Before eating of the Tree of Knowledge, which God
forbade them to do, Adam and Eve walked with God in
paradise. After eating the fruit of knowledge, Adam and
Eve were banned from Eden. What happened when they
ate knowledge? The Bible says they experienced shame.
What is the feeling of shame except the feeling of
separateness, of being different, self consciousness? Thus,
Adam and Eve first experienced dualism: separating and
differentiating experience based on qualities, aspects.
This basic dualism is the operating system of human
experience. It
is so ingrained that even the development
of computer language is based on it. It is called “rational
mind”, because
of the mind’s ability to make distinctions,
but really, all it means is that humans have become very
good
at making tools and sorting things into piles and prefer
that
activity over understanding the nature of reality….in fact,
it is the means by which humans try to “understand” reality
by seeing how it works….which is like trying to understand
time
by taking a watch apart.
The tree is the perfect symbol of knowledge. It has roots and
branches and it grows over time. We still say: ”What branch
of
medicine do you specialize in?” Knowledge can only focus
and limit perception, leading to further concept and
speculation.
Every concept is a generalization which categorizes
perception
on the basis of binary observation. No concept is specific,
otherwise each event, each observation would have it’s own
concept, it’s own category, which is taking rational mind to
it’s
logical absurdity.
The garden is the perfect symbol of wisdom. Within that
garden,
knowledge is contained, and does not dominate. Every experience
is unique and not labeled. In Genesis it says:
“In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
Let’s say “the Word”
is everything that is not God.
So, how can it
be “with” God and, at the same time, “is” God? Remember,
this is
before the “Fall”.
This pronouncement is a paradox that describes
Eden before the “Fall”. Adam and Eve were “with” and “of “ God
before the
Fall. It was seeing
(knowledge) God as “other” (basic
dualism) that was the Fall, separateness, the loss of union.
Why is this binary system, duality, the cause of confusion?
Because it
is, by nature limited and limiting, hence there comes a
discrepancy
between experience and understanding. Since we are
constantly
referring back, in our experience, to what we think we know
or have
learned,
perception is distorted with an overlay of rational artifact
that creates bias.
The trap of binary confusion is one from which
humans cannot evolve without relying on what the essence of
the
garden implies: awareness. Duality naturally separates experiencer
from experience.
Awareness brings experiencer and experience
together.
Computers do not provide a new way of seeing or working with
knowledge, just an accelerated one. In fact, they increase the speed
and intensity of confusion.
