassion, beauty, truth, and a host of other concepts such as beneficial, favorable, correct, and morally sound. In the beginning, God created it all “and it was Good.”

Viewing creation, did God say, “It is perfect”? Apparently not. Interestingly, when they called Jesus “Good,” God’s beloved son corrected them and said, “Why do you call me Good? No one is Good but One, that is, God” (Matthew 19:17). This seems to indicate that Jesus, the Son of Man, was not claiming to be perfect. It may be interpreted to mean that all humans have flaws, even those with the highest levels of enlightenment or Cosmic Consciousness. God, however, is a Being who has no flaws. God IS Good. God IS Love.

I see “Love” as an action word, more like a verb, whereas I see “Good” as more of an adjective. Love is very personal and the dictionary relates it to words such as “desire,” “be fond of,” “passion,” “tender regard,” or “deep devotion.” So it seems to me that Good describes a state of being, and Love is more of a way of acting although it certainly involves being too. When we are pursuing Love we can be elevated to the level of mystic or we can have an opposite outcome and descend to the level of fool.

I believe that the God who rules over our universe is the God of Love, and that Love is in all creation. Because we are made in “the image and likeness of God,” that Love is in our very essence. It is also in all other aspects of creation. I believe that the God of Love who presides over all existence is the quintessence of Love, and God possesses in a perfect manner all admirable qualities such as goodness, truth, unity, compassion and forgiveness. I think that we too have a reflection of those attributes in us, but it is imbedded at a very deep level where it is often covered up by other more self-centered layers of consciousness. So a key role of life is to penetrate the layers of our consciousness to our core, or “temple,” where pure Love lies.

This God of Love can also be viewed as the God of Paradox because he gave us the gift of free will, which enables us to have the ability to choose the opposite of Love. Despite the existence of Love in all of us, we also have the capacity for being disobedient and doing evil or unloving deeds. This is a great mystery related to the gift of free will which has no limits. We, the creations, can even deny the existence of our Creator!

What is the opposite of Love? I don’t believe it is hate or fear. I see that as an oversimplification and I prefer to say that the opposite of Love is that which is not Love, or is unloving. Obviously, sometimes it’s a struggle to know what is loving and what is not. But I believe the notion of Love and non-Love can be used to help us understand Good and evil.

We also have to consider that although we have absolute ideals such as Love imprinted in us, life is overflowing with relative experiences. My idea of what is Good may seem to you to be evil, and vice-versa. An example of how one person’s evil action may not be equivalent to another’s is the theft of a loaf of bread. If it is stolen to feed a starving person, is this action Good or evil? If the theft of the bread is based on gluttony, and the thief takes it from a poor person, is that Good or evil? It’s similar behavior, but the facts of each case affect the ethical and moral character of the act.

So relativity enters the picture, and reminds us that we need to think about degrees of Good and evil, not just the extremes. I think that’s why Jesus told us, “Judge not.” We don’t have the capacity to know all the factors in another person’s behavior. So we are advised to use discernment instead of condemnation. Obviously, our discernment can be flawed, whether we are attempting to judge our own actions or another person’s. That’s why it can be a bit confusing when we try to discuss the mystery of Good and evil.

What is Evil?

The dictionary tells us evil is “moral badness” or “deviation from virtue.” Other words to describe it are “misery” and “disaster” and “sin.” Synonyms are “the Evil One, the Devil, Satan.” These words provide different impressions, but they help us to see how a person caught in the grip of evil inclinations is playing the role of the fool. The fool simply chooses to ignore God’s will and turns from the Good course of action to a more self-serving one.

In the Jewish/Christian tradition we have the notion of Good and evil right up front in the Book of Genesis where the story of Creation unfolds. “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very Good.” In other words, it was very loving, favorable, and virtuous.

No sooner had man been created than he was placed in the Garden of Eden, where the tree of life existed along with “the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil.” He was also given a companion, Eve. Then came God’s command: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Apparently, the tree of life, which was also in the middle of the Garden, was not supposed to be touched either, although the emphasis was on the taboo about the tree of knowledge of Good and evil.

A while later a serpent appeared, and soon Eve was eating the forbidden fruit with Adam. I believe the serpent represented the self-centered lower nature with its sensual drives and powerful appetites. The serpent had said, “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing Good and evil.” There was the promise of entering another level of consciousness.

Shortly thereafter, “the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” They had arrived at a level of self-awareness that could produce shame and guilt. And what about the warning that if they took this step they would “surely die”? Was the warning about their bodies which remained alive after their errant behavior? Or was it their previous level of basically peaceful consciousness that had died? We can only speculate.

Soon after that, God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know Good and evil.” God then became concerned that Adam might “put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” So Adam was exiled from the Garden of Eden, and angels, along with a whirling flaming sword, were put on guard to keep the tree of eternal life out of the grasp of human hands.

The story seems to be primarily about consciousness. In the beginning, Adam and Eve were given limited consciousness, along with peace and security, and they seemed to have a blind spot about other possibilities. Since all their needs were taken care of, and everything was so Good around them, there appeared to be no valid reason to be discontented.

At first, for Adam and Eve, there were no contradictions, and there was no duality. There was just unity and Goodness. But despite the benefits of a life without conflict, they were a bit curious about the tree that would give them a broader consciousness and introduce them to sensuality.

Then the serpent teased their curiosity and they gave in. They ate the forbidden fruit that would give them the knowledge of Good and evil. It acted rapidly and then they felt shame and needed to cover their nakedness. Also, they felt fear based on their awareness that they had been disobedient to God.

Feeling the rapid response of their own karma, they reaped the consequences of their behavior. Exiled from the Garden, they were destined to populate the earth and live very challenging lives based on duality. To put it simply, it seems that their curiosity was more powerful than their contentment and they preferred to take the risk and pay the price.

In the Bible story, we are left with our own imaginations when we try to figure out the distinction between Good and evil. But it seems that the original “evil” was the very act of disobedience to God’s will. That idea also seems to be at the heart of the story of the rebellious angels who were cast out of Heaven due to their disobedience and pride.

What is an angel? An immortal being with freewill who serves as God’s messenger and does the will of God in obedience. The spiritual problem in the Lucifer/Satan story is the disobedience and pride of the archangel who was later to become an arch-fiend, according to religious texts.

I wonder if perhaps when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit they were instantly and dramatically informed about the fate of the rebellious angels who had also misused their free will and had to pay for their disloyalty. Learning what had happened to the fallen angels would surely have made Adam and Eve quite fearful.

At any rate, the more I think about this subject the more I see the word “Good” as meaning “God-centered,” and I see the word “evil” as meaning “self-centered” to the extreme, unloving, alienated, mistaken, in error, or lost in the misuse of our energy.

To me, the word “sin” is an abbreviation meaning a sense of separation or alienation from the Good, or God, that is in me. Perhaps we would also be right on target if we described evil as narcissistic self-indulgence.

Religious Interpretations of Good and Evil

There are many concepts of evil, and it seems that each major religion has grappled with the notion of evil. In the ancient Jewish tradition, as I’ve already noted, there is the tree of knowledge of Good and evil. A simplified version of the story is this: Before eating of the tree we were innocent. Then we became self-conscious and ashamed and seemed to have a duality in us that didn't exist before. Life then became a battle of wits, with challenging forces of Good and evil at work within us and around us.

In the Christian tradition, Jesus was faced with Good and evil when he was exposed to the temptation by Satan, who is the personification of evil. This personification of evil was also called “the adversary“ or “the Evil One” or even “the tester.” As I see it, the Divine who is all Good and Loving allows testing of his creations and may sometimes refine them in a crucible of fire in order to bring out the golden Christ essence in them and permit them to rise into the highest levels of mysticism. This leads me to a question: If Jesus had to face such testing, why shouldn't the rest of us?

Of all the explanations of evil, I think I relate it best to the concept of “self-centeredness” which is found in each religious tradition. Using psychological language, we may call this condition of extreme self-centeredness “narcissism,” if we wish.

Self-Centeredness and Addiction

When I think of self-centeredness, this leads to a discussion about the various addictions. The word “addict” can be traced back to the Latin “addictus” meaning “devoted” and “ad dictum” meaning “a prison sentence,” or bondage. So, from this perspective, addiction is another name for misguided “devotion.”

When I refer to addiction, which I have been writing about since the ’70s, I include not only the pursuit of altered consciousness through alcohol and other drugs, I also think of the obsessive pursuit of fame, power, wealth, possessions, bodily prowess, intellectual supremacy, and just about anything that can become an object of desire.

Addiction, despite its obvious effects on the body, can legitimately be seen as a misguided spiritual quest. Instead of transforming us into mindful mystics, addiction turns us into mindless fools.

In simple terms, addiction can be viewed as excessive devotion to various parts of God’s creation--people, places, and things--instead of aiming that devotion at God, self, and others through acts of Love and Goodness. In other words, we make the mistake of worshiping the creations instead of the Creator. When we say “addiction” we're talking about idol worship in the form of self-indulgence, or extreme self-centeredness.

A medically based definition of addiction is “a condition of unhealthy dependence that impairs our ability to function to full potential.” It can also be described as “any technique we use for coping with the problems of life other than healthy interpersonal relating.”

Addiction is essentially a relationship problem which disturbs our connections with self, others, and God. In a real sense, addiction is more than a simple disease process. It is also a moral issue and can be called a “sin” because it brings a sense of separation or alienation from the essence, or energy field, of Love and Goodness that is in us. Addiction also impairs our relationships with others. And it disturbs our relationship to the God of Love by giving us the impression that we are “off the beam” of Love and Light.

Addiction and Evil

How does evil play itself out? Perhaps each form of evil is simply addictive behavior. If we think of evil as extreme self-centeredness, and agree that this element is at the root of addiction, we have a workable notion of evil.

Psychologist Carl Jung, whose thinking influenced the formation of addiction recovery programs, stated his belief that recovery required a spiritual conversion. He also noted that there was “an Evil Principle” at work in the world.

Is Jung’s Evil Principle separate from us, or is it a part of us that is connected to our lower self? This is where the mystery of Good and evil becomes confusing, and I don’t believe anyone has all the answers about this. Only God knows for sure. As for me, I tend to believe that the “Evil Principle” or “adversary” or “tester” may be both in us and outside of us.

For example, if we consider people who are “possessed” by evil spirits, we may speculate that demons actually enter people. The psychic Edgar Cayce noted that he saw dark spirits entering the bodies of intoxicated people. It may well be that we start off in a pure state of consciousness and when we become addicted we open a gate in our energy field through which evil spirits, or “the Evil Principle,” may enter.

I see no clear answer to this speculation except the humble admission that I believe we are all subject to “the adversary” to one degree or another, whether this dark energy comes to us at conception in the form of appetite and craving, or if it arrives later on when we overindulge in sensual or other kinds of satisfaction and become addicted.

What difference does it make whether “the tester” comes from inside of us or outside? The “test” is still a test. The challenge of grappling with what some call our “character defects” is ours to deal with. And that’s what drives us to ask God for help, or Grace, to deal with our challenges.

Let’s look a bit more closely at the idea of addiction as our primary “Good and evil” challenge in life. How does an addiction start? Pretty innocently. We experiment with some behavior. We like it because it either stimulates us or makes us feel mellow. We repeat it until it becomes a habit. If it becomes an unhealthy habit we can’t break, and it is life-damaging, then we are addicted.

I don’t think we become addicted because we are essentially evil. I believe that at the core of our beings we are very Good. As for becoming addicted, I think it’s related to the human condition. Because we are human, we suffer from separation anxiety and attachment hunger. And this drives us to pursue what we think is “Love.” This is a very natural process. After all, aren’t we here on the planet to learn about Love and pursue it?

However, our craving for Love can take us in hazardous directions. When we become addicted to a Love object we can easily become obsessive and compulsive about satisfying our seemingly insatiable appetites. Yet there’s nothing evil about our appetites. God gave them to us and we need them to survive. It’s only when we indulge them too much that we step over the line of moderation and plunge into the world of addiction. In this dark world we enter an evil domain that is unloving, unfavorable, and a deviation from virtue. And we end up harming ourselves, others, and our relationship with God.

Higher and Lower Appetites

In each of us I believe we have both higher appetites and lower ones, or we can say we have a higher self and a lower self. Like the Sphinx, we are part animal and part higher being. However, the animal doesn’t seem to have a conscience. It has powerful instincts and it just wants to do what it wants to do, on a primitive level of consciousness. Our inner animal doesn’t care if it goes to extremes and hurts us. So the more mystical higher self needs to monitor the animal nature, yet despite our Good intentions we may lose control and then the lower self will go berserk, resembling an inner fool.

Plato compared the appetites to a team of horses getting exercise, with some of them sluggish and some of them running ahead of the group. The process of dealing with the appetites was not about denying them or exiling them. The goal was to get them to work in unison, in harmony. I relate to Plato's analogy. When I have my appetites harnessed and trotting along in harmony, I am a balanced, happy human being. On the other hand, when my appetites run amuck I become an unbalanced, unhappy person.

Emerging from the lower appetites and their corresponding mental states, I believe we are likely as human beings to exhibit some basic tendencies that the Christian tradition describes as the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Lust, Anger, Greed, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth. I am not going to explore all of the ramifications of these seven powerful notions, but I will say that we all suffer from these dangerous passions more or less, and they fit nicely into the addiction model.

In ancient times, prior to Jesus, the Buddha counseled, “Cease desire.” That would certainly protect us from the Seven Deadly Sins. Jesus commanded “Love one another” and he demonstrated this kind of Love on the cross. His sacrifice of self provided the model for us as we try to learn to carry our own crosses in the form of our earthly passions. St. Francis of Assisi, who urged self-forgetting, was on a similar wavelength.

If we can restrain the insatiable, misguided addictive urges that are triggered by our lower appetites and our self-centeredness, I believe we can advance to our full potential as higher beings, worthy of the description as sons and daughters of the Most High, the God of Love.

Higher Self and Lower Self

The higher self that is in all of us, or should I say IS our eternal essence, or energy field, utilizes a conscience and exercises free will. It can discriminate between what is Good for us and what is not in our best interest. And it can make healthy choices.

I interpret the lower self, or the primarily sensual self, as an important yet vulnerable and fragile temporary vehicle for getting us around this planet during this journey we call life. It will respond to the dictates of the higher self, but it also has a tendency to go off on its own tangents if the higher self is not alert. The lower self, I think, inhabits a part of our mind that makes it appear to have “a mind of its own,” as the Zen masters say.

If we allow the lower self to go to extremes with its often insatiable appetites, the higher self may take a back seat until the pain level gets intense enough. Then the conscience which oversees and monitors our activity and tries to keep our consciousness pure, is likely to feel shame, remorse, and depression. So it finally shouts, “Enough! I can't take this abuse anymore! I’m acting like a fool. Through my own behavior I’m harming myself and my relationships with others and with God. Enough!”

As Jesus said to his own followers when he saw them getting too self-centered, “Get behind me, Satan.” Jesus could immediately discern what was going on with people as they followed the dictates of either their higher or lower selves. He knew when they were suffering from alienation, or separation, also known as “sin.” Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.” In other words, “Become whole. Become healed. Be wholly identified with the Good and pure divine (I AM) essence that is your very nature as a child of God.”

The Sense of Separation

So where is all this thinking about Good and evil leading? Well, I simply think evil and sin and addiction are synonymous, with all three words meaning the same thing: A SENSE OF SEPARATION FROM OUR HIGHER SELF, OTHERS, AND GOD.

It is human to experience this sense of separation that comes to us when we give in to the lower aspects of our natures and make obsessive/compulsive choices that are not in our highest interests because they are not based on Goodness and Love. This is both human and natural. However, we are elevated to the level of the SUPERnatural when we rise to the heights of Goodness and Love.

To rise to the supernatural level on this planet is no easy matter. In our world, the darkness of materialistic self-centeredness is rampant. From a mystical perspective, the material world is simply an illusion, yet it is a powerful one and it distracts us from spiritual reality. In the Hindu tradition this is called “Maya.” Why is the material world an illusion? I think the best way to interpret this is to say there is no real separation between matter and spirit because all creation is spiritual! So we are deluded when we pursue “materialistic goals” because we are pursuing phantoms.

How can this be? Isn’t the distinction between matter and spirit that confronts our awareness real? It seems real! Yet it stands to reason that since God is the Creator of all things, then his eternal essence or divine energy must be in all things. Therefore, to look at God’s creation and think of any part of it as separate from God’s spirit, or even to see it as “inanimate,” must be the perspective of a fool. Every bit of creation has energy in it! And that energy has a divine origin.

So if my thinking comes close to the mark, is it possible that we are living in a reality  based on illusion and trickery? No. I think it’s all part of a process related to conscious growth. Step by step, we move from the simplest levels of consciousness that animals possess, to the self-consciousness that humans possess, and eventually to cosmic consciousness which helps us to see through the illusions of materialism and grasp the awe-inspiring reality of the mysticism which leads to inner peace.

One way to describe the culmination of this mystical process is to say, “Now I have seen the Light.” That Light helps us to see how deluded we can be as we go about our various self-centered and materialistic pursuits.

In simple terms, I believe the spiritual journey is a journey of awakening from self-centeredness to God-centeredness, and what an adventure that is.

God’s Grace gives us the strength to accept our lower nature, embrace it as a necessary aspect of our being, satisfy its survival needs, and keep it in check like Plato’s team of horses, while we put our spiritual energy, or Light, into following the dictates of our higher self which is directly linked as a ray of Light to the heart of God.

My belief is that there can be no real separation from God since we are all rays of Light directly connected with our energy source which is the God of Love. Since God’s Light is distributed without bias to all beings, the sense of separation may be seen as a fraudulent and very illogical concept. This sense of separation is only a feeling, not a fact.

Feeling that we are separated from God is like thinking there is no sun because night has arrived or some clouds are obscuring our vision of it. Yet the sense of separation is Good for us. It’s a warning that we are out of balance and off the beam. It’s a way of nudging us back into a closer conscious walk with God. The closer the conscious walk, the less we will feel the sense of separation.

The Wisdom of the Ages

This conscious walk with God that I refer to has been known throughout history as The Way. Usually in just a few words at a time, the Wisdom of the Ages has come down to us with guidance on how to successfully embrace The Way. The inscriptions at the oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece suggested, “Know thyself...nothing in excess.” Lao-Tzu in ancient China said, “I suffer most because of me and selfishness.” The Chinese I Ching said, “When joy is not your goal you are more apt to find it.” The Buddha in India said, “Cease desire.”

Jesus in the Middle East said, “I am the Way.” He commanded, “Love one another,” and told us to go into our Secret Place to meditate and find the Kingdom of Heaven. St. Augustine in North Africa said, “Lord, you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” In Italy, the example of St. Francis’ way of life as “the mirror of Christ” could be summed up in the words “Forget yourself.”

The ancient Chinese also used the concept of “conscious innocence” to help explain the journey through life. It goes like this: In the beginning we are all innocent babes. As we go through life we pick up ideas and exhibit behaviors that can be described as “sophisticated” or “worldly.” These behaviors eventually bring us harm, or fail to fulfill us, and this awakens us to our true nature. Then we freely choose to return to a state described as “conscious innocence.”

This resembles the Biblical story of the prodigal son who leaves home, wastes his inheritance through self-indulgence and vice, and eventually wakes up and returns home where he is received with unconditional Love. Then he is given a fresh start.

The Unconditionally Loving God

The God of my limited understanding has counseled me to look on nothing with disdain. In an expansion of consciousness I have been made aware that God’s Love is in all creation. And in my spiritual growth process I have become confident that God’s Love is unconditional.

However, although God has no limits, I certainly do. But God allows for this and does not expect me to be perfect. God, knowing I am subject to mistakes, forgives me for my errors. Yet I know it’s beneficial for me to strive for higher levels of Love and Goodness.

My lower self is challenged by this spiritual awareness. It is so difficult to avoid disdain. And it is not easy to believe that God’s Love is in every particle of creation. Also, at times, the unconditional Love of God for every person on the planet is hard to imagine too. But I have come to believe that I need to think that way and act accordingly.

Basically, my thinking is that God’s Love is the same kind of unconditional Love that would be given to a child by a perfectly kind Father, if such a perfect person were to exist. Without being able to provide logical, linear, rational argumentation for it, I am convinced that God’s Love for us is total, with no exceptions, no conditions, no long list of rules and regulations and legalisms. It is totally pure unadulterated Love.

Let me summarize a bit: God is Love and God created us out of that Love. However, this God of Paradox also gave us free will, and in a mysterious way God provided us with a challenging duality that permits us to even rebel against the Goodness and Love God wants for us. From that duality springs what we call the mystery of “Good and evil,” and to deal with our errors we are given the interesting method known as karma.

What about Karma?

What about karma? I see karma as a useful concept, and one that Jesus spoke about when he said that what we measure out returns to us. What we give out, we get back. What could be more clear and more useful than such a process?

Just as we have a principle of physics that says each action force creates an equal and opposite reaction force, we also have a law of  retribution for our unloving thoughts, words, actions, and reactions. Doesn’t it make sense that in a cause and effect way we pay the consequences for our behavior?

However, even though we are affected by karmic laws, God is not limited by laws of physics or karmic guidelines. God can erase karma at will. I believe that one sincere prayer can erase a thousand years of so-called bad karma. Also, the God of my limited understanding is not a fierce judge. God is Love. And God’s Love knows no bounds. It is unconditional Love! So God doesn’t abandon us to a rigid law of karma which leaves us without hope. Instead, he gives us prayer, meditation, and Loving behavior to release us from karma’s grip.

So, even when we stumble and fall due to our self-centered will, and misuse our energy, God Loves us regardless. We don't have to be very Good, or perfect, for God to Love us. This constant beam of Love and Light from the heart of God is a free and unmerited gift to us. And another name for that is Grace.

God’s Grace

God’s Grace is given freely. But it’s useful for us to cooperate with it through prayer, meditation, and acts of Love. We can live in a state of Grace much of the time by practicing the Presence of God in much the same way that God’s beloved son Jesus did. In other words, we can live in the present while being consciously in God’s Presence. With the help of God, we can do this by being present with full attention, adopting an attitude of Love, choosing intelligent discrimination in favor of what is Good, avoiding what seems unloving or evil to us, and growing in wisdom.

With God’s Grace we can certainly deal with the misguided notions and toxic poisons of materialism and self-centeredness that we are exposed to every day, in ourselves and in others. A difficult task? Yes. But with God nothing is impossible.

We need to affirm that we will not waste our energy fearing evil. We must remember that evil is not the opposite of Good and does not have equal power with Good. Evil is simply that which is not Good and loving, or a misappropriation of what is Good. So it can be viewed as the unloving exception and not the rule.

Perhaps the reason Jesus said, “Resist not evil,” is because when we struggle against evil we give it strength by helping it to flex its muscles. The antidote? Focus on what is Good. As the Christophers used to say, “It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

God is Good. Good prevails. God Loves us unconditionally. Therefore, no matter how it may seem, all is fundamentally well. God’s story is unfolding according to plan, and as individuals we simply need to play our assigned roles and do our spiritual “work.”

“Be still and know that I am God.” Whatever our questions, I believe all the answers lie in the healing silence of meditation in the Secret Place, which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit within each of us. That is the place where much of our “work” needs to be done.

Wisdom, which is a blend of intelligence and Love, will guide us during our spiritual journey and help us to make free choices based on the Good which is God. When I was a child I was taught that my purpose in life was “to know, Love, and serve God.” And I was told that this would lead to happiness. At first I believed this. Then I became curious about alternative pursuits, many of which became addictive. But those experiments taught me that the lessons in childhood made spiritual sense and brought me happiness.

Therefore, I am content now with my purpose in life being simply “to know, Love, and serve God.” Also, I have come to believe that we each have our own personal mission or  “work” that God expects us to accomplish while we are here.

In summary, I believe we each carry in us an element we may call a loving “mystic” and we each carry a touch of the misguided, unloving “fool.” The mystic yearns for all that is Good and Loving. The fool is attracted to less wholesome illusory pursuits and driven by insatiable appetites that don’t fit in with God’s will for our happiness.

To some degree, the fool in each of us creates distractions and delusions that impair the peace of mind we can find in mystic pursuits. Yet this fool is part of our reality, whether we like it or not, and we need to embrace that humbling duality. It’s the way things are.

So when we embrace the fool as well as the mystic, what are we to do? Accepting life on life’s terms during our journey, yet giving our attention to the world of the spirit, we need to pray for God’s Grace to help us to use our energy wisely so we may maximize the mystic and minimize the fool.

May you enjoy your own wondrous journey and see it as a daily adventure!

Love, Joy and Peace to you.

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