Theos-Talk Archives (August 1994 Message tl00158)

Hello Lewis,
You asked about the meaning of not to resist evil.

This statement's origin is from Bible, Matt. 5:38-42.
(my translation from Finnish)

You have heard: " Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But I say to you: don't
oppose evil.  If somebody hit you on your right cheek, turn
your other cheek too, and if somebody wants your shirt,
give him/her your coat also.  And if somebody force you to
walk a mile, walk two miles with him/her.  Give to those,
who demand from you, don't turn your back to those who want
a loan from you.

To me, this is also a bit unclear, so I quote from Pekka
Ervasti's book: " The Secret School of Jesus".  ( I think
it is not translated in English, its original name is
"Jeesuksen salakoulu".)

The old "Eye for eye" is what people normally do, and our
laws are built on that principle; when you commit a crime,
you get punished.  This has also a aspect of revenge, P.E.
says that when we start occult disciple we should not have
desire for revenge.

He writes that when we submit and don't resist bad people
and things, we are preparing to conquer it.  We learn not
think things as "bad", and we learn to see the good in bad.
Then we are in a position that we are capable of winning
it.

He also writes, that we, who call ourselves "theosophists",
and believe that a human is a re-incarnating being and that
the law of karma directs everything, understand that
misfortune that comes us is not "bad", even it may appear
so.  It is actually good, since it is just because of our
previous deeds.  When this "bad" comes to us, we may pay
our "karmic" debt, and get rid of it.  The consequence is
not bad, the bad was our previous deed that caused it to
come us.  The consequence of the evil deed is not bad, but
it is good, since it frees us from our previous bad deed
and it gives us a teaching.

Why Jesus gives us this kind of advice?

P.E.  says, that the occult meaning in this commandment is,
that if we follow this advice, we learn to see how beings
are directed by karmic laws by different hierarchies and we
understand why incarnations are needed.  This leads to
acquiring a re-incarnation memory.

Peace, aki.