Imagine if you where really all powerful, ever present and totally aware. Would you do anything at all? I mean, imagine knowing that the words you used could drive another person over the edge or that the journey you are about to take will result in the death of another person? If we had the awareness of a God we might actually never do anything simply because we would know that any action, any word, any thought has consequences. Would you want to be responsible for the consequences of your actions?
If you understand that thought and the terrible situation you would be in, then it begs the question, how confident everyone must be to be running around, interacting, arguing, fighting, spouting opinions and so on. Of course, we are not brave but stupid, for we have no idea, no inking ,of the outcome of the deeds we do, the thoughts we have and the words we speak or write. We are chaos. We live in chaos and yet we seek peace.
Enlightenment. Does that bring peace? Perhaps it brings a knowing, an understanding of our place in life and the Universe and a sense of what our obligations are – how far we can be expected to know and to anticipate and to be responsible for ourselves.
I am sure many reading this are wondering what drugs I am smoking. But we are really are foolhardy creatures to believe that we know what we are doing. Actually, we haven’t a clue. We are programmed from birth and by our culture and society to behave in certain ways. We are born and we die not knowing who we truly are nor why we are here. Given that, how could we possibly ever understand the consequences of our action, words and thoughts?
And yet, I want to know knowing the more that I know, the more personal responsibility I adopt.
Imagine that. By asking the questions, we become aware and in becoming aware, we become responsible. It is a bit like eating the fruit from the Tree in the Garden of Eden – and then being booted out. One wonders if, my inner self-/subconscious self (Eve) constantly offers the fruit of knowing to my outer self/conscious self (Adam) and the end result of the decision as to whether to eat it is to be cast out of Eden – a state of not knowing and no responsibility – into a world of sin and knowledge of our actions, words and thoughts.
That is food for thought….
As I understand the myth, Eve was NOT “aware” at all of the consequences of her act. Absorbed by ego, seduced by Satan-as-serpent, she simply went for it. She was guilty of the sin of pride–the deadliest of the Seven Deadly–because when we act from Pride, we place ourselves and (usually) our impulse towards immediate pleasure, above the authority of God. Submission to that authority supposedly enables us to wade through the “chaos” of Unknowing that you described earlier in your article. Of course, we don’t really “know” any more about anything by submitting to the authority of God–he keeps all that knowledge very close to his chest–but through faith that he knows what he’s doing, that which was chaotic is supposed to become Clear. It makes no sense, but then absolute faith in just about anything in the universe doesn’t make sense either. So if you want to get through the chaos of life on earth, dedicate yourself to the nonsensical and all will be well. And that statement, I contend, is not cynical nor disrespectful nor even irreverent–it is a statement based on the logical CONSEQUENCE of faith. By the way, you might be interested in an article (at least thirty years old) by a critic named Lovejoy, called “The Paradox of the Fortunate Fall”” for a VERY provocative perspective on the repercussions of Eve’s bite out of the fruit of the Tree of Life (the Bible does not specify it as an apple. I think Milton might have added that….)
Hello! and thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.
When I look at this story, I do so through the eyes of a student of the esoteric and arcane. Calling the poor serpent Satan is a christian device and this story has been used by Christians to not only demonize the poor snake, but also women. In the duality that is each of us, we can see the serpent instead as a deity that holds back the Kundalini force at the base of the spine. We may also see Yahweh not so much as the God but as another local deity who projected human characteristics and who wanted to hold back the inner development of man by denying us knowledge of our own divinity. This is a gnostic view also I suspect. It is how I see the story of Adam and Eve anyway.