The first thing I should clear up, is hell. You'll notice that the manner in which I used the word is a conditon, not a place. A state of mind. The same holds true for Satan. Another state brought about by our fear.
I think that Satan is nothing more than the personification of "free-will". Lucifer was the first to utilize "free-will" in a negative way. And hence the beginning of Heavenly dualism. The beginnings of "good and evil".
The first, original sin was "dualism". This happened of course in Eden. Eve had two choices, the tree of life, or the tree of knowledge. What is the "tree of life"? In our interpretation it's the Kingdom of Heaven, a way of seeing the world where Isness of things is their most obvious quality. And what is the "tree of knowledge of good and bad"? It's seeing the world in the usual way, seeing things in terms of good or bad. Dualism. In "dualistic perception" pairs of opposites arise. Good and bad, hot and cold, right and wrong, happy and sad, and so on. Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and bad. This means that they were forbidden to see dualistically, to view the world in terms of good and bad. Why? Because when we see things in terms of good and evil we lose perception on the "One". Adam and Eve's fall into dualistic vision was enough to rob them of vision of the "One", of the Kingdom of Heaven, of Eden. When Eve partook of the tree of knowledge, (of right and wrong), we lost oneness with (God, Creator, Source, All).
According to Buddhists the fall is described this way. "In due course of evolution, sentiency appeared and sense-perception arose, and the world split in twain: there were pleasures and pains, self and not self, friends and foes, hatred and love."
(Carus, Paul. The Gospel of Buddha pg255. The Open Court Publishing Company, LaSalle IL 1973)A Christian spiritual treatise also describes the fall, which calls it the fall into "flesh". "In our downfall, we fell away from God, and fell into the flesh; thereby we went outside ourselves and began to seek for joys and comforts there. Our senses became our guides and intermediaries in this life. Through them the soul goes outside and tastes the things experienced by each sense."
(Unseen Warfare; The Spiritual Combat and Path to Paradise of Lorenzo Scupoli, Ed. by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, rev. by Theophan the Recluse, trans. by E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer [Mowbrays, London, 1978] {First published by Faber and Faber, London, 1952}The body/flesh is the instrument of sense perception. Changing from seeing the One as One, to seeing it as two, and therefore to seeing the created order as real--is the first and original separation from God. "Our existence as separate, individuals is based on separation from the "Source". We are separated from God by a "veil of createdness".
(Schimmel, Annamarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam [The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, 1975)With apparent dualism, evil does not exist. Augustine says evil has no actual existence itself but is merely an absence of good, just as darkness has no actual existence itself but is merely the absence of light. Evil has no positive nature; but the loss of good has received the name "evil".
(Augustine, St. The City of God, Trans. by Marcus Dods, D.D. [The Modern Library, New York, 1950]The quotes mentioned here came from Chapter 7 of Science Without Bounds.
(Arthur J D'Adamo. Science Without Bounds, 1997)There is a good deal more, and it is interesting reading. It happens to make sense to me, in a lot of ways. Satan and evil, are merely the ego getting its way. We have two parts to us, our ego selves and our spiritual selves. And once we get control over the ego self, we are really much happier.
Also it must be said that not everything that is bad is evil. Not in the moralistic sense. And that what may appear as evil, may not be, and the same is true of good. Some good may actually be a cover for bad. Again its semantics and perceptions. And of course this all depends on how much reality you want to give to evil or satan....you create your life and what is around you.
I see the concept of "satan", as our ego selves. They both embody the very things that hold us back. You are not born with fear, you are "taught" fear. It is conditioned. Some people in society have been taught to fear people that are not like them, (because they have different colored skin, RACISM), others are taught "conditional love". Conditional love, covers a lot of territory. Some examples might be, "I'd love you more IF you quit, (insert own word--drinking, smoking). Or, "You'd make me happy IF you would, (again, fill in the blank). To tag a "condition" onto our love, is to create unnecessary fear. Fear of losing love. Fear of being judged and found lacking, fear of acceptance...and so on.
I guess the bottom line is, that "satan" has no power, unless you give it power, through your own thought process. Satan's as real as your mind let's it be.
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