Greetings, all my friends. Divine blessings and the divine force pour forth from the world of spirit toward you and into you, and from the deepest well within you to infuse your personality. However, this force should not and must not be used to get away from that which you do not want to know, and therefore you refuse to see. It should be used to increase your sense of honesty with yourself. For only then can your love grow genuinely. And only then can you have a sure footing within yourself, and therefore in the world.
This lecture is a continuation and a direct sequence of previous ones, particularly of the last two. As you know from the past, lectures come in sequences; there are particular sequences which then apparently stop, switching over to a new pattern, to a new emphasis. And yet all these topics and all these different sequences form one whole, as an ongoing chain, or spiral -- for all the universal movements are spiral movements if they are in harmony with creation.
In this lecture I would like to deal, again from a different angle, with the concept of evil. Of course, we have talked about this before. There are many approaches, many angles, many levels, and many vantage points from which every part of creation can be discussed. Our approach to this topic now is particularly geared to the sequence of these last two lectures.
Some philosophies claim that there is no evil, that evil is an illusion. Other philosophies claim that it is a fact, observable for anyone who faces reality. Some religious philosophies contend that evil stems from one principal source, a specific entity called the devil -- just as good stems from a personalized God. According to these precepts, good and evil stem from two figures. Others say that the forces of good and the forces of evil exist as principles, as energy, as attitudes.
As I often do, I first wish to discuss the cosmic, the spiritual, the philosophical, and the general approach, and then bring it to you, so as to
use it personally in your own path of development. For any philosophy that is not put to practical use remains a shallow abstraction of the mind, thus not permeating the other levels of the personality.
The various concepts of what evil is and where it comes from are all true, provided they are not perceived as exclusive from the apparently opposite approach. If you say that evil does not exist at all on any level of being, then this would be wrong. But if you state that in ultimate reality there is no evil, then it is true. Any of these postulates is incorrect when it is seen as the only truth. This may appear paradoxical, as is often the case. But when we go deeper and we consider the question from a more profound and broader vantage point, then what appear as opposites suddenly conciliate and complement each other.
Presently I will show how these apparent opposites are all true. Let me first say that the universe consists of consciousness
and energy. In the unified state consciousness and energy are one. In the disunified state they are not necessarily one. Energy can be an impersonal force that does not seem to be, or to contain, or to be an expression of consciousness. It seems a mechanical force that consciousness can direct, but the energy itself seems totally alien to consciousness: to determination, to self-knowledge. In short, to everything that distinguishes consciousness. Think, for example, of electricity or atomic energy. Even the energy of the mind often seems disconnected from the source of its consciousness. Perhaps
you can feel into what I mean, at least to a certain extent. For instance,
many of you have experienced that the power of your thought, the power of your attitude, the power of your feelings does not have an immediate effect. It has an indirect effect, which at first seems so disconnected that it requires specific attention and awareness until you truly comprehend what I discussed
in the last lecture, namely the link between cause and effect. Only when your consciousness expands can you sense the oneness of this tremendous mind power and the energy it sets in motion. This works both in a constructive way and in a destructive way. The principle is the same.
The separated, dualistic human state creates the illusion that energy and consciousness are two different manifestations. The same split in perception exists about life and death, about God and man, about cause and effect, and about many other concepts or phenomena of life. There are people on this earth plane who experience the universe, the cosmos, creation as a purely energetic phenomenon. There are others who experience the universe, the cosmos, creation primarily as supreme consciousness. They are both right, of course. And they are both wrong when they claim that only their vision and only their perception is the truth, while the other is not. Both are one. Since thought is movement and energy, then it is impossible to separate consciousness from energy in their essence, although in their manifestation there might be an apparent disconnection.
How can all the different philosophies and perceptions of life be true when they seem opposites? Let us look into this more closely.
It is true that in reality -- in ultimate reality, in its oneness, its unified state -- there is no evil. Thought is pure and in truth; feelings are love, joy, and bliss; will direction, or intentionality, is utterly positive and constructive. Therefore there is no evil. But the same consciousness can change its mind, as it were. It can turn into an untruthful, limited thought process; into feelings of hate, of fear, of cruelty; into negative will direction and destructive intent. In that moment the same consciousness -- or the same aspect or part of this consciousness -- turns into its own distorted version. Consequently, the energy also alters its manifestation.
Thus the manifestation of evil is not something intrinsically different from pure consciousness and energy. It has only changed its characteristics. Hence, it is just as accurate to state that in reality, in essence, there is no evil, as it is to state that on the level
of human manifestation there is.
The reality of evil, as manifest on this plane of development, must be accepted by each individual in order to learn to cope with it and thus to
truly overcome it. Evil must be faced and overcome primarily within the self. Only then can evil be dealt with outside the self. The attempt to reverse this process must lead to dismal failure, for everything must always start from the center out. And the center is the self.
Now, how about the question of whether good and evil are personified, actual entities, or whether they are just principles. Again, the answer must
be both. Every man and every woman is a manifestation of God. But the distorted state implies that every man and every woman must also express the devil. A being who is completely unified and pure would express God in a total way. Thus God can manifest as an individualized form. Conversely, an entity who has distorted his consciousness and his energy movement to the extreme degree could be called a devil.
Neither of these two extremes in the spectrum exists in the human consciousness. The human consciousness -- mankind -- finds itself in
a state of development where both the pure and the distorted, the good and the evil, God and the devil exist. It is the task of every human being in the long road of evolution, lifetime upon lifetime -- and it does actually take thousands of lifetimes, not hundreds -- to purify the soul and to overcome evil.
Let us look at what evil means both from the point of view of energy
and from the point of view of consciousness. When energy is turned into a destructive manifestation, then the frequency of its movement slows down, commensurate with the choice and the will direction of the consciousness which determines this state by the choice and by the will direction of the thought process and by the attitude pattern instituted. The slower the frequency of movement, the more the distortion of the consciousness has advanced, and the more we can speak of a manifestation of evil. Another alteration of the energy flow in its distortion, or in its evil aberration, is the way it condenses. The more highly developed the entity is, the purer the energy is, the faster the frequency is, and therefore the more radiant is its matter. The more distorted the entity is -- the more destructive, the more evil -- the slower is the frequency and the more condensed is the form in which the consciousness manifests.
Therefore, matter as you know it is in a rather advanced state of condensation. The condensation of energy means the dualistic, disconnected, disunified state. The consciousness involved in this state has to find its
own way back to increase the frequency of the energy movement and to alter the thought and the attitude pattern so as to purify both the consciousness and the energy.
What does evil mean in terms of consciousness? Religion
has talked amply about this -- in terms of hate, of fear, of selfishness,
of deception, of duplicity, of spite, and of cheating life by not paying
the price: by wanting more than one is willing to give. And many other destructive, hurtful attitudes. This is so obvious that it hardly needs further elaboration. But let us look closer at the phenomenon of evil on a more subtle level so as to help you further on your inner road.
Jesus Christ has spoken the words: "Do not resist evil." This saying has been misunderstood in many ways. It has been interpreted in a too literal and therefore erroneous way. It has been taken to mean that you should allow others to exploit you, to step over you, that you should not assert your human rights and your human dignity. It has preached a meekness and a masochism that are not in keeping with divine truth. On the contrary, they help to perpetuate evil and they allow the perpetrator to act it out upon his environment.
Any truth can be interpreted in different and yet correct ways, according to the level on which this is done and according to the vantage point from which it is approached. Since we are now discussing evil as a manifestation of consciousness and of energy, then I shall interpret do not resist evil from this angle. Do not resist evil points very clearly to the fact that resistance itself is evil and that it breeds evil. From the energy phenomenon this is just as obvious as from the phenomenon of consciousness.
Unobstructed, unresisted energy flows smoothly and harmoniously,
like a gentle river. When resistance stops the movement of the energy current, then the movement slows down, the form condenses, the energy flow congests, and therefore it clogs up the channel. Resistance tightens,
and thus coarsens, the manifestation of energy.
The consciousness responsible for the thickening must exist accordingly. This is not quite correct, but the human language is incapable of expressing the essential oneness of consciousness and energy,
so that we must compromise and regard it as though consciousness were "responsible" for the energy flow. Anyway, from your vantage point this expression will be quite adequate. The consciousness -- that is, the thoughts, the intentionality, the feelings, and the attitudes -- embraces a resistive attitude to what is; a resistive attitude to the truth; a resistive attitude to life; a resistive attitude to God; a resistive attitude to any aspect of the goodness of the universe. This consciousness resists trusting the life process; it issues forth ill will -- negative intentionality. There is no evil attitude conceivable unless resistance to the good is involved. Conversely, where life manifests unobstructedly -- namely without resistance -- it must be good, it must be blissful, it must be harmonious, and it must be creative.
The manifestation of matter as you know it, which is a highly disunified state, is a result of resistance. Matter consists of thickened, coarsened, slowed down energy. The state of existence in matter is blinding. In other words, matter blinds one's true vision. Therefore, it is unavoidably painful. Resistance equates matter; matter equates blindness; blindness equates dualism and separation; dualism and separation equate evil; and evil equates suffering. Resistance is a stemming against the flow, it is a closing up, it is a tightening up. It prevents the movement of the universal energy, the movement of love, the movement of truth, the ever ongoing movement of life -- where the divine manifestation unfolds unobstructedly.
Resistance is always obstructing some valuable and beautiful aspect of creation. Obstruction blurs out truth, vision, love, and life. Therefore, resistance is a manifestation of evil.
When you look into yourself, when you feel into yourself, and when you
go deeply enough into yourself, then you will perceive your own resistance relatively easily. Others always can, unless they are extremely dim, very undeveloped, or dependent on not seeing it. They may have a stake in agreeing with you, or a stake in keeping an idealized version of you. But if this is not the case, then they are aware of it. You, too, can be aware of it if you wish to be. Then you will see what this resistance means.
The word resistance is used again and again in psychological terminology. Usually people forget the real meaning. The word is thrown around, and therefore people usually lose contact with its dynamic reality. Words often become meaningless when they are being used blindly and unfeelingly. This is why I deliberately and quite often change terminology and words, so as to give a new impact to your understanding, and
thus prevent blind usage. But I use this word in this context because this
is precisely the word used by Jesus.
The word evil suffers a similar fate. Religion has thrown it at mankind in such a mechanical, often meaningless and distorted way that many individuals have become practically allergic to hearing this expression. This is why I have shied away from using this word for quite a time and have only mentioned it occasionally. But once in a while it is good to return to basic concepts and to basic expressions so as to lend more impact and a new energy
to your understanding.
When you first face and then accept your deeply ingrained negative intentionality, then you can link this up with resistance. Negative intentionality is, perforce, a resistive attitude and it is obviously an evil one. Resistance always says, in one way or another: "I do not want to know the truth about this or that." This is a destructive attitude.
It must create an evil force. It obstructs the ongoing movement of truth.
In our approach to self-development we find that the basic evil triad is pride, selfwill, and fear. Everything else falls into this triad. Every one of these three attitudes -- which are always interconnected -- is a result of resistance and it breeds further resistance -- or evil. Selfwill says: "I resist any other way but my way." And "my way" is
often both anti-life and anti-God. Selfwill resists truth, it resists love, it resists union -- even if it appears to want it. But the moment the tightness
of your resistance -- your selfwill -- exists, then the divine aspects are hindered from manifestation.
Pride is resistance to the oneness between entities. It separates itself from others, it elevates itself. Thus, it resists the truth and the love that are creative manifestations of life. Pride is the opposite
of humility, not of humiliation. He who resists humility must be humiliated because the resistance must always finally come to a breaking point. The refusal to expose the truth and to admit what exists is due to pride. And
this pride causes resistance, just as it is the result of resistance.
Resistance breeds fear and fear breeds resistance. The tightened state of resistance and the slowing down of the energy movement darken the vision and the scope of experience. Life is perceived in a frightening way. The more resistance, the more fear -- and vice versa. Resistance to the truth occurs out of the fear that the truth can be harmful (and if you think that way, then it means that you distrust the universe).
And resistance to the truth must compound this fear. The hiding becomes
forever more desirable and exposure forever more threatening.
The fear of the truth -- hence resistance -- negates the benign quality of the universe; it negates the truth of the self, with all its thoughts, with all its feelings, and with all its intents. This self-negation -- which is a result of resistance -- is evil and it creates evil.
When you want to avoid your feelings, when you want to avoid your hidden thoughts, and when you want to avoid your hidden intentions, then you create resistance. Resistance is always connected with "I do not want to be hurt." This hurt can be either an actual one or an imagined one.
This hurt may be due to the selfwill that says, "I must not be hurt." It may be due to the pride that says,"I will never admit that I can be hurt." Or it may be due to the fear that says, "If
I am hurt, then I must perish." It is, once again, an expression of distrusting the universe. In reality hurt must pass, for it is no more an ultimate state than evil is. The more pain is experienced in its full intensity, the faster it must dissolve itself into its original components -- the flowing, moving energy which creates joy and bliss.
It does not matter whether resistance comes from selfwill, from pride, or from fear, whether it be ignorance and the negation of what is. Resistance obstructs God, it obstructs the good, it obstructs the flow of life. It creates walls and then these walls create separation from truth and from love -- from your inner unity.
A person who finds himself on the road of his evolutionary growth, and
who searches and gropes -- incarnation after incarnation -- for fulfilling himself and for fulfilling his task, is in a mixed inner state. There is a great deal in human beings such as you that is already free and developed. But there also is distortion, blindness, ill will, and resistance. In other words, evil.
The average human being is in a partial state of inner freedom. On the one hand there is in him the movement of truth, of love, and of light. On the other hand, there is in him distortion, negative intentionality, revenge, greed, hate, spite, selfwill, pride, and fear. Such an individual must find his way out of this conflict. One part of you resists admitting the truth that these feelings and these attitudes are in you, and therefore it resists giving them up. The other part of you is seriously striving for development and for purification. This dual state must cause a crisis. I have spoken about this before and I have devoted an entire lecture to this topic. In the context of the present lecture, let me repeat that such a crisis is unavoidable. When two completely opposite movements, two completely opposite directions, and two completely opposite strivings exist, then a breaking point must be reached. Such a breaking point manifests as a crisis in an individual's life. One movement says: "I want to admit what is evil. I want to confront myself. I want to dispense with my pretenses which, after all, are nothing but lies. I want to expand myself. I want to bring forth the best that is in me so that I can contribute and give to life just as much as I wish to receive from it. I want to give up my childish cheating position with which I want to grab at life angrily and resentfully, while I refuse to give anything to it, except my demands and my resentments. I want to stop all that and I want to ride trustfully with life. I want to honor God by accepting life on its own terms."
The other side persists in saying: "I want it my way. I may even want to develop and to become decent and honest, but not at the price of looking at this, of exposing that, of admitting anything that is self-incriminatory." The crisis wich then results must break down
the faulty structure.
In cases where the destructive orientation and the negative aim are considerably weaker than the constructive orientation and the positive aim,
then the crisis is relatively minor. For the faulty aspects can be extricated without tearing down the entire edifice. By the same token, if the movement toward growth and toward truth is considerably less than the stagnant, resistive, evil one, then no major crisis may occur for quite a while. The personality may stagnate for long periods. But when the movement toward the good is sufficiently strong and yet the resistive quality holds back the total movement -- which makes the conscious personality confused, blind and, consequently, acting out destructively -- then something has to give.
Suppose you build a house. Some of the building material
is solid, pure, beautiful, of excellent quality. But some of it is defective, cheap imitation, rotten. When these two totally incompatible types of material become inextricably mixed, then the structure that was erected cannot stand. If the rotten material can be extricated without tearing down the entire building, then a profound crisis and a shake-up of the present life manifestation can be avoided. This depends entirely on the conscious determination of the person in question. But if it is too meshed in because there has been resistance for too long and because a sufficient impetus of good will is still lacking, then there is only one way out. The structure must be destroyed, so that it can be re-erected in a pure form.
Such a process calls forth an energy movement that is almost impossible
to describe. Resisting evil means not to face and not to accept the evil in you. This resistance creates a tremendous accumulation of energy,
which finally comes to a sort of explosion. The deeper meaning of the ensuing destruction is truly marvelous. It destroys the very evil that has created it. Unfortunately it is impossible to convey the configuration that takes place. In the person's manifest life much may go to pieces. The energy movement of the soul substance tears down the rotten structure, even if this means that temporarily all seems to go to pieces. What is of true value will automatically rebuild itself organically.
Try to imagine a form of different intense movements. These movements swirl and rush, explode, implode, and then destroy themselves, as it were. It is like a giant quake where some of the material continues to stand, other material breaks down slowly, while still other material breaks down fast. Movement occurs in different directions. Soul substance is being torn apart and rebuilds itself simultaneously in the process. Creation is taking place. Every crisis is an integral part of creation. Therefore, crisis should be embraced and accepted by the wise ones. It should serve to remove more and more resistance. Do not resist the evil in you. That means give up the appearance, give up the pretense. Give in, go with the movement of life.
The process of destruction and creation is a magnificent sight for spirit eyes. The blind entity may suffer temporarily, but how good it is. The process is awesome in its benign violence. New movement comes forth. Old movements change direction, change color, change hue, change sound. For
in spirit sight, sound, scent -- and many other perceptions -- are one.
If you go into yourself and if you intuitively feel into the meaning of your crisis, then you may gain a glimmer of this process. You may sense the creative process involved. The creative process must be simultaneously
an apparently destructive process. But destructive only as far as defective soul material is concerned.
The eternal, ultimate, essentially benign nature of creation is most eloquently demonstrated in the fact that evil must finally destroy itself. It can build up only for so long, but eventually the breakdown must occur. All
of you will agree that the destruction of destructiveness is a constructive, creative phenomenon.
Thus, in the long run every destruction is constructive and always serves creation. But in the manifestation of an individual's life this is not always perceived. The further advanced you are on the path, the more you will see this. It will be helpful if you can meditate for the specific purpose of experiencing this phenomenon. For then you will aid the process by your conscious determination to relinquish resisting the evil in you, which you then project outwardly. That is, you believe that it comes to you from the outside, while it can never do that. It is possible to influence, and thus to diminish, the violence of the constructive destruction if your commitment to truth takes on a new impetus and if you first unearth your negative intentionality and then change it into a positive intentionality. When negative intentionality is expressed in concise words, then you can create a new movement. It is up to you. But even before you can do so, by the courageous admission of your deliberate ill will, you will automatically be more in truth. Therefore, you will be less inclined to act out your evil -- often feeling self-righteous about it. Then you will know who you are. Strangely enough, the more you own up to your evil, the more honorable you become, and the more you will know it, and therefore the more you will appreciate yourself.
It is the same with pain. The more you accept it, the less you will feel it. Resistance to the pain will often make the pain unbearably painful. The more you accept your hate, the less you hate. The more you
accept your ugliness, the more beautiful you become. The more you accept your weakness, the stronger you are. The more you admit your hurt, the more dignity you will have -- regardless of the distorted views of others. These are inexorable laws. This is the path we tread.
A lot of wonderful things are happening in this work. But there must also be a lot of cleaning up. So a great deal of vigilance must exist. I want to say to all of you that your venture is blessed.
Now, my friends, continue in your wonderful endeavor to be in truth. If you are being doubted in your sincerity, then in your heart you must know where you are. And that is all that matters. That is all that matters.
Be blessed. Be who you truly are -- God.
January 14, 1972
Copyright 1972, the Center for the Living Force, Inc.