RESIST NOT EVIL



My Pop's Drawing
This 1951 sketch was his perception
of himself as the young warrior
 setting out to conquer his world.
He taught me a lot about
being self-aware



I just love it when Divinity reaches down into my life and makes itself SO evident. No sooner had I posted a Facebook comment that FEAR is a SHADOW , I walked into my dining room and picked up an open book off the table called THE THIRD JESUS by Deepak Chopra and I my eyes fell upon this passage (p. 155-7):

RESIST NOT EVIL

Applying the teaching: Evil is the collective and personal shadow.

Here are a few paraphrased excerpts from this passage:

• Evil should not be resisted -- once you fully examine your "shadow" you will find that it is the hidden parts of self, expressing outwardly what you haven't resolved inwardly
• If you don't learn to understand your shadow it will continuously find new ways to bring back the things you hate and fear
• Shadows are your inner hidey-holes where you store your negative traits -- the forbidden feelings: anger, revenge, jealousy, prejudice, rampant desires, murderous rage
• The shadow contains all that we feel is unacceptable about ourselves: the things that will jeopardize our standing in the eyes of others, the things that will cause us to "lose face"
• Only by wresting the shadow's power away, can we learn to overcome the shame, the harsh self-judgement, the guilt; and this only occurs if we learn to bring the shadow into the light -- expose it, admit it exists, come to terms with it, forgive yourself and put it behind you
• The shadow only has power over you if you give it power -- you have to "rehabilitate" your shadow, because you can not get rid of it (the sun will shine and there it will always be, the shadow of you); this is the duality of life -- in order for there to be good, there must be evil

Chopra writes:

As you begin to re-examine your history in a new light, you can rehabilitate the shadow. It poses as your enemy largely in reaction to your own guilt and fear. The shadow can't be abolished, so don't try. It's this fact, the eternal play of good and evil, that Jesus wants people to see, in order that they can rise to a higher plane of existence. He doesn't ask us to conquer evil. Struggling against evil only brings more energy into its grasp. But if you stop resisting evil and come to terms with it instead, you will be taking steps toward the ultimate realization that evil is a wound inflicted in separation and healed in unity.