LAW OF THREE (83) THE FORCE OF EVIL (2)
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; (Genesis2:16) But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die. (Genesis 2:17)
After the fall, God put Adam and Eve out of the garden lest they would eat from the tree of life (Genesis 3:24);
Death entered human awareness.
Genesis 4, describes the first murder in human history. Cain the first born son of Adam and Eve killed his brother Abel out of jealousy. God had accepted Abel's offer while rejecting Cain's.
War became a permanent feature in human history. There is a sense of helplessness in war where two unknown sides blindly massacre each other. Nations and groups of people feel drawn to mutual butchery moved by fear of the other.
Does war serve a purpose? War sustains the illusory world of duality, the world of divisions and repetition. The justification for war is simple. Leading politicians proclaim that war's purpose is to eliminate bad people. Others declare war on Terror. Laura Freixas titled a recent article: I hate therefore I am" and described leaders' easy solutions to complex problems: if there is a problem, it must be caused by somebody else (eg..immigrants) and can only be resolved by eliminating them.
One idea is clear, war does not resolve conflicts. It keeps conflicts going on until they reach a point of equilibrium, or when the warring forces exhaust themselves and run out of soldiers or weapons. At which point a temporary truce ensues to regain new forces in preparation for the next round of barbarity.
During a state of equilibrium it is possible to notice a shift in the behaviour of the players: the aggressors and the victims of aggression change roles. People that once were unjust victims of genocide may later in time become active perpetrators of the similar atrocities. A curious feature of duality
Recognising our capacity for evil is a major step in human evolution. T. Keating speaks of a point in the spiritual journey when we are able to recognise that we are capable of all evil. Desmond Tutu certainly reached such point when he wrote: As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities.
A humbling awakening and a deeper realisation of the hopelessness of the human condition, and the overwhelming need of the healing power of Love.
