Binary Confusion And Human Evolution, Or: The Tree Of Knowledge And The Garden Of Wisdom.

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.