What is ‘bad’?

Is there something we can label ‘bad’, and what is our role in co-creating a ‘good’ world? Should we take action for the thriving of all life?

Suffering is real.

We all know suffering. It is very real. And while there was a “purpose” for it in the evolutionary struggle of survival of the fittest genes, we now have the choice to transcend this old paradigm.

To genes, animal suffering is simply a useful tool—so the animal world is full of suffering. Genes have no higher principles, so neither does the animal world—no such thing as rights, no concept of right or wrong, no concern with fairness. Animals woke up in the heat of a universe pressure cooker, playing an unwinnable game they never signed up for, and that’s all there is to it.

(Wait but Why)

Is suffering ‘bad’?

What is the role of suffering? What about the ‘real negative charge’ of it that we all can experience: should it be avoided? How do we know what is bad ‘in the bigger picture’, given often what is labelled and identified as ‘bad’ can lead to things that are good?

Nobody likes to suffer. As the Dalai Lama puts it, the purpose of (human) life is happiness.
To insert source book ‘The Art of Happiness’.

Suffering is not ‘bad’ in a moral way, but in terms of missing the point (Eckhart Tolle would say that the definition of sin is missing the mark).

All paths are ‘ok’, some just come with suffering, and others not.

To explore further:

Alan Watts

story of the salad and the snail. Is this nihilism justified, given the real pain and suffering experienced by sentient beings? What when it comes to emotional examples like Hitler? Can we really claim Hitler was necessary or ‘not bad’?https://alanwatts.org/transcripts/clarity-of-mind/
It depends on the ‘magnifying glass’. What scope are we looking at? ‘What is conflict at one level of magnification is harmony at a higher level’ Video ‘All makes sense’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwBxUQ4Fwxc Video ‘The universe makes no mistakes’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nxGozlhDDc

Thich Nhat Hanh’s story of the rose and the garbage. His empathy and compassion for sentient beings.
Eckhart Tolle

The ego
llustration of ‘maybe’ and the story of the Taoist farmer and the horse in the book ‘a New Earth’ or in this medium article citing Alan Watts

The big Theory of Everything by Tom Campbell: It’s all a simulation and consciousness is experiencing - the less resistance the less suffering
Pema Chödrön: Shenpa and getting hooked. Book: Getting unstuck.
The apparent dysfunction of a caterpillar in the cocoon stage is needed for it to become a butterfly. See for example the Innovation Show and Aidan McCullen’s example here.
Don Miguel Ruiz: Four Agreements.

Are some emotions and states ‘bad’?

Joe Dispenza: High-frequency emotions like bliss, love, etc. and lower frequency emotions like guilt, fear, anger.
S N Goenka: How to deal with anger and negative emotions.
Pema Chödrön: Dealing with destructive addictions.
Inner Nature Training by Ramona Laich: Anger, Sadness, Fear and Joy as equivalent and valid types of emotions.

Personal development: Should we ‘grow’ and evolve?

Are there ‘bad’ parts in us? Are there ‘good actions’?
Do we have a responsibility to ‘evolve’ and grow, eliminating our perceived bad/dark parts?
What about enlightenment? Is there something to seek and go for?

Book ‘Siddhartha’ by Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha’s path and Gautama Buddha - is there something to ‘improve’?
Yoga: The Yamas and Niyamas

What is the role of the shadow in us? Is an addiction to something life-unfriendly part of ‘us’ and our Karma, or merely a conditioned, learnt habit? What layer of the ‘onion’ is ‘us’ and what not - where do we start and end? Should we aim to integrate the shadows and let go of the ‘bad’ parts?
What is a ‘sin’? Eckhart Tolle: “to sin means to miss the mark, as an archer who misses the target, so to sin means to miss the point of human existence.” Book: A New Earth.

What is our role and responsibility as ‘co-creators’?

Can we say that everything plays a role in the larger whole - even the things that are ‘bad’ - and still take action in the now to reduce suffering?

See the page on ‘co-creating’.

Alan Watts: we are responsible for everything and nothing (see Spotify and Wake Up App recordings of Alan Watts)
50/50 as a guiding principle (e.g. Mario Santoni, George the London taxi driver, ...). We are co-creating. Intention matters, and action matters. At the same time, we are surrendering to the unfolding of life.

All just is
What we think is a ‘good’/’bad’ may not be so on a bigger scale, Parable of the Chinese farmer and the horse - Alan Watts/Eckhart Tolle
Non-dualism
‘We’ might not have agency/a role to play in how reality unfolds