The Sunday Mail
Shingai Rukwata Ndoro : Chiseling the Debris
The serpent enquired if it was true that there was a prohibition order. A question is not a statement. Therefore, one cannot say there is a falsehood or deception in a question.Upon confirmation, the serpent then made a statement of fact that the fruit did not cause death.
On being approached by the serpent, the woman exercised her mind from an enquiry and the statement of fact. There is nothing ensnaring about an enquiry and a statement of fact. This is because the woman partook of the fruit freely and then shared with her husband who also freely accepted.
No objections were raised.
Both did not die and instead their eyes were opened, they realised they were naked and covered their bodies (Genesis 3:7).
This means the experience of nakedness is both a literal and figurative.
What is the type of knowledge that makes one to realise? It is that kind of knowledge that awakens, transforms, illuminates, enlightens and liberates an individual by making one to be aware of one’s agency. When one is aware of own agency, the result is consciousness. Consequently, one discovers and actualises cosmic human faculties of reasonableness, discernment and causation.
An authentic consciousness occurs sequentially:
(1) Death: acceptance of the psychological work of eliminating vanity and ego, that is an exaggerated and self-adulation sense of importance and ability; a mentally constructed self-centredness of impermanent attributes; one’s need for constant attention and reassurance;
(2) Awakefulness (“Re-birth”): realising one’s agency to discover the true nature of things and then actualise grand or cosmic faculties of reasoning, discernment and causation; and
(3) Service: to be serviceable to fellow human beings, “without desiring the fruits of action, without desiring reward; pure, sincere, disinterested service, giving one’s life in order for others to live, and without asking for anything in return.”
The prohibition order was a typical behaviour of a “reward and punishment” parental model. It is “based on logic: for a good action – a reward/praise and for a bad action – a punishment/scolding/reprimand.”
This kind of parenting is motivated and driven by fears, threats and punishments.
Psychologists have a very low opinion of this type of parenting/guardianship.
Upon eating the fruit, the Divine figure walked in the garden during the day, the man and woman hid among the trees of the garden, and there was an enquiry as to where they were.
The man responded by saying he felt guilty for violating the prohibition order and ashamed for being naked, and he had to hide.
The Divine figure knew of the effect of eating the fruit, enquired as to who had told him that he was naked and sought confirmation if he had eaten the prohibited fruit without authority.
A harsh and degenerate environment based on rewarding and punishing is full of fears, threats and punishments. Subsequently, the children do not accept responsibility of the consequences of their own choices, decisions and actions. Instead they will always find someone to blame and see themselves as perpetual victims.
Without the slightest sense of responsibility and blaming the woman, “…the woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Divine figure enquired from the woman what had happened. She also did not accept any responsibility. Like the man, she blamed her conduct on the serpent, whom she said charmed/enchanted her into eating the fruit. Both made false accusations because when they were approached about eating the fruit, they did not refuse to eat.
The serpent made a simple enquiry and then a statement of fact. As a result of the explanation made by the serpent, the woman saw that the fruit was attractive, good for food, and pleasant to look at.
The Divine figure had told the man and woman about death as the consequence of eating the fruit. They simply accepted this without question even though they knew nothing about death.
Later the serpent was to be a resource for their enlightening, illuminating or liberating knowledge.
Eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (i) “opened” their eyes that is awoke them up mentally, (ii) made them realise something about themselves, that is nakedness, (iii) noticed the natural circumstance they were in and what they needed to do about their situation since they found it unsatisfactory, and (iv) above all made them to be like the Divine figure.
Without the liberating and transformative knowledge of good and evil, it meant that humanity would have remained in a state of infancy, inadequacy and servitude in a mental prison and lacking curiosity.
For eating the fruit, the Divine figure said, “…(humanity) has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil.”(Genesis 3:22)
The serpent cannot be considered as having been an agent of a purported devil when it helped humanity to overcome the misery of an inferiority complex, tyranny of ignorance and the iron clad grip of a falsity at the insistence of a Divine figure.
Without the liberating knowledge with a capacity and ability to distinguish between good and evil, this would have made humanity to remain like infants or among beasts of the wild.
It is out of a tyrannical mindset of the ecclesiastical figures that women have suffered sexist and hateful discrimination when it is said that the Genesis woman represents destructive seduction, temptation and rebellion. Instead she represents a growth mindset − “infinitely curiosity,” ever examining and unrestraintful questioning.
Till we meet next week, lets keep chiseling.
Feedback: [email protected] and Twitter @shingaiRndoro. A gallery of previous articles is found at www.sundaymail.co.zw/author/shingairukwata
