I have had this feeling, that existence itself is love. It could not be that, if it was cruel. But I watch the loving relationship between a flowers roots and the soil, or a birds wings and the air and I see existence supporting itself, loving itself and even giving itself up for itself.

That is love, to my mind. Even the smallest thing, the most insignificant relationship in reality carries with it the love of being in relationship with everything else.

Love then, to me, is not so much a feeling as it is a way of being. Even what we call evil, is in relationship with all the rest of existence. But then, is it truly evil, or simply an expression of love which we misunderstand because of our immediate experience of it is perceived as negative?

I think great evil can cause great good. And I think great good can cause great evil also. A person, such as me, having the best of intentions may cause something bad to happen. And someone bad, having the worst of intentions, can cause something good to happen. Because we do not know what our actions lead to, through the web of causality.

A wildfire destroys a forest, yet it renews the land, allowing for new growth. A predator kills its prey, yet this maintains the balance of life. The death of one star gives birth to the elements that form planets and people. These are all examples where what seems like destruction is, in the larger context, an act of renewal, of continuation, perhaps of love.

Perhaps what we fear as evil is merely an aspect of love that we do not yet understand because we are caught in the immediacy of our suffering. A compassionate ruler might set laws in place that later lead to oppression. A tyrant might, through cruelty, awaken a revolution that leads to greater freedom.

The web of causality is too vast and complex for us to fully grasp.

This reminds me of the concept of the yin-yang - how within every extreme, the seed of its opposite is contained. The moment something is pushed too far toward "goodness", it may tip into oppression, just as the worst suffering may become the fertile ground for enlightenment. The interplay between these forces may not be a battle, but a dance.

If existence is love, then even the harshest moments, the most painful experiences, are still woven from that love. Not necessarily love as comfort, but love as being itself - the raw, uncompromising force that allows all things to be as they are.

Perhaps we are simply too close to see the full pattern, mistaking a single thread for the entire tapestry.

From this perspective, love is not only in the moments of peace and kindness, but also in the upheavals, the transformations, the struggles. Even suffering, even what we call "evil," exists within the great embrace of the whole.

Artwork: Oil painting by Mila Moroko