Onacruse:
Would you then agree that the Devil's 'original lie' was actually a supernatural revelation to Adam and Eve of what they really were?
Perhaps in a way, but I have not really thought much about it. What was it the Serpent supposedly said? Wasn't it something like :"You will not die, but rather be like gods"? This is not language I would use to describe our true united nature. The serpents words sound more like a grandiose ego trip to me. It's more like the "me" dissolves into the endlessness of conscious-awareness. It's not as if we become anything; it's kind of like a death. Yet, it is seen we are everything, yet no particular thing. We are nothing, just as equally as everything. So, I guess what I'm saying is I don't know what the serpent was referring to. I find we gain more mileage by investigating into what is real right now.
MQ:
when that stuff was written, a couple thousand years ago, human kind was actively engaged in a dualistic lifestyle, constantly fighting the elements and beasts of the fields; and a couple million years ago when we realized we had skin instead of a bunch of fur, we were even more dualistically inclined.
Nowadays, at least in westernized cultures, we can sit back on our verandas and pontificate on the false sense of duality, but then it was real - both to the writers and to the oral historians who probably originated one of the first Adam & Eve stories that eventually got written.
No matter the time or place, phenominal life-styles and situations, our non-dual nature remains pure and untouched. It could have been realized by some and passed down via myth and legend. But, I can not say for sure what the Bible is talking about. I may just be seeing in the Eden story what I want to see. That said, I agree that today we have a the opportunity and time to do some deep inner investigation into our be-ing without fear of being eaten by a lions, tigers, or bears. Oh no.
j