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20130106

Good and Evil are One

To see good and evil as one is to transcend moral judgment. By creation of good by mindful practice, the disciple neutralizes evil of the Five Poisons, and embraces the true nature of her basic goodness.
When I make no moral judgment on good and evil, but see that my actions and the effect of these actions may be considered good or evil, depending on the situation.

Thus, in Buddhism, "good" and "evil" has less to do with moral judgment and more to do with my actions and the effect of those actions.

Buddhist philosophy declares that each of us has the potential to create good or evil, but we favor creating good to neutralize evil.

When the terms "pure", "real", and "true" are used, they refer to "basic goodness". On the other hand the term "evil" is not as absolute as the Western concept of evil because it can easily be neutralized by creating good with loving-kindness. For evil is created by anger, desire, fear, hatred, and ignorance, which are negative emotions and feelings that unsettle the mind.

A result of an unsettled mind is suffering, and one may make a moral judgment and mistake good for evil, and evil for good. Even when one sees good as good, and evil as evil, one may judged oneself and other sentient beings harshly. Due to such misjudgment, one entertains dualistic thoughts by making moral judgments regarding good and evil.

Such dualism is due to an unsettled mind. With the Bodhi Mind as the practitioner's goal, the mindful practice of Buddha Remembrance and meditation results in the nondual mind that sees good and evil as due to her actions and their effect on the lives of both herself and other sentient beings.

That nondual mind arises due to the mindful practice of the Middle Way

For the Middle Way transcends moral judgment involving good and evil, and allows the Buddhist to let go of clinging to such judgment to free himself of ignorant craving. As a result he chooses to create good in his life.

This is the goal of Buddha Remembrance: to mindfully practice Buddha Recitation and meditation to free oneself of the ignorance which arises from a deluded mind. Once Awake, the practitioner maintains her practice to maintain positive control over her ego, lest she fall prey to worldly desires and create evil.

For we are capable of creating good and evil in the journey called Life, and thus we bear the responsibility for our very actions on that journey.


Reference:
Good and Evil in Buddhism: http://gandhara.blogspot.com/2013/01/good-thoughts-destroy-evil-karma.html

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