I Their Appearance

They are demons formed in the bowels of hell. They were three, whose gathering was unholy and profane. Why do they periodically congregate? Perhaps to carouse and cohort in their most degenerate revelry. Laughing, screeching. and singing in a loud discordant din, this gruesome group brags about how they pounce upon earthly civilization. They delight in beguiling, flustering and confounding mankind with their evil designs and influence.

If you were to walk upon this scene, you would not notice them but you would have this real eerie feeling. Cold chills would travel up and down your spine as you inhaled a light sulfur like odor. You would instinctively get out of there as fast as you could! But by the most powerful magic of the written word a miracle happens. You feel a tap on you shoulder, as you turn around you see a mysterious spiritual shape. Each person relates and experiences this shape differently because each person's perception of literary substance is very subjective and personal. This shape is the muse of practical wisdom. He beacons you to come with him. Although, you know that you are not in any danger, you feel uneasy. Are you ready for the knowledge this muse is offering to impart to you? You are uncertain but curious as you read on; you follow him.

He leads you back to the place that you would have been so anxious to leave. You feel a feisty invigoration of you senses as you see colors and feel vibrations that you never even knew existed. You see ethereal life forms of many types, winged fairy beings, and much indescribable unfathomable phenomenon. You start to explore this New World with wonder when the muse touches your forehead channeling and focussing your attention to the subject of this experience. You abruptly become aware of the most disgusting stench that has ever entered your nostrils. Then you see them, the three demons screeching, wheezing, hissing, grunting, and howling the most eardrum grating discordance that you can imagine.

You see the visual essence of three disgusting and nasty looking creatures, standing right there before you! The first demon is fat, round and puffy. He lusts after the very air he breaths! He selfishly sucks in each breath as long and as fast as he can, until he puffs up bigger and bigger. Just when you were sure that he was about to bust, he relieves his lungs in a spontaneous bust of wind and rushing air. You realize that this is the demon of greed, the epitome of grasping selfishness.

The second demon is very beautiful, appearing to you as the perfection and ideal of refinement. As your glance lingers upon this loveliness, it gradually turns into the most obscene ugliness. This attractiveness is very superficial concealing the most disgusting and rotten inner core. This is the demon of bigotry.

The third demon gives off the most intense vibrations that you have ever experienced. You have the feeling that you are in the presence of everything but in spite of its impressive demeanor you know that it is nothing but an overwhelming void. This demon appears as a flashing fiery energy and light continually burning it self out. This is the demon of obsession.

All three hold in their grasp fiery chalices containing various spirits and elixirs. You have no idea what they could be drinking but it looks like bubbling acid and axle grease. The odor burns your nostrils and almost makes you wretch. A gaseous cloud appears and releases its moisture into their cups in a flaring fuming burst of fury. They drink cup after cup as they dance and carouse in a drunken revelry. These demons are selfish and vain; they have with delusions of grandeur; each one thinking itself to be the it most malicious and destructive demon. They brag and boast about all the havoc that they have rained upon the masses of humanity. As the flaunting and bravado gets more and more animated and vicious they start scratching and biting each other in a mass free for all. When they tire, they collapse and after a brief rest start all over again.

A flash of fear surges though your entire being as you feel the presence of a forth demon. You shudder and shiver as you feel the presence of the most ominous being that you could possibly imagine. You can not see this entity but you know that it is there, silently waiting and watching.

                           II Their Essence

Your awareness of being moves closer to their being as you start becoming more and more aware of their true essence and become witness to their bragging, boasting and bullying. You almost vomit, overwhelmed by the most obnoxious stench imaginable as you focus in on the first demon:

The desire is for more and more and more!
Preoccupation with money plunges the Soul into complete domination by the material plane.
All consuming is the accumulation of materials,
Assets become symbols of status separating humanity into classes.
Mercy, sympathy, and charity become facades empty emblems of care.
Want reaches out to the far excess of need.
Accumulation of riches spawns desire for excess.
Capital exploits the masses into menial drudgery perpetuating itself into more powerful conglomerates.

"I drive the human race into debauchery and despotism. I distract people from concern with their true spiritual being. Thanks to me humanity carries the weight of attachment to worldly preoccupation! I am clutching, grasping corrupting Greed. Surly I am the most malicious nemesis to the human race.

The second demon screeches in defiant response almost shattering your eardrums, attempting to refute the first demon:

Separation and dissention!
Shattering unity and distorting true fraternity.
The We becomes limited and delineated,
The rest of humanity is separated becoming Them.
Purity and homogeneity is converted into prejudice and dogmatism.
Primal fear of cultural diversity magnifies slight genetic differences and sows the seed of intolerance to diverse beliefs and ways of life.
Intolerance degenerates into in to hate spawning degradation, and violence.
Consequent wrongdoing causes retaliation, which escalates into an unending spiral of violence.
People are separated into classes according to their race, sex, religious denomination, and ethnicity.

"I bring forth rape, murder and torture. I build the foundation of apprehension and mistrust that produces war and holocaust. I blast asunder love, charity and universal brotherhood. I divide and separate all of humanity! I am hateful, malicious, and malevolent Bigotry. Truly, I am the greatest evil presence of all."

The third demon erupts into a blinding burst of light and energy, appearing to be out of control; incensed to the max by its cohort's bravado. You become more aware of its basic nature:

The One is all!
Focusing all intent, will, and intensity into an oozing concentrate of maximal passion.
One fixation Becomes everything, blacking out all other considerations.
Everything else is nothing.
All passion and attention is piled upon one idea, pushing these emotions into the ultimate extreme.
The body is driven beyond the capabilities of endurance.
Mental collapse, physical injury, consideration for others and even the risk of death mean nothing in the drive for success and victory.
Possessive love results in jealous rage, amorous abuse, and crimes of passion.
Extreme spiritual zeal produces rigid dogma causing self-denial, excessive behavior, which degrades human experience and excludes enrichment.

"I lead the human race into the flames of complete abandonment! My illumination darkens all of life's enhancements. I am glorious obsession the most dangerous evil and the most powerful demon of all time! "

You stand there in their mist watching these bizarre entities cohort in the most degrading manner. As their bragging and quarreling escalates, you feel a strange tingle go up and down your spine. A flash of dread and panic rushes though you as you sense a dark diabolical presence. Suddenly, a large mirror like apparition appears producing a glittering sheen sparkling, approaching the vaporous clouds. They stare with amazement seeing their reflection in the mirror looking so small and insignificant. They're overwhelmed with rage, furiously pounding upon this apparition, striking only air. The intruder began to speak in a most mind chilling vocal utterance.

"Oh, trivial beings of bloated self importance. See how small you really are!
All your power is derived from ingrained human attributes. Only I am the true essence of evil
Evil for its own sake. I am the paradox of human behavior,
the fickle, volatile, random, and I languish in the unstable part of the human psyche.
I delight in pain and suffering for the sake of pain and suffering.
I cause destruction because destruction is my nature.
I do not need to tempt or rationalize to lead humanity down the path of evil because I am evil in its purest essence."

You see these three bedazzled demons collapse, as they are struk by a shock wave of terror and bedazzlement. Slowly the perception of this party crasher vanishes as the trio returns to their revelry. They could not fathom what had just occurred. You watch as they continue their revelry. You still feel the presence of this mysterious entity lingering on silently.

                           III Their Appeal

As you start to tire of watching this ridiculous scene, all three demons become aware of your presence-. A streak of fear runs up and down your spine as they approach you! "What have we here an uninvited guest?" You are suddenly surrounded by these malicious demons; you are the focus of their attention. They seem intent upon inflicting their evil upon you. You brace yourself as each demon attacks with its temptation and appeal.

The grasping blob, the demon of Greed plies its wares to you first:

"Why work hard and be a chump?
A naïve fool upon whom is dumped
The dirtiest work, the lowest pay,
To be squashed the rich man's prey.

Reach out and take what you need!
From want and drudgery you will be free!
There's no profit in being an honest jerk,
Relax! Allow moral corruption to work.

There are new cars, travel, beautiful lovers,
Such fascinating toys and delights to discover!
To get richer, lie, coerce murder, steel!
The more you have, the better you'll feel.

Use, abuse and exploit the frail human mob,
Make them slave at their menial jobs.
If you give them a break they'll only want more,
Ingnorance and blight brings profit galore!

Bless abundant life with the power of money,
Bringing forth-decadent life's sweet honey.
The world is an overripe avocado,
To be ravished with glutinous bravado!"

He is finally finished; you utter a sigh of relief, when the demon of Bigotry approaches you to try out his rap:

"Unite! We must against the enemies
Of our flag, race, pure ideology.
Belief in our God aids our fight
Against racial impurities scummy blight!

Commies, perverts, inferior races,
Must not mongrelize our beautiful faces,
With their beast like physical traits,
Subhuman morons deserve our hate!

They should know their place in God's social order,
And not put on airs and marry our daughters.
For our pure genes and love of our mom,
We will murder, torture, imprison and bomb!

Women should stay home and raise lots of babies,
And protect our children from drugs, aids, and scabies.
We will lock-up and lobotomize to work ethic's piety
All street people, and bums, these dregs on society.

In the survival of the fittest we trust,
To remain superior and unaltered we must!
Keeping our sexual, religious and racial division
Will allow us to realize our dreams and glorious visions."

You are ready to walk away in disgust when a flash of heat and light assails you senses. You feel the presence of great determination and abandon as the demon of Obsession approaches.

"Go for it all, dance in the fire,
Everything is this all consuming desire,
It's this inner need, that you must feed,
For one true conception, let everything bleed!

Sacrifice all to aspire to your ideal,
This is the tender fruit. All else is peel.
It could be God, money, love
The wheel spins but not the hub!

Nothing matters but this inner drive,
To fight, struggle and suffer is to be alive
Well being, family society's demands,
Be damned! IT matters all else is sham.

Sweat, slave, smash through the wall,
Success, stimulation, obsession is all!
You don't need food, money, or air
Losing your heat's desire is true despair.

Step on the gas to win that race,
You must risk death to come in first place.
Fasting- self deprivation, will bring you Nirvana,
Balance and compromise is shameful dishonor!

Focus and consolidate put blinders on your mind,
Caring for others? There's no time to be kind.
Submission to your craving ego will cleanse and renew,
I want, I will, My dreams must come true."

                           IV THE RESOLUTION

Just as you feel that you are about to collapse, not being able to stand any more exposure to these despicable demons and turn around to escape, you realize to your dismay that the forth and most detestable demon is upon you! Its diabolical presence chills you to the marrow of you bones. You cringe as it approaches you.

"I am unstable, unfathomable, insatiable insanity, always lingering on the fringes of your consciousness. You can never tell when I will burst upon you. When you are weak, vunable, outraged, stressed or strained suddenly you are under my influence. I bring forth irrational, impulsive, and irresponsible actions and reactions. I cause sloth, procrastination, and lethargic carelessness. I applaud complete renunciation and self-destruction. I am evil for evil's sake! I will lure you into the most despicable, degenerate actions. I thrive in the mist of serial murders, brutal rapes and inhuman torture. I make humans feel good about the misery and suffering of others. I love to make you care for nothing. I thrive in the complete denial of self."

Just as you fear that this evil essence will tear into your being, all of a sudden you realize that its immediate attention is not upon you. It seems infuriated by the bragging and boasting of the other three demons.

"Your depravity pales compared to the intensity and purity of my evil.
All of your evil is really rooted in beneficial human traits.
Greed and self absorption allows humans to survive and thrive in ego laden glory.
Bigotry is really social purity and the pride in heritage and tradition that allows superior human groups to survive dominant over inferior types.
With out obsession all of the greatest human achievement would have never come to fulfillment.
Your evil is really rooted in the most essential human virtues:
Greed in survival, Bigotry in tradition, and Obsession in self-realization.
I am the great deceiver. I relish annihilation, irreverence, and self-denial. I am the only true evil essence!"

This was more than the other three demons could stand. The whole scene erupted into the most violent, stinking, and clamorous melee imaginable.

You feel a gentle tap on your shoulder that you recognize as the touch of the spiritual muse. Slowly the turmoil before you starts to fade as you slowly return to a normal state of consciousness. You slowly turn and walk away bedazzled by this really strange experience. As the events of the past few minutes pass though your mind, you try to make sense of this unusual occurrence. Although your reaction to this happening is purely personalized to your individuality it is hoped that you have gleaned at least a small thread of wisdom from the experience.