On the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

In the garden was the tree whose fruit should not be eaten. It was forbidden. The Lord said in Genesis: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Death to those who know.

And the serpent, the symbol not of curiosity but of hubris, will tempt you to take from it, to know right from wrong just as God knows.

Adam and Eve eat and do not physically die. In fact they become human. Cast out of the garden of earthly delights, they are thrust into time and a world of suffering, shame, and sin we all know so well.

The knowledge of good and evil. Death to those who know.

Are you beginning to get the picture?

To know right from wrong is to be dead. To be dead is to be human. It is the very knowledge that kills us. Not physically, of course, but the second we decide we know something about morality, psychologically we are dead. Remember the garden -- ignorance is bliss. When you are young, there is nothing to know. Simply take and eat. Enjoy. Everything is simple. It is knowledge that complicates things. Knowledge that causes us to suffer. You probably have heard the story of Adam and Eve, but did you listen? Did you hear the true message conveyed?

Relax and enjoy life and you will be happy. That is all there is to it. You are told you must help charity, you must say please and thank you, you must become a good catholic, you must contribute to society. All these things you must do lest you become a bad person. Who can tell you this? This is nonsense! Let them have their knowledge. Let them judge and persecute to their dying day. Those are the people -- those who know the most -- that feel the least. To know comes in the way of to see. To know is to decide there is nothing more to see. To know is to reject God’s creation (or as we say, reality) and substitute your own.

When you are told you do no good works, and should feel guilty, say: “and you, why do you work? Is it to help others or to please yourself? Why do you become a slave to good and evil? Why do you abdicate your capacity to understand and substitute it with the lazy, stagnant state of knowing? You have stopped learning, you have stopped loving, you have stopped understanding the second you have known, for to love is to understand that there is nothing to know but happiness, nothing to be done but enjoy.”

The men who know the most feel the least. But they fear the most. Why else do they collect knowledge as if it were gold? Is it not equally selfish as one who works hour after hour simply to acquire great riches and horde them all?

The fear of nonbeing, the shame of being a sinner. These things drive us to accumulate knowledge and do good works. Not for others, oh no, do not believe this for one minute, but for ourselves.

You believe so strongly in giving charity. You think those who are unhappy deserve happiness. Why do you give none to yourself? Imagine a world full of people, all saintly in their charity, all miserable. It is absurd. Fix yourself, then you may choose to help others. Gain wisdom and you will know what is to be done.

To have knowledge is to be ignorant. What an important message in our particular time. Our politicians know, those who start wars know, those who protest know. And do not forget that you who gives to charity, you too know. You are not so different, you simply come down on the other side of the fence. Both of you know, and so you know not of yourself or of what you do.

To know is to die. Die for an idea. To become a robot, automated and programmed. He says you are poor, you are upset. He says you have a nice smile, you are happy. Who are you? Who is choosing for you? Not you. The one who puts you in this nice box and you are happy or the one who places you in that bad box and you are sad. That is who chooses how you feel. You are a robot. A slave. Because you know. You know right from wrong, and so you have died.

Give it up! Spit out the apple! It is the apple that makes you miserable!

There is never a good so good as when the person doing it was not even aware that what he was doing was good. Give up your knowledge and find happiness. Your choice. If you do not like to hear this, too bad. Your loss. As long as you know, you are dead.

And dead people are of no use to anybody.

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