Chapter 19
ADAM AND EVECharles Fillmore
Dynamics For Living
THE BIBLE veils in its history the march of man from innocence and ignorance to a measure of sophistication and understanding. Over all hovers the divine idea of man, the perfect-man pattern, the Lord, who is a perpetual source of inspiration and power for every man.
Allegory
What is stated in the Book of Genesis in the form of allegory can be reduced to ideas. These ideas can be worked out by the guidance of mental laws.
God creates through the action of His mind, and all things rest on ideas. Divine Mind images its ideas definitely and in every detail. The idea precedes the fulfillment. Ideas are productive and bring forth after their kind. They express themselves under the law of divine imagery.
The Book of Genesis gives two accounts of the creation of man; the first is that of the creation by Elohim and the second is that of the creation by Jehovah. The first act of mind is the formation of the idea, and the second is the expression of that idea. Elohim or God-Mind creates a Spiritual Man, in whom are conceived to be present all the attributes of his source. Next this Spiritual Man, Jehovah God, God-Mind identified as I AM, forms man in spiritual substance, in the “dust of the ground.”
Adam
Adam is the first movement of mind in its contact with life and substance. He represents the generic man, or the whole human race epitomized in an individual-man idea.
If the ego, or will, which is man, has adhered to wisdom faithfully and has carried out in its work the plans that are idealized in wisdom, it has created a harmonious consciousness. Adam in the Garden of Eden is symbolical of that consciousness.
Eve
Eve is love, or feeling, in individual consciousness. The I AM (wisdom) puts feeling into what it thinks, and so Eve (feeling) becomes the “mother of all living.” Feeling is Spirit which quickens. Woman symbolizes the soul region of man and is the mother principle of God in expression. Back of the woman (feeling) is the pure life essence of God.
Eden
Eden is a pleasant, harmonious, productive state of consciousness in which are all possibilities of growth. When man is expressing in harmony with Divine Mind, bringing forth the qualities of Being in divine order, he dwells in Eden, or in a state of bliss in a harmonious body.
The “garden” symbolizes the spiritual body in which man dwells when he brings forth his thoughts after the original divine ideas. This garden is the substance of God or state of perfect relation of ideas to Being. The Garden of Eden is the divine consciousness.
The Fall
Adam in his original creation was in spiritual illumination. Spirit breathed into him continually the necessary inspiration and knowledge to give him superior understanding. But he began eating, or appropriating, beliefs in two powers–God and not-God, or good and evil. The result, so the allegory relates, was that he fell away from spiritual life and all that it involves.
Having developed a consciousness apart from his divine nature, man must “till the ground from which he was taken,” that is, he must come into a realization of God as the source of his Being and must express ideas in harmony with Divine Mind.
Adamic Consciousness
Man is Spirit, absolute and unconditioned; but man forms an Adamic consciousness into which he breathes the breath of life; this, in its perfect expression, is the Son of man, and expression of the divine idea. This Adam is all of what we term soul, intellect, and body. We are continually at work with this Adam. We can breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, inspiring him with the idea of life in all its unlimited fullness. We can lift up this Adam by infusing into him these sublime ideas, and in no other way. Wisdom and love are joined in God, and a perfect balance is struck in consciousness between knowing and feeling when man spiritualizes his thoughts.
Man is falling just to the extent that he is ignoring the living Word in himself. Man must keep affirming the living Word; then he will have the transformed body. Jesus Christ is the Word demonstrated as perfect man, and through Him we are saved from the fall.
Development
Time is a human invention and acts as a barrier to a broader conception of creative processes. All attempts to find a date for the beginning of man are futile. Years are associated with events, and when the events are past the years go with them. States of mind make events, and new states of mind are constantly being formed; consequently every moment is the beginning of a new creation to the individual. It is of no practical value to a man to know that the world has journeyed around the sun six thousand or six million years since it was formed. The important thing is to know where man stands in relation to the creative law.
The Bible puts history before us as if we were part of every event, which we are. The one Mind is moving in its realm of ideas “over all, and through all, and in all.”
The allegory of the Garden of Eden, of the man and the woman and the serpent, represents the development of ideas in individual consciousness, not the development of a planetary system. Creation is the evolution of ideas in mind. Creation is the development of individuality; hence the one object of all creative processes is the making of man.
In the development of individuality the factors described in the allegory are active in every one of us at this moment. The creating is going on right now. The reason why God created man potentially perfect and then set him the task of proving it is found in the mysterious process called self-identification. Man makes himself after the pattern designed by the Great Architect. In proving his ability to carry out the divine plan he proves himself perfect.
The Serpent
Three fundamental factors are at the basis of all manifestation, namely intelligence, life, and substance. Divine intelligence reveals perfect ideas as the basis of existence. Any conception other than this is “eating” or appropriating thoughts that seem both good and evil. This conception of opposites leads to all kinds of inharmonies. It is the serpent, “more subtle than any other wild creature,” that suggests this to man. The serpent represents life, in which is vibration, color, sound, in fact all sensation. Sense consciousness is another name for the serpent. The life idea is manifest in the mighty lightning chain darting from sky to earth as well as in the subtle sensations that sweep through the soul.
Indulgence
The soul (Eve) is attracted by this realm of sensation and is psychologized by its promises of pleasure. When we indulge any of the sensations of the flesh for the mere pleasure that accompanies the indulgence, we are following the delusive suggestions of the serpent instead of listening to the word of God. Pain, disease, and finally death always result from such ignorant transgression of the divine law. Life is a fundamental factor in all existence. Without life there could be no existence.
When man fails to master his sensations and gives himself up to the uncontrolled enjoyment of life, he is losing his dominion and must suffer the consequences of transgressing the law. Man should therefore be ever on the alert to maintain his dominion and mastery over all the ideas of the mind and sensations of the body. Everything has its use in the divine economy, and man as the master builder should ever be seeking to carry out the divine plan.
Wisdom
Wisdom shows us what the law is and where we have fallen short in our use of it. We are not punished for our sins but by them. We establish ruling attitudes of mind by our daily thoughts. They may or may not be in harmony with Principle. Our dominant thoughts establish a general character. What we love or what we hate builds cells of joy or pain.
Obedience
To be in subjection to the higher Power is the highest goal of human attainment. The spirit of obedience is the spirit of love. Love is the most obedient thing in the universe. It is also the greatest worker and will accomplish more for our happiness than all other faculties combined. Love is divine ordinance. It has a balm for every ill.
Disobedience to Spirit is refusal to do right at all hazards. We all know the right. We do not always do it, because it seems to foil immediate attainment of the objective that we seek. We want quick returns.
If you are obedient to Spirit you will not suffer burdens. You will live in the present, do your highest duty every day, forget the past, and let the future take care of itself. To trust Spirit you must know of its guidance by experience.
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Dynamics For Living by Charles Fillmore
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