Why does God allow evil, suffering, tragedy and other assorted bad things happen to good people? According to the Centers for Disease Control, during 2002, there were approximately; 28,000 infants deaths, 17,000 homicides and 100,000 accidental deaths. Officially, 2,986 innocent people were killed by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. If you’ve allowed your spiritual growth to be hampered or stopped because you can’t reconcile the question of how an all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God can permit these to happen, then you’re suffering from what I call the ultimate spiritual hang-up.

Hung-Up

What’s a spiritual hang-up? Well, first, in general, a hang-up is something that keeps you stuck and prevents further progress. Examples of physical objects that get hung-up include a record that skips (remember LP’s?), computers that “freeze up” and a car that won’t “turn over”. A spiritual hang-up is an attitude, belief or thought than hinders your spiritual development. For example, you may believe that that there are stupid, negative and evil ideas in some of the world’s Holy Books. You might feel that there are stupid, negative and evil people who are, or were, leaders of the world’s major religions. You might think that religions are useless because the people who go to Church, synagogue, mosque, etc. are the very same people who do bad things in the world. These spiritual hang-ups may thwart your spirituality; however, they may be overcome or at least put aside as you also recognize that there are loving, positive and healing messages in the Holy Books, there are may religious leaders, past and present, who have done constructive things in the world and many worshippers have become better people by attending services.

The Ultimate

This “how-can-God-allow” question is the ultimate spiritual hang-up because, with it, you have a greater chance of completely closing off the source – God – and the resulting idea of the inner divinity that’s within you (that is you). The confusion over this question can totally block off any further evidence and understanding of a loving God. It locks you into limited, concrete thinking when the idea and concept of God requires broader, abstract thinking. The limiting line of reasoning goes like this; God is suppose to be omniscient, omnipotent and loving however terrible things happen to innocent people, therefore God must be “allowing” it otherwise He/She/It would use Their power to stop it, since it’s not stopped He/She/It must not care or doesn’t exist, either way, all praying, worshiping and believing is worthless so I’m not going to bother.

Types of Tragedy

To answer the question “how can God permit (fill in the blank)?”, we have to start by recognizing three types of tragedy; man made, mysterious, and innocent bystander.

1. Man-made tragedies are when a person or a group hurts, kills, steals, rapes another person or group.
2. Mysterious tragedies are those that seem to have no explanation or cause and effect completely innocent people. Examples of this include infant death, disease and handicap and the sudden illness or death of a relatively young person.
3. The innocent bystander tragedy includes the illness or death of innocent people during war, climatic events (e.g. earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, etc.) and major catastrophes (e.g. Titanic, Hindenburg).

How Can God Allow Pain, Tragedy, Suffering and Evil?

With this background we can now address the specific question of “how can God let these tragedies happen?” First, God “allows” the man-made tragedies to occur because they are built into the fundamental structure of how we are created and put on this earth and they are one of the main methods used to increase our understanding of life. To fully explain this, permit me to give a quick meaning-of-life summary. We have two selves; a divine self and a human self. The divine self is abstract, impersonal and detached. The human self is concrete, self-centered and attached. The divine self is following the command of God to redeem the physical, emotional and mental planes of the world. It does this by investing itself in this very material and thereby incarnating in the earth plane. The issue is that this physical, emotional and mental material has a life of its own and it, rightly so, seeks greater comfort, security, pleasure and self-preservation, while avoiding pain, and all with the least possible effort. The divine self works gently “behind the scenes” working to raise and refine the quality of the material it is incarnated in so that eventually the human self is responsive to the divine self. The divine self intends to express its divinity, namely, love, joy, peace, wisdom, compassion, goodwill and vitality, through the human self and thereby redeem the world and fulfill God’s plan.

When a person or a group hurts, kills, steals, rapes another person or group the lower, human self of the aggressor has a very limited view of life and is simply looking for greater comfort, security, pleasure and self-preservation, while avoiding pain. From simple muggings and assaults to the extreme acts of Hitler and Osama bin Laden, all aggressors are acting in their own interests and desires however misguided and ignorant. The divine self of each aggressor has not been able to turn the lower self around to see life from a broader perspective. However the divine self retains the lessons learned during an incarnation and applies them to the next incarnation thereby increasing its ability to take command of the human self. This spiritual evolution is all a part of God’s unfolding plan and these man-made tragedies are to be seen in a wider perspective and are not to be taken personally.

Next, God allows the mysterious tragedies, however difficult to endure, because they are also opportunities for a greater understanding of life but they also have a better ability to facilitate the greater expression of a particular aspect of divinity. For example, being born or becoming blind, deaf, handicapped, or deformed are heightened opportunities to perfect the expression of strength, courage, endurance, perseverance and optimism (did you know Helen Keller wrote a book title Optimism?). Similarly, pre-mature diseases help to increase these and other divine ideals and they also help us realize mistakes in our self-expression. This later point is explained by Edward Bach, the creator of the Bach Flower Remedies, in his 1931 book “Heal Thyself – An Explanation of the Real Cause and Cure of Disease”;

“Disease is in itself beneficent, and has for its object the bringing back of the personality to the Divine will of the Soul; and thus we can see that it is both preventable and avoidable, since if we could only realize for ourselves the mistakes we are making and correct these by spiritual means there could be no need for the severe lessons of suffering. Every opportunity is given us by the Divine Power to mend our ways before, as a last resort, pain and suffering have to be applied. It may not be the errors of this life, this day at school, which we are combating; and although we in our physical minds may not be conscious of the reasons of our suffering, which may to us appear cruel and without reason, yet our Souls (which are ourselves) know the full purpose and are guiding us to our best advantage. Nevertheless, understanding and correction of our errors would shorten our illness and bring us back to health. Knowledge of the Soul’s purpose and acquiescence in that knowledge means the relief of earthly suffering and distress, and leaves us free to develop our evolution in joy and happiness.”

Finally, God allows the innocent bystander tragedies because they are part of the larger growth and development of humanity. This type of tragedy differs from the two above in that the victim does not go through any obvious period of growth and learning. However it’s important to remember that the body of humanity is also working on increasing its ability to express divinity. Wars, climatic events and other catastrophes are opportunities for humanity to correct its mistakes and express greater love, compassion, peace, wisdom, forgiveness and tolerance. The individual victims of these events who either die or are injured play a heroic part in the unfolding of the divine within mankind.

Conclusion

God allows pain, suffering, tragedy and evil simply because it’s a part of His Divine Plan for increasing divinity and thereby redeeming and refining this world. To understand this Plan, we need increase our wisdom and understand and place all tragedy into a larger perspective. Tragedies need to be recognized as opportunities for growth.

A critic may say that I’ve just gone through a worthless, long exercise since I’ve only managed to give God all the credit for the good events of life and no blame for the bad. I would respond with a brief passage from Alexander Pope’s poem “An Essay on Man”,

All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not see;

All Discord, Harmony not understood;

All partial Evil, universal Good:

And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason’s spite,

One truth is clear, Whatever is, is Right.

Marty Nemko, a career coach, author and radio talk-show host in the San Francisco area, who has very practical career and educational advice that I highly recommend, wrote a very personal article titled “What the Hell is the Meaning of Life”. This article is the conclusion (here is the first) of a seven part series in response to Marty’s question.

Marty wrote,

“Here’s my current thinking, highly subject to revision. It comes down to being nice to everyone possible: look for opportunities to give heartfelt praise, a kind letter to a long-long friend, an unnecessary gift, etc. Don’t expect anything in return–you too often won’t get it. Take pleasure in the giving itself. That approach to life will ensure you do some good, it doesn’t require Herculean effort, and you will feel good no matter how other people respond.”

Your “current thinking” about being nice and giving praise is good advice however when you say “don’t expect anything in return – you too often won’t get it”, you sound a bit defeatist. As you say, be nice, kind and express goodwill however also remember to be optimistic, enthusiastic and always focus one the best within others. Don’t despair if they don’t respond ideally.

Finally, you ask, “how do you wring the most from life?” Broaden your perspective. You are more than what you think you are. Working with life from a higher, spiritual perspective, as discussed in Part 1, is the only true satisfaction you can have. It’s what lasts. The potential for this exists for all of us regardless of our wealth, prestige, gender, race or health. After all the sun shines for everyone, right?

I want to give Marty the “last word” on the question of the meaning of life and I recently visited his website and found this recent entry on his blog which mirrors some of my comments in my article The Meaning of Life: Rise and Shine (which he hadn’t read before he wrote the following), and, along with all of what Marty writes is solid, sound advice. Marty wrote,

“Today, my client, Evan Wright, asked me, “How do you get so much done?” Here’s what I said: It starts with the spiritual. The meaning of life to me is defined primarily by how much I contribute to the world. If I act merely to give myself pleasure, my life has made little difference. So, I rarely procrastinate; work is not only what I should do, but want to do.”

To help with your spiritual growth and as a follow-up to my articles, The Meaning of Life: Rise and Shine   and What’s the Meaning of Life?, A Response, Part 1, the following are four summaries of spiritual understanding that I’ve come across over my years of study. They were written in 1931, 1944, 2004 and 1981, respectively. The first is an excerpt from Edward Bach’s Heal Thyself, the second is part of Aldous Huxley’s introduction to the Bhagavad Gita, the third is a part of Ken Wilbur’s article at Beliefnet.com. and the fourth is from Leichtman and Japikse’s “Active Meditation”. As you read these notice the similarities between them and the overall spiritual themes being taught.

Edward Bach wrote in Chapter 2 of Heal Thyself the following “fundamental truths”:

“The first of these is that man has a Soul which is his real self; a Divine, Mighty Being, a Son of the Creator of all things, of which the body, although the earthly temple of that Soul, is but the minutest reflection: that our Soul, our Divinity Who resides in and around us, lays down for us our lives as He wishes them to be ordered and so far as we will allow, ever guides, protects and encourages us, watchful and beneficent to lead us always for our utmost advantage: that He, our Higher Self, being a spark of the Almighty, is thereby invincible and immortal.

The second principle is that we, as we know ourselves in this world, are personalities down here for the purpose of gaining all the knowledge and experience which can be obtained through earthly existence, of developing virtues which we lack and of wiping out all that is wrong within us, thus advancing towards the perfection of our natures. The Soul knows what environment and what circumstances will best enable us to do this, and hence He places us in that branch of life most suited for that object.

Thirdly, we must realize that the short passage on this earth, which we know as life, is but a moment in the course of our evolution, as one day at school is to a life, and although we can for the present only see and comprehend that one day, our intuition tells us that birth was infinitely far from our beginning and death infinitely far from our ending. Our Souls, which are really we, are immortal, and the bodies, of which we are conscious are temporary, merely as horses we ride to go a journey, or instruments we use to do a piece of work.

Then follows a fourth great principle, that so long as our Souls and personalities are in harmony all is joy and peace, happiness and health. It is when our personalities are led astray from the path laid down by the Soul, either by our own worldly desires or by the persuasion of others, that a conflict arises. This conflict is the root cause of disease and unhappiness. No matter what our work in the world-bootblack or monarch, landlord or peasant, rich or poor-so long as we do that particular work according to the dictates of the Soul, all is well; and we can further rest assured that in whatever station of life we are placed, princely or lowly, it contains the lessons and experiences necessary at the moment for our evolution, and gives us the best advantage for the development of ourselves.

The next great principle is the understanding of the Unity of all things: that the Creator of all things is Love, and that everything of which we are conscious is in all its infinite number of forms a manifestation of that Love, whether it be a planet or a pebble, a star or a dewdrop, man or the lowliest form of life. It may be possible to get a glimpse of this conception by thinking of our Creator as a great blazing sun of beneficence and love and from the center an infinite number of beams radiate in every direction, and that we and all of which we are conscious are particles at the end of those beams, sent out to gain experience and knowledge, but ultimately to return to the great center. And though to us each ray may appear separate and distinct, it is in reality part of the great central Sun. Separation is impossible, for as soon as a beam of light is cut off from its source it ceases to exist. Thus we may comprehend a little of the impossibility of separateness, as although each ray may have its individuality, it is nevertheless part of the great central creative power. Thus any action against ourselves or against another affects the whole, because by causing imperfection in a part it reflects on the whole, every particle of which must ultimately become perfect.”

In the introduction to the Bhagavad-Gita translation by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, Aldous Huxley wrote the summary of his Perennial Philosophy:

“First: the phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousness–the world of things and animals and men and even gods–is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be non-existent.

Second: human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.

Third: man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit.

Fourth: man’s life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground.”

In a Beliefnet.com article titled An Integral Spirituality, Ken Wilbur wrote that most of the great wisdom traditions agree that:

“1. Spirit, by whatever name, exists.

2. Spirit, although existing “out there,” is found “in here,” or revealed within to the open heart and mind.

3. Most of us don’t realize this Spirit within, however, because we are living in a world of sin, separation, or duality—that is, we are living in a fallen, illusory, or fragmented state.

4. There is a way out of this fallen state (of sin or illusion or disharmony), there is a Path to our liberation.

5. If we follow this Path to its conclusion, the result is a Rebirth or Enlightenment, a direct experience of Spirit within and without, a Supreme Liberation, which

6. Marks the end of sin and suffering, and

7. Manifests in social action of mercy and compassion on behalf of all sentient beings.”

The following is from “Active Meditation” by Robert Leichtman and Carl Japikse. It is from the last chapter titled The Western Tradition and the authors describe the following as what should be the goals of those of us on the spiritual path in the West.

1. To make the God within our primary source of enlightenment, growth and creativity.
2. To link the personality with the higher self, thereby producing a spiritualized individuality capable of responding to the forces and qualities of spirit.
3. To ground the life of spirit through the enlightened activities of the personality on the physical plane.
4. To learn and use the skills of devotion, understanding, and obedience to link the personality with all three of the major aspects of divine life – love, wisdom and will.
5. To purify and illumine all aspects of the personality so they become agents of spiritual force.
6. To cultivate the spiritual intuition, by linking an illumined mind with the wisdom of the soul.
7. To nurture a constant awareness of the underlying goodwill and unity in the divine presence.
8. To recognize that it is our duty and privilege to serve the purpose of the soul.
9. To become consciously aware of the reality of the Hierarchy and its plan for the evolution of humanity and civilization – and to assist in implementing it.
10. To become consciously aware of the spiritual groups the higher self is part of – and to learn how we can contribute to the work of these groups.

Cheers,
Brendan

Marty Nemko, a career coach, author, blogger and radio talk-show host in the San Francisco area, who has very practical career and educational advice that I highly recommend, wrote a very personal article titled “What the Hell is the Meaning of Life”. This article is the first of a seven part series in response to Marty’s question. It’s an introductory article that gives an overview of the “big-picture” spiritual perspective that’s needed before addressing the specific points Marty raises.

The question “what’s the meaning of life” has to be approached from a broad perspective or a higher point of view. The confusion that everybody has with this question stems from trying to “figure it out” from a narrow, limited perspective. A higher perspective is reached by contemplating, in a detached and impersonal way, why we’re here and who we are. I address this in more detail in my article The Meaning of Life: Rise and Shine but the following is a brief summary.

First, let’s discuss who you are. This may seem like a ridiculous question. Of course you know who you are. You are your name, age, sex, family, nationality, religion and occupation. This is who you are, right? Well, yes but I’m referring to a deeper understand of self. You are a human being with a physical body that you use to act and get around. But you’re more than just a body. You also have feelings, i.e. an emotional body, which expresses your mood and attitudes. You also have a mind, i.e. a mental body, which you use to think and figure things out. Each of these “bodies” has conscious and subconscious components. The conscious part is what you are aware of at any given moment while the subconscious part is what goes on automatically such as bodily functions and emotional and mental functions like habits and memories. Collectively the physical, emotional and mental bodies are known as your lower self, ego, human self or personality (I refer to it as the personality).

But you are not just this personality. You have a “higher” body that we call the higher self, true self, divine self, real self or soul. It is your inner essence. Your soul is that part of you that was made in God’s image. It’s an aspect of God, often referred to as a child of God or a spark of God. What a wave is to the ocean or a ray of sunlight is to the sun, so the soul is to God. The soul is refined and abstract while the personality is dense, materialistic and concrete.

Why aren’t you more familiar with it? Because it is more subtle and abstract than the personality. For most people the soul operates behind the scenes however it’s there and active whether you’re aware of it or not. Just as you use the physical, emotional and mental bodies to act, emote and think, respectively, you use the soul to intuit. Intuiting is when you think abstractly about what you should do, why you should do it and what it means. It’s what you use to consider the vision, purpose and meaning of your work, marriage, friendships and life. Alas, most of us aren’t familiar this and we drift through life in a sea of confusion.

However this confusion starts to lift when you intuit that you don’t have a soul but that you are the soul. Your real self is as this soul who uses the physical, emotional and mental bodies to operate in this world. Your true self is as this eternal, immortal soul that is here to fulfill God’s plan.

What is this plan? Why are we here? We’re here to express the divine ideals of love, joy, beauty, peace, compassion, courage, wisdom and goodwill in the world. We commonly refer to this as developing and expressing our character. By expressing these qualities we are redeeming and refining the physical, emotional and mental worlds and bringing heaven to earth. Figuratively we are bringing “light” to the world.

With this meaning-of-life background we can now address each of Marty’s specific points about life from a higher, spiritual perspective.

Next time – is money the answer to the meaning of life?