Evil

 We will all have a problem with this word “evil”, because of our background and education: it is a trick of religion to control and generate guilt. when looking at this word, we have to suspend our preconceived ideas of what that might be. As we have seen before, a word can have many depths of meaning: evil could be seen as closed mindedness, to lean away from, to have an aversion, dislike, fear, hate. The words “lie” and “exaggeration” can be seen as having different meanings, but they have the same flavour of deception. Anything that closes us off is seen as a poison. These are all degrees of harmful thoughts and actions, which create suffering towards, and for, others = evil.

 If we can keep the idea that the evil is outside us, then we can mistakenly assume that we are the good. We have to look within. Evil is not just a obvious grimacing, black, cloaked, fiery, figure with a forked tail, horns and cloven hooves who eats babies (actually, the universe is vast so that’s not impossible!) Evil is something within our own consciousness – our likes and dislikes – it is in our hopes and fears that it resides. Anything that keeps us in the darkness of ignorance can be seen as evil, and that is the darkness of our conceptual minds – our job is to illuminate that darkness.

 I had a great difficulty with the concept of evil, until I stated doing devotional Tibetan deity practice. It’s a long text that I chant every day, thinking that this was a Tibetan ‘thing’.

…pacify all illness, negative forces and obstacles…

…turn way black magic and evil spells…

…pacify the mental obscurations, insanity, strokes, and illness…

annihilate viciousness and ill-will…

(strong stuff!)

“There is no real evil,” I thought, “well, not in the west anyway”…hmm!? Then, I noticed what was going on in the world, in life and in the mind, and how like attracts like, and thought, “What did the Buddha know? Perhaps he was preparing us for the Kali Yuga.”

 This is another prayer we say:

Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Don’t wander, don’t wander, place mindfulness on guard;

Along the road of distraction, Mara lies in ambush.

Mara is this mind, clinging to like and dislike;

So look into the essence of this magic, free from dualistic fixation.

Realise that your mind is unfabricated primal purity.

There is no buddha elsewhere; look at your own face.

There is nothing else to search for, rest in your own place.

Non-meditation is spontaneous perfection, so capture the royal seat.

(Mara are demons.)

 I’ve been on several retreats where there was talk of demons: there are two forces in the universe – enlightened (light) and unenlightened (dark). We as sentient being are unenlightened, having both these potentials – the dark and the light – and can divided into two groups, practitioners and non practitioners.

 It is said that to achieve a human existence is as rare as a blind turtle coming up the surface of an ocean, once every hundred years, and putting its head through a rubber ring. A practitioner is even rarer!

 However, practitioners also have a problem of developing certain skills, and going no further – (this was the case with Milarepa). They are not enlightened, but realise a partial truth, and gain certain powers which they enjoy…but it is also a curse- they can find no real peace. They hate those who practise and find peace and compassion. These practitioners who have stopped practising have become the demons! They hate people being happy, and feed off our negative emotions – they cannot help themselves.

 We can even get a feeling of this in ourselves, when we gossip and find fault with others. It’s a feeding frenzy that attracts others to be negative. Those who are pure are easily condemned…and even killed – just look at history! Neurolinguistics are used to create an enemy, and sentient beings follow.

 So, when we give in to negative emotions, life gets worse.

 The answer is simply to understand the true nature of the emotion, and remain in Emptiness. Evil demons do not understand Emptiness, as they did not complete their training. But they do need our compassion. Compassion is grown up work. The evil is not outside, it is the mind caught in the darkness of ignorance.