How do you understand evil?

The heart is the seat of emotion and feelings. We can either say that one has an evil heart or is heartless. That might sound contradictory but it is not. One with no emotions does not have love….essentially without anything to check evil.

[bobjob]

Instinctively we recognise some actions/omissions as bad to a degree we call evil. But there are so many gray areas that perhaps we should pick an adjective more carefully, especially so because 'evil is so emotive a word.

I'm not so unrealistic, though, as to think that might happen!

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

I think the classic is they were treated that way and they in turn have SO much pain inside them ...unconsciously

Pretty much, yes.

We don't experience the event itself. If I kick your backside you don't experience me kicking you in the backside, other than the pain. What you experience is your emotional response and that's all about you personally. How that comes about is very individual but more often than not, of it's deep-rooted enough it can go back to childhood.

We have a number of in-built unconscious processes that come into play ands they've been with us since the caveman days. Caveperson? By far the 'main driver' is survival, and having been abused as a child is one of those. Child abuse of any kind is not just an act, it's a betrayal of core needs that we all have. Even as children we grow up with an image of what the role of a mother or father should be, and when those roles aren't fulfilled it makes the child think there's something wrong.
Often the child thinks they are the cause. On the surface it may be a puzzled look, on the inside it's a mess.

The response to that as we grow up is to find a balance to what we feel inside, sometimes that's to try and express our unconscious feelings by finding something that will address those feelings. It's been said that religion is for those that are afraid of going to hell and Spirituality is for those that have been there.
Sometimes it's a cry for help, or the need to make others feel what we feel so that they will empathise with us.
Or just getting it out of our system.
The Jungian self seeks balance and the need for expression - posting in these hallowed halls does the trick too - is deeply rooted in all of us.
Yep, they're doing what Spiritual people do when they post, they're expressing what they have inside.

We are all responding to our environments in one way or another, and really there's little difference sometimes between an angel and a demon other than the "How?"

Sometimes though, it's the wiring in the noggin that's wrong. Dennis Nilson is Britain's best-known serial killer and he was born and bred in this idyllic seaside town I live in. I actually met him a few times although he was older than me. The mini-series they made of him was pretty scary. At the end of the series they conducted a police interview, and he was quite happy to tell them everything, but what he never showed was any form of regret. It was as though he was talking about a trip to the supermarket.

Psychologists and psychiatrists are still studying criminals and trying to understand what makes them tick. But "There but for the grace of God go I."

[kris]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

But I would like to go deeper and ask,
Why do they feel a psychological benefit.

For this we need to understand the nature of the human psyche. In the model we learn in Tantra and Yoga, there are fourteen cakras that make up our psyche, but only seven are usually mentioned and discussed. The seven lower cakras that don't get much attention are the dark cakras. There is room for darkness or ignorance in all of us. They are receptive to the psychological benefits derived from evil actions.

[kris]

Originally Posted by bobjob

Is every negative action, then, to be defined as 'evil'? Spontaneously using a water squirt gun on a friend on a hot day, for example? Is that evil? Or just mischievous, a little unkind?

Children use squirt water guns for mutual fun. That is not evil. However, these can be used for harassment and bullying also. Is bullying evil? In the US, there are cases where bullying has resulted in suicides by the victims.

[Miss Hepburn]

Greenslade, thank you. :) Excellent information!
AND I now am hoping the USA Netflix has Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes.

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Greenslade, thank you. :) Excellent information!
AND I now am hoping the USA Netflix has Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes.

You're very welcome.

Neil Tenant, who played Dr Who for one, starred in a three-part series called "Des." It's very gritty and very chilling, not the kind of thing for a weak stomach. It's not on Netflix, sadly, but if you get the chance grab it.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=des+tenant

Originally Posted by bobjob

Instinctively we recognise some actions/omissions as bad to a degree we call evil. But there are so many gray areas that perhaps we should pick an adjective more carefully, especially so because 'evil is so emotive a word.

The problem with Spirituality is that so much is taken for granted, and since there's a thread about the dark side, this is where it's at. People take the word 'evil' for granted yet never think that it's judgment and ignorance. They also don't think that with the flick of a gene, "There but for the grace of God go I."

One question that's never been answered is how does 'evil' fit in with Life's Purpose/Karmic Obligations?

Originally Posted by kris

In the US, there are cases where bullying has resulted in suicides by the victims.

As in the UK. But children squirt water guns with the intention of it being fun and the other will think it's bullying. Is the kid that squirts the water then evil?

But at the same time people have become 'saints' either because of or in spite of 'evil acts'. Does that make an 'evil act' a good thing?

As you said,
"The seven lower cakras that don't get much attention are the dark cakras. There is room for darkness or ignorance in all of us. They are receptive to the psychological benefits derived from evil actions."

But are they dark because that is their 'nature', or are thy 'dark' because they don't conform to our paradigm and it's a scary place to go? The darkest of places and the most ignorant are the places we fear.

[kris]

Squirt guns can be used by kids for mutual fun. And they can be used for bullying someone. I am not saying that squirt guns are evil. How they are used can make their use evil.

Originally Posted by Greenslade

But are they dark because that is their 'nature', or are they 'dark' because they don't conform to our paradigm and it's a scary place to go?

In this model of human psyche, we all have fourteen cakras. The lower seven are dark. When they are the dominant part of a man's personality, evil doesn't seem evil to that person. There is not much discussion about them, perhaps because as you say "The darkest of places and the most ignorant are the places we fear."