Justice, morality, evolution and their relation to the inner and outer worlds

We asked John Alexandra, author of Journey Beyond God, to expound a little more on his particular world view. We suggested the theme of Justice. But as this essay shows, in the esoteric area, some subjects cannot be separated. For this particular student of the occult, all roads lead to Rome.

They say there is no justice in this world. Is this true?

 Certainly, as Ecclesiastics proclaims, 'the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong nor riches to men of understanding'.
Can we quibble with this?

JUSTICE AND THE OUTER WORLD
Around us we see the most appalling miscarriages of justice. We see children butchered and raped, murderers pardoned, brutal dictators exulted, crooked officials given immunity, terrorists congratulated, and the general population exploited like cattle by governments, criminals and corporations.

We see those who get ahead doing 'whatever it takes' to make their way—trampling over people who still preserve some residual conscience, decency or shame. 

They say that the good die first. They also tend to come last. Winners are often expedient, deceptive, ruthless users. The few decent people who manage to breathe the rarefied air of material success mostly arrive uncharacteristically through some stroke of luck or ability.

So, if you wish to get ahead, as they say in New York, "Never give a sucker an even break."

WHY IS HUMANITY VENAL?
Obviously humans are flawed—have the ability to cock things up. As someone once remarked: "We foul our nests wherever we go."

Animals and plants don't have this latitude. They function as perfect machines—doing exactly as they should. There is no malice in the puma's ferocity. It kills to eat as it must. A tree is never adulterous. A sparrow never exhibits spite. 


Yet into this perfectly ordered world blunders the human primate—the bane of all life forms and foe of biodiversity—spreading like a cancer on the skin of the planet, plundering, polluting, despoiling all it sees.


IS THE HUMAN MADNESS REALLY PART OF NATURE?
We have to admit it is. Humanity—this sore that considers itself the centre of the universe—has such a rampant ego that it considers itself  not merely one of nature's components but a phenomenon. Yet it is definitely part of nature, if not quite like other life forms. As a theologian might explain it – it has free will.



WILL OR REACTION?
This famous 'will' is, of course, a myth. Our will is nothing but desire and all our actions reactions. As Vimalar Thakar once pointed out, 'It seems to me that passivity is the only action that human beings are capable of.'  And, as it happens, the one thing we never try.


WHAT ARE HUMANS FOR?
The question remains: Why did Great Nature permit a creature capable of destroying all other life forms—and so, eventually, itself—to exist?


Does it want us? Does it need us? Are we actually useful in some way? Let's leave that aside for a moment. Back to Justice or the lack of it.


JUSTICE IN OUTER LIFE—THE EXCEPTION
Yes, we have policemen, judges, laws. And many of these are worthy. There have always been attempts to curb the worst manifestations of ourselves—to paper over the cracks. And the reason is partly economic. Punters need to believe that things will eventually be 'all right'—that things can get better, although they rarely seem to.


The system can't tolerate despair, communal suicide, insurrection because it needs cash cows—those who retain enough hope to work and pay taxes.

But justice? Do we have justice? No.


Worse. We expect it when it does not apply. As each of us considers himself the centre of the universe, we take every setback personally—even accidents or flaws in our genomes. We wail, "Why me? Why, God, did you give me pancreatic cancer?" Or, "What have I done to deserve this? Sitting here, rotting in a wheelchair, because that stupid bastard ran over me."


"Shit happens," say onlookers of tragedies smugly. But, to the person affected, it's always someone else's fault or an unspeakable affront to his or her dear personage.


So when a mudslide envelops the school and kills all the seven-year-olds including mummy's precocious little dear—what's that about exactly? A vicious god? An astrological calamity? A cruel world that took my baby away from me? Or just a mudslide?


The last is the hardest to accept. Because a mudslide is not injustice. It's a fact.


Yet, despite all evidence to the contrary, we still believe in ultimate justice. Why? Is the notion hard-wired into us? Or does justice, somewhere, really exist?


If it does, and we can't find it, we could be looking in the wrong place.



JUSTICE AND THE INNER WORLD
On the inner or psychological level, justice certainly exists. On this level the great curse of the Bible applies: We reap what we sow.


If you intentionally set out to damage someone, you damage yourself—internally. In this area, motivation is all. And 'where are you coming from' is the arbiter. So if you damage someone unintentionally—you may have sorrow, but are not brutalised.



BACK TO HUMANITY, THE FLAWED
The question remains. Why are we not perfect like the animals?


The animals have no possibilities. They cannot progress except mechanically and glacially—evolving gradually over millenniums.


We humans have a measure of choice. But nothing is guaranteed. We can remain dolts, malicious idiots or drag ourselves above the LCD.


We have the ability to be intentional, to be aware of ourselves as well as our lives, the first step towards expanding consciousness. Others have shown that this is possible. Gandhi, Ansari, Buddha...


But this inward awareness requires far more than the usual effort we know. It needs an alignment strong enough to withstand the shocks of outer life. And this, in turn, implies a completely new assessment of morality. Morality then becomes far more than the contradictory codes espoused by different societies. Because what aids this alignment is objectively moral and what defeats it is not.



AN INNER HUMANITY?
So we have moved from inner justice, to inner alignment and inner morality.


Are such things possible or practised? If somewhere they are, then there is an inner core of humanity—able to evolve, not just over eons but immediately, through a precise kind of personal effort.


We have now touched on the evolution of our species. And that could be a good place for this soliloquy to stop.

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