Unclean

Panuyay! This is the term used by many people when they encounter people whose intentions are so dark they often bring discomfort to the lives of others. These persons see the negative side of everything there is nothing good and beautiful on the situations they experience and encounter. Their hearts are susceptible with the presence of evil since they attract its energy in their hearts. They would then become the vessel of all the darkness in the world and they are the instruments to wreak havoc among peace-loving individuals.

The bible uses a single word which causes evil to thrive inside the heart: “defile.” It is this word that Jesus uses to introduce and conclude the passage: “Things that come out of a person defile him”; and then, “All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person,” (Callam, 2018)

If the heart of a person is corrupted or full of anger, envy and other extreme things, the possibility of it being defiled is high. This is the time when hate and the incapacity to appreciate blessings and persons thrive inside the person. Evil then nurtures such feelings so that it multiplies and be radiated to others. If goodness could be seen in a person (or happiness, well-being, etc.), evil won’t sleep. It will find ways and means to shatter such equilibrium. The instrument (the defiled person) will then bring confusion, pain and even oppression to others to become victorious.

‘Evil’ people are those who are unable to empathize with others. As a result, their own needs and desires are of paramount importance. They are selfish, self-absorbed and narcissistic. In fact, other people only have value for them to the extent that they can help them satisfy their own desires, or to which they can exploit them. This applies to dictators like Stalin and Hitler, and to serial killers and rapists (Taylor, 2017).

Paul Thagard, Ph.D. says, non-psychopaths can do evil things because of neural, psychological, and environmental effects. Thinking can fail to produce good moral judgments when people forget about relevant values that ought to contribute to their processing of emotional coherence. Empathy deficits can result from stress, fatigue, or alcohol, and psychological malfunction contributing to the neglect of the needs of others.

These people thrive in evil deeds since there are deficits in their childhood. According to the DSM 4-TR,"The essential feature of Antisocial Personality Disorder is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood." (p. 701)

There are those who often argue that people can control their urges or understand their deficits when they reach adulthood. This is true but there are also those whose hunger is intense that their cravings could NEVER be satisfied unless treated or addressed with clinical interventions. In simple terms, they have become “crazy” since they are being engulfed to do evil deeds despite the efforts of others to spread positivism.

So, the next potent question to ask is: Can evil be toppled by being good?

‘Good,’ Taylor continued, means a lack of self-centeredness. It means the ability to empathize with other people, to feel compassion for them, and to put their needs before your own. It means, if necessary, sacrificing your own well-being for the sake of others’. It means benevolence, altruism and selflessness, and self-sacrifice towards a greater cause - all qualities which stem from a sense of empathy. It means being able to see beyond the superficial difference of race, gender or nationality and relate to a common human essence beneath them.

There are also people who look for goodness and positive meaning of their existence. They shy away from negative energies and consider displacing love, affection and understanding. These individuals are well-loved and they often attract people who need advice, attention and affection. They are those whose spirits are nurtured by service and generosity.

We delete evil in our surrounding by pushing the evil ones to the hell in this earth they truly deserve. We clear our front and back yards with weeds that could defile our temples. We welcome goodness by embracing the people who help us clean our vessels so that we could arrive to our destinations where flowers bloom and smiles decorate the environs.

“The way we read another person’s intentions changes our physical experience of the world,” said researcher and University of Maryland Assistant Professor Kurt Gray. His study found good intentions can soothe pain, increase pleasure, and even make cookies and candy taste sweeter.

With this, we eradicate pain by being good and BEING WITH GOOD.