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Monday, August 10, 2020

The Problem of Violence/Evil

I'm reading a book about Sri Aurobindo (Sri Aurobindo, or the Adventure of Consciousness) who was an influence on someone who deeply affected my life. I want go discuss a bit of it. He was writing this in regard to WWII and actually all war. After WWI, he wrote about not actually defeating Germany for the same or worse would rise again. So his point is basically about all wars and violence.

In order to cure the world's evil it is first necessary to cure "what is at its root in man."  Nothing can be cured outside if it is not first cured inside, nothing can be controlled outside if it is not controlled inside, for inside and outside are the same thing. There is but one Nature, one world, one substance, and as long as we approach problems outwardly, we will get nowhere. And if we find this solution too difficult for us, then there is no hope for man or the world, because all of our outward panaceas and saccharine modalities are ultimately doomed to annihilation and destruction by those hidden inner powers. "The only way out," Sri Aurobindo wrote, "is through the descent of a consciousness which is not the puppet of these forces but is greater than they are and can force them either to change or disappear." It was toward this new, supramental consciousness that Sri Aurobindo was progressing in the midst of his revolutionary work. (He worked for India's independence)

We may find when all the rest has failed 

 Hid in ourselves the key of perfect change.

So many over history have sought a way to end violence and the sanctioned violence of war. Obviously it has not been found, or maybe found by a few who have been unable to lead enough others to see the solution and implement it.

I agree with him that violence begins within the unawakened person, a person wrapped in ego, in self-centered life. One can hardly imagine Jesus, Buddha. St. Francis, Meister Elkhart or the Dali Lama acting violently. Because of such people, we know it is possible to stop being a puppet of the dark energies. What we don't seem to know is how to get a sufficient number of people awake to tip the scales away from the darkness, away from violence. 

Yes, hid in ourselves there is the key of perfect change. Let's meditate on this profound truth.

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