The Art of Breaking Character

1 :: Evil is a disfigured expression of a psyche entrenched in pain. ::

2 :: Evil is a broken compass, a force like gravity that pulls one further from one’s real destination by tempting us with a false goal. ::

3 :: “Forgive them, they know what not they do” – said Jesus. He is right. Evil is misperception, the illusion of separation taken to the extreme by pain. ::

4 :: It may be fair to say the most evil people deserve the most compassion, since they are burdened not just with the stupendous weight of a trauma-saturated spirit, but have, by the accumulation of such a vast store of unmet pain, become unrecognisable to the average person and thus considered actually undeserving of any kind of redemption. ::

5 :: There remains inside the truly evil individual a child who longs for love, a child who is scared, helpless, hurt, confused, downtrodden and is now – should we be surprised? – acting out. ::

6 :: Evil is the arch-delusion. It takes the illusion of separation, and leans into it – with a might. ::

7 :: The healing of evil is a mystery. But it is a mystery we must try to solve. Our best chance is to offer our compassionate understanding to those who seem least deserving of it. This is what God would do, and if we are interested in becoming like our maker, we must at least try to follow suit ::

8 :: To fight evil we must first be able to witness it without recoiling in judgment and fear. This means facing it in ourselves first. ::

9 :: To accept that we are capable of evil is to say no more than that we are capable of being enough pain to make evil deeds pleasurable. It is merely to accept wholeheartedly our total susceptibility to distortion by pain. ::

10: Evil may be the moral equivalent to cancer. It takes many forms. It multiplies under the right conditions. It brings suffering and death to those afflicted by it. And we will find a way to heal it.