The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Those readers who are familiar with my books “Ecology of Human Being in Multidimensional Space” and “The New Upanishad. The Structure of the Absolute and Its Cognition” [5,6] must have seen the structure of the Absolute scheme. In particular, this scheme shows those parts of space through which we can most easily penetrate into various “layers” of the Absolute. These objectively existing parts of the human multidimensional organism are something like windows, or doors, or gates into “other worlds”. The main “door” leads to the Abode of the Creator. It is this “door” that Jesus called “the Sun of God” [7,13] because of it's tenderest and subtlest bright shining which resembles a light of a giant morning sun. Through it the spiritual seeker can enter the Abode after he has learned and mastered everything that was necessary.
Also on this scheme one can see that the souls are conceived by the Creator in the Paradise, though they cannot be called not human souls yet but rather a kind of embryos which will be incarnated first in vegetal and animal bodies. (This truth got reflected in the biblical story about Eden).
But some souls, incarnating and evolving in the world of matter, — thanks to the free will that they are given (for the purpose of better development of the evolutionary process) — preserve their purity from negative emotions. Others “attach” themselves to material objects, including their own bodies. This attachment gives rise to egocentrism and hostility towards other creatures, considering them rivals with whom they compete for possession of food, luxury items and objects of their sexual lust. Some of them even assume the right to kill animals for the sake of satisfaction of their gluttony.
Such a choice between good and evil can be represented schematically as a fork, like that on a tree branch. The choice of the way of evil is what Bible calls “the Fall of Man”.
Subsequently God offers each soul an opportunity to make a choice in ethically important situations: to act for the sake of himself and detriment of others or to sacrifice something of himself for the sake of others. That is, to do evil — or good. In this way each soul draws the graph of its development — many branchings where one always has to choose only one direction. This picture is where image of a tree originates from. As a result of moving along these trajectories of choice some souls come to the Abode of the Creator, others — to hell that they have chosen.
There is another interpretation of the story about the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” — it is also correct and adds to the first one.
The error of people consisted in forgetting that God controls everything that enters our lives; and in that respect good and evil that come to us are equal. For they both are manifestations of pedagogical measures of our loving and wise Parent. And thus we should consider everything as a blessing coming from Him. (But it is not to say that we should stop tracing and preventing our evil thoughts and deeds, as well as spotting them in other people so that we could in a tactful and soft manner help them cleanse themselves of their inner evil).
So, when evil comes to us we should try to see the intention of God behind it. And having realized it, having discovered its reason in ourselves, we should strive to improve.
One can react in a wrong way due to one’s religious ignorance — and try to revenge oneself upon the offender having forgotten about the Master of our destinies — God. Or sometimes in some originally primitive or degraded religious movements in order to explain the roots of evil people create a “rival” to God who is almost equal to Him. They call him Satan, Lucifer and by other names. (Such primitive religious conceptions can appear when people reduce the Boundless Universal God to a flying old man riding a cloud.)
From the methodological standpoint it is very important to correctly understand the latter truth. The issue is not only the correct understanding of the essence of the Divine. And not even that one should learn to permanently live in the state of love. There is a mechanism of self-transformation that consists in the attunement of consciousness to the state of a certain object.
If we attune to the beauty of the rising sun in the quiet tender morning, or to the singing of morning birds then we fill ourselves with subtlety and harmony of nature.
If we seek the Creator and try to attune to Him — we approach Him. And He helps us in this.
If we fix our indriyas of consciousness at some embodied or disembodied filth we automatically attune to its state — a hellish one — and become similar to it by our emotional status. And if we leave the body before we have improved then we will go to hell along with it...
This is why Jesus Christ taught not to revenge oneself, not to damn the offenders, but to forgive them sincerely and feel compassion for them. And not to demand back what we were bereft of — it is better to give to the robber even more than he wants to take from us — but not to going out from the state of love!
I was deceived and betrayed — big time. I was even killed by such human filth and was painfully dying for many months [2,3]. But I remained a Christian — I neither revenged myself, nor I attuned to them. I continued to seek the Union with God — and I won. And I have helped many others in this. And will help more.
here's no shortage of commentary on the results of man's first sin, disobeying God by eating the fruit from the tree. But I haven't seen much about the symbolism of the name of the tree. We see in Genesis that Adam and Eve became able to see good from evil in that they realized they were naked... but...
Does this mean that before they ate that fruit, they had absolutely no notion of right and wrong? And if they didn't, then why was it wrong to disobey God? Without knowledge of right and wrong, how could God blame them for disobeying?
Also, since we were not meant to eat of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, does this mean that God did not intend for us to be moral beings? That we were intended to live like animals, acting on instinct, mating randomly according to our natural desires, killing when angry, etc?
Sorry if this is a very basic and stupid question, but I've been wondering for many years and haven't found a good answer. I'd really appreciate some help!
We have this ability the animals don't because God made us that way in his image and likeness, not because of the Fall or because of anything we did. If preternatural Adam and Eve did not have the capacity to judge right from wrong before the Fall, they would not have had much of a fighting chance in avoiding sin.
There is a difference between having the capacity to judge what is objectively right from wrong according to God's standards and in taking that role upon one's self to decide what is right and wrong.
It's like the difference between someone who strives to live in conformity with the natural law and a relativist who thinks that he can define it for himself.
This is a study of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We will show, through the scripture, that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents following the law of Moses, the commandments of God, in the flesh by our own works of righteousness. When one interprets the law of God naturally, they are eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they interpret the law naturally, they believe they know what is right and wrong. However, the scripture tells us the law of God is spiritual. This means there is a deeper meaning to the commandments. For example, one commandment tells us not to steal. In John chapter 10, the bible tells us a theif is one who tries to go another way, rather than following faith alone in Jesus. Jesus said if we climb up any other way than through him, we are theives and robbers. When we trust in Jesus alone for salvation, we are no longer theives spiritually speaking. Therefore, when we trust in Jesus for salvation, we keep the commandment not to steal by its spiritual meaning. All the commandments mean for us to trust in Jesus alone for salvation, and not our own works of righteousness in the flesh. Therefore, when we see the truth spiritually, we no longer have anything telling us what is right and wrong. The commandments all then mean for us to trust in Jesus. Other than believing in Jesus, God gave us no other rules to live by. Therefore, we no longer know what is right or wrong. There is nothing telling us what is right or wrong. However, if we interpret the law naturally, it seems to tell us what is right and wrong. If we follow the law naturally, we believe we cannot lie, steal, kill, or commit adultery among other things. To interpret the law naturally, would be to have a set of rules to live by telling us what is right and wrong. However, when understood spiritually, the commandments are not really giving us any rule to live by other than trust in Jesus alone for salvation.
Another example, the bible commands us not to lie. To interpret this naturally, would be to know that something we could do could be wrong. However, 1 John 2:22 tells us a liar is one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Therefore, the commandment is really telling us not to deny Jesus, but rather to believe in him. When we believe in Jesus, we are no longer a liar naturally. Therefore, God is not really telling us to lie naturally is wrong. He is telling us to have unbelief in Jesus is wrong. Therefore, other than to believe in Jesus, God gave us no other commandment. He does not tell us what is right or wrong naturally. Therefore, we have no knowledge of good and evil naturally speaking. Therefore, when we believe in Jesus, we are no longer eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This occurs because they who believe in Jesus will receive the spirit of God. When we receive the spirit of God, the spirit teaches us the spiritual meaning behind the commandments of God. Our spiritual eyes are opened to understand, or see, the word of God with its spiritual meanings. Those who are still eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil do not have faith in Jesus. If they did, they would see the spiritual meaning of the commandment through the spirit. Therefore, when someone believes we must keep the commandments of God naturally, they are eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They believe they know what is right and wrong. They believe God means for us to live our life a certain way in the flesh to please him. They remain in the flesh unsaved.
So, what is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? This is a tree that is in the midst of the garden of Eden. God gave Adam and Eve one commandment only after their creation. They were allowed to do anything they wanted other than to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This story is highly symbolic. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the law of Moses, and those who try to serve God by their own works of righteousness. The only commandment still in effect today is the same. We are not to eat of this tree. This means we are not to try and serve God by our own works of righteousness in the flesh. We are to have faith in Jesus alone for salvation. Those who are born again will understand the law of God spiritually, therefore they will no longer believe they know what is right or wrong. They will realize the only thing God tells us to do is to believe in Jesus. Once we see this, we no longer have any guidance as to what is right or wrong naturally. The only commandment given is to believe in Jesus. God has given this commandment many different ways to show us a natural likeness. Thou shalt not steal, kill, lie, commit adultery all mean spiritually for us to believe in Jesus. However, to see this, one must study the word of God with there spiritual eyes opened. That is to say, one must first be born of the spirit of God before he can see the spiritual meaning of the commandments of God.
The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
ReplyDeleteWhen the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Those readers who are familiar with my books “Ecology of Human Being in Multidimensional Space” and “The New Upanishad. The Structure of the Absolute and Its Cognition” [5,6] must have seen the structure of the Absolute scheme. In particular, this scheme shows those parts of space through which we can most easily penetrate into various “layers” of the Absolute. These objectively existing parts of the human multidimensional organism are something like windows, or doors, or gates into “other worlds”. The main “door” leads to the Abode of the Creator. It is this “door” that Jesus called “the Sun of God” [7,13] because of it's tenderest and subtlest bright shining which resembles a light of a giant morning sun. Through it the spiritual seeker can enter the Abode after he has learned and mastered everything that was necessary.
ReplyDeleteAlso on this scheme one can see that the souls are conceived by the Creator in the Paradise, though they cannot be called not human souls yet but rather a kind of embryos which will be incarnated first in vegetal and animal bodies. (This truth got reflected in the biblical story about Eden).
But some souls, incarnating and evolving in the world of matter, — thanks to the free will that they are given (for the purpose of better development of the evolutionary process) — preserve their purity from negative emotions. Others “attach” themselves to material objects, including their own bodies. This attachment gives rise to egocentrism and hostility towards other creatures, considering them rivals with whom they compete for possession of food, luxury items and objects of their sexual lust. Some of them even assume the right to kill animals for the sake of satisfaction of their gluttony.
Such a choice between good and evil can be represented schematically as a fork, like that on a tree branch. The choice of the way of evil is what Bible calls “the Fall of Man”.
Subsequently God offers each soul an opportunity to make a choice in ethically important situations: to act for the sake of himself and detriment of others or to sacrifice something of himself for the sake of others. That is, to do evil — or good. In this way each soul draws the graph of its development — many branchings where one always has to choose only one direction. This picture is where image of a tree originates from. As a result of moving along these trajectories of choice some souls come to the Abode of the Creator, others — to hell that they have chosen.
There is another interpretation of the story about the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” — it is also correct and adds to the first one.
ReplyDeleteThe error of people consisted in forgetting that God controls everything that enters our lives; and in that respect good and evil that come to us are equal. For they both are manifestations of pedagogical measures of our loving and wise Parent. And thus we should consider everything as a blessing coming from Him. (But it is not to say that we should stop tracing and preventing our evil thoughts and deeds, as well as spotting them in other people so that we could in a tactful and soft manner help them cleanse themselves of their inner evil).
So, when evil comes to us we should try to see the intention of God behind it. And having realized it, having discovered its reason in ourselves, we should strive to improve.
One can react in a wrong way due to one’s religious ignorance — and try to revenge oneself upon the offender having forgotten about the Master of our destinies — God. Or sometimes in some originally primitive or degraded religious movements in order to explain the roots of evil people create a “rival” to God who is almost equal to Him. They call him Satan, Lucifer and by other names. (Such primitive religious conceptions can appear when people reduce the Boundless Universal God to a flying old man riding a cloud.)
From the methodological standpoint it is very important to correctly understand the latter truth. The issue is not only the correct understanding of the essence of the Divine. And not even that one should learn to permanently live in the state of love. There is a mechanism of self-transformation that consists in the attunement of consciousness to the state of a certain object.
If we attune to the beauty of the rising sun in the quiet tender morning, or to the singing of morning birds then we fill ourselves with subtlety and harmony of nature.
If we seek the Creator and try to attune to Him — we approach Him. And He helps us in this.
If we fix our indriyas of consciousness at some embodied or disembodied filth we automatically attune to its state — a hellish one — and become similar to it by our emotional status. And if we leave the body before we have improved then we will go to hell along with it...
This is why Jesus Christ taught not to revenge oneself, not to damn the offenders, but to forgive them sincerely and feel compassion for them. And not to demand back what we were bereft of — it is better to give to the robber even more than he wants to take from us — but not to going out from the state of love!
I was deceived and betrayed — big time. I was even killed by such human filth and was painfully dying for many months [2,3]. But I remained a Christian — I neither revenged myself, nor I attuned to them. I continued to seek the Union with God — and I won. And I have helped many others in this. And will help more.
here's no shortage of commentary on the results of man's first sin, disobeying God by eating the fruit from the tree. But I haven't seen much about the symbolism of the name of the tree. We see in Genesis that Adam and Eve became able to see good from evil in that they realized they were naked... but...
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that before they ate that fruit, they had absolutely no notion of right and wrong? And if they didn't, then why was it wrong to disobey God? Without knowledge of right and wrong, how could God blame them for disobeying?
Also, since we were not meant to eat of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, does this mean that God did not intend for us to be moral beings? That we were intended to live like animals, acting on instinct, mating randomly according to our natural desires, killing when angry, etc?
Sorry if this is a very basic and stupid question, but I've been wondering for many years and haven't found a good answer. I'd really appreciate some help!
We have this ability the animals don't because God made us that way in his image and likeness, not because of the Fall or because of anything we did. If preternatural Adam and Eve did not have the capacity to judge right from wrong before the Fall, they would not have had much of a fighting chance in avoiding sin.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between having the capacity to judge what is objectively right from wrong according to God's standards and in taking that role upon one's self to decide what is right and wrong.
It's like the difference between someone who strives to live in conformity with the natural law and a relativist who thinks that he can define it for himself.
At least, that's my take on it.
This is a study of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We will show, through the scripture, that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents following the law of Moses, the commandments of God, in the flesh by our own works of righteousness. When one interprets the law of God naturally, they are eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they interpret the law naturally, they believe they know what is right and wrong. However, the scripture tells us the law of God is spiritual. This means there is a deeper meaning to the commandments. For example, one commandment tells us not to steal. In John chapter 10, the bible tells us a theif is one who tries to go another way, rather than following faith alone in Jesus. Jesus said if we climb up any other way than through him, we are theives and robbers. When we trust in Jesus alone for salvation, we are no longer theives spiritually speaking. Therefore, when we trust in Jesus for salvation, we keep the commandment not to steal by its spiritual meaning. All the commandments mean for us to trust in Jesus alone for salvation, and not our own works of righteousness in the flesh. Therefore, when we see the truth spiritually, we no longer have anything telling us what is right and wrong. The commandments all then mean for us to trust in Jesus. Other than believing in Jesus, God gave us no other rules to live by. Therefore, we no longer know what is right or wrong. There is nothing telling us what is right or wrong. However, if we interpret the law naturally, it seems to tell us what is right and wrong. If we follow the law naturally, we believe we cannot lie, steal, kill, or commit adultery among other things. To interpret the law naturally, would be to have a set of rules to live by telling us what is right and wrong. However, when understood spiritually, the commandments are not really giving us any rule to live by other than trust in Jesus alone for salvation.
ReplyDeleteAnother example, the bible commands us not to lie. To interpret this naturally, would be to know that something we could do could be wrong. However, 1 John 2:22 tells us a liar is one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Therefore, the commandment is really telling us not to deny Jesus, but rather to believe in him. When we believe in Jesus, we are no longer a liar naturally. Therefore, God is not really telling us to lie naturally is wrong. He is telling us to have unbelief in Jesus is wrong. Therefore, other than to believe in Jesus, God gave us no other commandment. He does not tell us what is right or wrong naturally. Therefore, we have no knowledge of good and evil naturally speaking. Therefore, when we believe in Jesus, we are no longer eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This occurs because they who believe in Jesus will receive the spirit of God. When we receive the spirit of God, the spirit teaches us the spiritual meaning behind the commandments of God. Our spiritual eyes are opened to understand, or see, the word of God with its spiritual meanings. Those who are still eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil do not have faith in Jesus. If they did, they would see the spiritual meaning of the commandment through the spirit. Therefore, when someone believes we must keep the commandments of God naturally, they are eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They believe they know what is right and wrong. They believe God means for us to live our life a certain way in the flesh to please him. They remain in the flesh unsaved.
ReplyDeleteSo, what is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? This is a tree that is in the midst of the garden of Eden. God gave Adam and Eve one commandment only after their creation. They were allowed to do anything they wanted other than to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This story is highly symbolic. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the law of Moses, and those who try to serve God by their own works of righteousness. The only commandment still in effect today is the same. We are not to eat of this tree. This means we are not to try and serve God by our own works of righteousness in the flesh. We are to have faith in Jesus alone for salvation. Those who are born again will understand the law of God spiritually, therefore they will no longer believe they know what is right or wrong. They will realize the only thing God tells us to do is to believe in Jesus. Once we see this, we no longer have any guidance as to what is right or wrong naturally. The only commandment given is to believe in Jesus. God has given this commandment many different ways to show us a natural likeness. Thou shalt not steal, kill, lie, commit adultery all mean spiritually for us to believe in Jesus. However, to see this, one must study the word of God with there spiritual eyes opened. That is to say, one must first be born of the spirit of God before he can see the spiritual meaning of the commandments of God.
ReplyDelete