On Steve Pavlina's blog I just downloaded a free copy of the first chapter of his book here. Now I haven't read it yet so this post isn't about that, but I had to note that the first chapter was entitled Truth. It was a beautiful spring day today, so I spent some time out in the clover, piecing together some of the ideas that have been coming. I thought I would have a go at tying them all together, because they all seem to be linked up somehow. So.... honesty, shadow sides, religion, telling my truth. I have also been re-reading the Narnia books, which also ties in.
The first Narnia book, The magicians nephew, relates to the birth of Narnia, the dawning of time. I have read other books over the years, such as Ishmael, which have formed my ideas about the creation story of Genesis, and the Fall of Man. A story which is the basis of three of the worlds most pervasive religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. As with the people of most cultures, stories of their origins were passed down through generations like fairy tales. These were stories that seemed important to hold the society together, rules to live by. Each civilisation has it's own creation myth. Usually the gods were linked somehow to the source of their survival. Many had sun worship, and nature based religions were common. Patterns of nature recurring reinforced their beliefs. Some stories were literal, but most, were ideas that personified natures forces, or represented different tribes as characters.
Evolutionary scientists, trace our our history back to a chlorophyll molecule that was able to harvest the suns energy. When the waste procuct of this reaction (oxygen) started to burn and destroy, some cells adapted, and used this oxygen to burn food. External circumstances continued to force greater evolutionary leaps and altered the atmosphere until about 580 million years ago animal and plant life forms as we now recognise them existed. Two great extinctions have occured since then that wiped out a huge number of species, the last of which left a small mammal which became the ancestor of todays mammals and us. All of us humans evolved as part of the animal kingdom.
I believe that the whole of our universe is a physical manifestation of a universal intelligence,vibration, force, some call it God. The intention of this manifestation to evolve and create, pushes it further onward. I don't think any of our words are capable of explaining it, but each culture has tried their best. The aboriginals describe the beginning as the dreamtime, when the world was dreamed into being. Narnia is sung into being by Aslan. Genesis describes this world as coming straight from the Word of God. We know that Genesis is not a literal story from our knowledge of archaeology, Adam in hebrew means man, and Eve represents woman or "virgin", which also had a different meaning in the context of the time it was written. The bible also speaks of finding wives for their sons from a neighbouring villiage, so they are not considered the sole inhabitants of the early history of the world.
But back to the animal kingdom. Survival of species in this world, is determined by which are the most mutually benificial relationships. This is the circle of life. The relationship of red cells that could utilise the excessive oxygen, and in turn exhale carbon for the chlorophyl molecules, which then created oxygen for the red cells to burn, was one of the first of these benificial relationships. Co-dependent relationships exist between members of the animal and plant kingdom, and meeting basic survival needs, is the reason for most actions of animals. In nature we can see evidence of all the qualities of man. Aggression of a hunter, care of mothers for their young, promiscuity in monkeys, and the monogomy of penguins. Curiosity, social heirarchy, homosexuality, killing, maiming, raping, co-operation, flirting, death, birth. These are all part of the life of animals. These are base instincts. In Edun all animals co-existed in harmony. In the wild predators will drink at the same waterhole as prey. Caution is excercised but no malice is felt. Humans or pre-humans once co-existed in the same way. Nowadays we see ourselves as separate from animals, as defined either by our souls, or our ability to think moralistically, depending on who you ask. Our mind has evolved to allow greater capacity for thought and analysis, therefore we think we know the difference between right and wrong. You see what I'm getting at here?
In Genesis after God made the world and it's inhabitants, He told them they could have everything but the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Before they knew about good and evil, they were happy and free of burden, and guilt. Once they had partaken of the fruit, they were cursed with the knowledge of good and evil, and could not live as the animals did, acting out their natural urges, but had to hide themselves, even from God who created them. In my mind this compares to the gift/curse of the mind. Our advanced intellect makes us hide urges and impulses in ourselves that we deem to be unsuitable. Our mind forces us to defend our sense of self, the Ego, at all costs, causing us to work harder and worry more than animals do for their food and shelter. We concern ourselves with image, and politics, shoulds and shouldnt's. Each religion feels that they alone have ownership of the rules of good and evil. In the animal kingdom there is no good and evil. There is only benificial, or not. Hell on Earth, is being entrenched in the illusion of good and evil, the competitve struggle to preserve the Ego, and attatchment to hoarding impermanent treasure. Heaven or Paradise, is finally being free of all this, and understanding that you are already perfectly human, and need do nothing to become whole or good. Buddhism is full of teachings that promote releasing attatchment to things, being a certain way. This is their path to enlightenment. I also see much of this message in some of the teachings of Jesus. Certain mystic variants of judaism and christianity see this fall of man, as the fall into Ego, or the mind. Our happiness then is linked directly to our belief in good and evil. One of the lessons of Ishmael is that..

"The story of Genesis must be undone. .... you must spit out the fruit of the forbidden tree. You must absolutely and forever relinquish the idea that you know who should live and who should die on this planet."

"Teach a hundred what I've taught you, and inspire each of them to teach a hundred."

Jung's shadow work, from what I understand, teaches us to accept ourselves as containing all qualities both good and evil. We can then also accept others as being capable of all qualities. He used dreams as one way of revealing hidden aspects of our personality. By working through these as the universe presents them to me, I can better reveal my true self and honestly represent myself to the world. While checking my notes on evolution in my handwritten journal, I came across My Purpose that I wrote down recently. I wrote that my purpose in this life was to educate mself, inspire others and be true to myself. With the help of this blog, I feel I am living more in alignment to my purpose than ever before.