The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil ?

Question

What is your personal interpretation of the meaning of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Please don't 'lock on' to any particular religion or religious view, this tale predates Judaism by millenia, and thus both 'Christianity' and Islam, I would just like to hear what people think it means to acquire the 'knowledge' of 'Good' and 'Evil', what existed in proto-human minds about these two fundamental concepts before that knowledge arose, and what implications does that have for us now, in this moment ?

Arnon and Reallytrue101,

That sounds like you want to say I am limiting you, what I said is clear enough, try not to lock on to any particular religious view, that sounds like a prohibition ??? People, please feel free to answer as you will.

I am looking for your views on what the acquisition of that knowledge from a state of non-knowledge might imply, both in the 'Beginning', and now.

Thanks pilgrim'spadre, I had to smile when you mentioned the Orang-Utang, do many people realise the hidden humour there ? Orang means man, and utang means orange. :-)))

Shaka, fabulous answer, thanks. You already know my thoughts on the feminine/masculine principles, so nolo contendere on that one ! :-)))

Aha ! The Yazata lady of silver writes letters of gold. Thanks Mithra, it is interesting how it is the ladies who seem to respond more to the possibilities of such questions, anyone else noticed that ?

People, I am truly overwhelmed by the magnificence of the responses, and I feel that further individual comments from me may only cloud the issues. Please take it that I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for sharing your fabulous perspectives.

I f anyone would like to hear my thoughts on this, I would be glad to share them as well. Just email me through the Y!A system and I will send you a copy of my view.

I want to thank you all again, from the bottom of all my hearts, for sharing your insights and wisdom with us. I doubt that too many will find this question now, so I will decide on the 'best' answer, despite my preference give that accolade to more than one ( as well as the points ) in the next day or so.

For any who are interested I have posted my view of an answer on my 360 blog for today's date 16th of July, you can find it through my Y!A profile, or at this url :

http://uk.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-3hRjNagzeqiQoimF0dxu3qUGyIG_kQk9

If anyone wants to give me their opinion of my opinion please post it there, I will read all comments within a few hours of their being posted.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ Cosmic Love }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Answer 1

Beautiful morning to you all :-)
My interpretation is that this is when man individualized. In other words, he took notice of himself and the illusion of separation occurred. Once we identified ourselves as being separate individuals we (seemingly) lost the connection to wholeness or holiness. It's never been truly lost but veiled behind the fogs of ego and personality, biases, prejudices and judgments.

IMO evil is anything that holds us back from progression. While it isn't evil to recognize the unique characteristics of each, it can be seen as such to hang on so diligently to the concept of separation.

Knowledge is not evil of itself but quite often the saying, 'the mind is the slayer of the real' holds true because our knowledge is limited and once we believe we know something we tend to cut ourselves off from further insights or the whole truth of a matter.

Before the 'knowledge of good and evil' I'd venture to guess that humanity functioned on instinct, much as flocks of birds or other animals do. They were closer to nature and more tuned in to the planet itself.

The implications...well... I think those instinctual abilities lie latent inside us, unused and unneeded for the present time. We're on a journey of knowing ourselves and learning to recognize the Self for what it is. It's a world of dualities because of the illusion of separation but it's a journey of return with glorious results awaiting us. What we see reflects what lies within us; struggles to resolve polarities and find balance. As we manage this the world situations should resolve also. :-)

Thanks for the stimulating question.

Answer 2

It was the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That's a very specific kind of knowledge; not all knowledge is harmful.

Answer 3

so many astute and excellent observations!
Nice question.... magnolia flora brought this up the other day as well...
so I will add in my own shadings - the tree, it is symbolic of the microcosm that is us. The snake, it is the kundalini - the sacred Divine sub atomic power that resides within us all, dormant until the individual awakens her with "right" action and thought ~*~
She climbs the trunk of our tree, the spinal column, towards the tree tip, the crown. We exist as does the tree, roots grounded in the earth, head within the heavens...

Good and evil, they are an older mindset - to seek to expand (Eve, or the usual suspects) is as Jon suggested - simply an expression of the ongoingness of God/One/ the All

This divine principal, call it what you will, exists as One, and had the desire to have reflected experience as many - the many lost sight of the One, and have been living in the sea of Samsara ever since. Until they are not. The experiences garnered as individual feed into the One, fueling expansion, growth, refinement. That is the ongoingness of creation.
How ever this was construed as evil is in the past - it is an outdated and limited mindset.

Up to now, the belief that has been held in place is that the only way to realize, enlighten, have full knowledge, is to give over the illusion of the individual to once again be the One.
I propose, as do others, that this is a belief that can also be gone beyond. Question all dogma, recommends the Buddha....

Answer 4

Well starting with RIGHT NOW, Western Culture seems to have really blurred the differences between good and evil. The examples are so many..but let me venture a few..The Fri. 13th films.. .me and Church Lady agree..that's just plain EVIL S__T! The human brain is a sensitive piece of Cosmic software
able to recall all images it perceives. Culturally, we just can't seem to abuse it enough, and here's a short list of things we just can't get enough of that constitute mental self-abuse.....

Jerry Springer
Fear Factor
Violent degrading pornography
Jackass
Virtual Fighting, Bombs, Martial Arts, and Iraq War X box games...as if this is all a game.
The Hills Have Eyes
Very Bad Things (movie)
Most all other reality shows,
in which creating tons of losers and only 1 winner is emphasized,
Chainsaw ..and other extended torture films,

Yeah ok, I'm a pu__y and old school, but the point is..all this stuff is popular, precisely because we seem to have forgotten the difference between good and evil, or worse yet..no longer care. This is the beginning of the end..in that case. I pray for the mass conscioussness to see the signs and take it down a notch.

Thanks to the current administration, our national moral highground is in limbo, and the citizenry sucks up to these distractions to not have to stop and consider the spiritually and economically devastating crap we dish out globally...
Our un-self policing violence ridden media..."Weapons of Mass Distraction".
A good old bite of the apple of the knowledge of good and evil., would be exactly what might help us...but God would kick us out of the Garden...what kind of moral lesson is that?
Adam and Eve were set up. God created the serpent.

Answer 5

Hi!

The tree of knowledge is a powerful symbol. As you point out, it is older than the written account in Genesis. One way to look at it now with the insight of the environmental problems we face in the C21st is that our ancestors could eat the fruit of any tree - but when they took a liking to the fruit of a particular tree and started to propagate it at the expense of the variety that had then been abundant, they started a chain reaction that moved away from the higher good (obedience to God if you like) and allowed the evil of subjugation of variety into the world. They chose what was pleasing to them instead of what was in the best interests of all. Thousands of years on we are able to see the results of that choice yet have lost touch with the ancient wisdom behind the story.

Most cultures have a story of the fall, and the basic ingredients are similar throughout. Orang-Utans tell a story so like the human version that one wonders how much of nature knows and groans at the inevitability of the catalyst set in motion by early humans.

Good wishes.

Answer 6

I think he tree of knowledge is a symbolism. I believe that this fantasy we are living implies a dual aspect, male-female, good-evil and the like. When we descend into lower dimensions separation becomes a fact and knowledge for good and evil is necessary in order to know how to manipulate energy correctly.
Probably, the "tree" represents the origin of everything. That's how can feel it now, don't know if it's right or not.

Answer 7

A tale I heard was that God or the Gods (if the tale predates the Hebrews) sent a snake to inform man and woman to eat the fruit of the tree of live and so become immortal. But the snake decided to tell the humans to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge and know death, while it eats the fruit of the tree of life. Thats why the snake can shed its skin and become young again.
I think the tree of knowledge is known as the tree of death in this tale.

Answer 8

Beingness, symbolized by heaven or paradise, is nondualistic Love, Joy and Peace in the absence of the dualistic conceptualization that leads to knowledge. This Beingness is Oneness.

In order for experience to happen, the illusion of multiplicity arises, along with time, space and dualistic conceptualization. Mind forms concepts by 'imagining' dualistic pairs like good and evil. These ideas are free floating and illusory, and constitute man's knowledge.

The perception of good/evil, happy/unhappy, love/fear, etc, creates a tension that allows for the movement that is experience, but it also allows for suffering in unfulfilled desire.

Dualistic knowledge is, therefore, the loss of innocence and the attachment to the illusion of individual identity. Once innocence is lost, it cannot be regained, and so knowledge must be transcended in order to return to Being. While this 'Isness' corresponds to heaven, the human experience corresponds to hell. They are, of course, just symbols.

Answer 9

I don't know the history you are talking about.

For generations we have tried to decipher the difference between good and evil, but we often rely on surface interpretations and miss the heart of it.

The President of Afghanistan just pardoned a 14-year-old, would-be suicide bomber. I think that kind of wisdom and forgiveness illustrates a "good" we seldom stumble upon.

If God truly exists, then only he is truly good, and can reveal to us the truth. When we rely on laws (even the 10 commandments) we fail.

Answer 10

I feel this is an age of innocence. Before one gains "Knowledge of Good and Evil" or in other words, gains knowledge of worldly or adult things, they are in a childlike innocence that sort of protects or blinds them from the realities of life.
When my kids were little we didn't let them watch R rated movies or stuff that wasn't on their age level.
one day my then 7 year old son came home with a Penthouse Magazine and asked me what these words in the book meant. He was just learning how to read really good and he had sounded out quite a few disturbing things. He also wanted to know why the guy and girl were doing those things to each other.
I had to explain everything in an infant type way with a bare minimum of details in order to satisfy his questions.
My son lost his innocence that day and he now had a knowledge of Good and Evil.
to this day, now that he will turn 16, he still struggles with certain realities and he has had a lot of behavior problems associated with how to treat the opposite sex. I feel this is directly related to his Gaining Knowledge that should have been saved for now, when the time is right for him to learn of such things as loving your spouse in the proper way.