Since we have heard the story of the Garden of Eden and the two trees, no matter what you're belief system, it is an intriguing story. No one knows where the story came from. It is shrouded in mystery. However it has become for many christians the 'answer' for the fall of man, and for many it has provided good food for thought the problem with duality.
First there was one, man. Then god put Adam to sleep, and he got a rib and made two, Eve. It does not say God woke Adam. So it is possible the two were in a perpetual state of 'bliss' while they were in the Garden.
Then there were two trees. Not one but two, The Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then a serpent comes along and tempts Eve. She eats of the latter tree, and then encourages Adam to eat. One thing the Bible says, is their eyes were wide open. And they suddenly realized they were naked and sensed shame. Ran for some fig leaves. God god wind of it, and kicked them out of the Garden. Then he protected the Cherub with a sword of the Tree of Life and then death was imminent for the two and all their offspring.
What happened?
By eating of the Tree of Knowledge, all became dual in the world. Opposites all integrated with the premise of good and evil formed. Man and Woman, who were connected suddenly were separate. They woke up, and realized things much differently.
The other part of the story is human beings became dual. Or I should say, had the perception of being dual. Something was awakened, the perception changed, they saw they were separate from each other. Then the further divide was, to deal with each other, the ego was created. For me to interact in a dual world I need an ego. I have a consciousness now, as my eyes are opened. Because of this, to interact with you, I must do this.
But now as it is I and You, there is duality. And so the dilemma of the opposites appears. I am me, you are you. This is that, and that is that. Now when I act, based on this, it might be good, or bad. It might be good for me, but it will be bad for you. Then when you act, it might be bad for me. Now I suffer, because of the bad. I do not feel safe in a world of duality, so I suffer.
But now duality is not just I and you. Now I am at war with myself. As I grow in consciousness, I realize I am going to die. That nothing is permanent. That all things come to an end. As a child a pet dies and I feel suffering. But I also eventually get it, as I become an adult, that I will die too. I realize there is an opposite to life and that is death. And one of the things I resolve is as there was a tree of life, there was a tree of death. This duality has created the two in the world. One leads to life, and one leads to death. But the more I live I realize my life is temporary. I cant eat of the Tree of Life. I have not been able to do that. So I am bound to the world of duality, as my life is now short. Because duality teaches, a way which is not permanent. All things will eventually end. And all things end because there was a punishment of eating of the tree. They were forbidden so they were cursed.
However you slice it, we can observe that as all beings have an ego now (except for those who may have evolved past it), this creates a duality, a sense of You and I and then the oneness is not seen. However, is all really dual, or is this an illusion by Spirit, a grand scheme crafted, so we cannot see the oneness?
Yes and no. Advaita teaches "not two," and gives various examples, as well as Mahayana Buddhists. A hand has fingers, but the fingers are not independent of each other. I take a sheet of paper, and I form an airplane. I crumple it, it turns into a crumpled ball. I flatten it back out, and it is still crumpled. The illusion is the paper became 'an airplane' or 'a ball.' The truth is the paper was always a sheet of paper.
Some buddhist schools go further and speak of interconnectedness, or 'not two and one, both two and one,' which actually seems more logical. For example. I am a being, however, I need food and water and eat and drink it. I am not independent of this. My ego would say I am independent of this. But by seeing the oneness of all things, and the interconnectedness, I am able to see that as I take in food and water, I am both food and water. The water may not be mind, yet it nourishes my mind. If I became extremely dehydrated, I could not think, and in extreme, I would die. So this is where duality resolves itself. As an interconnected being, not two and one, both two and one.
When we strip down our essence we see many subatomic particles. I am many subatomic particles as are you. Once we strip down this, we realize we are all the same. And as to the analogy, we both eat and drink, to nouirish ourselves. There fore we are all the same.
The key to all this is strengthening the connection with spirit, learning to see the oneness in all things, and interconnectedness. This is the only way to escape the ramifications of the Garden of Eden. We gained knowledge of good and evil, yet were plunged into ignorance on the nature of things. We became a product of thoughts and emotions. That were illusory in nature, by subscribing to a dual world.
