"The 'Evil' Individual" by Bô Yin Râ

Richard C. Cook comments: It’s no use denying that every day we are being treated to the manifestation of “evil” in the world. The presence of “evil” seems all the more overwhelming with its constant depiction not only in the traditional media but throughout the internet. Each of us is challenged as well to become aware of tendencies toward “evil” within ourselves. Perhaps the greatest temptation is to respond to what we perceive as “evil” in others with our own impulses of hatred. But this is not what Jesus was getting at when he advised us not to resist evil and even to love those who seek to do us harm. Due to the urgency of facing such a major problem in human affairs, we are publishing here an essay by German spiritual master Bô Yin Râ (Joseph Anton Schneideerfranken) entitled “The ‘Evil’ Individual” from his book “The Meaning of Life.” In this essay, Bô Yin Râ makes the following observation which we pass along to our readers:

“Once you have ended up captive to this awful power nothing can free you from it other than your resolute and absolute inner rejection of every thought of hatred, however tame, and regardless of who or what is its target.”

THE ‘EVIL’ INDIVIDUAL

There was once, in a bygone age, one who had nothing better to say of men than that man’s pursuit is ‘evil’ from his youth onwards.

Truly, you would have to be a most embittered father to assent to such a saying…

Unless you are ‘evil’, you will certainly find in your child what is ‘good’; you will not have to extract through nurture what nature has already provided. –

Indeed: – you will perhaps discover that what you supposed to be ‘evil’ in the impulses of a child’s nature certainly does not spring from evil intent and is easily explained in other ways!

If you want to judge this matter correctly, you will certainly need to act with caution and you can put little trust in your prejudices!

Of course, it would be foolish to seek to deny, or to pay scant attention to the ‘evil’ which can manifest itself in man at a later date…

Yet what is this ‘evil’ other than the degenerate form of an instinct belonging to man’s animal nature!? –

You will certainly not wish to describe this instinct for self-preservation, which becomes an evil instinct only after it degenerates, as originally ‘evil’! –

You also think you find ‘evil’ in other animals, which you so painstakingly seek to divide from your own human-animal entity, because you rediscover your own animal nature in them. Thus you allow yourself to be led into the error of equating your own motivations with animal instincts.

But if you examine the matter more closely you will be able to convince yourself easily that you are wrong in speaking of ‘evil’ here, since that instinct for self-preservation in animals – however cruelly expressed – is not degenerate in any way…

In all your fellow animals you will always find that instinct within very clearly defined boundaries, based in each case on the particular species of animal.

Man alone at times breaks down the boundaries he must observe within his animal nature; in man alone can the instinct for self-preservation degenerate into the horrific! – –

You can then see this instinct run riot beyond all boundaries, fed by human fantasy and fattened by his power of imagination! –

When you observe your fellow animals tormenting their prey before devouring it, you are quickly tempted to judge the action of the animal as evidence of its innate ‘evil’. However, it is but an expression of the joy in eating, an expression of pleasure in having power over its prey, and not least, an expression of the release of that tension which was produced when stalking his prey, or ignited by the intensity of the chase. –

You have heard of wild beasts which are said to be harmless once they have fed, and of others which, despite being sated, will hurl themselves upon any living creature.

Yet you cannot even describe the raging beast that kills out of pure ‘lust to kill’ as ‘evil’, unless you wish to attribute falsely the sensitivity of your human-soul to its animal nature!

It is true that one speaks with justification of the ‘soul’ of an animal. This type of ‘soul’ exists in you too, but it is only of a fluid-physical nature and must not be confused with the eternal soul from the ocean of powers of the soul which experiences itself only within the human-animal and alongside its ‘animal soul’. –

Only through the power of the eternal soul are you able to ‘place yourself’ within the supposed sensitivities of another living being! Only through these powers are you able to feel compassion when you see another living being suffer!

Your fellow animal, however, may perhaps help another fellow animal, if it notices that the other needs help; but never will it be capable of compassion for another animal.

The animal knows only: – here one of my own kind is in danger and seeks at best – to preserve his own species in the other animal.

You can also find remarkable affection in the soul of the animal, as well as horror and grief, when it sees suffering a fellow animal, among which also man is included, – however, never can compassion be attributed to it, however much man is inclined to credit certain animals with that.

The dog which misses his master, and gets unsettled or even refuses his food, is acting out of a vague fear for the familiar person whose will he sensed with pleasure. But his behavior is not conditioned by compassion; and it is no matter whether his master had sold him and still enjoys the best of health, or if he were dead…

So too the ‘wild’ animal which torments its prey, takes absolutely no pleasure in this torture of another animal; for joy in the torment of another always presupposes a capacity for empathy, even if this empathy enters consciousness in the form of lust instead of suffering. – –

Even the animal which – as man is accustomed to say – kills from a pure ‘lust to kill’ is either lusting for blood as a kind of food it desires, or is seeking to exterminate whatever could be a danger, while it may also be the case that it cannot restrain its hunting instinct when it senses the presence of favoured prey. –

You must never accuse even the cruelest of predators of an ‘evil’ act, – never accuse it of gaining pleasure from ‘evil deeds’ – never accuse it of being ‘evil’ , in the human sense!

At times even the ‘evil’ human being is only the trustee of his instinct for self-preservation, or of the instinct for the survival of the species…

Whatever then appears to you as ‘evil’ in man may still remain within those boundaries nature has drawn up in defining the instinct preserving the self and the species…

Only where man has broken through those boundaries does this instinct degenerate into something dreadful!

It then becomes the instinct to destroy for the pleasure gained in the pain suffered by others…

Only here do we really confront ‘evil’! Only here is ‘evil’ produced by men! – –

Yet here it has also already been propagated, when, as to appearance, it still remains outwardly hidden, as all ‘evil’ is propagated and begotten in thinking!

Evil first comes into existence as thought before it, – continuing to propagate itself – can beget words and deeds! – –

Behold! ‘Evil’ is contrary to nature and is forced upon her by men! – –

As soon as the instinct for self-preservation becomes overwhelming and of necessity degenerates because man’s thinking has broken through all the boundaries, set also for the nature of the human animal, that instinct must become an instinct for ‘evil’, finally creating pleasure in ‘evil deeds’ and in the suffering of others! – –

Of all visible creatures, it is only man alone who propagates ‘evil’ in the visible world!

Among all beings which can be perceived by the physical senses, he alone is capable of this – since only he, through his thinking, can tear down the boundaries containing the instinct for self- preservation within animal nature! – –

Yet do not think that all ‘evil’ is limited only to this world of visible things, and can only be brought into being within the human sphere of action!

Such a belief could be calamitous for you! – –

You must extend your caution here to cover invisible things. For what appears to you in this world of externalthings as perceptible to the senses is in truth only the smallest part of this world. It would be foolish if you were to ignore totally the greater part…

Within the invisible elements of this outer world there are many things to be found which you would likewise describe as ‘evil’, in the same way you speak of the ‘evil’ animal. Yet, here as there, only the instinct to preserve theself and the species is at work. –

Other things, hidden here at the same time, could be compared more appropriately with the rage of the animal behind the bars of a cage – that rage of the animal which would seek the freedom which lies before its eyes but remains out of its reach…

Finally, there are also beings here which, exactly like the visible earthly man, can tear down the boundaries to their instinct for self-preservation through their thinking. For thoughts are in no way limited within the cosmos to physical brains, even if they can be perceived by the human animal here on earth only by means of the brain. – –

As earthly man, also these beings propagate and beget ‘evil’ in thought; however, since thought here is free from any resistance its transformation finds within the motion of the human brain, it has an incomparably stronger influence. It is impossible to measure the flood of evil, continually flowing into the visible realm, hidden from earthly man’s consciousness, but nevertheless assumed by it, – generally without any conscious resistance! – – –

Consider yourself fortunate that you are at least fenced in within the realm of the visible and – if you really want to – you can save yourself from every flood of ‘evil’ by taking to your own high ground! –

Beware of causing a breach in the fence yourself, through which the poisonous evil sludge coming from these invisible beings could reach you! – –

Many unwittingly cause a breach in the wall through their own thoughts…

Every thought of ‘evil’ or hatred – even if you consider the object of your hatred to ‘merit’ hatred – delivers you, without your knowledge, into the power of demons from the invisible realm! – –

You have then summoned them – prepared their way to you, – and truly: they know how to lodge within you the powers of their thoughts! –

Thus countless souls have already become ‘possessed’ without suspecting it. Every day on this earth provides more victims to add to this number of unhappy souls! – –

Once you have ended up captive to this awful power nothing can free you from it other than your resolute and absolute inner rejection of every thought of hatred, however tame, and regardless of who or what is its target, – than your decisive and single-minded refusal henceforth to tolerate even a hint of ‘evil’ within you!

There are teachings which would say to you that all evil is but empty ‘appearance’. For everything in the cosmos ‘must’ of necessity be good, since God is, after all, the originator of all things, and only good can come of God.

Now this is a very superficial way of thinking, even if it can become for many people the cause of a very optimistic view of life.

Those who are quickly satisfied and content with their supposed knowledge can be compared to mountaineers who, ignorant of the risk, cross the ledge of snow which every expert mountaineer would avoid by steering well clear of it…

You can in the end reach a peak by crossing a ledge of snow, – if you have more ‘luck than judgement’, and the flimsy bridge does not collapse under your weight…

Thus there is hidden in these teachings hinted at here a small element of truth. For those who can find it, it will after all serve as a bridge over the dark ravine of the riddle of this existence on earth.

The truth in these teachings is: that all evil is conceived only in a world of appearances – whether in the visible or invisible realms, – and ceases to exist for all those who have transcended these worlds of appearance…

However, if you accept such flimsy teachings in the way they are taught, with their intended literal meaning, then you must as a consequence define everything surrounding you on earth as mere ‘appearance’ – including what is ‘good’– ; yet you will scarcely be able to deny that this ‘world of appearances’ can make itself felt quite painfully to you; for it is by no means a mere insubstantial appearance, – is far from being a ‘nothingness’ that cannot be felt. Furthermore, its existence or non- existence is certainly not determined by any power of you. – –

Do not be fooled by the deceptive conclusions of this slapdash pseudo-knowledge which is indeed unworthy of you!

You should also regard as erroneous the teaching which speaks to you of ‘evil’ as an inheritance inescapably yours in your body on earth! –

Truly, – you can certainly carry in your blood the tendency to do ‘evil’ from your forefathers, – but in no sense is ‘evil’ natural to you!

However strongly you are tempted by the urge to commit ‘evil’ which you may have inherited: – as long as you refuse to enslave your will to this urge, it will have no power over you!

Those who become prey to those pernicious cravings in their blood have played a foolish game with themselves and are far removed from knowledge of their own power!

Those ancestors, whose blood flows within you and who in their own lifetime were perhaps not able to quell it in themselves, truly have no power over your will!

But now it is your will alone which decides if you will learn to master your blood, or allow yourself to be enslaved by it! – –

It goes without saying that here too you must also really have the will!

Your mere wish can, in truth, achieve nothing here! –

But most people deceive themselves when they talk of their ‘will’. For they mean either their wishes, or even the cravings of their blood which should be overcome by the will. – –

Many scarcely know how they deceive themselves when they say that they are too ‘weak’ to withstand the cravings of their blood. On the contrary, they might catch themselves in that dark hour, deriving pleasure from the very lust they sought to resist and in fact secretly fondling it…

Countless play frivolous games with their wishes, although they know very well that the fulfillment of these wishes can only end in ‘evil’…

But when through cravings and wishes ‘evil’ has been propagated and becomes the cause of evil consequences, ‘destiny’ is accused. People become virtuosi in the lamentable art of shifting the blame from themselves onto others! – –

Many could forge themselves a different destiny, if they would only – from the very moment of it becoming just faintly perceptible – refuse to make any concession to the wish urging them towards ‘evil’! –

Once ‘evil’, having been conceived in the imagination, wills the birth of the act, then the strength of man is already broken – then the will is already allied to ‘evil’!

Hopeless resistance then becomes self-torment!

You must throttle the first faint impulse to commit ‘evil’ before it gains strength as a feeling or even a thought!

If you remain wakeful within yourself, it will be easy for you to protect yourself from danger!

You must trust yourself and your own power, which is stronger than any possible temptation! – –

Not for nothing is this power given to you; only through continual use can you strengthen it, should it be insufficient for you! –

If you courageously trust yourself, you may truly hope for high spiritual help!

It will come to you in a way, which will guarantee that you – will be able to help yourself! – – –

“The ‘Evil’ Individual” is a chapter in the book by Bô Yin Râ entitled The Meaning of Life. All rights, copyrights included, reserved by Posthumus Projects Amsterdam, 2014. Posthumus Projects Amsterdam is responsible for this standard-translation©. Posthumus Projects Amsterdam has provided general permission for reprinting and transmission of its publications with attribution. Books to Light will be administering this copyright within the United States and has approved this release by Three Sages. While the Books to Light website is under development, PDFs of all available titles may be ordered HERE. The Meaning of Life is also available in an outstanding English translation from Kober Press.