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In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus says to one of his disciples who defended him against the servant of the high priest as he was captured: “Put up again thy sword into its place, for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” How does this refer to the struggle against evil that you have discussed in Lecture #244 Be in the World but not of the World – The Evil of Inertia?

The Guide: Again and again man hears a statement, an injunction, a spiritual law and he wants to apply this particular facet of spiritual reality to all situations in life. He resists the unalterable fact that different laws exist for different situations; that opposites contain a unity; that one mode of behavior or action cannot apply to all situations.

What is appropriate in one situation may be utterly wrong in another. There is a time for fighting and there is a time for peaceful yielding. The forces of evil always try to confuse man, so that he applies the yielding attitude when fighting is right, and fights when yielding is right.

This applies, of course, to many other apparent opposites. It would be so wonderful if you could all begin to be aware of the temptation to use one attitude when the other is appropriate, in any duality – to be aware of giving in to evil temptation and creating a thick cloud of confusion, fear and pain.

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