Recently I shared insights regarding emotional resilience and the ability to examine reality. I emphasized the importance of being able to distinguish between good and evil, or between pure intention and malicious intent, to navigate personal choice in a world full of information, some of which is true, and some intended to control our consciousness and exploit our power.
In this article, I want to explain the connection between “knowing good and evil” and an axiom I teach which says that from a higher perspective or from a cosmic point of view that is devoid of judgment – “there is no good nor bad, there is only development and learning.”
To begin, it’s important to understand that the principle “there is no good nor bad, there is only development and learning” is meant to free the person from identifying with a momentary human experience and help processes of transformation by helping the psyche rise above trauma or difficulty. This is through understanding that in a world of free choice, “all is foreseen (and now also revealed and floating on the surface) and permission is granted.”
That is, when a soul decides to incarnate on earth, it comes here to undergo a predefined development process. Our actions and choices here, on earth, as humans, flesh and blood, determine whether this development takes place in one way or another, while from the point of view of the soul’s planning – all paths are worthy and what humans choose to create is what will be.
This is a perspective that sees everything as an opportunity for development and learning, allowing observation of reality and oneself in a clear and even-minded way, without getting out of balance or being carried away by polarized emotions and thoughts, which can lead to agitation and losing one’s way.
The principle points to the question – what do we choose to do with negative events or negative traits, and how do we use the free choice given to us – which I see as a privilege that carries with it great responsibility.
I assume you’ve all heard many stories of people for whom a negative life event became a formative one because they leveraged it for growth and awakening.
I’ll tell you a story that serves as a powerful example:
The story of Tina: A call for civil courage
I met Tina in Berlin. Tina is the founder of the amazing space where I gave a lecture on my previous visit to the city.
Tina’s brother, Johnny, was murdered at age 20 in Alexanderplatz in Berlin when he tried to separate two people who were fighting. They smashed his head on the sidewalk until he lost consciousness and died the next day in the hospital from brain hemorrhages.
During this horrific event, about 40 people passed by and ignored what was happening.
It is beyond any doubt that this event reflects violence, cruelty, and evil, and goes against the cosmic values I often write about.
In other words, it’s an event reflecting the negative, ugly, evil, and extreme side of human nature.
But Tina chose to take this terrible, painful event and turn it into an educational, positive, beautiful project carried out across Berlin and Germany called “Calling Out for Civil Courage” – whose purpose is to educate people about social involvement and universal values. Tina also promotes this issue on social media and has become an influencer among young people, by spreading values of good spirit and ethical humanity.
I bring up this example because it reflects the choice to observe events or situations, whether negative or positive, bad or good, with a clear distinction of what action we take towards them.
As a result of a painful, negative, traumatic event, Tina chose to grow and revealed within herself strength, leadership, and power to influence and change. Tina chose to take an active part in shaping the reality she wanted to realize and created an educational program whose purpose is to minimize and prevent events similar to those that led to her brother Johnny’s murder.
Was Johnny’s brutal and cruel death bad? Of course.
From a broad perspective, did it lead to growth and positive social change thanks to Tina’s choice? indeed.
So is he good? or bad?
Through the principle “there is no good nor bad, there is only development and learning”, I teach complex thinking that includes observing from two perspectives – the human alongside the cosmic.
The perspective that combines the human viewpoint with the cosmic one provides the understanding that sometimes things are not as they seem – so that events or situations that seem negative when they occur and indeed were bad, painful, and difficult at that time – look different from a broad perspective and in hindsight.
Observing negative events from a broad perspective allows seeing them as a gateway that enables a choice to turn the negative event into a point of support, a driving and igniting force that helped lead to positive, beneficial development and even an entirely new path in life.
The world of Earth as a realm of development and a playing field
Another question I want to address in this article, echoing undoubtedly in many of you dear readers, is how can I be saddened by people expressing evil and malicious intent, if I teach that when souls incarnate on earth, they gather various qualities with great joy, including negative ones, as part of human role-playing here on earth?
The answer is that from the higher perspective – the world of earth is a realm of development, providing a wide spectrum of possibilities to choose from, through which one can learn and develop in positive or negative ways.
Both types of development – positive and negative – are possible and included within the boundaries of our playing field here on earth, allowing a process of self-discovery through an expression of good and evil and everything in between.
Along with the neutral, high, abstract, and “passive” point of view of the soul, we reside as human beings within this physical world which is an “active” world – a world where in order to influence and change we must take action and a stand.
To do so, we need to maintain a clear and unambiguous view of reality and choose consciously between the “good” – the desirable, positive, loyal to values and the light’s direction and intention, and the “bad” or “evil” – the undesirable, negative, contradicting the light’s values.
So does “there is no good nor bad, there is only development and learning” mean sitting complacently on the fence when injustices occur around us, waiting for someone else to take a stand on our behalf, and for the broad picture to become clear over time? Certainly not!
I’ve often said that one can observe history in retrospect, while being passive in the present time, as spectators on the sidelines, or one can actively take part in writing history through involvement and conscious, mindful use of free choice.
When I see misuse of free choice, I am sad, because it is a waste of the ability to choose, using this ability in an unworthy way that harms, damages, and weakens both the individual and the community, rather than nurturing, contributing, strengthening, developing and empowering.
The sadness stems from the waste of the soul’s resources and the divine power inherent in each person when channeling this power is done in a way that distances us from universal values reflecting our pure, true nature.
The Ultranationalist-Religious-Messianic Paradox
Another important emphasis I want to bring to you is that over long periods, Earth has been subject to systems of bias and influence that began creating major distortions, both in human consciousness and in the human psyche, distancing humanity from the original intention underlying life on Earth.
These distortions created human behavior that is utterly opposed to our cosmic nature: cruelty, sadism, exploitation, objectification, exclusion, hatred, appropriation, manipulation, and malice. All these and more, represent the radicalization of what is categorized as “evil”, and the diversion of the negative pole in the human psyche to extremes that exist outside the rules of the game of this world.
In other words, there are currently those participating in the game of life on Earth while violating its rules.
This is a paradoxical situation, in which cosmic entities turn against their very essence and cosmic and universal values.
This is very prominent in the ultranationalist religious messianic movement in Israel that pretends to represent a divine decree but in reality distances itself further and further from the values of light and from its own humanity.
A frightening example of this is the pogrom in the Arab village of Huwara, carried out by settlers who attacked and beat innocent people, burned cars, and confined helpless people inside their burning homes.
The perpetrators of the pogrom operate, according to their claims and perception, in the name of a divine right and pretend to represent morality. This is the delusion I talk about and the paradox in which those who claim to represent a divine commandment have lost their human image and represent extreme evil.
To all those claiming to act in God’s name, I say that God is not present in places of violence, cruelty, hatred, and terror. He veils his face in sadness, observing how meanings are perverted so that those acting in His name represent the very opposite of his essence.
I wrote about this in the article “You Shall Love Your Neighbor as Yourself But What If They Are Not Jewish” – a society that abandons values defining its human identity is undermining and nullifying the very foundations of its existence and condemning itself to moral and ethical decay leading to oblivion.
I cannot shake the description I read from one of the residents of Huwara, describing how the settlers beat to death the dogs in front of his children eye’s, before turning to attack them as well.
Try to imagine raiders entering your yard, killing your dog in front of your children who hear the dogs’ screams as they are beaten to death, and then beating you and setting your house on fire, while they stand guard at the door so you cannot escape. How would you feel? Does this remind you of other pogroms? This description is real and taken from accounts of the pogrom as received by journalists who visited the site and soldiers who arrived after the Huwara pogrom.
If such an event were to occur in Israel – spirits would rage. But there, in that twilight zone, in that hell – almost no voice is heard, and few acknowledge the atrocities and seek responsibility and true change.
This is evil.
This is negative.
And it must be denounced.
A people that does not learn from its past and implement it in the present has no future.
Regretfully, when the lesson is not learned and the conclusions not implemented for growth and expansion of consciousness and awareness, history repeats itself over and over, changing roles where the victim becomes the perpetrator and the perpetrator becomes the victim, in a closed circle of self-destruction, ruin, and suffering.
Knowing Good and evil is the key to enlightenment
The learning I describe contains the ability to take the lessons of the past and use them to develop the ability to distinguish between good and evil and solidify a clear, pure, and unambiguous set of values that acts as a compass and provides a stable foundation for the future.
For a nation, such a set of values is formulated through a constitution, representing a social contract binding all parts of society. This contract aims to express society’s enlightened, beautiful, good, and illuminated side while establishing clear, non-ambiguous safeguards so the bad, distorted, and negative do not seep in quietly and take hold of the delicate social fabric.
The ability to distinguish between good and evil and know how to choose between them consciously is what allows us to make conscious use of our free choice and channel our power towards positive qualities that support the self, society, and community. Thus, changing, influencing, and shifting reality towards what we want to realize and create.
The ability to distinguish between good and evil allows us to denounce what we want to eradicate and remove from our reality, directing our full attention and power to what we want to empower and enhance in our lives.
Knowing good and evil knowledge is the key to enlightenment that frees one from illusion and mental veiling, towards awake, active awareness that allows conscious, value-based free choice compatible with our cosmic divine nature.
And when this divine enlightenment is present within us, boundaries dissolve, identities are nullified and the universal truth emerges in power and declares: we all come from the same source, part of the same universal oneness, connected to each other, influencing each other and journeying here on earth in a process of self-discovery, whose purpose is harmony between our divine part and our human part, until our divine nature is embodied in who we are, actualizing heaven on earth.
