Edenic Maturity

By: Jonathan Seidel

Leaving eden: consciousness and complexity (Cioran, 24-25) 

Depending on the approach and interpretation Adam and Eve either gained intelligence or refined their intelligence after the sin. Maimonides’ position that their view of the world shifted from truth-falsehood to good-evil is a paradigmatic approach. Namely it accounts for the complexity of human rationality and the depth of intellect. This being the case, the sin while virtually elevating man’s capability also brought dear consequences to his life.

Adam and Eve’s sin elevates them to the top of the hierarchy. They are by far the most aware of the species. The most cognisant and complicated. Able to deduce the haywire of reality. What is a beautiful aura is a mathematical direction. It separates man from his origin. He is no longer an animal. While Adam realised on a surface level he needed Eve, he didn’t realise this on an intellectual level. He was smart enough to recognise the falsehood in a helpmate. He had no one else. It was just him. The kabbalistic motif further rectifies this analysis. Adam and Eve were back to back. He never noticed she was behind him. They were a part of the same being and yet never spoke. Only when they were face to face to reckon with his other half. She was there the entire time but out of sight. Away from his purview. It wasn’t his intellect that prevented but his eyes. He could not see her thus he could not perceive her. He was alone in the garden and desired someone for him. 

Adam looked around and didn’t see any compatibility with the animals. Each of them had the other. Intuitively there was something missing. Eve was the completion of his loss. She made him feel whole. The two by two animals that Noah gathers is a set. A complete duo relying on one another. Eden was a moment of laxity and peace. Simplicity and satisfaction. They couldn’t wish for more. It is only with the snake’s encouragement that the problem arises. The epitome of desire is the cunning strategy to gather your prey in the palm of your hands. The snake used rhetorical lingo to sway Eve. Eve is generally blamed for her role but she was tricked. According to the intellectual approach she was a simpleton and was perplexing herself into a bind. The snake raised the question and she trapped herself. The desire was in her face and she made herself believe that she was correct. The snake’s first move set off the chain of events but it was Eve who stuck herself deep in a hole. Adam followed as a simpleton. If Eve was doing it so could he. He never thought to question maybe she is acted incorrectly. Maybe the snake is up to something. Naivety was not permissible especially since the easy response should have been no. 

Adam ought to have heeded the haredi response. Simple faith. Listen to God. God tells Adam don’t, Adam listens until someone else is doing it. It is akin to a parent telling a child don’t eat junk food and then a friend pressures you and you respond well only candy and then justify eating chocolate. Rebranding in order to seem cool or be accepted. Pressure can get to us. Eve’s mistake was being too stringent and then falling prey to her own misconception. Trivial as it may be they become enlightened. Their sin is enlightenment. While this seems positive it is the opposite of simplicity and ease. Life in Eden is adolescence. It is free and joyful. Enlightenment ensures hardship and desire. A traumatic evil coercing the self to act independently of the peaceful aura. Eyes crave instead of enjoying the moment. Envy stares the object in the face. Enlightenment is not merely more intellect but more desire and more complication. The complexity needs to be satisfied. It is not the scientific cultivation but the neurological necessities. A means of compensating the desire for growth and untamed excellence. A far cry from the peace of Eden. The unknown of naivety. 

Enlightenment is awareness. It is self evident understanding. The child is still in an Eden-like worldview. Everything is rainbows and unicorns. A child falls and gets right back up. Everything for the most part is secure and beneficial. Once the intellect sharpens the dangers attack. Yet it is not the everlasting desire for growth that is the most astonishing. Knowledge to innovate is not the issue nor is it the excess materialism accompanied by the technological advancements but the inner turmoil. So regularly voided in the face of the radical transformation of society. The vanity of life is not in the physicality of virtual sexuality but in the external reliance. On the neurological frame’s complexity. The crave for more knowledge. For the mind to continue pushing ever farther. There is no stopping. There is no scaling it back. The modern age is comfortable but there is always more. Keeping moving forward. The intellect is tremendous and desires to compensate and benefit. Yet all the while the mind is cracking. It will overload and be left moot and motionless.  

It is the dread of life that meets at various layers. Our intellect helps avoid these crisis by focusing elsewhere. The complexity of life endows distractions to remain distant from the horrors but it is at that same time the intellect itself that is responsible for the grave difficulty. It is the grand intelligence that isolates and comforts. It is the mind that can build and destroy. To permit and to prohibit. The intellect is unparalleled in human existence. It is the exception to the rule. The single most powerful tool in one’s inventory. Yet it is a double-edged sword. One that causes its bearers terrible sickness. A mask that raises one’s strength but melts their mind. A truly powerful weapon that has intense recoil. The intellect provides a safe haven from itself. The world is harsh and the intellect tries to make it easier by making it noticeable how hard it is. The intellect exposes their realisation and then attempts to solve its own debacle. Such a revelation musters immense cognitive energy to ensure security at the expense of this newfound knowledge.  

The moment of maturity is a gradual exposure to harsh truth. Life is tough. A motto so engraved in our minds. It isn’t fair and never will be. Yet this realisation comes at the cost of our cognitive processes. We reckon with the harsh realities because we are aware of them. We see beyond ourselves. The injustices that plague others. Fated to suffer because of one false move. Good and evil surrounds the mindless daydreaming of heroes and villains. Is this action considered angelic or devilish. We choose because we think. There is more to do other than the biological specifications. It is that which we cannot attain that causes us the most pain. The limits impinged upon the body. The awareness of the detrimental decline insurmountable. A future unavoidable. The mind is engrossed in the routine but the routine is no easy feat. The obligations expand and the body stumbles to keep up. The rational reminds that it will be over in evening. One day at a time. Yet the excruciating demeanour does not let up and it catches up with him. Forced to stare down the deathly breath of doom he is unprepared.

His mind conjures the difficulties. Life wouldn’t be all too terrible if he didn’t think. Yes he wouldn’t build but he also wouldn’t suffer. He wouldn’t sense the cognitive self-destruction tearing his psyche apart. He would go with the flow. Smart enough to relate to reality but dumb enough to remain distant. To be naive and enjoy the dumb drug of ignorance. It is the intellect that carries too much information. The intellect that expects too much. That sends pain signals and disorients the bodily function. The soul is trapped as the mind continues to prey on the body. The mind is the central command and fires orders like a tyrant. The soul is locked in a cage praying for the body’s recovery. Intuition is only a secondary muscle to the brain’s power source. The body is forced to follow the brain’s directive. Life is but dedicated to the intellectual genius yet crumbling that genius in a neurosis. Preoccupied with the brain the body grows ill. The brain hits overdrive and being is wiped to a vegetable. Humanity can only consume so much. It can only handle a certain degree of awareness. Yet the brain attempts to internalise it all. A hyperdrive in need of balance. 

Knowledge is power but it is also pain. Knowledge has brought many successes and many failures. A desire to grow while depleting rapidly. The sin provided intellect. Wow an amazing gift but a dark twisted curse. Man tries so hard to distance himself from an animal. He only is hurting himself. He has escaped the marshes of Africa to the settlements walled off. He has pets and acts superiorly. Yet he has eclipsed his own arrogance. He is but a shell of nature. He has afforded his own ignorance for pride. Envy encapsulates his mindless lust for more sensation. Lacking satisfaction with the simplicity of life. Nature is insufficient. He must go beyond. He must travel beyond the stars. Yet he can never satisfy himself. He can never be free of the curse. He is forever to be a straggler. A sufferer aware of his own mortality. He fears death and reflects on the troublesome life-force. He is chained down to existence. His mind tries to distract him but it is imperfect. The struggles catch him and his mind will not be able to protect him. He is vulnerable no matter his intelligence.

Adam’s sin is tainted with the knowledge of his own demise. Not his mortality insofar of his inevitable pitfalls. Every animal may fail but his awareness increases his emotional response. Man is an animal but one with an appetite. One that concerns his being with everything. He cannot be still nor accept fate. He must alter his destiny. He must search for a remedy to the cursed life. Yet it is impossible. His brain is linked to his core. Without it he is dead. The virus is a part of him. The curse is embedded in his core frame. Adam was punished with maturity. It is the reflection of life’s struggles that imprint their magnitude on the soul’s vitality. Man is forever to endure the challenges laid down by Adam and Eve’s sin. By disobeying God they decided that they knew better. They were mature and could decide for themselves. God blessed them with such clarity. Their awareness exposed their nakedness. Their self-esteem heightened. Confidence lay in their own image. If they desired the fruit they’d desire otherness. It is now their knowledge to deal with. Welcome to adulthood good luck. 

Modern life has questioned the legitimacy of tradition. The need for intellectual stimulation or better evidence or an easy alternative has pressed on the minds. The cognitive genius seeks exploration yet it is this exploration that leads to problems. It is the exploration that cannot compensate for the troubles. Sometimes hard work won’t pay off. Sometimes hard work paying off ends abruptly. The mind struggles to deal with complexity. When plans go awry the mind shuffles into overload. Seeking solutions to embrace the chaos but cannot. Yet religion does. The presence of God and his almighty care provides that outlet. Whether he intervenes or not is just that he is there. Plans may go awry but God cares and will watch over. Man is no longer under nature’s thumb so he instead under God’s. His intellect pales in comparison to God’s. In a Maimonidean tone, it is man’s limitations that provide him the humility to prostrate to God. He has a plan and man follows. The flow of life is recognising the almighty has a plan or that he observes. Everything may began to falter but God will not. Chaotic reality is but beneath divinity. 

Simple faith overcomes the intellectual capacity. Stop overestimating and trust in God. Faith in God is the step to cleave. He will care and compensate. No need to worry. Life will go haywire. Things will go wrong. Depending on God will lift the burden off your shoulders. The yoke will feel ever lighter. There is little need to bear the strenuous cognition of life. Meditation is a good start. A more mind-body dualism to maintain a calm mind. The body is to balance the mind’s erratic personality. Instead of jumping through hoops the body’s long breaths charges the mind in place. With God it is beyond the meditative spirit. Prayer is an alternative form of meditation but elevates the mind-body dualism to the spiritual dimension. Meeting God in a metaphysical encounter. Aroused by the divine drama. Overwhelmed by the spiritual psychosis enveloping the believer. It creates a sense of security and love in the believer’s mind. He is protected. He accepts his limits and seeks God to supply the rest. Bequeathing him to assist when he cannot. A peaceful method to overcome the nihilistic negativity that curls in the dampening fears of the unknown. While not the most stimulating it is the most comforting.

The intellect is a blessing to understand and choose to move closer to God yet it also leads to a cursed emotional down spin. A troubling reality mixed with burdens and sorrows. Adam’s sin revealed good and evil. Yet more so introduced awareness. Comprehending the complexity of life with that complexity comes to bite in the butt scares man. It haunts him daily and troubles him till his death. There is no escape. He is born of intelligence. Of the sin differentiating him from animals. He has left Eden and seeks to follow God through his commands. Through active motion he is alleviating the burden. His life is halakhic realia of spiritual purpose for growth and for enduring serenity.