By Victor M Fontane
The tree of wisdom in the garden of Eden and its meaning in other traditions.
Genesis w, 16-17.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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."
It is written in The Zohar, “The tree of knowledge of good and evil, if they are rewarded—good, if they are not rewarded—bad.”
It is explained in the Sulam Commentary that if he is rewarded, Midat ha Din [quality of judgment]—the unmitigated Behina Dalet—is concealed, and Midat ha Rachamim [quality of mercy] is revealed; that is, Malchut that is mitigated in Midat ha Rachamim is revealed. But if he is not rewarded, it is to the contrary.
We should understand the meaning of “disclosure” and “concealment.” It is known that man consists of virtues and good qualities, as well as of bad qualities. This is because “There is not a righteous man on earth who will do good and will not sin.”
In other words, there is always a deficiency in a person, something more to correct; otherwise, there is nothing more for him to do in the world.
The Problem of Evil
Every religion or system of philosophy has to deal with the problem of evil - and unfortunately it is a problem which is usually explained away rather than explained. Why, it is asked, does God permit evil, when He (or She) is perfection, and all goodness?
One of two answers is usually given to this question by Western religious thought. Sometimes we are told that evil is educational and penal. God punishes us for our sins by visiting us with war, famine, earthquake, disaster and disease. He employs temptation (either directly or through the agency of the Devil) to test and strengthen the virtue of the good. This is the answer given by the Old Testament. It repels many people today and has become unfashionable-although, as we shall see in a moment, it contains a certain degree of truth, according to the philosophy of Vedanta.
The other answer, now more generally accepted, is that evil does not exist at all. If we view Life as Sub specie aeternitatis, we shall know that evil has no reality; that it is simply a misreading of good.
Vedanta philosophy disagrees with both these answers &mdash with the second even more radically than with the first. How, it asks, can evil be changed into good, merely by viewing it in a special manner? Pain and misfortune may be borne more easily if we fix our minds upon God, but they are very real experiences nevertheless, even though their duration is limited.
Vedanta agrees that evil, in the absolute sense, is unreal, but it reminds us that, from this standpoint, good is unreal also. The absolute Reality is beyond good and evil, pleasure and pain, success and disaster. Both good and evil are aspects of Maya. As long as Maya exists, they exist. Within Maya they are real enough.
The question, "Why does God permit evil?" is, in fact, most misleading. It is as absurd as if one were to ask, "Why does God permit good?" Nobody today would ask why rain "permitted" a catastrophic flood; nobody would blame or praise fire because it burns one man's house and cooks another man's dinner. Nor can it be properly said that Brahman is "good" in any personal sense of the word. Brahman is not "good" in the sense that Christ was "good"- for Christ's goodness was within Maya; his life expressed the light of Reality reflected upon the relative world. The Reality itself is beyond all phenomena, even the noblest. It is beyond purity, beauty, happiness, glory, or success. It can be described as "good" only if we mean that absolute consciousness is absolute knowledge, and that absolute knowledge is absolute joy.
As Vedanta traditions as well as Buddhism dont believe in dualism, good and evil as well as the known reality are a construct of the mind and what really exists, the ultimate reallity is beyond our physical knowledge and comprehension. The way to find that ultimate reality is what is described in the three pilars of Vedanta Practice:
Shravana
Shravana means hearing — Hearing the Truth!
There are two kinds of hearing… one of this world, which connects and defines our relationship with this world, and one which is beyond this world.
In the first one, our ears, mind and intellect are involved. In the other, our Heart and Being are involved. Most of the hearing and listening that involves the ears, intellect and mind can be described as routine or casual, sometimes interesting or entertaining. But the frequency or the power behind that hearing is low. That’s because whatever we learn or hear in this world will remain in this world. It is designed in such a way as to keep operating in this world and maintaining, facilitating, navigating and sustaining our existence in this world. But the power is limited and not penetrative enough due to the fact that the world and its objects are all changeable, impermanent and destructible.
In contrast, the hearing that involves the Heart and the core of our Beingness is termed Shravana in Vedanta. It is designed to work at a higher frequency and vibration, and designed to keep you operating in higher worlds. It is “Akshara” (immutable, imperishable)—not casual or interesting, but enlightening.
Manana
“Manana” means contemplating the Truth.
Just hearing the Truth won’t be enough… one has to reflect, ponder, and contemplate the Guru’s words. Most importantly, one has to USE those teachings in one’s life because vasanas are all played out in one’s waking state. REMEMBER this!
You may have to hear the Truth again and again so that it sinks so deeply inside that Maya isn’t able to pull you away from the SELF.
We can say that consistent remembrance of the Guru’s talks, and reading them over and over again is the most important step. Then putting them into practice is the next. The third step is developing discernment and discrimination in utilizing the teachings. Just like how a white swan can separate milk from water, similarly we should be able to separate what is real, necessary, and wanted from an object from what is unreal, unnecessary, and unwanted.
Through repeated hearing, you will be able to absorb the things you need to, and reject the things you don’t. This is Manana. In the example given above, when the subjects are in love with an object (each other), and instead of utilizing that love for a Divine purpose, they get lost in each other, it then becomes simply Bhoga (enjoyment). When the centre of attention diverts from our Divine goal and transfers to the other, then we will eventually experience pain and suffering.
Hearing that every object can create attachment and build more vasanas can wrongly lead us to believe that running away and escaping would be the right thing to do. This is why, perhaps, it appears to us that the Yogis and Jnanis recommended to seekers to stay away from the objects, or reject the world of objects, because then the only object would be the I-AM, SELF-love, without the stickiness or complications that can arise when associated with “others”.
Nididhyasana
“Nididhyasana” means living and breathing the Truth.
Nididhyasana is the result of Shravana and Manana. When your hearing becomes authentic, and your contemplation and action become solid, polished and refined, then Nididhyasana arises on its own. It is effortless and Sahaja (spontaneous, natural).
This is where you operate in the full power of the SELF. You feel complete and in the totality of your Being. There are no missing parts of you. Agitation, conflicts and restlessness due to the vasanas are at a minimum, and you move between the human and the Divine dimensions with utmost ease. Here all concepts that you have learned from a Guru will be destroyed… and you will forever swim in That Reality. Here you will have first hand proof of what you truly are. All mental concepts will dissolve and you will find yourself at the SELF. The mind will no longer pose any problems, and the vasanas (Vāsanā (Sanskrit; Devanagari: वासना) is a behavioural tendency or karmic imprint which influences the present behaviour of a person) will not burn you anymore. You will attain complete Freedom.
From a yogic point of view, Nididhyasana achieves Dhyana and Samadhi—which means ‘unwavering abidance’, much like how oil is poured from one container to another.
Meditation is an important tool to achieve these mental states.
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