namaskaram Spenta maynu ji
Yes it is difficult and it is always awesome to meet someone else who really is into worshiping God almost obsessively. I think this is maybe one of the reasons why so many of the mystics reach a point of silence. Many times when I try to explain to people the greatness of God and they start to fight with me about the impossibility then I just keep quite and smile.
jai jai , ....I can agree with the keep quiet and smile , ....and the reaching the point of silence , ....there have been enough times when I read posts here and thought enough ...I am off , ....but what keeps me here are the smiles and the likes from the good Guys ,....I dont mean to imply that the remainder are bad , but I realy cant cope with the competetiveness , negativity and the point pushing , ....
In our human mind (maybe I should add Western mind) to see evil as a part of God is very difficult to understand. That's why I didn't know how to explain myself there, so what you said about ignorance make sense to me (for now, I will think about it for a very long time to come).
I just tend to look at ignorance and even evil as a part of our growing and learning process , .....all children do stupid and sometimes selfish things untill they learn that they are not the center of all , as they grow they learn that others have fellings too , ...they then learn to share and bring joy . to me all evil comes from an imaturity of mind , self centeredness , greed and averice can only come from a deluded sence of self , ...there is something allmost comforting about this because at least one knows however hard evil tries it can never win , the natural state of God is truth and purity , ...therfore it is a harmonious state ....no evil is powerfull enough to unballance it it will always right it self , .....even the true nature of mankind is inteligence but this takes many many lifetimes to fully mature , to be come realised , ...then we no longer need this birth and suffering , ...
But this, the intent behind an action, is something I did thought about a lot and it is true what you say - many times people like to throw words like right, wrong and sin around and many times my answer was 'okay so why exactly is that wrong?' Sometimes they answer 'because the Bible says so' (many of them unable to show me where, which only shows me they've heard it somewhere) and other times 'because my mother said so' (an answer I hate). Until after I've read about a whole lot of different ideas such as the interconnection of all beings and the Wiccan creed 'an ye harme none, do what thy wilt'. This made me realize that 'wrong' or 'sin' (and hence evil) is when we hurt someone, do something from a point of hate or fear.
Then we can see how a harmless and loving kiss from Judas to Jesus wasn't so harmless and loving at all but reeks of evil.
and even this idea of right and wrong , if sin , ...it is all relative to a persons position . this is why I find Dharmic religions to be more helpfull to me than Christianity , ...that does not mean that Christianity is not right for another person , that to me is the reason for the multifarious manifestatins of the supreme , ...he comes or makes teachings available in a way that is accessable to the mind of any given society , ...
no sin is not evil , sin is not knowing , ..sin is ignorance , ...ignorance is only lack of knowing , ...knowing takes time and reason to question and learn , ...and the rules that are laid down are to help societies to live harmoniously , ...but we also need to learn to apply all rules corectly , ....these rules are for us to live by not for us to tell others how to live , ...the Bible says let he who is without sin cast the first stone , ....we are not here to judge others we are here to learn , this is done by reflecting upon our own weaknesses not the weaknesses of others .
Then we can see how a harmless and loving kiss from Judas to Jesus wasn't so harmless and loving at all but reeks of evil.
but can ths not be looked on in different ways , ...this betrayal was prehaps a part of Gods plan , without the betrayal there was no sacrifice ? ...and from this sacrifice what did Judas and other Christians learn ? ...the Bhagavad Gita also looks at this issue , Krsna explains that although the body may be killed that the soul is eternal , ...and it is true we all rise again this is part of the process of learning , prosess of purification , ....and of Jesus son of God he to is eternal he canot be killed yet he accepts betrayal , ....if this betrayal is Evil why does he accept it ? he dosent have to , he does so for a hidden reason , .....this is for us to examine , ...Gods reason for allowing any of us to suffer ? ...what are we supposed to learn , ...