Why we need both positive and negative experiences.

Spirituality can be a beautiful thing. Finding meaning, purpose, and connection to the world around us is something that most people can embrace; regardless of if we align ourselves with a particular religion or not. It is important to point out before we go any further that we are talking about the unprovable here. So, anything anyone says regarding the topic of spiritual things will always be an opinion. Be it the pope, a shaman, or some lady who really likes rocks; we are all talking about our perception of the spiritual based on our own personal experiences and studies. At the end of the day, no one can tell you what you should believe. but if my opinions on this topic help to clear the way for someone to embrace the connection we all hold to one another, maybe this opinion is worth sharing.

When it comes to spirituality, the place many find a roadblock that prevents them from really embracing belief or religion is “evil”. There is a common question posed by the logical thought process and it goes along the lines of “If there is a god, then why does he allow such bad things to happen?” This is a reasonable question that warrants further thinking. There are also some people who will refuse the notion of karma with the logic that people can do such awful things, so when do they get their karma? The issue there lies with the misunderstanding of what karma is.

Now, the same question reworded finds itself combating many belief systems, so if God and karma aren’t at the forefront of your beliefs, don’t shrug this notion off just yet. Let’s just say, for the sake of understanding my opinion on evil, that all beliefs hold equal merit – there is truth in them all. Let’s take a stance that they all are pretty much saying the same thing, the stories vary, the way the information is delivered changes, but at the end of the day, we are all equal. When our bodies die, the part of us that is us, continues on in some way. Here is where things get tricky when it comes to beliefs, and fear is very often what fuels our attachment to our feelings in this area. This is okay and again, keep an open mind as I am not telling anyone they are wrong to believe what feels right to them.

From my perspective we have a soul, our soul is not perfect, it does not know everything there is to know – no one does. Where does our soul go when we aren’t living a physical life? Heaven or reincarnation? Why not both? Why can’t they all be a thing?

Find the common ground between beliefs and you start to see things a little bit differently.

One big issue with a paradise after death for me is, if “Heaven” is a place where everything is chill and wonderful, how could I reside there? Not because I am bad, evil, or unworthy but because I have turmoil in my soul. It doesn’t matter where you place me, that turmoil will be there. I have “karma” that needs to be addressed. Most likely, we ALL do. I could find myself in a place that we could associate with “Heaven”, but until my soul learns to see things from a perspective that allows that turmoil within to be at peace, I would not be able to maintain a state of happiness in any location. No amount of divine intervention could fix that. Our healing and learning must come from within for it to be authentic. We have to choose to heal, learn, and grow.

The hardest and most painful learned lessons are the ones that stick.

We could be told a million times not to do something. We could be given every reason and example why we should not do that something and yet, we will still do it because we want to. When the time comes that we don’t heed the warnings and whatever it is ends poorly, we learn a lesson the hard way. A perfect example is a recent experience with my son. “Don’t touch that hot pan.”, “It just came out of the oven, it’s hot”, “Be careful the pan is still hot” and yet, the second I turned my back, my kid walked over to the pan and picked it up with his bare hands and now has a burn on them both. That boy will never make that mistake again.

A lesson learned the hard way is a lesson that sticks.

What if when we die there is a place of peace, comfort, and healing; but we can’t stay there because we are not at peace within. What if, we could continue to learn and try to face the things that cause our turmoil so that one day, we might be able to be at peace anywhere we were? Anywhere and everywhere could be “Heaven” if this was the case. What if there was a source of such compassion and love that provided us the option to continue to seek out that tranquility? What if “karma” is not a punishment? What if it is just the baggage we carry that causes conflict within?

We are the sum of our experiences.

We are the sum of our experiences, and when we handle things poorly or avoid them altogether, we take note of that on an energetic level. Sort of like a subconscious to-do list that holds all of the things that make you say, “I am not ready to do that now, but I will come back to you later.” To me, this is karma. It is a list of things we have not yet fully learned.

We all have things to learn, some lessons are harder to face than others and some perspectives can only be gained the hard way. This is where “evil” comes into play. How could there be such evil? Why would anyone allow such atrocities to exist? It is because someone needs that lesson or perspective. Those evils reflect choices and lessons for someone. There is always something to learn, as horrible as that sounds on the surface; there is so much love and goodness but in order to really understand how good those things are, you must also know what it is to look in the face of a hurt and pain too great for words. To grasp what it is to know love and peace, you have to know the opposition.

The only way to hold a real appreciation for that tranquility we seek is to know great unrest.

If our goal is to exist in a place of ultimate cooperation, a place where no one acts out of selfishness, we need to see all aspects of why that cooperation and unity works.

We can’t choose cooperation because we are told it is right. At some point we might feel what we want is more important than what everyone else needs, and what then? We can’t know how to be objective and unified from simply being told how to act. We have to learn through experience and feel our way to that mindset. We need to know how it feels to be on all ends of the situation so that we know there is more than just our current perspective. If we can still take the stance that the “evil person” is just evil and they now don’t matter at all, then we are not being objective. That person is possibly acting out of their own unrest. What if you have been that evil person before? Wouldn’t you hope there was a chance for redemption? For all you know, you have done some evils you can’t even fathom. Again, we are talking about the unprovable here so if there is a chance that I have lived another life, there is a chance I have committed great evils; and if that chance exists, I hope above all else there is a chance for redemption. An opportunity for forgiveness.

What other people have to learn isn’t for us to know.

Maybe you never get to see that someone who has hurt you being taught a lesson for their actions. Perhaps in this lifetime they never seem to answer for the wrongs they have committed. That might be the thing that holds you back from embracing the idea of karma or spirituality. However, that right there would be one of your lessons. What other people have to learn, isn’t for us to know. How the world makes us feel and how we feel about our place in it, is for us to assess. How we react and conduct ourselves in the world is everything and will be the defining factor of our experiences in life. People will hurt us, but people will also show us great kindness. Neither one should sway us or determine the foundation of who we are. We get to choose the person we want to be and why we do what we do.

Someone hurt you, so you could choose to carry that and let it cloud how you see the world; or you can choose to find compassion for everyone involved and know you will do your best to never inflict a similar pain on anyone else. You can choose to hope the person who hurt you, finds their way to healing and let go of the trauma associated with that pain. That is a very hard thing to do. It is something that is so much easier said than done. Often, we just can’t find that forgiveness and ability to let go. When that happens, we find ourselves being the giver of a similar pain to learn why we need to forgive. We end up learning all perspectives, even if we don’t realize that is what is happening – our soul knows.

There is great evil that exists. This is an undeniable truth for everyone, regardless of your system of belief. Sometimes we encounter great evil for seemingly no reason at all. Sometimes it’s just because someone could be bad and chose to be. That is a tough pill to swallow, that incomprehensible evil for the sake of evil, how can we process that sort of behavior just being allowed to exist? Why doesn’t someone stop them? Hurt like that shouldn’t be a thing and if there was a good out there, as strong as the evil, then they should intervene. This thinking is flawed because that evil we see is proof of the good.

It is proof that we are free to choose who we are.

It is proof that there is a goodness as great as that evil and it facilitates our choice to keep trying.

Sure, people choose to be bad for no reason other than they can, but sometimes people also choose to be good. There is a balance that exists even if we can’t always see it. The evils of the world create discomfort and discomfort is where true growth occurs. As awful as evil can be, for us to find peace the evil is necessary.