Adjective or noun depending on the term's use.
In its simplest form evil is entropy (dispersion or death) or that which resists syntropy (good or life nurturing).
Schauberger
It is therefore ridiculous, for example, to try to treat polluted water with chlorine, or to eliminate all noxious life-forms with poisonous gases, which would otherwise disappear automatically by changing the motive and stimulative influences. In the opposite case, the evil will only be reinforced, for through the influence of the above poisons even what is still healthy will become diseased. [The Energy Evolution - Harnessing Free Energy from Nature, Cadaverine Poison in Ray-Form - Ptomaine Radiation]
As a former Master of the Wilderness and hunting guide to a princely house, I myself have had a profound insight into the customs and practices of those circles, who consider it a matter of course to exploit their underlings as a means to an end, so as to be able to enjoy their lives and occasionally to afford themselves pleasures, which, were it conceivably possible, would even bring a blush to the face of a lecherous old buck well versed in such affairs. In any event, charity has never yet been the motivating sentiment of those, who coined this beautiful word or who made all manner of promises on this account, which were impossible to keep from the very outset for reasons that will be elaborated in greater detail in what follows. This should not be viewed as a cheap critique, however, but rather as a necessity in order to expose the root of the evil and thus place a finger on the actual wound. With very few exceptions, this will be experienced as painful or at least as unpleasant. Unless this is done, however, the concept of an 'economy founded on reactive energies' cannot be explained. [The Energy Evolution - Harnessing Free Energy from Nature, The Economy Founded on Reactively Produced Energy]
Eddy
"Evil has no reality." [Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, page 71]
David Sinclair
"All evil is discord in the harmony of Nature, from the slightest tinge of conscience to the agonies of hell." [David Sinclair, Lux Naturae]
Cayce
"EVIL only hath its appearance in the mind, in the shadows, in the fears of those that know not the light in its entirety." [Cayce (689-1)]
"For He manifested in flesh that the evil forces, as manifest in the relationships of individuals as one to another, may be eradicated from the experiences of man." [Cayce (1293-1)]
Q- The second problem concerns that which is variously called evil, darkness, negation, sin. Should it be said that this condition existed as a necessary element of creation, and the soul, given free will, found itself with the power to indulge in it, or lose itself in it? Or should it be said that this is a condition created by the activity of the soul itself? Should it be described, in either case, as a state of consciousness, a gradual lack of awareness of self and self's relation to God?
A- It is the free will and its losing itself in its relationship to God. [Cayce 5749-14]
"Be not OVERCOME of evil, but OVERCOME evil with GOOD, with deeds of kindness, a cheery word, a smile, a slap on the shoulder. An encouraging word to the faltering gives strength not only to him who falters but aids SELF the more." [Cayce 279-4]
"THINK no evil; speak no evil; HEAR no evil." [Cayce 294-183]
Djwhal Khul
"Evil or wrong - exists only when the emphasis is retained in the wrong aspect from the point of view of the unfoldment attained or when that which has been used and developed to the necessary point, holds the life or consciousness too long. Hence, my brothers, the beneficial nature of death.
The Forces of Darkness are powerful energies, working to preserve that which is ancient and materials; hence they are pre-eminently the forces of crystallization, of form preservation, of the attractiveness of the matter, and of the lure of that which is existent in the form life of the three worlds. They consequently block deliberately the inflow of that which is new and life-giving; they work to prevent the understanding of that which is of the New Age; they endeavor to preserve that which is familiar and old, to counteract the effects of the oncoming culture and civilization, to bring blindness to the peoples and to feed steadily the existing fires of hate, of separateness, of criticism and of cruelty…. they hold back the forces of evolution and of progress for their own ends." [Djwhal Khul]
Atlin
"We were speaking of love and why there could be those that wish to be outside of Creator. Control is the opposite of love and is what the outsiders want. Control is the mechanism that sets man apart from Creator. It is human separation that has made, yes, made evil. And all evil is made in separation. We cannot make truth any more simple. Now abideth love and you can only image the height and depth you are." [Atlin]
Russell
"The Dawn of Mind-Consciousness is too recent for all men to THINK with their Mind. Man-in-the-mass still senses with his body. His desires are still dominated by his senses. His concepts are still sense-based. He hurts himself with his own acts and calls them evil. He conceives a personal God with vengeful human emotions. Evil was conceived in the senses of man. It has no existence in the Light of Mind." [Atomic Suicide, page 190]
"God is Light. God is Love.
God's creating universe is founded on Love. It is creating with Light.
''The principle of love is desire to give. God gives love by extending His Light. God's love is a mirror of Light which reflects His giving of love by the regiving of love.
The law of love is rhythmic balanced interchange between all givings and regivings.
The symbol of love is the wave of dual light which gives and regives equally and rhythmically. This is a dual electric wave universe of interchanging light.'' (Fig. 1)
God's Love is everywhere; His Light is everywhere. There is naught but good in God's omniscient universe. Evil is a product of man's thinking.
God extends His love, His power and His knowing, radially, from zero points of omnipresent stillness to other zero points in the measure of His desire to give form to His imag-
page 219
inings. The intensity of desire extended from centering points of rest to extended points of rest determines the dimension of desire. (Fig. 2)" [Russell, The Secret of Light, PART III: Omnipresence The Universe of Being Postulates and Diagrams]
Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth
'If you could carry within your mind, a seed - the perfected plan of your most heartfelt goals, and know beyond all doubt, that it can grow and come into perfect fruition, you would see this wonderful seed take on a life of its own which would presently manifest in your life.
'And you could surely move the mountains in your lives - those mountains which stand across your path and prevent you from achieving all that you would like ... mountains which, in times of recklessness and evil thinking have been created by yourselves.
'If you only understood creation and existence, you would be able to live lives of total freedom, limitless achievement and transcendent joy. [Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth, Letter 3, page 65]
"I asked the Creator - 'Universal Consciousness' - why mankind endured so much suffering and evil.
I was then shown very clearly that all the problems experienced by humans arose from the 'central point' of the self, (science now calls this the 'ego').
It manifested itself in the 'personality'
as a DRIVING NEED to defend the self from criticism or emotional/physical attack
and a similar DRIVING NEED to push aside other people, in order to arrive first in the race of life.
It also manifested itself in the 'personality'
as a DRIVING NEED to take all that was best for the self, despite the opposition of others and a similar DRIVING NEED to hold on to personal possessions, be they relatives, friends, material goods or achievements, despite any opposition.
I was also made to understand that without these TWO fundamental, eternal, undeviating 'impulses of creative being' there would be no creation.
This is the secret of creation - and the secret of existence and of 'individual being'." [Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth, Letter 5, page 24]
Ramsay
Here, then, we have an order of modes entirely symmetical in pairs placed thus; the only mode that can stand alone being the Dorian, built on D, whose duality has been discovered to reside in itself. All this build of symmetry, which was the watchword of Greek art, as it is also one of the watchwords of Nature, presupposes that the tones of the scale, with lesser and larger intervals lying between them, were resting in their ears exactly as they are in ours,1 and as they are in all humanity, save where it has sunk down into the savage condition, benighted in the evil that is in the world. It is not to be concluded that the Dorian mode is Nature's primitive scale, although it might have a certain pre-eminence [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 45]
Rudolf Steiner
"Do not consider it a hard thing in the plan of creation, as something which should be altered, that humanity will be divided into those who will stand on the right and those who will stand on the left; consider it rather as something that is wise in the highest degree in the plan of creation. Consider that through the evil separating from the good, the good will receive its greatest strengthening. For after the great War of All against All, the good will have to make every possible effort to rescue the evil during the period in which this will still be possible. This will not merely be a work of education such as exists to-day, but occult forces will co-operate. For in this next great epoch men will understand how to set occult forces in motion. The good will have the task of working upon their brothers of the evil movement. Everything is prepared beforehand in the hidden occult movements, but the deepest of all occult cosmic currents is the least understood. The movement that is preparing for this, says the following to its pupils: “Men speak of good and evil, but they do not know that it is necessary in the great plan that evil, too, should come to its peals, in order that those who have to overcome it should, in the very overcoming of evil, so use their force that a still greater good results from it.” [The Apocalypse of John, lecture 8, 25June1908, GA 104]
See Also
Angel
Belief
Error
Mind
Right and Wrong
savage condition
Self
Separation
Sin
Superstition