The Source of Evil

Aug 8, 2023

Our body is a bodhi tree,

Our mind like a dressing-stand with its clear mirror; 

Time upon time let us strive to wipe it clean 

And let not dust or dirt abide thereon.

Hung-jen

Evil stems from our failure to acknowledge our inadequacy or vulnerability which is a form of ignorance.

The irony is that in accepting inadequacy, we are made adequate again. This is the idea of repentance. Truly accepting our imperfect nature ought not mean self-contempt, but just the opposite—self-fulfillment and unconditional love within.

Because ignorance is not knowing something, we should not fall into self-contempt simply because we do not understand ourselves. 

And to feign understanding would be lying to oneself which as we will see ahead brings tremendous consequences. Instead, we can see learning from our ignorance as a positive, not a negative.

The Birth of Narcissism

When we fail to acknowledge our inadequacies, we are tempted to supplement this lack with dishonesty.

This dishonesty is the birthplace of narcissism which is what afflicted Lucifer in the story of his fall from Heaven. He is known as the father of lies after all and his first lie was with himself. Lucifer failed to acknowledge his own vulnerability hence self-fragmented which then caused a ballooning effect or compensation which is at the origins of narcissism.

Lucifer then handed over this narcissism virus over to man which was composed of the greatest sin of all—pride, the sin that breeds all other sins. Someone who is possessed by pride is also not operating from a place of the heart or empathy, but from a place of supplementation or outer appearances which can lead to any number of evils.

In the Garden of Eden, Lucifer as a snake tempted Eve to disobey the natural order.  Had Eve embraced her inadequacy at that instant, she may have not given into greed.

In taking the offer, she supplemented her inadequacies by paying it forward to Adam which then repeated the cycle once again.

Then after they both gained awareness of being naked, they again used the dishonesty of supplementation by hiding from God instead of repenting or owning up to their own mistake.

Every time pride gets the better of us, we hide in some shape or form from the natural order and from ourselves. When we are already at peace with ourselves, pride becomes arbitrary.