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Light and darkness – are they ontological opposites?

Actually they are not. Light is something that exists – it IS. Darkness is the absence of light, it doesn’t exist – it IS NOT. Let’s use the light switch as an example. You turn ON the light, right? And you turn OFF the light, right? Whatever happened to the “darkness switch”? Darkness is the result when the light is NOT turned on. See the picture?

Death = the absence of life

Death = non-existence

Darkness = the absence of light

Darkness = non-existence

As we saw in the Dead Man Walking post, Adam ate the fruit and died. But everyone always points out that Adam was still there and in fact lived for many years and had another child. The next thing that always gets pointed out is that it’s because Adam died “spiritually” but then no one seems to know what that means exactly.

Before the fruit, Adam’s perception of himself, God, and the Universe was the perception of reality. He saw things as they truly were.

After the fruit, Adam’s newfound KNOWLEDGE of evil (what IS NOT) caused him to see things that didn’t exist. His perception of himself, God, and the Universe was suddenly based not on reality but on the illusions that existed only in his mind. He was suddenly in a world that didn’t exist. He was in the dark. Just like the little child attempting to hide in plain sight with eyes covered, oblivious to the reality of the situation.

This little child my friend is you and me. We live in incredible darkness in worlds that exist only in our minds. Our dark worlds are not reality where God is everywhere, around, in, and through us, giving us life and breath. Our dark world is the world of ME, ME, ME – it’s all about ME. We truly are dead men stuck on our own fantasy island, in the dark, disconnected from all that IS – life, light, goodness, God.

 

John 1:4-5 (ESV)
⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

There is hope, a way to turn the light on, to see again.

 

 

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Self image, before the fateful chomp, Adam had one and afterwards he had a different one. His self image changed drastically that day.

Before, Adam’s self image was based on unity, connection to what existed - truth. Adam knew who he was and his self image reflected reality. The Adam that Adam knew in his mind was the real Adam.

After, there was a different Adam, an impostor. The impostor Adam was a fantasy that existed only in Adam’s mind. The impostor Adam’s self image was based on duality, separation, and evil (what is NOT). The impostor Adam was the NOT-Adam. The impostor Adam didn’t really exist, he was only an illusion (NON-EXISTANT).

There’s something else that doesn’t exist - death. Death is NOT life. Death is NON-EXISTANCE. The day he ate the fruit Adam became NON-EXISTANCE. Adam died just as God said.

 

Genesis 2:17 (ESV)
¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

 

This my friend has to be one of the most missed and misunderstood concepts in the whole entire Bible.

The spiritual pathway, the narrow road, the way, the truth, and the life, is moving in our minds from WHAT IS NOT (death) to WHAT IS (life). It’s moving from our fantasy self image, from the impostor to the real one. It’s moving from duality and separation back to unity and connection.

We can spend our lives feeding the fantasy, desiring to make our fantasy reality, walking the dead man. This of course ends in death. It has to because it begins in death and it leaves a trail of destruction, pain, misery, and ugliness.

The Bible speaks of being born again. This is the point when somehow God reignites the spark. He causes in us a desire to stop walking the dead man and start being the man that is real. Please notice that this can be stated as a double negative: NOT being the NOT-man. It’s a process though and it doesn’t come easy. The dead man doesn’t give up without a fight but the fight is worth it because it ends in life, in reality, in connection, in oneness with God and all things.

Think deeply about these things.

 

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So, how’s the weather today on yours?

Yup, that’s right, like it or not you are living as the single inhabitant, a castaway, on your very own Fantasy Island. It’s a gift from Adam. He was the first castaway – the first with a duality problem and he passed it on to you.

Your island is an illusion. It’s not real but you’re stuck on it. Don’t believe me? Well then …

Meet Bob and Dave. They just met each other for the first time – had a long conversation over lunch discussing a business proposition. Dave came away thinking Bob really liked him and his ideas. Bob came away thinking Dave really liked him and his ideas. So, they each spent the next week of their lives preparing to do business with each other.

The truth? Well it wasn’t what you just read. Each thought the other was strange but a good target for an easy sell. Each of them thought they had done a good job of hiding their true intentions towards the other but they hadn’t. Each wasted the next week of their lives because of the fantasy that existed only in their minds.

See how it works? In every interaction we have with other human beings the boogeyman is there, urging us to hide and at the same time to manipulate to gain an advantage, telling us to watch out for stuff that doesn’t exist.

But that’s not the worst part.

The boogeyman tells you things about God. He wants to keep you on your island, separated in your own mind’s fantasy from the One that’s right there, in you, through you, all around you, giving you life and breath and being.

 

He tells you God is far away in His own place, watching but unconcerned.

He tells you God doesn’t care.

He tells you God can be manipulated.

He tells you God is not there.

He tells you that YOU are God.

 

So, how are you going do it? Get off the island? Get the boogeyman out of your head? Return to reality, to goodness, harmony, peace, beauty, wholeness, and unity? How?

There is hope my friend – yes indeed!

 

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Adam. One bite. Unity to duality. For the first time Adam began to experience confusion – what’s real (good) verses what’s not real (evil). The dual paths in his mind now competing for attention.

Before, Adam only knew the wonder, beauty, goodness, truth, and purity of all things. Now there was a boogeyman in his head telling him things weren’t all that good after all. Before, in Adam’s world everything was perfect. Now, the boogeyman was telling him things could be better. Who would he listen to? The old voice he recognized from before or the new one challenging him to take action – take things into his own hands – look out for number one.

The boogeyman told him he was exposed, open for attack, and that he needed to conceal his true self lest someone take advantage of his vulnerability. So, for the first time Adam put on clothes as the boogeyman began to take control.

And then this.

 

Genesis 3:8 (ESV)
⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

 

Hiding in plain sight – the little child with eyes covered thinking he is invisible. What are we to make of this? What’s the message? Adam now believed there was a place he could go to get away from God – a place where God was NOT. Separation. Adam had his own world now and he could shut God out of it.

Ah, but reality, the truth had not changed. There was separation only in the fantasy of Adam’s mind. Adam separated from reality. God was still there, in him, through him, and all around him, the same way He had always been.

 

Separation. The evil illusion. Fantasy Island.

 

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God warned Adam about eating the fruit. He loved him and knew the effects would be devastating. The fruit of the tree was not innocuous. It was poison for the mind.

Some will tell you the tree was just an arbitrary test of obedience and that because Adam failed God punished him with death.

It seems to me the events recounted in Genesis tell a different story.

 

Genesis 3:7 (ESV)
⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

 

Clothes for the first time became a necessity. Why? Because Adam felt the need to CONCEAL his private parts.

 

Before: no concealment necessary.

After: concealment was the first priority.

 

Before: Adam had no private parts – he was an open book to the entire Universe.

After: Adam had stuff to hide.

 

Adam began hiding HIS stuff. HIS stash. He suddenly saw everything in terms of what was his and what was not his and his first priority in life was to protect HIS stuff - his possessions.

He suddenly saw himself as separate from everything else. Within his newly altered mind there was Adam and there was everything else which was not Adam. Inside the clothing was Adam and outside the clothing was everything else. Clothing became the wall of Separation.

Separation is duality.

Adam AND not Adam.

 

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Before he ate the fruit from the tree of the KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND evil did Adam know good?

I’ll wait while you think about it ….

Now let’s compare answers. I say he didn’t know “good” AS good he only knew what WAS, what existed, basically truth. He didn’t know there was an alternative to good. He didn’t know that what he knew existed could be compared to something else.

Adam had a one track mind.

Here are a couple definitions of unity:

1.       The state or quality of being one; singleness.

2.       The state or quality of being in accord; harmony.

In the Genesis account before the fall do you find any evidence of unity as it related to Adam?

Perhaps the fact that he was naked and felt no need for clothing? Adam was one within himself, with eve, with God, and with the Universe.

Ah, but how things soon changed …

 

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