The Knowledge of Good and Evil

Return or leave

After a long break a return to my original blog. With the slightly pretentious title of "The knowledge of good and evil". 

Recently returning to an old discussion forum, "The Forum Site" (where boredom is NOT an option as the caption tells us) I saw a question raised concerning "good" and "evil" asking if such knowledge was itself good or evil. I find the question intriguing, having resonance with much else, all things being interconnected. I was just a bit reluctant to make a post, having been absent from the forum for a number or years (I became bored) but took the bull by the horns and posted the following:-

The Tree of Life

At one level it is a question of whether the knowledge of good and evil is essential or comes about only as a result of some unnecessary "fall". Which suggests the divisions in Christianity between the conservative/fundamentalists and those, more liberal perhaps, who rejoice in, and speak of, the "happy fault that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer." Again, there are some who would suggest we need to return to a state of innocence prior to any "fall", while others recognise the value in "passing through" this world of opposites. For me, this latter view is necessary for any genuine and satisfying theodicy.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time"

Reflecting upon T. S. Eliot's words above, a simple return to innocence implies that we still would not "know" our "place" at all. Experience, the knowledge of good and evil, is necessary if the "being" of God is to be shared/given to us.

Anyway, from my own understanding, now, as a non-theist of what could be called "eastern perspectives", the journey itself is home. The zen master Dogen speaks of the "circle of the way" where every individual moment is complete in itself yet, nevertheless, there is a movement towards Buddha. Samsara and nirvana are "one" and this world is therefore not betrayed for some imagined "other".

In a huff - ignored

Well, so far my post has not drawn any response or acknowledgement despite over 25 "views". Maybe others are blown away by its profundity........or something.

But seriously, it is a profound question if we like that sort of thing; which many do not, preferring instead to spend their days actually living within the everyday reality of the opposites, making their choices, loving and hating, liking and disliking. 

Making another attempt to tell it as I see it, for me ALL is good, but until this is known for the first time we must live within the opposites. 

ALL is good - or not

After making my post given above I looked up the actual words of Dogen that I referred to and they are given here:-

"On the great road of Buddha ancestors, there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana, there is not a moments gap; continuous practice is the circle of the way"

For Dogen, as Kosho Uchiyama Roshi has explained, "the Way is not simply one direction from starting point to goal; rather, the Way is like a circle. We arouse the enlightened mind moment by moment, we practice moment by moment, we become fully aware moment by moment, and we are in nirvana moment by moment. And we continue to do it ceaselessly. Our practice is perfect in each moment and yet we have a direction toward Buddha."

The circle of the Way

For me this is all good stuff even if others are more in the mind of what on earth is he waffling about now?

It all adds clarity. My likes and dislikes, loves and hatreds if treated more as a raft for crossing over, not for grasping will - and in fact, do - release their firm grip upon me, gradually cease being the chains of a hard nugget of self, such self identified with and defended at all costs. Gradually "action" unfolds from a more gracious and merciful "centre" which is in fact nowhere. This, ideally, results in no self congratulation, no pharisaic separation from others who do not measure up - this simply because there is no self from which to make such comparisons.

Choose your reality

There is always the "appropriate statement" for each and every moment, correct for that moment, and if being at one with Reality-as-is the "statement" will be one arising from mercy and grace, the Living Word written not upon tablets of stone but upon the human heart. Which nurtures faith, trust simply because such a heart, the hidden ground, is revealed as what it is and what it can only ever be.

"Do not seek the truth; only seek to cherish opinions"as is said. 

Faith

All is good, but until this is known for the first time we must live within the opposites. The Way goes on forever.