I appreciate the sentiment. But in response to what is better? I would say: neither.
A different way to put it: “What is better – to view the world and your struggle as a fight between good and evil, or to have the opportunity to see the imbalance of various forces and human nature and to begin to find balance as the one true person you have always been and will always be?”
I struggle with the notion that we are born good or evil, or that there is a struggle, a need to strive toward an end-point of ‘good’. I tend to think we are born ‘good natured’, generally, and various forces in the world begin to influence – increasingly with our own permission as we get older – our balance between self, others, and the universe.
I don’t want to get into a philosophical argument about good versus evil and whether humans would ever naturally choose selflessness over greed, infidelity or fidelity. There’s no winning that argument.
But for me, I think the problem is when things get out of whack, out of balance, between self, one’s true nature, and the world around us. When we are not in balance, we act out (drugs, violence, infidelity, etc.) in ways that are incongruent with our beliefs (which are frequently personal, and frankly often malleable, even though we don’t want to admit it).
So instead of fighting to overcome my ‘evil nature’, I’d like to think I’m finding balance, truly comprehending my own personal human nature, and gaining self-truth so that I can live in authenticity. Once authenticity is attained, that shame begins to dissolve.
Once you realize that ‘self-truth’ (the good, bad, etc., and specific to infidelity), the real honesty we have to achieve once that fog lifts and we see things for what they were, and once we understand where the imbalance occurred, where we opposed the natural balance that is also guided by our own sense of morality, ethics, etc., that shame and negativity begin to lift. And we see things for how they were and how they should be. We see that that good person was always there. He/she was simply entangled and stuck. And what do you do when you’re stuck? All the bad stuff.
I’m not even convinced we can change in a fundamental sense. Change our actions, yes. Live up to our own personal ideas of morality, yes. But change? Sure, I think people can evolve. But maybe we just need to accept who we are and free ourselves from self-enforced strictures. I sometimes wonder if it’s simply to see ourselves and this world with more clarity and to interact in that world in a way that doesn’t oppose our true nature. I’m definitely not saying go and do whatever you want. I’m not saying ‘evil’ doesn’t exist. And I’m not saying I’m not 100% responsible for my actions and choices. But I am saying that finding balance, understanding my own human nature, and living in authenticity will enable me to be the man I want to be.
Just a thought. It could just be corona brain….
