Grappling with Good and Evil

Ethics is an important part of living with mindfulness. Living ethically helps us to create well-being for ourselves and others - it is not just the “good” thing to do, it is the wise and helpful thing to do. (1)

These days, I find myself thinking in terms of “good” and “evil” a lot - and why not, enmeshed in a culture that divides reality up in those terms. Yet I notice how thinking in terms of good and evil waters seeds of anger and hatred within me. And I know historically that labeling people or actions as good and evil ultimately leads to behaviors that can be evil in themselves (e.g., retributive killing). It also begs the disturbing question: how does evil exist in the first place, if you believe in any kind of Spirit or Higher Power?

In these moments, remembering the understanding of Yin and Yang, the foundation of Taoist philosophy and Chinese Medicine, helps to not water those negative seeds in my thinking. Yin and Yang are polar opposites necessary for all of creation and existence. As in the Tao te Ching:

“The Tao produces One;

One produces the Yin and Yang (Two),

the Yin and Yang produce harmonic spirit (Three),

harmonic spirit produces everything.

Everything is based on the Yin-Yang and is filled with harmonic spirit.”

Existence consists of polarities: birth and death, day and night, sun and moon. These polarities are not good or bad, and we can’t have one without the other. There is disharmony, however, when the polarities are not in right balance. Within the microcosm of the body, imbalance of yin and yang manifests as disease. In the macrocosm of the world, the imbalance with which we have collectively lived has led to climate change, for example.

We know there is much imbalance in the human world. A preponderance of greed, for example. A small amount is necessary for life: we all need a little bit of the element of desire in order to eat and stay alive. But when desire grows into greed, especially caring for our own well being (or profit) at the cost of other beings and the planet, we become grossly out of balance.

Rather than thinking about how to rid ourselves of evil (and evil-doers) - to not become the very forces of evil we wish to see remediated - it helps to think about how we can restore balance in our world, starting with ourselves and in our innermost circles and spreading outward. 

What is there too little of, and how can you bring more of it into the world? What can you do to restore balance in yourself and your community?

      (1) For more on Buddhist ethics, see the Five Mindfulness Trainings, rooted in the Five Precepts handed down by the Buddha.