Blog 50 – 6.15.15

Often times as we look back on our lives we are tempted to second guess our choices and imagine how our lives might have turned out if we had made different choices. Some even theorize that there are many dimensions where we do indeed follow different paths and experience each of those options. Others believe we get to live many lives and explore all the options one at a time. Still others think we are here only a few years and if we screw it up we burn in a lake of fire through all of eternity. Whew, theory one and two both sound better to me than three.

As I have previously mentioned I tried to be an atheist for about twenty years of the almost sixty five I have lived, this go round, if you accept theory two above. I do not regret that choice. Having looked long and hard at life from that view point I saw some important things I might otherwise have missed. Somewhere in the middle of that experience I checked into the Eastern philosophy of not either/or but both as contrasted with the Western philosophy of good versus evil.

In the Judeo/Christian Holy books there is the story of the first couple Adam and Eve.
They were given only one rule from God which was that they were forbidden to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil. Of all the countless sermons I have heard preached on this story I must say all of them missed what I have come to see as the most important point. I will put it all caps for emphasis GOD DID NOT WANT MAN TO HAVE THE FRUIT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.

I think I know why. Earlier in the book of Genesis before the garden story after the Creator had created everything He said, “It is good.” or maybe in the absence of a higher critic he was just saying, “Good Job.” At any rate, after creating all there is he said, Good. Where did evil or bad come from? It came from the mind of man. Much discussion has taken place as to what the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was. The oddest interpretation I ever heard was that it was oral sex. The person who came up with that one up must not have enjoyed oral sex or enjoyed it so much they figured it had to be bad enough to get one kicked out of paradise. I have, I think, a more plausible idea of what the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil is: judgement. Not discernment, knowledge, or wisdom but judgement. That faculty of man that says this is good and that is bad. I call it Ego or Satan. God did not create that. It was man’s first creation before he and she created their first child. Just before they left the garden. The story says God cast them out but the talking serpent, the Ego in their heads that questioned God’s motive for not wanting them have the fruit of the knowledge of good and of evil. He it was that told them God not longer loved them and that they had better leave. In my view askew that angel with the flaming sword they thought was guarding the Tree of Life to keep them from it might really have been shining the light so they could see the way to it. It was because Ego’s voice was so strong it drowned out the still small loving voice of God that man left. Did God really kill animals and set up a bloody religion to cover the shame of man’s sin. Or did the shame and nakedness exist only in the judgement of man’s own mind? And did you ever notice how much disagreement there is among us about what is good and what is bad.

The Taoist philosophy or Eastern philosophy is best described in a story about a man who had a son and all his neighbors came over to celebrate his good fortune. He said, “We shall see if it is good or bad” His young son was riding a fell and was crippled for life and all his neighbors came to console him regarding his bad fortune. He only said, “We shall see if it is good or bad.” Then when his son was a young man the ruler of the country started a war with a neighboring country and drafted all the able bodied young men to fight and many died. The neighbors came to congratulate the man on his good fortune that his son was spared. Again, Taoist that he was, he simple said, “Who’s to say if it is good fortune or bad.”

I love rain and snow and it always amazes me when friends and co-workers will say it is going to be a bad day because they judge all but warm sunny weather as bad. We judge and we err. Why should we make false choices anyway? Why should everything be versus? Why can it not be both? Just a question. The ting yang symbol expresses the world view of not either/or but both. The black half of the circle has a small dot of white and the white half a small dot of black. And musically it is expressed in the phrase from the song Wonderful World “The bright blessed day and the dark sacred night.” Next time you are tempted to judge anyone or anything as “bad” try on my “view askew” glasses and try to see the other side of the coin. We were created to enjoy not to judge. Look for the good, the gift in everything, in everyone and you will, I think, begin to see it is a wonderful world whatever you choose. But what do you think?

Your Fellow Traveler casting my vote for all of the above,
David White