It came to pass when Miriam, the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, awoke in the middle of the night. The sounds of her people’s suffering filled her dreams and the dread of another day in slavery bore down on her, tightening her chest and robbing her of her breath. Her brother Aaron slept like a child on his straw bed not far from her. She envied his acceptance. She crawled from her bed and wandered from their hut into the wilderness. Questions filled her mind. Why were her people in bondage? Why did such evil pervade the world? How could such evil be fought? Far from slave quarters, under the cover of the moonless night, she fell to her knees under the weight of her people’s suffering. She remembered the words of her mother, Jochebed, “Our people are the chosen of HaShem, the Holy One, and his glory shines through us, even in our suffering.” She found it hard to believe any God had chosen her people on account of their suffering or that any God even existed since so much pain and evil filled the world. In pain and rage she cried out, “YHWH, why must my people suffer? Why must people suffer at all? Why is there evil in this world?” The heavens shook at the pronunciation of the Divine Name and the earth broke open. A golden vine rose up from the ground, its leaves burned like fire. The Angel of HaShem stood in the midst of the fire. “Miriam, the Holy One has heard your prayer.” The angel said. Falling on her face before the angel, Miriam shook with fear. “Rise, Miriam,” the angel said, “Remove your shoes so you might be grounded in the earth. HaShem has sent me to answer your question.” Miriam removed her shoes and stood up. The angel reached out to her and they fell into the heart of the earth. Everything opened up and she saw the deep structure of the cosmos. Before her, the great Tree of life pulsated with vibrant strength and the energy of God flowed into the Crown, through wisdom, understanding, knowledge, loving kindness, strength, beauty, everlastingness giving, splendor receiving, the foundation of life, into the kingdom. The kingdom pulsed and the energy returned up the tree in the reverse order. Like two heartbeats, the energy pulsed from the Holy One to the Kingdom and then back again as the energies of life circulated through the tree. “Behold the cycle of life,” the angel said. “Energy arises and flows through the great tree into the world and the world receives it and returns it back to the Divine. This rise and run, receiving and returning, breath in and breath out is the basic nature of the cosmos. What flows in is received and returned changed.” “If this is the way of life, does that mean that evil is natural?” Miriam asked. “There is no evil in this flow, it is good,” the angel said. “Then why is there evil?” Miriam asked. The angel pointed at the tree. In the sphere of strength, something changed. It shown with the sheen of iron and the energy pooled up. Some splashed over the top and tickled down the rest of the tree. “What happened?” Miriam asked. “Strength became judgement trapping the energies of the cosmos, preventing them from flowing,” the angel said. “This judgment is the root and the cause of all evil.” “How?” Miriam asked. “When the heart grows cold, judgement is born. Judgement believes that the grace of God must only flow to the deserving. It builds a god in its own image and swears by this deified self that only those who conform to this image should live in [[the Light of God]]. From this false image and the judgement it justifies, evil is born.” “So there is a flaw in us that keeps us from allowing the energies of God and Life to flow through us?” Miriam asked. “No,” the angel said. “There is no flaw innate to creation. As the energy and circumstances of life flow, there are four ways to receive and transform this power. It can be received in awe, seeking ways to savor it. Spaciousness can accept it and let it go to flow or return from whence it came. Beauty can weave it into something new and release it back into the flow. It can forge strength and resolve and be used to bring change and transformation, or celebrate its glory. If instead it the withheld from the flow, the energy grows fetid and putrefies into a foulness that wants to spread itself to others.” “Why would anyone try to hold back a river and dry out the world? There must be a flaw at the root of this problem.” Miriam said. “No,” the angel said. “It is not a flaw, it is fear. There is no evil in nature. The power of cataclysm can bring pain into peoples lives, but this is an energy like any other. People want to control the world so cataclysm cannot happen, but they don’t realize that it is the power of the cosmos that breaks things down so they can be built into something new. There is no evil in natural cataclysm, but there can be pain. When this pain is not released, reformed, or transformed, it festers into suffering, and that suffering lashes out giving rise to evil. It is difficult to work with pain when in the middle of it, but the work has to be done. If the pain is not transformed, it will transform the ailing.” “Isn’t this pain evil or at least a flaw in creation?” Miriam asked. “No,” the angel said. “Pain is a warning, a sign of something needing to be changed. Sometimes, pain is the sense of absense that pulls on the heart so strong it aches, and sometimes breaks. Pain is vital lest a child burn the flesh from their hand in fire, or an injury is ignored so it gets worse. Pain is necessary, but suffering is not. Suffering is an attachment to pain where it is held so deeply it corrupts. At times, suffering breeds an aversion from what is named as the cause of that suffering so it must be avoided at all cause. This aversion leads to isolation and that isolation to suffering. Both of these types of suffering are born from a dissatisfaction with life.” Miriam pondered all these things in her heart, then said, “So the pharaoh and his oppression and terror are natural embodiments of the power of cataclysm, breaking us down through pain to build something new, better?” “No,” the angel said. “The Pharaoh rules the dry land. His evil is born from fear and suffering, not from nature. When you saw strength hoard the flow of Divine power through judgement, that is Pharaoh, the embodiment of evil. In the foolishness of his heart, he believes he has power, but power does not impose itself on others and does not limit the harmless actions of others. “Fear uses force and oppresses everything that is not itself. Fear seeks to control the actions of others to ensure its own safety and pleasure. It transforms strength into judgement and thus evil is born in the human heart. This judgement dominates, lashes out, puts down, steals, kills, and destroys. It acts with no thought for others, believing it is flawless perfection. It strikes down anything it sees as a threat, and conforms as many as it can into itself, devouring them like the beast that it is. “Its actions are not evil, they are harmful, hateful, unjust, and dangerous. The evil itself isn’t real. It is an imaginary monster spreading itself from mind to mind and heart to heart and is the truest of demons.” “How can we fight such an imaginary beast?” Miriam asked. “If it isn’t real, how can it harm us and how do we destroy it?” “This evil wants you to fight it so it can grow and spread,” the angel said. “It is an illusion like fire. Fire is the apparition that tells you something is burning. You cannot fight the fire, you must rob it of its heat and the fuel on which it feeds. That is the only way to kill the fire. Some seek to control this kind of fire, believing they can use it like a tool, but it is not a natural fire that can be tamed. It is a wild beast thirsting to destroy anything it sees as a threat or the focus of its hate. “Find the forest of suffering feeding the fire and end the pain at its roots and you will starve it. Only through justice, equanimity, truth, letting go, and savoring the sweetness of life and cultivating a world where such sweetness can prosper, will evil be defeated.” Miriam pondered the words of the angels and realized she had wandered to an oasis in the midst of the dry land.