Fight inside man

Has anyone realized the joy in which the original mind delights by pursuing evil desires? Whenever such desires are sated, we feel unrest in our conscience and agony in our heart. Would a parent ever instruct his child to be evil? Would a teacher deliberately instill unrighteousness in his students? The impulse of the original mind, which everyone possesses, is to abhor evil and exalt goodness. In the lives of religious people one can see an intense struggle to realize goodness by single-mindedly following the desires of the original mind. Yet since the beginning of time, not even one person has abided strictly by his original mind. As St. Paul noted, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God.”(Rom. 3:10-11). Confronted with the human condition, he lamented, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!”(Rom. 7:22-24). We find a great contradiction in every person. Within the self-same individual are two opposing inclinations: the original mind that desires goodness and the evil mind that desires wickedness. They are engaged in a fierce battle, striving to accomplish two conflicting purposes. Any being possessing such a contradiction within itself is doomed to perish. Human beings, having acquired this contradiction, live on the brink of destruction.

Divine Principle