Quote:
Originally Posted by John21
My read is that the knowledge of good and evil is analogous to the knowledge of existence and non-existence (being and non-being). The error (serpent) is just because whatever we can conceive of as existing we can also conceive of it not existing doesn't mean we can have knowledge of both or that both have power. That is, we can have knowledge of that which is or being but not that which is not or non-being. And while being can act in a causal sense, non-being certainly can't. So thinking dualistically or in terms of opposites whereby the existence of a positive entails the possible existence of a negative causes us to see as real the existence of death and evil when only life and the good are real. Like Campbell said, you eat the duality, and you're on the way out (of paradise/heaven). As to why the Fall, I think that comes from thinking about existence itself in the same manner as we think of things in existence, or life itself in the same manner as we think of living things.
I agree that what you are saying — a step towards death awareness and duality — is part of it. There is a lot happening in this story.
There are two distinct versions of the story. One is more top-down, group oriented, and less dangerous but with less potential. That’s the conventional way the story is understood in the Bible. Jesus taught to this version of the story to the masses.
The other version of the story he taught to his inner circle, or at least he tried to while still being vague. The Gospel of Thomas (which was excluded from the Bible, buried, and dug up decades ago) is where to find this teaching.
Like I said, the story of Adam/Christ/Son of Man sit on top of each other but in a circle. We will act out some version or variation of the Adam story; it is unavoidable. Which version we embody will determine how we interact with the other two stories. These stories interlink to the patterns of human consciousness. Our quality of life is based on living out the right patterns.