Back to the Garden

by Bill Turner                                            Printer-friendly Version

So do you remember the Garden of Eden? Metaphysically it speaks of the paradise of consciousness. It’s the bliss you feel when your human self is in total alignment with your spiritual self. The promise of the garden speaks of the underlying presence of Divine Consciousness, available to all of us at all times. As Adam and Eve are first introduced in the story, they are living from this perspective and taking advantage of all that it offers. You might remember in Genesis chapter one it summarizes, “Everything that God made was good.”

But then later in our story, in Genesis 2:6 it says, “There arose a mist”—think fog. Metaphysically, we are told that everything after that statement is about man experiencing a spiritual amnesia of sorts. It would be akin to your spiritual umbilical cord being cut. When you live in the mist, you live from a human perspective—separated by a veil in the world of appearances and effects where everything changes all of the time. And doesn’t the physical world appear convincingly real? But what if I were to tell you that none of it is real: no one really gets sick; no one really gets hurt; no one dies; no one loses all their money; and no one even makes a million dollars? The good news is you can go back to the garden, i.e. the paradise of consciousness at any time you desire to lift the veil.

The Real you, or your Expanded Self is aware that all human experiences are simply made up to create a game called Life. Your experiences only seem real. Now I know some things seem horrible to your human persona when it’s immersed in the game. And that’s the whole point of the human game—it must seem real! Making the illusion appear real is the biggest challenge of the Human Game: it’s designed to create deep and intense emotion to hold our interest. Because we think the game is real, we feel things like stress, suspense, anxiety, which reinforce the belief that it is real. It’s like the sun and the clouds. Even though the clouds may block the sunlight, the sun is always shining. Likewise, you are infinitely powerful, wise, abundant, and eternal. Compare that to the sun: you are always bright and shining even if you’re in the midst of a tsunami! No matter what’s going on in your life, no matter what the circumstances look like, who you are does not change.

But most people live in the mist of illusion, because it all seems so real. That’s where doctors and counselors work. They work with the human persona and try to heal the physical man or woman. But what we are realizing now is this: you cannot heal an illusion! You can change it around a bit, but it’s kind of like straightening up the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.

None of this is new—it’s been around a long time. Going back to our story, Adam and Eve produced two children or rather two perspectives. Cain (which means possession or acquisition) represents the physical existence of humanity living with spirit veiled. He was a tiller of the soil which places him in the earthly domain. In Hindu metaphysics, Cain speaks of the physical body; the Apostle Paul would call it the flesh perspective; Buddha would refer to it as dukkha. Cain is humanity with all of its divine power hidden. This is the consciousness of trying to aquire, possess, and get. It is the perspective that believes the world around us has the power as well as everything we need and, that if I am going to survive, then I must take from this physical world which surrounds me. Remember the second son of Adam and Eve? Abel (which means breath or spirit) raised sheep which speaks of innocence and purity. The Abel perspective is the clear and open identity of, “I know who I am.”

The brothers offer two distinct paths for living life. Cain represents a physical life in the mist, the way of separation that lacks a clear recognition of who you really are. Conversely, Abel represents a physical life in the light, understanding that everything is good and with a clear recognition of who you are—a spirit being playing a game called life in a temporary body suit.

Think of it this way, there are two camps. The first camp is man camp. We set up our tents and don’t have a clue who we are. We are fearful and fight and resist everything around us. We judge, blame, and take revenge. This is what Buddha described as dukkha or suffering. This is how we create hell on Earth. Our mantra is, “Look at what others have done to me.” Now let’s go visit the second camp, God camp. In this camp, we remember who we are. We know that all things work together for our good. We know we are always connected because that’s who we are. We gain our power—not from what’s around us—but from within. In this camp, we sing, “We know we create our lives and isn’t this game exciting?” We get to choose which way to play the game, life embracing Spirit or life ignoring Spirit.

Now as you may recall, Cain killed Abel, meaning that basically humanity has chosen to play the game of life with spiritual amnesia. We are Clark Kent with the glasses on, forgetting the fact that we are wearing a red and blue suit hidden beneath our clothes. So then what happens to Cain after he kills Abel and humanity ignores its spiritual core? We are told in the Bible that, “He wandered in the Land of Nod.” The Hebrew word for Nod means: trouble, unrest, and frustration. Do you know anything about trouble, unrest, and frustration? I’m sure you do, especially if you have chosen to play your game of life like a Clark Kent ignoring your spiritual core.

If someone interviewed you and asked, “How do you feel? Most likely you would say, “it depends on what’s happening.” As we play the life game, we are happy when things are going our way. We do everything we can to change circumstances to our favor. We are riveted by the tangible. We look for just the right words to use to get our way. We experiment to find the right formula to find the good life. We do whatever it takes to continue to manipulate the physical world to our liking. But everything negative that happens in the mist is set up to give us a message: WAKE UP TO THE TRUTH OF WHO YOU REALLY ARE! One day it finally dawns on you that superstition does not lead to freedom. You tried it all: self-help material, philosophy, mysticism, science, religion, channeling, star gazing, etc. And some of it worked, for a while, but then it stopped. Why? Because everything in your life is driving you to something higher. All of the problems, issues, and pain are there for a reason—to get you to wake up from the illusion to find your inner power.

© 2008 Bill Turner. All rights reserved.