In my seeking I read The Bible many times, and visited many churches. I experienced the intimate sermons of small, quaint chapels, as well as the thunderous productions of many a mega-church. I enjoyed & appreciated them all. Yet oddly, to this day I’ve not come across a single parishioner who is without the all to common misinterpretation of arguably the most significant, precedent setting passage of The Bible.
From Genesis 2:17:
The Lord God commanded, “You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”.
As is the inevitable fate of every seeker, my seeking came to an end, and I’m here to tell ya - death is a belief, as is the knowledge of good & evil.
In accordance with the passage, God did not say “if you eat from a tree”, nor “any tree”, nor even “your neighbor’s tree”. God said “the tree which gives knowledge of good & evil”.
God also did not say “at some point in the future, you will surely die”. God said “in the day”.
Why?
What’s the big deal about “the knowledge of good & evil”?
What does “in the day” mean?
Contrary to a most unfortunate prevailing popular contemporary misinterpretation, neither Adam nor Eve, physically speaking, died that day. Adam went on to live to the ripe old age of 930.
Perhaps more so, what does this have to do with death being a belief?
Good and evil, is a belief.
Goodness is not dualistic, Goodness is nondual.
The belief that there is good & evil, and that you are the knower of this - is the ignore-ance of how the very thoughts, the belief - feels.
Good and evil is the believing of thoughts. The thoughts feel discordant to, the Goodness you eternally are.
Thoughts appear in just one ‘flavor’; duality. This, and that. Up, and down. Right, and left. Me, and you. Self, and other. Life… and death.
Why is this so?
This is so because The Infinite One - that there may be experience - appears as; Two.
Twoness is apparent.
One of the more interesting & fun philosophical existential questions one can ponder or a group can discuss is - what is the ego.
Recently, compliments of a friend from the forum, I heard the best suggested definition of that which is truly nonexistant and therefore truly undefinable - the ‘ego’. He said, “the ego is that which can’t accept the truth, because the truth is too good to be true”.
To “eat from the tree of the knowledge of good & evil” is not to simply be a passer by or a passive unengaged onlooker of the tree. To eat from is to put it in yourself.
Knowledge, like all experience, is apparent. To assume that which is apparent, is not apparent, is to believe that which is apparent, is separate. To believe there is separation, is to believe the thoughts; this, and that, up, and down, left, and right - Me, and you.
God-Love is infinite, infinite means ‘no finite’. The idea, thought or belief about God is the “idol”. A finite apparent image. God is infinite.
Knowledge, thoughts… appear; and are not separate. The more relevant implication here is that in ‘holding’ knowledge to be separate - you are believing that you - are separate. Only of the believing of thoughts does it seem that you yourself, the very infinite awareness aware, are ‘a separate self’.
As shared in A Course In Miracles; “Separation never occurred”.
To eat from the tree of the knowledge of good & evil is to believe that you know that there is, good & evil. That is, it’s to believe you are ‘the separate self’ - “the knower” (or “understander”) - of God, which Is, Infinite.
Awareness is appearing as knowledge. Or we might say, knowledge is of the apparent world which is Awareness being.
To believe one is “the knower”, “the understander”, is delusion. Insanity. Suffering. Vanity of the finite mind. Pride. Utter denial of one’s own direct & actual experience via the overlooking of Oneself. The refuting of the unconditional Truth… which is the entire point of The Bible, and every word Jesus shared.
In accordance with direct experience; thoughts appear. Thoughts are not things. Thoughts are never ‘in’ perception. Never seen. Thoughts, appear. Good and evil are not ‘in’ perception. Are never actually observed, witnessed or seen… only believed, or not believed.
This is heaven.
This is “it” - already.
When you ‘eat from the tree of the knowledge of good & evil’, you ‘cast yourself out of heaven’, simply by overlooking reality.
Infinite Goodness. Infinite Godness. Indivisible Self.
There is not a heaven & hell which upon your death, God will judge you and send you to for eternity.
You are that which is eternal.
This is your creation, which you are being.
Heaven & hell, life & death, good & evil; are thoughts.
Beliefs.
Feeling tells ‘you’ so, with every occurrence of every discordant thought, every judgmental thought - flawlessly and without exception and without fail - feeling leads.
There is truly only to Listen.
Jesus would sometimes say, “let God be the judge”.
What did Jesus know that you did not?
Nothing.
What do you believe you know, that Jesus did not believe?
Something.
That there is a heaven & hell, good & evil, life & death.
That God is not infinite, not unconditional - and like people, judges.
This is far from the truth, and the evidence is how the ignorance & judgment feels. The evidence of infinite unconditional love, Self - is the suffering of how beliefs to the contrary feel.
All there is, is infinite, eternal, unconditional love. That which Is, is All That Is, and could not, would not, never has and never will; know judgement, as infinite can not, and will not ever know - “finite”.
Should you find yourself as it were, in this predicament, caught up in this misinterpretation handed down from generation to generation for two thousand years… God spoke of another tree; the tree of life.
In fact, it is said, God hung a flaming sword above the tree of the knowledge of good & evil, pointing to the tree of life. Of everlasting Life. Of Aliveness.
Of this, now, as is. Without judgement.
Go to that tree; the tree of (your) life.
Relinquish judgement; be done with it. When you feel the burn of the sword, of The Truth; go instead to your life… and create.
Be the creator creating in your creation as you intended to. Leave the judgment to God, lest ye cast yourself from this heaven needlessly.