Beyond good and evil
In a rare sunny afternoon in the middle of Winter, the master and his disciple had a conversation on the master’s house rooftop, while overseeing human “progress” in a classical crowded, busy city: Buildings upon buildings of concrete with the characteristic background noise of cars, motorcycles, horns and even fruit salesmen with megaphones, voicing their latest deals. That setting was perfect to practice observation and appreciation skills. Nevertheless, the master had a few pots there, with gorgeous aloe plants and geraniums to look at, and practice those same skills. The art of appreciating Life is in finding beauty in everything.
The disciple asked: “Master, why is it that good people seem to have so many problems to deal with? My neighbor’s kid ran away from her house then she lost all of her savings during a fire. She is a good person! Why does Life seem to be so unfair?”
The master listened attentively and replied:” Our judgment shows our conditioning. Life events occur as consequences of our actions and emotions. Today you may learn something new. Many are not ready for this yet but, you are. Good and evil are part of the human perception of a society ruled by the misunderstanding of duality. It is conditioning. Life itself is beyond those definitions, those borders created by the human mind.”
The disciple was surprised and replied: “ But master, I see people harming another. We cannot call that good.”
The master listened and smiled: “ If we cannot call that good, we call it bad, evil and we will throw in our emotional charge to demonstrate our rejection. Correct? That is exactly the point. Those labels could be used only to identify something due to the limits of language but if you judge, you are missing the point. If you observe someone harming another, do you reject that one? Look at your emotions. If you find rejection, distaste, you are judging based on your social conditioning. Remain unbiased, even if you participate to avoid further harm. ”
The disciple responded:” But what is wrong with that, master? I will do what is necessary to stop that fight and side with the good ones.”
The master smiled and said: “ Observe how you continue using those dualistic words: good, bad, right, wrong to emit judgment. Do as you wish, but observe that your feelings remain unmovable to either side. Let me explain: A strong Earthquake will kill many. Shall we label that as bad and reject that? Interestingly, many call an Earthquake an ‘act of God’ but yet in their minds, that God is good. Do you see the deceiving game of words and judgment? We do not know about the different events that will happen in Life, for Life is uncertain. There is no security in it; but yet if events are suitable to our viewpoint, we label those as good and pretend to find security in them by holding on with something that will change. We experience fear instead, which we then label as bad. That is the conditioning that we need to become aware of. More important than those labels are the emotions that we send out. Those are actions in itself and that which we emotionally reject, will be attracted toward us like a magnet. Our emotional charge becomes the strength of that magnet. Do you remember the time when you saw a couple fighting? What happened?”
The disciple remembered that episode. The boy was starting to beat up the girl and the disciple tried to separate them. To his surprise, the girl said to him: “ Why do you interfere with our fight? Who gives you that right?”
The disciple said: “ I thought I was doing the right thing. But obviously, they didn’t think so.”
The master smiled and said: “Now, you are starting to understand. You acted with an emotional impulse based on your conditioning of what is right to do. You did not feel inside you whether your presence was required there. You did not ask first, if you could be helpful. You merely thought to be right… and that gave you the right. Similarly, you will find out that our social conditioning is very limited to understand Life. Look at the Sun up there. It is giving light to all. It is not judging who is good or bad, who deserves this or that. Ruminate on this: People are caught in the duality of good and evil but Life and the angelic realm are beyond good and evil.”
Exploring the Depth of Living 