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| THE SNAKE |
| LINKS TO OTHER ENTRIES IN MY HOMEPAGE |
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| Scene: Religious school for children Teacher: Who were the first man and woman created by God? Children: Adam and Eve! Teacher: And where did they live? Children: In paradise! Teacher: Why were they sent out of paradise? Children: Because they ate the forbidden fruit! Smart Kid: Teacher, what is the nationality of Adam and Eve? Teacher: Why did you ask that question? What's on your mind? |
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| But what is in the parable of the first man and woman that made it important enough to merit the top billing in the bible? It is a touching story that tells of harmony between man and nature, and between man and his Creator. It is a disturbing story, too, about the human folly that led to the breakup of this harmony. And that human weakness was exploited by an external energy (represented by the snake) through temptation. |
| On Knowledge Knowledge, without common sense, is folly; without method, it is waste; without kindness, it is fanaticism; without religion, it is death. But with common sense, it is wisdom; with method, it is power; with clarity, it is beneficence; with religion, it is virtue, and life, and peace. ~ Austin Farrar ~ On Relationship Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. This is the first step towards becoming either estimable or agreeable; and until it be taken there is no hope. The sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it. Sometimes the great truth is found out too late to apply to it any effectual remedy. Sometimes it is never found at all; and these form the desperate and inveterate causes of folly, self-conceit, and impertinence. ~ Lord Melbourne ~ Become aware of internal, subjective, sub-verbal experiences, so that these experiences can be brought into the world of abstraction, of conversation, of naming, etc. with the consequence that it immediately becomes possible for a certain amount of control to be exerted over these hitherto unconscious and uncontrollable processes. ~ Abraham H. Maslow ~ Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself, a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening. ~ George Gurdjieff ~ Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ~ To learn to get along without, to realize that what the world is going to demand of us may be a good deal more important than what we are entitled to demand of it -- this is a hard lesson. ~ Bruce Catton ~ To see ourselves as others see us can be eye-opening. To see others as sharing a nature with ourselves is the merest decency. But it is from the far more difficult achievement of seeing ourselves amongst others, as a local example of the forms human life has locally taken, a case among cases, a world among worlds, that the largeness of mind, without which objectivity is self-congratulation and tolerance a sham, comes. ~ Clifford Geertz ~ No one has ever learned fully to know themselves. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ~ Sometimes the best way to figure out who you are is to get to that place where you don't have to be anything else. ~ Source Unknown ~ |
| The object of temptation used in the biblical story was the tree of knowledge. And for Adam and Eve, the obsession to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge became so overwhelming that one small fruit became more important to them than the whole of the Garden of Eden itself. |
| There is an Adam or an Eve in each of us. We all have our gardens of Eden. But sometimes, this paradise is lost because we insist on handling the situation our own way. Oftentimes, we create an illusory world that disregards the needs of others. Then we say we are in a rut if we get rejected. Forget the illusion and get yourself out of the dumps. Drop the DMZ and you regain paradise. Next time, don't gaze upward to look for your garden of eden. The garden is here. The paradise is in you. |
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| Smart kid: Because had they been Cantonese, they would still be in paradise. Teacher: Oh, really? And may I ask why? Smart kid: You see, the Cantonese eat anything that moves. Had Adam and Eve been Cantonese, they would have eaten the snake instead! Tsinoy says: That's one smart aleck of a kid! And Canton must be one gastronomic place that will test your intestinal fortitude. Aside from a variety of meat, fresh vegetables and seafood, people go for exotic cuisine such as soft shelled-turtle soup, broiled snake, breaded seaworm, crispy scorpion, stir fried eel and sauteed beetle. |
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| Thankfully, it could not have dominion over him. It can seduce a person's physical senses, but it cannot destroy his soul. |
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| What's wrong with imbibing knowledge? Nothing, really. Except that knowledge, if abused, becomes a source of division. It could create distance. It could cloud your mind and hinder your thoughts. It could limit your potential; it could restrict your freedom. That is why Jesus said that only children will enter into His kingdom. Unlike adults, they have the quality of innocence, of wonder, in themselves. |
| I still remember the early years spent by my son in a multi-cultural nursery school in London. Like any playful kid, he would often share his toys with his pal, Courtney. The friendship looked odd to his nanny. One day, she told my son, "Huwag kang makipaglaro kay Courtney kasi Negro siya!" (Don't play with Courtney, he's black!) that, dear folks, is how you introduce children into the adult world of prejudice, bigotry and hatred. Sadly, adults spoil this innocence. |
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| Osho (The Heart Sutra) describes the three levels of awareness as awareness of the self, awareness of the world, and awareness of the intervening fantasy between self and the world. He cites Fritz Perls (gestalt therapy) who labeled the intervening levels the DMZ - the demilitarized zone - or the "zone of the buffers'. This zone contains our prejudices, the prejudgments through which we view the world and ourselves. If we look at the world through our biases, we cannot see the truth of it. Rather, what we create is an illusion. The greater the DMZ, the greater the illusion. |
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| Cheers. Tsinoy |
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| Wahoo graphics design by Carlo Marco Cruz. Animations on this page borrowed from the Animation Factory and Harry and Dorret Goodwin's Homepage. Background music "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins. |
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| My Info: |
| Name: Tsinoy in Singapore |
| E-mail: tsinoy999@hotmail.com |