And now for something light!!! Bad joke! But it's something that you will have to deal with sooner or later.
A definition is a great place to start:
- morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked: evil deeds; an evil life.
- harmful; injurious: evil laws.
- characterized or accompanied by misfortune or suffering; unfortunate; disastrous: to be fallen on evil days.
- due to actual or imputed bad conduct or character: an evil reputation.
- marked by anger, irritability, irascibility, etc.: He is known for his evil disposition.
Yikes - that's enough already.
But they are also something we can all agree on. What about the things we can't agree on.
What I'm talking about here is something more defined and personal. What is one man's trash is another man's treasure....what is tempting to one man, may be only a minor diversion to another.
Alcohol is one example. Some people can have one glass of wine and be just fine, while another can not stop until they pass out.
For some people, thoughts that wander in and out, whether positive or negative, may have little or no effect, while some others may be devastated with certain thoughts. Of course this also depends upon their particular circumstances.
For our purposes here, what is really evil are those thoughts, internal monsters and your personal demons that prevent you from doing what you really want to do.
- If your list of your deepest desires is more of what someone else wants for you (instead of what you want for you), then that list is evil. That sounds a little strict and drastic, but look at it this way, and it will help to get you straight about what you want.
- If a well-meaning friend tries to tell you what you want...."...wouldn't it be better and more reasonable to refine your list to something more appropriate and plausible?"...no matter how well-meaning, if this isn't what you want, that wish is evil. If what you want is a grander and greater goal, go for it. It is achievable as long as you believe it and you will believe it if it is really what you want.
This may sound like a stretch for the word evil, and don't make a monster out of this, but this also helps you hone your focus for your goals. After you are on the tract, you can let loose with this description, and evil returns back to it's normal place in your vocabulary.
It's clear to to delineate or at lease define the difference between "issues" and "evil". The classic difference is that evil is an act rather than an entity such as an institution, person or place. Whereas "issues" can be those faults which result in acts, thoughts and deeds which could be classified as evil. IOW, even though evil is an adjective and when used as "evil person" makes it sound as though the person is evil, what is really that person has evil feelings. So the person isn't really evil, a more pertinent description would be that the person has evil thoughts, responses, feelings and/or acts.
There's something else to know about evil. This process is not to be used for evil. It's more that it doesn't work, and working or manipulating others to do, be or have things that are either against their will or cause negativity with you or them, is not only futile but very ineffective and a waste of your valuable time and energy.
Revenge is mine, saith the Lord, and it is His. Don't try to work this process for revenge or retribution or to cause something evil or bad to happen to others, because they have wronged you. Instead, work at giving up those bad and negative thoughts. They can cause you far more problems to keep them.
My experience, which I am quick to say, is all I have to give, is that in most of the cases where something evil happened to me - and we can not live fully in this life without confronting evil - when ever I gave it up, not only did I feel a sense of relief from not having to deal with all that negativity and burden, but almost always the situation turned to my benefit.
I'm not recommending you give up these negative thoughts so that evil people will get retribution, but more because it is a terrible burden that we were not meant to carry. The relief of not carrying this burden, allows us to devote our energies and efforts toward more useful and productive avenues. This is the reason to give up the negative feelings and thoughts.
But it has also been my experience, that eventually the truth wills out; eventually the good and honorable to rise the the top like cream to the top of milk. You may or may not see it, but it does win out. I'm not Pollyanna about this. It is the truth, but giving up the retribution and the manipulation of events to effect your revenge, offers no real benefit to you in the long run, and usually zaps needed energy, time and effort from an otherwise valuable and positive contribution to your world, community and environment.
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