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Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
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TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
A symbol of the reflex spiritual life growing upward through all the
ramifications of experience on the lower planes, and bearing the
fruit of experience,-the evolving moral nature.
"And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in
the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and
evil.” - GENESIS. ii. 9.
And from the lower nature the Wisdom-Love caused the faint
beginnings of growth-evolution-to take place, through the pleasant
desires that are to commence the growth of the soul; and so was
produced all that is found desirable and that can serve to gratify
the awakened cravings of the soul. Also from the center of the
garden or buddhic nature proceeds a "ray" of the Supreme Spirit
which extends downward (the tree of life), and through this the
moral nature to know good and evil-was founded.
“The tree of life is the holy of holies-- Christ, the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, the will's free choice." – Aurelius
Augustine, City of God, Vol. I. p. 546.
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shall not eat of it for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." - GENESIS. ii. 16, 17.
And instruction by intuition is delivered to the mind (man) that
experience is to be acquired through the activities of the lower
nature. But it is not through the intuitive sense of absolute right
and truth in self-guidance that the mind's earlier evolution is to
be promoted, for this is impossible to the lower mind, and at the
period (day) when the soul ultimately arrives at a perfect knowledge
of Truth, the lower mind (man) will cease to exist. The natural
course is otherwise, for at the stage when the fall of the ego into
matter is accomplished, the direct perception of Truth will cease
from consciousness.
"Jesus Christ is called the tree of life' (REV. ii. 7; xxii. 2). He
will be to all his members as a tree of eternal life, satisfying and
refreshing them with fellowship and communion with himself.”
"The tree of knowledge of good and evil, so called because by the
eating of it man came to know experimentally the vast difference
between good and evil."- Cruden's Explanations.
"The Holy Ghost presents the church to us under the similitude of a
garden. An excellent type of the presence of Christ with his church.
. . . These trees, and their pleasurableness, do show us the beauty
of the truly godly, whom the Lord hath beautified with salvation.
This tree of life' was another type of Christ, as the bread and
healing medicine of the church, that stands in the midst of the
paradise of God' (REV. ii. 7; xxii. 2). The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil' was a type of the law, or covenant of works, as the
sequel of the story clearly manifesteth; for had not Adam eaten
thereof, he had enjoyed for ever his first blessedness. As Moses
saith, It shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these
commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us'
(DEUT. vi. 25). But both Adam and we have touched, that is, broken
the boughs and fruit of this tree, and therefore now for ever, by
the law, no man can stand just before God. (GALATIANS ii. 16)." - J.
BUNYAN, Exposition of Genesis.
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