So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb. –Dark Helmet, Space Balls
In Kentarou Miura’s Japanese manga, Berserk, one of the best scenes is one he didn’t even include when he initially wrote/illustrated it. It involves a character’s encounter with God and he (Miura) thought it was “too much, too early” for the Berserk audience.
The chapter eventually leaked online and I gobbled it up. In the short chapter, a character encounters God, and it turns out God is the idea of evil. Like a pure manifestation of desires. As this God explains it in the encounter, God didn’t always exist as this source of the universe, but was gradually created and heralded by human suffering. People needed a reason for things to be like they are; they needed something to blame their broken dreams and miseries and pleasures upon. And over time, this belief forged God as central to existence — the idea of all evil, the pure wellspring of desires. Although man made God, God became real and full of potency. By this account, when people pray for things to change or whatever, they are praying to this pure manifestation of desire which reacts by creating more causal chains of existence. In other words, Nietzsche and The Secret — together at last!
Wow-wee! That sure doesn’t fly alongside the typical belief structures of Judeo-Christianity/Islam! At least the pagan belief systems weren’t threatened by this ethically because their morality was not tied up in ideas of good and bad. For pagan beliefs it was often do whatever the gods ask, or channel/emanate the god of one’s own archetype irrespective of judgment. And in Buddhism and Hinduism, don’t we find gods who just think they’re the essence of the universe, but they’re really a temporal identity fluxuation too (albeit on the highest level possible)? Yeah… thus it strikes me that only the monotheists would the ones most threatened by, and most likely subject to, this “crazy” revelation found in Berserk.
Really, don’t you think a lot of misguided people actually end up duped into praying to the “devil”, or to the essence of desire and so forth? Man, I feel that energy when I’m in certain old churches, or encounter power-charged statues, battlegrounds and so forth. It’s not “evil” it’s just a deep manifestation of desires and hope — a lingering sensation of empathy for liars.
Does that make sense? The urge or yearning to believe in something compassionate and father-like which will make things right. You know how it is: you look at a politician or some horrifying FOX news political pundit. Sure, you want to believe they’re good people, but they’re clearly not. That empathy or desire to want to believe them is the equal reaction to them lying and trying to trick you. It’s the weak feeling that allows illusions to take place — the submission of will to another. Basically, you temporarily pity someone who is trying to scam you and they take full emotional advantage of you. That’s why I don’t trust emotions.
Salvation is not so much “salvation” (that easy, perfect, lazy and heavenly life everyone imagines) as it is a complete step off of the boat of life — a shove off of not just this mortal coil, but the coil of all conditioned existence. That’s scary enough as it is, going beyond human life. But even bleaker is if you’re a spiritual nihilist: you think some kind of peace beyond isn’t a possibility, that one has to assume that the meaning of life is made by whomever has the strongest powers of assertion and self-indulgence (and bullshitting). Whomever asserts themselves like a king in the astral or physical planes is correct and wise by virtue of their strength. That’s the occult path in a nutshell, methinks.
So why isn’t there some idea of good as Miura’s God of the cosmos? Well, “good” doesn’t really exist the way “evil” does. Meaning, it exists by it’s non-manifestation or something. Because, (remember Willie B!) desire or “evil is the active spring of energy.” That’s why the politics of restraint and peace are so much harder to stir up in a country versus the politics of war.
Everything in this world may be easily evoked and obtained through evil, which being contagious needs little evoking because everyone is relatable to it by their correlatives. –Austin Spare
“Good” or virtuous actions tend to avoid being noticed. That’s how it works in martial arts, too. The set up for techniques almost never involves starting a conflict, it’s very often receiving the conflict. Most modern “self-defense” martial arts require an outside set up or approach in order to function most effectively. That’s how Aikido, Budo Taijutsu, Taiji, white magick, etc. tend to function. That’s why a martial artist who goes around starting fights eventually gets their ass kicked, even if they’re really good. By attacking you give the other person a chance to react and a space in which to move outside of you. “Good” is made up of the stream of existence that evades or outlies the penetration of desires. This is a big subject, so I’ll talk about it s’more later.
The crux of my message? You might be interested in reading Berserk. Berserk talks about this kind of thing a lot, how people’s faith becomes trapped within worldly objects and so their beliefs become easily manipulated by whomever seizes it (a la the renaissance church and so forth). Muira’s stuff about the pope is so accurate it gives me goosebumps! Plus the whole thing is so violent and gory it’s a perilous journey for your soul. Enter at your own risk, wayfarer!