“Why do bad things happen to good people?” For a universal spirit, the juxtaposition of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ is a non sequitur of two expressions of experiences within time and space. It might be said that ‘Good’ is meant to indicate that which is in balance with and enhances the well-being of a person. ‘Bad’ usually means that which is destructive to the harmony and balance needed for well-being. A somewhat surface expression of things happening to people, can lead one into a dualistic response of questioning rather than to a more unitive understanding of ‘happenings’, ‘good’ or ‘bad’, that occur in life. Many religious and philosophical pathways do utilize worldly, dualistic answers to ‘explain’ the question posed above.

Within the Judeo-Christian traditions, the example of the man named Job illustrates this both from the eyes of the dualistically questioning world (as Job’s friends try to both understand and untangle this very question of why “bad things happen to good people”) and through the portal of understanding through Job’s eyes always fixed on the awesomeness of the One God. Job solidly remains within another understanding, the understanding of a greater Good and Oneness which in fact neutralizes the very question asked above. If we were to address this month’s question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?”, we could answer it as did Job’s friends with a Litany of ‘evil’ happenings to ‘good’ people. Then, in turn like them, seek to address the “Why?”. It would be obvious that we, too, had been drawn into the seductively worldly religious and philosophical pathways whose struggling with questions like that of above have left their traces throughout history.

However, for those who know that their essence, their very Life Breath, is enjoined with the Great Oneness, the Creator, the Great Mystery within whom all is one, the deeper response to the question posed is that at best it is a paradox and more so perhaps even a sad demonstration of illusionary thinking. In the dualistic, worldly approach, the juxtaposition of good and bad things and good and bad people resides in a house named “illusion”…a worldly dwelling more adorned and adored than any cathedral or even the Taj Mahal. For those who experience being one with the Great Oneness, dualism has no sense or place. So much of humanity is ferociously attached to the thought principles of surface or apparent worldly dualism, a world also inhabited by endless pathways filled with wanderers seeking answers to numerous “whys?”, “Why me?”, “Why now?”, “Why do those bad things happen to such a good person?”, “Why?, “Why”, “Why?”. These pathways of “whys?”, all through history, are laden with the hollow remains of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ as they have been lived out, as ashes of ‘evil to good’ and ‘good to evil’ twisting in the winds of hopes pierced and hollowed by betrayal. They are like ribbons of ‘good’ ever more becoming entangled, as too many beings continue whirling, intoxicated with illusions gulped through spinning christialine vortexes enpoisoned by syhpilitic madness through abattoirs of goodness and of hopes and love betrayed.

Those who, as universal spirits, dwell in but are not entangled by the dualism in which the world lives as in an ‘as if’ state of polarities, the universal spirit approach is towards solutions-creating “what if” pathways that by their very nature convert the tangles of “whys”’ to the clarity of “wise” understanding. Those simply embracing the pathways of “wise” are one with the Great Oneness, the Creator, the Divine, and do not see good or bad people, good or bad things. This Oneness way is not a simplistic kind of neutrality but a vitally active overflow of Truth, Justice, and Peace—of people and other life forces who are sure that they are in essence One with all and that they and the Great One are One!

Behaviours based on dualism, on a confrontational “them and us” are viewed by those of the Oneness as suffering from a spiritual ‘virus’ of sorts, however, quite able to be healed…a healing always and eternally available within all. Every one is called to step through the “whys” and to live their birth-given essence. Every one is called to embrace the “wise” and joyously find clarity of mind, heart, and spirit at peace and to fully enjoy the fruits being of a Oneness.

In closing, here are two expressions of Oneness that leap through and over the question posed above. Abdul Qadir al-Jilani was a Sufi Sunni Shafi/Hanbali, a 10th century preacher and Sufi sheikh who spent twenty-five years as a wanderer in the desert regions of Iraq as a recluse and was the figurehead of the Qadiri Sufi order:
“Truth has been planted in the center of your heart,
Entrusted to you by God for safekeeping….
Its beauty shines on the surface when you remember God.”

and from the medieval Cistercian nun, Hildegard of Bingen:

“I am the living and fiery essence of the divine substance
that glows in the beauty of the fields. I shine in the water,
I burn in the sun and the moon and the stars.
I sustain the breath of all living.
I am Life.”

May we all shine from the centers of our hearts to manifest the Oneness that without effort, transforms the “whys” to “wise”. May wisdom be our guide throughout our lives now passing through this time of paradox and eternal Oneness.

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