Devils and Demons We're Fighting: A Tale of Two Wolves

Does the devil exist? Honestly, I don’t know. However, I’m sure most of us have seen some things or heard about something which made us think… know… that evil exists. An observation I made is the connection between those things that shock us enough to acknowledge evil and the small struggles each of us have daily. It was Nietzsche, ironically – and I will explain why in a moment – who said that we ourselves are our own greatest enemies. To give a wild example: If someone asks me if I will kill another person, my immediate answer is no, but the truth is that everyone is capable of killing, given the right circumstances. To tone it down, what I’m trying to say is that each of us experiences what we feel to be negative emotions every day. Some more than others perhaps. We feel insulted, angered, annoyed, depressed, anxious, you name it. And it is not just the feelings but also the thoughts. Some friends and I had a conversation about random thoughts rising in our minds, and that some of those thoughts would made us horrified at ourselves wondering why we would think such things. I must emphasize that nowhere in the previous paragraph did I once bring other humans into the equation. Our greatest enemy is ourselves; it is all in us as Nietzsche himself, at the end of his life, proved with his mental illness of depression. In other words, when we encounter other human beings, what comes together are two highly charged energies. Within each of us is a struggle to keep some Thing under control. The Taoists have an interesting story about two wolves that live within the hearts of every human being. The one is dark, and the other is light, good and evil, and the one which is strongest is the one you treat the best. From this little story there is a lot one could meditate on. The first thing the story starts with is, not two angels or even an angel and a devil, but two wolves. Wolves, whether you treat them well or not, are dangerous animals. One of the things that stayed with me from school was a science class in which the teacher explained that both alkaline and acidity are equally dangerous at its extremes. In comparing our being with wolves, the Taoist masters tells us that absolutely everything we do (think, say, listen to, etc.) must be done with caution. Another master said, “be as wise as serpents”. Why? Because the way to hell is paved with good intentions. To get to the main part of the story, the strongest wolf being the one you treat best. Here there is a bit of a dilemma though. Once again, wolves, whether you treat them well or not, are dangerous animals. At first when I heard the story, I thought I should make friends with the good wolf. Then, the more I thought about it and the more I came to the realisations mentioned, it slowly came to me that I had to make friends with both wolves. The reason for this is because the wolves are us. This is another reason why this story resonates with me, and I hope you can also appreciate it. In some other belief systems, humanity is seen as inherently evil and, somehow from there (which is since the beginning), we started playing the blame shifting game. The devil made me do it. The truth is that there is both good and bad in us and we must make a choice each day as to what we are going to do and say, but mostly how we are going to manage (not control) our confused and overactive minds. Why it is that our minds seem to be focusing more on the bad (and much more easily) than on the good, is as relevant as the existence of a literal devil. “Hell”, says another philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, “is other people”. This is the reason why we need to, must, make friends with both wolves, why we need a management strategy. Yes, we are all ticking time bombs and even more so when we encounter each other. We are, however, made for relationships with each other, everything from a random meeting with someone you will never see again to your deepest relationships with family and friends. There is much that can be said about that last thought. In the end, it is up to us to decide how we will manage, keeping in mind our intentions, our mental health, our abilities, our fears, what is important to us, and a whole list of other things. No one can decide for us, the wolves are our own. Try to be kind, everyone is struggling. May the One God, with many Names and many Manifestations, be with you.