True causes of evil- My opinion

[Karmadhi]

I wrote this small essay after some conteplation. The nature of evil always fascinated me and after going through Leo's work and a few other teachers and my own contemplation on the matter this is what i came up with. Would like to hear your guys opinions and thoughts. 

Limited identity- The true cause of evil.

Identity is what we associate ourselves with at a deep almost existential level. It is what we have concern for and what we care about. Our sense of morality, of what is right and wrong is directly associated with what we identify with. Whenever something that is harmed within our sense of identity, we consider it immoral.  Whenever something that is harmed outside of our sense of identity in service to something we consider as part of identity we do not consider it immoral. There are different degrees of identity which are expansive. Here are they listed from least to most inclusive. Note, that this should be taken with a grain of salt.

1.       Identifying with a specific part of yourself, not your whole

2.       Identifying with yourself as a whole.

3.       Identifying with your close family.

4.       Identifying with your large family.

5.       Identifying with your city.

6.       Identifying with your country.

7.       Identifying with your region

8.       Identifying with your ethnicity.

9.       Identifying with your continent.

10.   Identifying with your race and religion.

11.   Identifying with your species.

12.   Identifying with all living things in your planet.

13.   Identifying with all living things throughout the universe.

14.   Identifying with creation itself, in all shapes forms and sizes.

Now, as you might see humanity in the 21set century has done quite some progress in expanding its sense of identification. However, much work needs to be done. Why does this identification stuff matter you might ask? For a very simple reason. Everything that we define as “evil” is an act made out of love within a specific identification level in expense to something else outside this identification level. I will now dissect this into simpler and easier to understand language. Let us take the example of a person in Germany. This person identified himself with a specific race, called the Aryan race. In his mind, the Aryan race was the primary thing that he cared about and what mattered the most was the best for this race. Then you have another group called Jews. This person did not identify himself with Jews and therefore in a twisted, deluded version of love tried to exterminate this group because he thought their eradication would benefit the Aryan race. This act of love based on limited identity is considered as one of the worst tragedies that has ever happened in human history, and the person in hand is considered one of the evilest persons in history. Everything he did was out of love however. Interesting, isn’t it? Let us give some more simple examples to clarify it even further. The atomic bombings of Japan- An act of love made to save American lives on expense of another country’s lives. The crusades- An act of love made to help a religion on expense of another religion. The great purge- An act of love made to solidify and maintain person power in expense of other people. As we can see, every tragedy that has happened in history was nothing more than a twisted, limited, self- biased version of love based on limited identity. If we want to eradicate what we consider as “evil”, our only solution is to expand people’s identity. I have friends who are against the European Union idea and when I ask them why, their response is simple. “I do not want to pay for other country’s issues”. Fair enough, well what about your city paying for another city’s issues on the same country? “That is the same country, that is different”. Well, this is also the same continent, why complain about this? “Continent and country are different”. This circular logical, without a clear explanation is nothing more than limited identity not being able to be properly articulated. If we use the “they are different” logic to justify a limited identity, as in the above example then we would shrink to the point where we only care about ourselves. I mean we are different from our family members, why care about them? See, how idiotic this logic is. Just because something is different does not mean you should not care about it and not identify yourself with it. We are all different parts of creation in the end.

 

 

[Windappreciator]

Very good, but please call it nazi-germany not simply germany.

Also recognize that this applies for eating animals as well, it is because one's identity is limted in that regard one holds carnism in the mind.

[Zigzag Idiot]

@Karmadhi Thank you for your work. 
I just wanted to leave one of my favorite quotes about the idea of evil. It meshes well with what you’ve come up with on your own. The Holy Idea referred to below is one of nine points on the enneagram.

 

 

All Spiritual Work Would be Pointless if There Were Such a Thing as Ultimate Evil

As we have seen, each Holy Idea is a characteristic of reality at all locations, at all times, and at all levels. Holy Truth explicates this understanding. Here, we are saying that not only is reality just one presence that is boundless and real, but that it is also positive, blissful, and wonderful. So not only is God one, but God is also wonderful and made of love. The truth, then, is loving and lovable, which is why we say in the Diamond Approach that you must love truth for its own sake. If your orientation is that you love truth so that it will change you and make you a happier person, your orientation is out of sync with how things objectively are; if you see reality as it is, you can’t help but love it. It follows, then, that objectively there is no evil. We see evil only when we perceive reality through a filter. A person who behaves in what we consider evil ways is a person acting through a distortion. In spiritual work, concepts of a devil, of dark forces, of some evil that exists on its own outside of the goodness of reality are considered manifestations of ignorance, both in terms of believing in such concepts and in terms of the manifestations attributed to such forces. All spiritual work would be pointless if there were such a thing as ultimate evil.

Facets of Unity, pg. 215

Taken from: https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/evil

[Karmadhi]

@Windappreciator Eating animals is needed for pure survival (they are food source). However, if you see how animals are treated at big farm factories it is scary similar to how Nazis used Jews in concentration camps. Even eating animals which is fundamentally selfish can be done in more conscious ways but that hinders survival (less food). Imagine raising an animal, feeding it well and treating it well versus putting 10 of them in a tiny cage, feeding it shit and not caring if they developed diseases as long as they managed to stay alive.

[Windappreciator]

@Karmadhi Eating animals is not needed for pure survival.

[Karmadhi]

@Windappreciator Animals no but eating living being is. At least with the technology we have currently. In an existential level there is no difference between a tree, animal nor plant i think. All of those are distinctions made by us. That is why i said identifying with all living being or even with all creation as the highest levels of identification. The higher the identification level is, the more it hinders your survival.

[Karmadhi]

@Zigzag Idiot Thank you for your response and material

[Windappreciator]

@Karmadhi In an existential level, there is no difference between a nazi and a jew, that doesn't say anything, because we still perceive these differences. Those distinctions are not simply made by us, but by that which is us all.

If you were to call the killing of the jews evil simply because of the general idea of identity then so it is with the animals.

There was " no reason" to kill jews, neither is there one to kill animals.

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by Windappreciator

[Karmadhi]

@Windappreciator Agreed