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ing important; the soul is universe centered, recognizing our place in the whole scheme of things. Animals are hardwired to act in certain ways, they are pre-programmed; humans can change their programming, they can self-program themselves; the soul seeks to be divinely programmed by the spirit. Animals are not self-conscious, they are not aware that they exist; humans are self-conscious of themselves, they are aware of their existence; the soul is superconscious; the soul is aware that it is aware.
These transformations of behavior in our everyday lives do not happen instantaneously. From the human standpoint, we have to be ever vigilant of the animal sneaking through, and we must strive to allow the spirit to become more dominant. When we are weak, tired, fatigued, intoxicated, emotionally overwrought, hungry, etc., the animal raises its ugly head. It is much easier to be nice and civil when one is energetic, cheerful and clearheaded. I often see people in public places that seem to be in an evil mood, that is, they are surly and not very loving. Rather than condemn them for being bad people, I try to understand why they are that way. And I begin to understand their point of view by looking at myself when I am sometimes in a bad mood. Most often, it is because of a pain or a discomfort, whether physical or emotional that causes me to be irritable and in a bad mood, and I began to realize that that is how it is for most people. Having a bad headache can make people act animalistically. Physical discomfort can force us to act in ways which we normally would not.
The trying times we have when we are physically tortured by our health are one of the challenges that we face in the material plane. The way we maintain our spiritual ideals and treat people with love and grace when we are undergoing pain and suffering is by allowing the spirit through, thereby overcoming our animal and human reactions with our spiritual reactions.
This is one of our goals in the now: to overcome physical limitations through spiritual oneness and insight. To attain the peace and tranquility of the eternal in the now.
There are those who act like animals because they are in pain. Then there are those who act like animals for other reasons. In other words, their reaction to environment is to return tit for tat, unreasoning, immoral, self-centered, pre-programmed, and not conscious, not because they are suffering from physical or mental pain but because they have made the wrong choices using their gift of free will.
There are circumstances, such as upbringing, culture, societal environment and education that predisposes some people to disregard spiritual values. They have been led by other humans or negative circumstances to think that reacting to the environment with animalistic reactions is the only way to live. Some even think that their animalistic reactions are spiritual because they have been taught this way by a theologic ideology. There are many people who are of this ilk, some in high places in government and in organized religious institutions. Many of the problems in the world can be attributed to such people.
Then there are people who react in a typically human way, and it is varied because humans react by considering their responses, intellectually reasoning out their reactions, debating the proper morality, reacting according to societal norms, reacting according to the way they programmed themselves, and with self-consciousness.
The spiritual reaction is to always do good, to return good for good, and even good for evil; to use soul reasoning, and not just the intellect; to see that human morality is relative according to culture and circumstances; to react by being centered in the universe; to be spiritually programmed; and to be superconscious of the self as well as the universal environment.
Returning Good For Evil
To return good for evil is not easy for most people. The immediate reaction upon being struck is to strike back. To receive negative energy and to be able to convert it into positive energy is truly the hallmark of a dynamic soul.
To refuse to defend ourselves is difficult for the animal mind to understand. Our instincts tell us to fight back. That if we do not do this, that we will lose our integrity, our faith, our rights, and everything we've worked towards. The materially minded person cannot get beyond this as this is where spiritual reality departs from material reality.
Indeed, in defending material possessions, we will lose our property if we do not defend against aggression. We will have our families killed, our land taken, our freedom curtailed, our lives destroyed. Spiritually, though, it is not so. Refusing to defend ourselves will not destroy our faith, our integrity, our values, nor the ground gained by our evolving souls. These values remain in the universal mind and cannot be so easily negated. Rather, it is by trying to defend such eternal values that we tarnish them. For, if we have faith in ourselves and our righteousness, in those values gained through life's experiences and the resultant good that is stored in the Supreme, then there is absolutely no reason to defend them. What is eternal needs no defense.
Evil is an error, a mistake; the ideal is to turn a mistake committed onto us into good. This ideal is difficult to attain because we live in a material world where things are decidedly eye for an eye. It may be that the original thought of an eye for an eye was gleaned through observation of the physical laws of the universe, the physical laws of our time/space reality. The world does not return good for evil. If we err in falling off a tall building, gravity has no love that will gently float us onto a soft cushion. The mechanical system of cause and effect is often harsh and seemingly without love and tolerance. But love and tolerance is there in the hands of the Mother Spirit. For it is only through such baptisms of reality that we learn and evolve. It is only by being faced with the consequences of our deeds that we can start to take responsibility for our actions. The eye for an eye system of cause and effect is
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