Adam & Eve
I have always admired the writings of Robert Bly - poet and author, and Joseph Campbell - teacher, author, mystic, whose work has helped me to better understand the nature and function of mythology. Their teachings basically assert that since, we do not have the coded revealed understanding of the nature of life and God passed down to us through instinct, we must transmit that revelation and understanding down through the generations in symbolic stories, or myths. These myths use symbolism and metaphor to convey deeper meaning and truth. Thus, the literal interpretation of myth, is not the whole truth, rather, the myth is a guide to deeper truth. Examples of this are; Aesop's fables, Grimm's fairy tales, and even perhaps religious parables.
I believe that there is great, and deep symbolism in the Judeo-Christian story of creation, Genesis. Many believe that it describes the reason for original sin, the falling out between God and human beings due to the disobedience of being tempted and then eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and then being cast out of Paradise to forever live the difficulty of that fallen existence. It really is a pretty depressing story, especially for it's implications. But, I think that there can be many ways of interpreting this story. Is it really what it appears to say on the surface? Or, is it perhaps pointing to a deeper truth, a deeper meaning?
I believe that the story is really a myth that describes a seminal event in the evolution of human beings from a more primitive primate existence. The Paradise of Genesis, the "Garden of Eden" is the earlier state of existence and consciousness of proto-humans, living more from instinct and impulse, than with our later complex conscious reasoning ability and understanding. It describes a quality of human life before the development of the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, before we were capable of understanding things from a larger perspective, than the immediate, limited, day to day awareness of perception and reaction simply to survive. There was a great, raw, innocence to pre-human existence, in some ways better than what we have with a more human-like brain. Earlier conscious beings did not have such capacity for interpreting reality inaccurately and then using their thinking against themselves or each other. Such examples of this are: excessive worry, prejudice, false assumption, chronic anxiety and depression.
With the evolutionary development of a more advanced and complex brain, came amazing new abilities to think and interpret reality. For perhaps the first time, we became able to imagine a world greater than our own. We became able to imagine the reasons for the forces of nature, imagine what might happen in the future, imagine perhaps the existence of a supreme being. In addition to these amazing abilities, we became able to have a moral consciousness or awareness. We became able to understand the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, helpful and unhelpful. With this ability, we could understand how to improve our chances of survival, as well as how to improve the quality of our lives. With this ability we could also learn to create ways of trying to improve our lives at the expense of, and to the detriment of others. We could learn how to trick and manipulate others to get our way. We could learn how to obtain and hold power over those less fortunate or strong. We could learn to act contrary to Love, against the awareness and honoring of, the immeasurable, precious value of ourselves, others, and life itself, In this way, we could learn to "sin."
The advance of the human brain enabled greater freedom, greater peril, and greater responsibility. We could now choose what to think, what to believe, and had more options for what to do. There are benefits and liabilities for this ability as we all know today. There is the possibility for using our advanced brains to utterly destroy ourselves and each other, and perhaps make the planet unlivable for a very long time. But there is also the possibility for creating a new Paradise on earth as well. We can use our awareness to see how we may improve ourselves and our lives. We can reach beyond our own limited self-interest to help improve the lives of others and to make this world a better place to live for everybody. This is our great responsibility, this is our great potential.
The story of Adam and Eve can, in a purely literal and superficial way, be seen as a story of original sin and the fall of humankind. But as a mythological or symbolic story, it could be seen as something entirely different that may be closer to the true intention of the writers! Because in a very reasonable reflection upon the story, it is very difficult to understand that human beings could be created in sin, or that they are fallen as soon as they are born. This is difficult because each and every created being is made out of the essence of God, is the very Love of God become form, become human. Secondly, until a child has developed enough to truly understand what they are doing and consciously choose sin over Love, they are innocent - not fallen, not in need of redemption. Human beings were not born being already tainted by original sin, but as beings with greater conscious capacity and ability, they were the first beings, (as far as we know right now) to be able to consciously choose sin (unloving behavior) over Love and thus became the first beings on earth capable of sin. That, I think, is the real intention and meaning of the story, along with being a myth about human advances in consciousness. For instance, the image of the angel holding a flaming sword guarding the gates of paradise is a metaphor, a symbol for the fact that we humans cannot return to our earlier state, we cannot "de-evolve" into a more primitive version of ourselves ( however contrary to this probability our usual front page newspaper articles seem to suggest.) The entire story of Adam and Eve seems to be full of such rich imagery and metaphor. Is the serpent really a devious manifestation of the devil, or is it a far more ancient symbol of the "Kundalini Energy" or Life Force trying to emerge to consciousness and life now through a more advanced biological channel, the modern human brain? And what about Adam and Eve waking to realize that they are naked? Is this really a story describing the evidence of their shame over their original sin, or a deeper message describing the emergence of self-consciousness, healthy modesty, and the need to set boundaries and "clothe" or protect themselves from the harmful forces in life?
As a myth, as an ancient symbolic message, this story can seen more deeply as a story of a dramatic change in human evolution, describing the emergence of the natural endowment of the great and awesome gift of higher conscious awareness from the divine to those for whom she, he, it, has great Love - all of us. We have been given great freedom and great responsibility with greater conscious capacity. We have the ability to choose to act against Love, against the beauty and wonder and preciousness of all of life, or..., we can choose to act in harmony with the will of Love, to dream, to create, to explore, to wonder, to give true meaning to our existence, to leave the world being a better place than we found it. We can create a real heaven right here on earth for ourselves through actions guided by Love, or we can create a real hell right here through actions guided from narrow, selfish, limited, self-interest. The choice and the responsibility is ours.
I believe that there is great, and deep symbolism in the Judeo-Christian story of creation, Genesis. Many believe that it describes the reason for original sin, the falling out between God and human beings due to the disobedience of being tempted and then eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and then being cast out of Paradise to forever live the difficulty of that fallen existence. It really is a pretty depressing story, especially for it's implications. But, I think that there can be many ways of interpreting this story. Is it really what it appears to say on the surface? Or, is it perhaps pointing to a deeper truth, a deeper meaning?
I believe that the story is really a myth that describes a seminal event in the evolution of human beings from a more primitive primate existence. The Paradise of Genesis, the "Garden of Eden" is the earlier state of existence and consciousness of proto-humans, living more from instinct and impulse, than with our later complex conscious reasoning ability and understanding. It describes a quality of human life before the development of the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, before we were capable of understanding things from a larger perspective, than the immediate, limited, day to day awareness of perception and reaction simply to survive. There was a great, raw, innocence to pre-human existence, in some ways better than what we have with a more human-like brain. Earlier conscious beings did not have such capacity for interpreting reality inaccurately and then using their thinking against themselves or each other. Such examples of this are: excessive worry, prejudice, false assumption, chronic anxiety and depression.
With the evolutionary development of a more advanced and complex brain, came amazing new abilities to think and interpret reality. For perhaps the first time, we became able to imagine a world greater than our own. We became able to imagine the reasons for the forces of nature, imagine what might happen in the future, imagine perhaps the existence of a supreme being. In addition to these amazing abilities, we became able to have a moral consciousness or awareness. We became able to understand the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, helpful and unhelpful. With this ability, we could understand how to improve our chances of survival, as well as how to improve the quality of our lives. With this ability we could also learn to create ways of trying to improve our lives at the expense of, and to the detriment of others. We could learn how to trick and manipulate others to get our way. We could learn how to obtain and hold power over those less fortunate or strong. We could learn to act contrary to Love, against the awareness and honoring of, the immeasurable, precious value of ourselves, others, and life itself, In this way, we could learn to "sin."
The advance of the human brain enabled greater freedom, greater peril, and greater responsibility. We could now choose what to think, what to believe, and had more options for what to do. There are benefits and liabilities for this ability as we all know today. There is the possibility for using our advanced brains to utterly destroy ourselves and each other, and perhaps make the planet unlivable for a very long time. But there is also the possibility for creating a new Paradise on earth as well. We can use our awareness to see how we may improve ourselves and our lives. We can reach beyond our own limited self-interest to help improve the lives of others and to make this world a better place to live for everybody. This is our great responsibility, this is our great potential.
The story of Adam and Eve can, in a purely literal and superficial way, be seen as a story of original sin and the fall of humankind. But as a mythological or symbolic story, it could be seen as something entirely different that may be closer to the true intention of the writers! Because in a very reasonable reflection upon the story, it is very difficult to understand that human beings could be created in sin, or that they are fallen as soon as they are born. This is difficult because each and every created being is made out of the essence of God, is the very Love of God become form, become human. Secondly, until a child has developed enough to truly understand what they are doing and consciously choose sin over Love, they are innocent - not fallen, not in need of redemption. Human beings were not born being already tainted by original sin, but as beings with greater conscious capacity and ability, they were the first beings, (as far as we know right now) to be able to consciously choose sin (unloving behavior) over Love and thus became the first beings on earth capable of sin. That, I think, is the real intention and meaning of the story, along with being a myth about human advances in consciousness. For instance, the image of the angel holding a flaming sword guarding the gates of paradise is a metaphor, a symbol for the fact that we humans cannot return to our earlier state, we cannot "de-evolve" into a more primitive version of ourselves ( however contrary to this probability our usual front page newspaper articles seem to suggest.) The entire story of Adam and Eve seems to be full of such rich imagery and metaphor. Is the serpent really a devious manifestation of the devil, or is it a far more ancient symbol of the "Kundalini Energy" or Life Force trying to emerge to consciousness and life now through a more advanced biological channel, the modern human brain? And what about Adam and Eve waking to realize that they are naked? Is this really a story describing the evidence of their shame over their original sin, or a deeper message describing the emergence of self-consciousness, healthy modesty, and the need to set boundaries and "clothe" or protect themselves from the harmful forces in life?
As a myth, as an ancient symbolic message, this story can seen more deeply as a story of a dramatic change in human evolution, describing the emergence of the natural endowment of the great and awesome gift of higher conscious awareness from the divine to those for whom she, he, it, has great Love - all of us. We have been given great freedom and great responsibility with greater conscious capacity. We have the ability to choose to act against Love, against the beauty and wonder and preciousness of all of life, or..., we can choose to act in harmony with the will of Love, to dream, to create, to explore, to wonder, to give true meaning to our existence, to leave the world being a better place than we found it. We can create a real heaven right here on earth for ourselves through actions guided by Love, or we can create a real hell right here through actions guided from narrow, selfish, limited, self-interest. The choice and the responsibility is ours.
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