INNER GOODNESSAre human beings fundamentally evil or good? Philosophers have been debating this question for centuries, and it’s been explored in the context of evolutionary biology, psychology, religion, and other fields. I don’t think there is any resolution on this one, and there probably never will be. A thorough discussion is beyond the scope of this book.
I fall in the camp of goodness. It’s what I want to believe and how I want to live my life. I assume that everyone is fundamentally good. The obvious question is: But what about all the evil around us? The world is filled with examples of greed, hatred, violence, and misery. Well, I believe that the goodness inside us gets warped, distorted, and obscured. Due to trauma, strong conditioning, ignorance, or possibly severe personality disorders (in the case of sociopaths, for example), our inner goodness loses traction.
For many years I have been teaching about inner goodness: that we all have at our heart a goodness that is unimaginable. We have the capacity to love and be generous and kind and compassionate, because that is who we really are. We may be disconnected from our goodness, or it may be obscured, but it’s always in there waiting to be uncovered.
Natural awareness practices are oriented from that place of inner goodness. Natural awareness is benevolent. It is permeated with qualities and connected to outcomes of compassion and joy and wisdom and peace. So when we tap into our natural awareness, we begin to find an ability to trust that goodness is fundamental to who we are, and ultimately we can grow to love ourselves.
We are not our anxiety; we are not our greed; we are not our self-judgments; we are not our rage. We are so much more than that. When we rest our mind in natural awareness, we let go of clinging, and we open to our innate goodness. First we experience this goodness in tiny, fleeting moments. Over time we actually start to believe in our goodness, and our life becomes its expression. Not that you won’t fall back into self-judgment from time to time, but your natural awareness is always out there waiting for you, a growing whisper, calling your name.