THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

Using the diagrams of the Universal Octopus in the first chapters of CENTRE we can see where the Project leads.

When the first nodules appear on the circumference of the One and develop an eye to see the apparent outside of itself, the possibility of duality and separatism is there.

Not inevitable. You could develop an eye on your fingers in order to inspect your back without them feeling separate from each other and the rest of your body.

But that is what happened.

Identification with apparently separate forms. Perception of space which places oneself here and others in a place called “there”. The slipping in of an illusory ego (“ego” literally means “one”) which extends an identification with body to include identification with mind….. And humans are on the way to cultivate the Tree of Knowledge (and get drunk on its fruit) for most of the span of human consciousness. Possibly until their extinction. If we can’t find a solution.

But you can’t cure drunkenness with more alcohol. And this is exactly what we are still trying to do.

Wise men have offered a solution. But there is no money in it. No enhancement of Ego.

Unless, of course, what the wise men say can be modified to allow for churches (and church leaders posing as powerful nobles) and educational establishments (and teachers posing as sources of what you must pay to learn).

In these establishments, the fruits of the known and all our “yesterdays” can be garnered and used to indoctrinate those who haven’t been on the planet long enough to know them (i.e. the children). The children have mostly come already possessing (in common with the rest of creation) the fruit of the Tree of Life. Livingness. And in the Present. This is why it is such a joy to watch most very young humans (and not only young humans) playing freely and happily together before they are rounded up for the mental treadmill.

One of the wise men actually indicated this as a way out for humanity after so many million years of going astray.

“Except ye become as little children,
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”

But this did not find favour with those in power (of Ego). They confiscated the fruits of the Tree of Life (Innocence) and killed the man.

All contemporary attempts to solve the problems of humans and the wreckage they have worked on our planet are flawed. Because they are based on knowledge = separatism. You do not try to solve a problem with the problem itself. Unless, that is, there is money to be made in just trying. Irrespective of success. Which there is, in this case, especially if there is no success.

On the other hand, we cannot set all the innocents free and trust Providence to provide for them. Because it won’t.

But there is a Solution.

Dislodge the Ego from its grasp on the Tree of Knowledge
and leave the tree to fulfil its allotted span. Without the foothold of false identification, Ego will evaporate away.

A human who is not in the control of the illusory Ego is innocent. Innocent means harmless. An innocent does not intentionally harm any other living being.

This has nothing to do with laws, commandments, resolutions. Moses scratched THOU SHALT NOT KILL on a stone. He and Joshua went off and destroyed sixty cities in Canaan, massacring the inhabitants as they went.  Canaan was the name of a large and prosperous country, which corresponds roughly to present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel.

Replace the Ego’s proprietorship of the Tree itself with that of Awakened Innocence. This is the natural, unlearned state of human consciousness.

Gradually, all the evils resulting from knowledge will be filtered out.

What are these evils? Man’s inhumanity to man and all other living beings; the way big business and big money have gobbled up the natural resources of Nature, especially in the poor Third World; the persistent ill treatment of all other living beings; endless wars…

Replace all ethical systems which take the form of resolutions, or laws, or commandments or precepts which require knowledge or educational systems (and money) to administer (enforce) them. Replace them with a simple ethic which corresponds exactly to the natural and original state of innocence.

"I do not do to other living beings what I do not want done to me."

At a stroke, this places the Tree of Knowledge within the jurisdiction of non-dualistic universal friendliness.

The One and the Many rediscover their eternal Oneness. Unless Ego creeps back in, that’s the end of the problem. You can have a version of separatism without senseless self-destruction. Your fingers can use their eyes to explore your back without fighting each other for possession and causing damage to your (and their) skin!

Love thy neighbour as thyself.
But don’t restrict love to human neighbours.
(Think of the Sun. It shines on everyone.)

There are two kinds of knowledge:

•  I see and then know my feet. I don’t see/know them as separate and try and leave them outside with my shoes.

• I know and then see another. I see him from a separatist point of view. I know him as separate; enemy, friend, competitor, rival, food, opportunity. I fit him into my world.

In the present, you see what is here now. If you bring in knowledge before you see, it comes from the past. You superimpose it upon your present. You are lost. And you will try and superimpose it upon everyone else’s present. Just as someone may have imposed it on you.