If a person does evil,
He should not do it repeatedly;
He should not set his will upon it:
It's painful to accumulate evil.
If a person does good,
He should do it repeatedly;
He should set his will upon it:
It's pleasant to accumulate good.
Thought someone may enjoy this
Hi Lloyd
bit profound and deep for a monday night.
It is good though and makes you think. The trouble is what is evil ? It surely is subjective and dollows personal views.
We can ( often) be told what is evil or an evil act but do the people doing this really think to themselves they are doing evil ?
We can only develop our own moral codes and live by them. All the time hoping they are " good".
I myself are not particular religious. I finally got fed up of the hypocrasy of it all. The " be kind to your neighbour....but I'll kill anyone who does not believe in my god " finally wore a little thin for me.
I do not think less of those that do believe, if they find comfort in religion then I even envy them.
But back to the post. What is evil ? People do bad things but does that make them evil?
Having said that I do like your post and agree if you find yourself doing "evil" you should not do so willfully.
Yep you got me thinking
Pax
Hey Pax
Your comments pretty much mirror my views too nice one.
I'll be honest sometimes I read something or see something or whatever and post it up to see what people think and as you said get people to think too.
Something else I like is....thoughts are thoughts but you don't have to think them!
Danny
Everything starts with a thought (Good or Evil.
It's the choice you make at the time.
I very much agree with your sentiments here Pax. My problem with religions on the whole, is that it is so diverse, ambiguous and contradictory, even within the same religion.
It is used far too often in my opinion in a corrupted form to justify other agendas.
Ii prefer to refer to my personal moral code which quite simply boils down to 'treat others how you wish to be treated'.
the bible has a good moral code do to others as you would have them do to you is from Luke somewhere. but i dont believe in a lot of the bible, how god could let it happen for his own son to be crucified so that would save us all from damnation, this is a quite hideous idea. and why would a god put worms in african childrens eyes.
however the bibles ten commandments for example are spotless values.
THIS IS HEAVY STUFF!
The bible should be read with an open mind just as you would with any other historical book. If discerned properly it gives you all the answers you'll ever need to all your questions and doubts.
It's hard to understand politics if you haven't been to College/ University to study. The bible is the same. It's the book of life.
God bless you all
Phew ; Evil ; a massive subject. We often label people or actions as evil without knowing the causes. When a person goes on a rampage, killing anyone in their path, or walks into a school and wipes out dozens of innocent children, these are surely acts of pure evil. Or are they ?
I think we've come a long way since the days of hanging, in understanding that we can't make such judgements without full knowledge of the perpetrators background and state of mental health.
For me evil is a privileged minority, who manipulate us by weeding out anyone less able or fortunate, by means of sheer deprivation and neglect. Ring any bells ??
Oh, and goodness is what we see here on Headway every day. 
x
agreed on all points, thought provoking and uplifting reply.
george osborne yep if you could ever see evil in someones face.. i think i read that capital punishment is sick & disgusting, probably quite a primitive stripped back human response that works on the premise that there can never be a miscarriage of justice.
the girl who the song was about "i dont like mondays" did have some kind of brain injury, though i am probably jumping to Huge conclusions to even wonder if that could have been a factor in what she did, I think ive read that her father was abusive and that the family was poverty stricken.
oh dear i am kind of taking this in the wrong direction, when i didnt mean to ! agree with all your points Cat, and yes Headway's been a massive help to me.
forgot, michael gove wanted to bring back hanging out of respect for democracy. to steal someone elses phrase, out of allthe swivel eyed's this one really has to be at the top of the bonkers tree. oh no! political, but i'm being contraversial again.!
interesting comment Cat, my best to you.
I honestly didn't know of the connection between the Boomtown Rats 'I Don't Like Mondays' and Brenda Spencer's killing spree in 1979 'til I just Googled it, and that those were her own words when asked why she did it !
Another very mixed up young girl who will have served 40 years before consideration for parole. Interesting stuff Eleanor, and tragic for all concerned.
Couldn't agree more about Osborne being the personification of evil BTW !!
Cat xx
Me too Cat! (Never realised the connection).. Wow, that was really her response?! Gosh!
xxx
Yes, these arbitrary killings must be all the more tragic for loved ones to get their heads around.
And how odd, that whilst we fight so hard for survival, others are snuffing out lives so randomly.
xxx
I don't do religion. Religion is not my bag :). Religion makes things worse, that is how I see it anyway.
Better to be good than evil :).
People can do bad things such as break your mum's favourite vase or you cheat on your girlfriend and there are other bad, hideous things out there to be done but they might not be classed as 'evil'.
What could be seen as evil is one single religious cult that is connected to the world in lots of ways from certain buildings or structures and the way they are built to corporations selling there products which wreck the planet and kill off humanity and all to make a bit of bread (money).
That to me, is pure evil.
it has been at least postulated if not proven that a certain area of the brain, where there can be an abnormality is strongly implicated in psychopathy. i won;t name the area, and it isnt always the way that such an abnormality means that psychopathy will develop, upbringing and background can play a part in conjunction. psychopathy is a spectrum disorder, people who are minimally psychopathic can be very successful in business for example. and no danger to either themselves or anyone else.
Hmmm
Take issue with the 'if's. They need to be 'when' or 'since' or 'given that'...
And it is a very internalised, individualised stance isn't it? Seems to be all about the 'he' subject as even the final lines of the verses do not broaden the impact of their ''It's pleasant/painful' comments to obviously include a wider perspective. Which leaves it feeling a bit like a mantra for 'I'm alright, Jack'. Or Jill, as you like it.
Perhaps moral codes tend to be framed at an individualistic level because the approach to them is always going to be a bit 'pick'n'mix' and by definition won't have the reference points and structure of a wider system...after all anything fitting that description is usually heading towards a 'religion' or at least a belief system. And here I have to nail my colours to the mast - as an authorised CofE lay minister who is hoping (disability and church assessment permitting) to go to a formal selection panel for the priesthood once this brain op is out of the way - I guess you would say I do 'do religion' - although personally I prefer to think of myself as a 'person of faith'. I think the word 'religion' has all sorts of connotations which don't figure in my relationship with God or my understanding of the teachings of Jesus at all....
But back to the poem - for me it has to be 'when' a person does evil. None of us are imune to it. It permeates everything, always has done. I think it is one reason why holy men and women would live lives of hermitage, meditation and contemplation (the word holy means 'set apart') - because to try and focus in on goodness in the midst of a constant bombardment of evil, if not directly then by association, must be nigh on impossible. For the rest of us, without a calling to such a 'thin' place of transcendence, we have to just muddle along, battling against the evil influences that bounce into our consciousness, our thoughts, our actions, our worldview every day with whatever goodness we can muster. Mostly I think as I look around at the world, we win through. Mostly we manage to 'do good things'. I believe it is actually our default setting, just there is a bug in the system that has a tendency to derail, some more than others, clearly (not sure I would put Michael Gove and George Osborne in the seriously evil category, mind. Seriously misguided, absolutely, but struggling here with 'evil').
It is a bit too succinct, don't you think? I mean evil is more than 'painful'. It is destructive. It is controlling and restrictive too (just think how even a little white lie can tie you up in knots and prevent you from being open and you can see how that analogy can grow. Or think of how bitterness and resentment can cause a person to literally shrivel and wither inside). It is unbalancing, it sows dischord and disharmony. Disease - again the root of the word 'dis-ease' tells us so much - is an expression of evil, by which (before I get lynched) I don't mean that you get ill because you are bad, but that the illness and disability we see is a demonstration of how the goodness, the creative expression that is life and health, has come under attack by its antithesis. I don't necessarily mean by a little red man with horns, mind...
So yes, I can see how this little poem/mantra can serve - more as a starter for 10 and as a baseline for an interesting discussion though than as a lifeguide for me. Thanks for posting though Lloydyuk - sometimes with the brain fog and memory loss I have a hard job convincing myself that my intellect is still intact, and I shy away from discussions like this except when on form as I have a tendency to lose my thread. It is a bit easier when you have the philosophical debate on the screen so you don't have to remember what you just said!!!
i do enjoy it lloydy , apologies for the diversions
Not at all, the text was taken from Buddhist writing, I'm by no means a Buddhist however I do find myself aligning to its teachings quite often.
In my simplistic view it's pretty much about learning about yourself and becoming the best version of you possible.
ive heard if said that the person or self is like a pebble dropped in a pond. We are the pebble and the ripple that radiates out affects everything in one way or another.
Lloydyuk
Its interesting that the terrorists when committing murder on innocent victims always claim that their religious beliefs are to kill westerners. Is this evil? and here religion is to blame. Wish they would take responsibility and blame themselves. Love the poem and completely agree with the above about the ripple effect that happens with the pebble. When we take action we are responsible for that action no one else.
Sorry for not being chatty lately...
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