‘…To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables; so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand…’
1ε. The source of human evil and the ‘lord of the world’
It is self-evident that the subjugation of ego is a result of fear [1], a feeling produced in the consciousness through the memory of pain [2]. The fear of not been able to fulfill our body needs, or the fear of losing the privilege of our social acceptability, so that shortage of partners, of wealth and of respect would make our life lonely, difficult and disgraced. Our behavior is adjusted to serve our ego even by harming (acting evil) the surrounding. The human ‘evil’ is produced as an offspring of the fear [3]. The human evil is, therefore, a well justified reaction triggered by the indisputable ‘universal evil’ that often demands ‘evil’ behaviors to achieve cessation of fear and postponing of pain. Thus, the pain and death that saturates every single molecule of our world is the cause of fear and subsequently of an ‘ego protecting’ behavior that we call selfishness. Fear of pain is the cause of all ‘human evil’ [4].
Indeed, the world is beautiful and has the potential to provide us with all we need to survive. But pain and death is present everywhere too [5]. We have to fight for our food, we have to suffer illness, we morn our beloved and, in the end, we die. Despite its beauty, the laws that govern the universe are cruel and incompatible with the human (and overall animal) ability to detest pain and decomposition. There is a sharp contrast between what we want and what our body and the world give us. We want to escape from fear and pain, but we are made to live and die, by and in a world that suffers and decays. Rebirth is also a quality of the world, but this does not alleviate the pain of ego (as this will parish) and the production of new egos simply guarantees the eternalization of fear and pain [6].
There is, therefore, something in this wise and beautiful world that supports our temporal existence, makes known our needs, shows ironically that it owns all we need, lures fake promises to make us run after them, gives us a bite to taste, turns us against each other and, in the end or in the very beginning, it offers pain, suffering and death [7] [8]. World is always the final winner in an inhuman game where ego became trapped once born, without even being able to know or remember the cause of this entrapment [9]. Powerless creatures, little plants and animals, humans with scanty intelligence and perception compared to the wisdom hidden in a simple speck of sand, are called to deal with the certainty of suffering and death. This ‘cosmic evil’ [10] that controls the fate of nature is the lord of the world [11] as stated in the gospels. This name will be used there on, without any religious tint, to refer to this cosmic power that stands against the ego’s aversion to pain.
Being alone and exposed to the whims of this lord, every ego simply realizes the imminent pain and thus the fear of a painful existence. The pain is a product of the interaction of the body with the in-body and the external environment. This interaction demands food to avoid hunger, shelter to avoid cold and exposure to advert conditions, companions to feel more secure and fulfill reproduction instincts and, overall, any action that pushes away the possibility of suffering and death.
Protection is an imperative and primordial obligation. Survival, relief of pain through wealth and sensual pleasures are legitimate behaviors to cheat, at least temporarily, the evil that is founded in the outside perceptible world and within our bodies. This is how ‘desire’ appears, as a product of the pain and of the primordial obligation. Endangering other humans and Nature is an acceptable attitude. ‘Greediness’ is the perfect rebound-emotion (the desire in its supreme form) to ensure a long lasting escape from fear and pain [12]. ‘Anger’ is the emotion that sustains the right of the person to seek to fulfill the primordial obligation by overpowering any obstacle [13]. In any case, disease and death are inevitable and who truly believes that will live well and for ever has ‘conquered death’ by taking advantage of the amazing ways of our psychological machinery to refuse the evident.
The human ‘evil’ is merciless, but in no case unjustified. How can one blame a creature of a severely restricted perceptibility imposed by the limitations of the brain, a creature exposed to the innumerous causes of fear and pain, when trying to avoid the pain, the mutilation and death? How can a powerful God, whatever name he owns, demand from such feeble beings to accept the burden if they can avoid it by passing it to other creatures? It is better to kill the children of your neighbor than suffering the pain of the doom of your own. Wars and massacres have never been the effect of an intended human evil, but the result of the effort of a society to protect itself in a surrounding of limited recourses, at the expense of elimination of any threat by all means. It is not, therefore, the ego that is evil [14]. It is the reluctance to suffer that produces the human evil as an act of defense against the universal evil, the lord of the world.
[1] ‘Then, swollen with hope, the heart responds by rattling its chains; for a brief moment it believes that its chains have turned to wings. But swiftly the heart falls wounded again, it loses all hope, and is gripped once more by the Great Fear’. (Askitiki…The saviours of God; N. Kazanzakis)
[2] ‘Memory’ is another quality of the brain that sustains the function of Logic
[3] ‘Descending into the depth of our consciousness’ – step 2: Ego experiences the panic of the certainty of a convicted existence. Illness and death are inevitable. Pain is to be avoided by all means in an attempt to postpone the inevitable. Harming the world, animals or humans, is sometimes inevitable as the only motive is the ego’s struggle to avoid death, pain and the fear of the forthcoming threat.
[4] ‘So the evil of the soul is the lack of knowledge. If a soul does not know the nature of beings and of the Good, she receives just the conflicts of the body passions… and is subjugated to evil bodies that are no more than a burden. This the evil of the soul’ (Corpus Hermeticus, KLEIS-The Key)
[5] “Merciless is the sky and earth. They consider things as puppets” (Tao Te King, 5)
[6] ‘I ask and ask again, beating on chaos: "Who plants us on this earth without asking our permission? Who uproots us from this earth without asking our permission?" I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me. Before they crush me, I want to open my eyes for a moment and to see them. I set my life no other purpose. I want to find a single justification that I may live and bear this dreadful daily spectacle of disease, of injustice, of death.’ (Askitiki…The saviours of God. Kazanzakis)
[7] The fourfold noble truth of Buddhism: “The cause of human suffering is undoubtedly found in the thirsts of the physical body and in the illusions of the wordly passion. If these thirsts and illusions are traced to their source, they are found to be rooted in the intense desires of physical instincts. Thus, desire, having a strong will-to-live as its basis, seeks that which it feels desirable even if it is sometimes death. This is called the "Truth of the cause of Suffering” (The teaching of Buddha, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai 1966; page 74).
[8] The true wisdom in Hinduism comprises among other “…perception of the certitude of ill in birth, death, aye, disease, suffering and sin…” (Bhagavat Gita, 13).
[9] ‘Observing Nature, studying the phenomena…’ step 3: Observation and study of the mechanisms that rule the ‘unknown’ environment (Nature), where consciousness was born, leads to the realization of the sharp contrast between the desire of ego (to avoid fear, pain and death) and the unbelievable cruelty of the, otherwise beautiful and of supreme wisdom, Nature. The outside ‘evil’ produces the ‘feared ego’ and thus the ‘human evil’ as a result of panicky defence.
[10] ‘Who is then this material God? He is this beautiful world, who however is not Good, as he is material and desirable and imperfect’ (Corpus Hermeticus, KLEIS-The Key)
[11] This is the name Christ gave to the cosmic evil : “…Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the lord of this world comes, and has nothing in me.” (John 14:30).
[12] “There is no sin. It is you who create sin by doing acts that resemble with adultery in their nature with desire what you don’t need, what is not yours as you have already enough of it)” (The Gospel of Mary Magdalen)
[13] “It is the ‘desire’ and his companion ‘anger’ that devour everything. Learn that these are the major enemies of the soul that must be bitten” (Bhagavat Gita, 3:37)
[14] “You must liberate the ego through the ego, you must not humiliate the ego, as ego is a friend of ego and ego is his enemy” (Bhagavat Gita 6:5)