A long time ago, I was asked by someone whether I believed in evil. With a high level of self-assuredness, and a slight laughter, I said no. I said I only believed in distortions of the ego, and low levels of consciousness. Lately, I've been having doubts. Maybe evil is part of the fabric of existence itself? 

Yesterday evening, as part of doing research for my upcoming fantasy book, I had a conversion with ChatGPT about evil, and together we dissected evil through the lens of many philosophers, mystical traditions and paths, consciousness levels, and psychology, and of course through the lends of my favorite fantasy writers. The 'answer' that made most sense to me is that evil is a distortion of Eros. It's when the creative flow of life is cut off. When we are unable to create, and when we fall asleep to what's truly happening. But that the recurring answer, no matter what, is that evil happens when we turn away from life-force, from that which fills us up with a longing to connect, to lean, to say. Of course we can talk about our unintegrated shadow, systemic oppression on a societal basis, too much chaos, as in Kali's expression when she wants to destroy the world or too much order, which authoritarians of all flavors favor. But the answer that resonated the most, was this denial of life-force. And that sometimes there is hatred in this denial, and a sense of glee to deny it in others, especially if they are doing better than us. Malice, envy and jealousy, all together. 

What became deeply clear through the Chat-GPT-chat is that most important way to meet evil is to choose Eros. To choose life, life-force and to lean in. To say yes, even when everything sucks. Which sometimes is so bloody hard. We want to sulk, or pull away like wounded animals. We want to cut it off. To cut ourselves off. Sometimes life and especially life-force is unbearable when we are disconnected from it, and maybe even more, when we connected to it. Yet Eros invites us to keep leaning in. To say YES, no matter what. To connect with the dance of existence. Which I did tonight. And the everything makes sense again. And I bow to this practice, and to Eros.

How do you see evil, and what is your relationship to evil vs Eros and leaning in?