the nature of evil

- Master.
- I am here.
- I looked deep into myself and I saw something that frightened me.
- What did you see, grasshopper?
- I saw dark and fearful shadows in motion.
- Shadows that shunned the light. Did you put a name to these shadows?
- I called them 'evil'.
- And what is the nature of evil?
- I do not know.

- Do you sometimes feel love, grasshopper? And joy?
Do you sometimes feel pride in what you have accomplished?
- Often, master.
- And do you sometimes feel good?
- I try.
- But the threads that make up our human nature are two-ended.
There is no capacity for feeling pride without an equal capacity for feeling shame.
One cannot feel joy unless one can also feel despair.
We have no capacity for good without an equal capacity for evil.

- Must we not then fear evil?
- Shall we fear our own humanity?

- Must we not fight evil?
- Who can defeat himself? For what is evil, but the self seeking to fulfill its own secret needs.
All that is necessary is that we face it and choose.


- kung fu - the nature of evil (1973)