Good and Evil
_I: When the concept of Good and Evil came to my mind, I remembered the game of chess. I remember having a friend in childhood who, when we played, always wanted to be the white pieces because he considered them the good ones. Today, white adjectives are still used for good concepts, and black adjectives for bad ones. "Under the table payment," "black market," "I see everything very dark," and when we refer to good things we say "to be paid legally," "it's an easy task," "to make the situation clear." And many times I have heard people who, in the intention of not being racist, make the great mistake of calling black people "non-white people" to avoid offending them, believing that not saying black will make them more white, which is even more racist. Sometimes, remembering those chess games, I look at life and it's as if everything were a game of chess. Everyone trying to fight with the opposite, in a battle between good and evil, between black and white, women and men, scientists and spiritualists, ignorant and knowledgeable, right-wing and left-wing, rich and poor, and each one is a piece: some trying to destroy the opponent, others trying to dodge it; each one is their little square box, trying to always be on the same color to not change perspective. And with the slightest change, you can find yourself at risk. It's as if navigating through life were trying to survive morality. Furthermore, we are in the era of "political correctness," in which, instead of calling for more unity and respect, all that has been achieved is to further separate us into groups, elites, communities.
_AM: The human, like plants and animals, has always seen life as a struggle, the battle for subsistence and expansion. It has found in defending one's own a way to protect oneself and ensure life; seen from this perspective, everyone will be enemies until proven otherwise. Advancing through familiar territory, through those places where people think alike, makes us feel safe, stable, and every move must be carefully meditated beforehand, because at every corner change can turn into death at the hands of the enemy. Thus, the pursuit of well-being designs all kinds of antinomies, antipodes, antagonists, enemies, in order to be prepared for any situation. The tribe leader carries the staff with which he marks the ground, with which he touches the ground to see its stability, with which he strikes at the first danger that arises. Thus, good measures security against evil.
_I: "By what standard do you measure?" I've heard that expression.
_AM: The chief's staff, the staff of command, is what determines danger, but before it appears, because you can't solve evil when it happens, you must anticipate it, generate the possibility beforehand, and be ready when it happens. This generates a scale of values about what can be good and what can be bad, and it is the staff that measures it. The phrase became popular during the Spanish Empire, as the staff was a unit of measurement in ships, commerce, and construction. But human culture designed another staff: that of morality.
_I: Morality is a great guide and a great prison at the same time.
_AM: Moral is of Latin origin, from the word "moris," which means "to live in the same place," which gives rise to the words "inhabitant and dwelling," and is used in the sense of everything that is a custom, that is fixed, repetitive, it is held in the same place, sedentary. Morality is a way of defining a scale of values that do not change, that are held over time in relation to a specific culture or place.
_I: So the "staff" will change depending on where it is placed...
_AM: Exactly. Morality is not an objective indicator, but fully subjective of a group in a specific time and space.
_I: So... How do I know what is truly good and what is evil?
_AM: "Good and well," are words originated from the Latin "bonus," which in turn comes from "duonus," a name known as "one who seeks an enemy."
_I: Wait... How? The word "good" that we use for good people, for doing good, comes from a conception of going through life seeking an enemy?
_AM: How else would you know you're the good one?
_I: That makes sense...
_AM: There is no good without evil. It makes no sense. Therefore, good relentlessly seeks an enemy to blame for its circumstances.
_I: And evil?
_AM: "Evil," in most cultures that use this word, refers to sin, error, conflict. All related to Christian roots. In both Greek and Latin languages, the word "Mal, Malé, Milo, Mela, Mel, Mála," are all related to "Apple": the forbidden fruit. The fruit of original sin, of evil on earth, of all evil. Lies, deceit, blasphemy, uselessness, sin; all of it is related to the story of the apple and the tree of knowledge from which the serpent, the Devil, gave its fruit to the woman, Eve, the bad: "Evil." Thus, Good arose to fight evil, which did not exist before. Our conception of Evil is related to an educational concept: eating from knowledge, doubting, breaking the rule, going beyond the norms, destroying "morality," that is, becoming immoral, which would mean: moving, exiling, abandoning, leaving, departing from the same place and breaking tradition.
_I: So, the concepts of good and evil that we have are totally mistaken... They don't exist as such.
_AM: At least not the ones your culture considers good and evil. For the Saxon languages, "good" (good), comes from the Indo-European "ghedh," which means "to unite, to fit." That is to say, that the good is that which is harmonious, that connects things, that makes them part of it. In contrast, the word "evil" (bad), comes from the word "baeled," which means "hermaphrodite." Any concept that has to do with the unnatural, with what is considered outside of what is established by God, effeminate, depraved, are the concepts that give rise to this word.
_I: So evil for the Saxons and Anglo-Saxons is that which is not defined as male or female. Homosexual, that which breaks the natural law. Thus giving the word the later sense of everything that goes against the real law of things. A word that today would clearly be horrible to use.
_AM: Because morality has changed. What was considered bad in the Middle Ages is no longer so for contemporary times, just as it happens the other way around too. The concept of fitting into something taken as something good implies that for something to be in the realm of Good, it cannot be different from the rest, it must be the same, and if it is divergent, it is Bad. To your question about what is bad and what is good, the answer is: it depends on where, when, and who.
_I: But that's a bit chaotic... Because a murderer or a tyrant could say that what they do is right... And that someone trying to help others is wrong.
_AM: They couldn't... They can, and in fact they do. Because the parameters of morality between good and evil change according to the observer. Abortion: yes or no?
_I: It depends...
_AM: Ah... Well, there you have it. It's an easy answer. It depends. The Universe has no Morality. Because the Universe is not attached to any time or space. Whatever they decide to do with existence, will never be judged by the Universe. There is no final judgment, there is no one on the other side after death saying who did right and who did wrong, the only staff is the vibration and the energetic weight that one generates in life and in every act. The only staff that measures good and evil is the consciousness of an individual in specific times and contexts. Morality is an illusion. Why judge a murder but not an abortion? Why prohibit abortion and allow a war?
_I: Maybe this issue will take days, because the duality of good and evil is eternal.
_AM: It cannot take days to discuss something that does not possess truth.
_I: In what sense?
_AM: The great discussions about human morality only create greater conflicts, because what is defended today may be irrelevant in the future. What today is seen as normal, maybe in the future an atrocity. Just as what today is a struggle, tomorrow will be absurd to fight for the obvious. So, I wouldn't waste time trying to identify what is right and what is wrong.
_I: What would you do then?
_AM: Understanding good and evil as social tools for harmony among parties. Not as parameters for measuring Being. The mistake is to defend positions when in reality you have to solve problems, not philosophies. When you try to solve problems from philosophy, you only get tangled up in the mind, and it's not practical. Social policy and political correctness must be practical, not moral. Problems renew themselves, and morality remains the same, it's its nature. I'm not saying, therefore, that there shouldn't be morality, but rather that you must recognize that it is not a Universal value parameter. There is no law for morality, the only tool capable of regulating good and evil is called Education.
_I: But Education is controlled by a curriculum, a system.
_AM: No, that is not called Education, it is called Teaching. Teaching points out something, shows it as it is. Education asks and encourages finding possible answers from doubt and imagination. Teaching transmits a morality and pre-established laws, Education is immoral, as it is transformative and encourages breaking the rules of the law seeking new ways of applying solutions to perennial problems. According to morality, we would all go by carriage, since there would be no need to use other means of transportation since this one works. Morality makes those of the horse look like the good guys fighting against the bad guys who are the cars, and the cars look like the good ones because they bring something new and better than the carriage. And so on, today those with the cars are the bad guys, those with the airplanes were once the heroes and now they are the guilty ones, everything spins. Education is the only one that instead of staying to see who is bad and who is good, sees itself capable of seeking another solution and moving forward. The morality of good and evil is nothing more than a delay in human evolution.
_I: But somehow there must be order... We are many, there must be a parameter to know how to do things right or wrong.
_AM: "Man is good by nature and society corrupts him," said Rousseau. "Man is bad by nature and society makes him worse," said Machiavelli. Their conceptions are extremist and are anchored in the perception of the societies of their times. Neither man is good nor bad, nor does society make him worse. They speak as if they were both different things. Society is an extension of humanity, not a place that humans inhabit. Everyone contributes to society, and everyone has bad and good attitudes in life. It's just that the bad ones are more noticeable.
_I: Why?
_AM: Because evil is much more successful than good in life. And the reason is simple: evil does not deny matter, it uses it; while good usually lives on utopias and expectations. When you live on dreams and imagination, but never get your hands dirty, then that dream will never come true. The good are dreamers for the most part, but not very good doers. They are critical, but very bad responsible. The bad ones know that if they don't handle matter, they won't have resources, they don't live on illusions, they use life to obtain benefits. And therefore, in the Third Dimension, there is more success in what you call "Evil" than in what you know as "Good." While the good people wait for a Savior, an Extraterrestrial, the Fifth Dimension, the Masters or whoever to save them (because they seek to return to a better, idealistic world), the vast majority of human beings living in the shadows work, apply, manifest, incessantly. Who has been ignoring life has been the Good, who has turned its back on Earth has been the Good. Is it perhaps the fault of what you call "Devil" to have settled in abandoned territory when no one was there to manifest their presence?
_I: Yes, I understand... Those of us who say we are the good guys in the movie, we don't do, we don't materialize, we just dream... And we need to act. But, how to act without needing to enter into the struggle or the duality of Good and Evil?
_AM: Solving problems without looking for culprits. Try it. It seems impossible, but it can be done. As we said, Good looks for an enemy, and Evil seeks to change the rules of the game. So when you become a revolutionary of light or of good, in reality you are Evil, changing morality and the normality of life. From the eyes of many, your work is of the Devil, it is evil, you are a sect leader who deceives, lies, steals money, and who knows what else you intend to do... Perhaps you work for reptilians, or the Vatican. And from the eyes of others it will be quite the opposite, you will be the good one and the others the bad ones. So, who is right?
_I: ...The one who acts?
_AM: Exactly... The one who solves problems, the one who manifests tools. None will be right, because they are just perspectives. Good and Evil are not judged by anyone's birth or essence, nor by philosophy, ideology, culture, religion, sex, or race. Good reminds us of the importance of coming together to protect ourselves and improve, and evil reminds us that things should not always be done in the same way and that we must constantly change our values. There lies the unity of this powerful duality.
_I: And how is the good or evil that someone does judged? What is the social standard for measuring this?
_AM: There is no book that can tell you who did good and who did evil. But there are indicators: The question from the Body would be: "does it go against the life of other living beings?". The question from the Soul would be: "does it harm the emotional integrity of another person?". And the question from the Spirit would be: "does it oppress the free expression of thought and word of others?". The question to the Creator would be: "does it threaten the achievements and individual manifestations of others?". If the answer to any of these is Yes, it could be interpreted that the individual is out of Harmony. That's how you know that it can be judged through a thorough process of education.
_I: I understand, then, that morality is what constitutes me here and now to live in Harmony, and that it flows and modifies as my here and now changes. I must, therefore, be flexible and promote education as a way to balance good and evil.
_AM: And remember that both are necessary to each other, because evil is the one who comes to remind good that it must change, and good comes to remind evil that it is necessary to find harmony in transformation.
_I: I free myself from the struggle between good and evil, and I launch myself into a constant balanced transformation.