THE NATURAL MAN IN THE GARDEN
In the previous lessons, we reached the sixth Day which is "The Heaven," whole in itseIf as Expression, yet only one half of the circle of existence, or creation. From this point, (the Image) begins the Seventh Day’s Work, or the finishing of creation, — the appearing to view clearly and naturally of what “The Heaven contains. Nothing new is created on the Seventh Day, but now, (in this day) the created is to “come forth” or to appear. To what, or to whom is it to appear? There must be some one, to whom it is to be revealed. There must be a looker-on, — some one to see what appears. What does creation mean? The putting forth from Mind its natural products or emanations. How is the Unit created? Its fractions are in it, as parts of it. As the Unit unfolds its Nature to view, ½, ¼, etc, as its parts we see manifestation. Thus when the Unit Man begins to unfold his nature to view, we shall see his parts as the fractions which are in him. The Seventh Day is out of or from. It is that which is already potential in the Heaven, that which is already existing in the Ideal but not yet manifest. God’s will is done, or already accomplished in Heaven, therefore it is to be done on the earth. “God’s will” is simply the nature of God, active. This action has done its work (so to speak) but there must be a voluntary co-operation with It before It can be done on Earth, as It is in Heaven. Then, we find there is something else beside the Heaven and the Earth, which is “the veil” or “the world” that hangs between the two and hides the Real.
In our Basic lessons we find it is the Shadow of the substantial that has cast it. On this plane, we may have a very actual tree, but this seemingly substantial tree may reflect a very unsubstantial shadow. “The shadow” is the third column of the Basic Course, and the inner line of the circle. The upper half of the circle is the “Second Column” in which is expressed all that God is and does. God’s actions is the underived Force. Man’s activity is the derived Power, and its product we call the Re-presentation because man’s power is limited, compared with God’s power.
These are the generations which must appear in the earth. Then from this point, (Image) we trace a dual result; one, from man and one from God. Through Man, both must be clearly traced. “The Father worketh hitherto, and I work,” said Jesus, shewing the double work. We read also, of “The Lord God” the active worker who forms; that which is formed is shape. The created is from God, and is living. God’s creations are eternal, perfect, spiritual, substantial while shapes, the product of Man are temporal and changeful. This shows plainly that the 1st and 2nd chapters of Genesis are not a repetition, but one is the consequence of the other. Theology teaches that they are the same account, the differ- ence being that one is God’s view and the other, man’s view. If this were true, there would be a wide difference between them, for the 2nd chapter deals with things not mentioned in the 1st chapter. There is no mention of a “dust man” in the 1st chapter, but there is in the 2nd chapter (Read the 7th verse). “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the “breath of life,” and man became a “living soul.” What is soul? It is SeIf-consciousness. God is Consciousness Itself. The Genus Man is the conscious Being. Soul is the Self-Consciousness or consciousness of what I am , have and can do. You will observe that the term “living” is coupled with soul. “The living” is from God. It does not say that the Lord-God formed a “living soul” nor, does it read a “living shape” for clearly, living belongs to soul and not to shape. “A man” is a degree of “living soul” together with shape. Soul (that which is from God) shape (that which is from man) gives us a personality. Personality belongs to the Seventh Day, to the “appearing”. The Genus Man belongs to God, is the direct product from God, while personality is the direct product from Genus. Personality becomes more and more. It grows because self-consciousness must increase until it reaches oneness with its original Source which is God.
Which is it that grows, soul or shape? Shape is good, and is fixed as human shape. All growth belongs to soul. “Growth of soul” is the Seventh Day’s work. It is the ascension of the soul out of “darkness” or “ignorance” into Self-knowledge. What belongs to the Seventh Day? Personality. From whence does shape come? Man. From whence does soul come? God. What is the work of the Seventh Day? Soul growth. There is a co-operative work to be done. “The Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” This is co-action, a voluntary inbreathing and out-breathing of the “Breath of Life” For Man is the “breather” and breathes in, the Breath of Life. God is Life Itself. The “Breath of Life” is Its action. Man is the possessor of Life, while Soul uses it. The Breath of Life is “The Truth of Being.” When we speak the words that God spake we use the “Breath of Life.” Read 2nd chapter, 8th verse. “And the Lord-God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” For what purpose is a garden? Evidently for something to grow in. Then this “Garden of Eden” is not a geographical garden which many are seeking to locate here and there as the case may be, and it is a singular fact that no two agree as to the exact locality.
Where there is a garden, there must be growth. The lower half of the “Circle” is the “Garden of Eden”. It is soul existence. To what is shape attached? To soul, which gives it value and these two, shape and soul together, make a personality or “natural man” the Lord God put in the Garden. He is the man that tills the ground. (Read 2nd chapter, 10th verse). “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence, it was parted and became into four heads.” So a river is provided to water this garden. It has a purpose, and is parted into four heads. The four heads are “Pison,” which means in Hebrew, “Freely flowing, where gold is found.” Picture an island surrounded by water which cannot be reached without crossing the water. On this island is a gold mine, and, in order to cross it, we must cross the water. How many faculties are there? “Power to Know,” - “Power to understand” - “Spiritual Perception” - and “Intellect”. “The Power to Know” is wisdom and wisdom is gold. We can trace gold throughout the Scriptures, - different kinds of gold, pure gold, fine gold, beaten gold. How do we beat out our wisdom with our experiences? But it pays to get wisdom at any cost for when we have wisdom, We have positive knowing.
The four heads of ths river, or faculties, must water the garden of the soul, in order to grow it must be watered with the know edge of Truth, and it is apparent to reason that we could not get this knowledge without the “Power to Know” for it is the channel through which wisdom comes. The second head of the river is “Gihon” which encompassed the whole land of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is black, meaning we do not yet understand. This knowledge of our true being is dark obscured until our understanding is Quickened. For a time “we see through a glass darkly,” but as we begin to use the “Power to Understand,” we get Light. The third Day or river or faculty (these all mean the same) is “Hiddekel” (means an arrow) that which goeth toward the East of Assyria. Where does the sun rise? In the East. Sun means “Spiritual Perception.” The fourth river is “Euphrates” the “Intellect.” This faculty looks upon, so this chapter is a logical sequence or continuation of the first chapter of Genesis, and can be harmoniously adjusted to it. The four heads of the river correspond to the four faculties mentioned in the 1st chapter. If these faculties are to water the soul, which of them is to act first? Intellect. Why? They operate for the soul, in the “reverse order” and their action is orderly; though working in harmony their office is distinct. Each has its beginning and fulness, but not ending. So, in this way the heads of the river water the soul. They are helps or soul fertilizers, enriching the consciousness, and making the “barren places to blossom as the rose.” The use of these faculties brings light and gives existence a new meaning. Let us bear in mind that existence is as necessary as Being. Our Being is all there is of Expression or evolution of God’s nature, but Involution, or the “Seventh Day” which deals with existence must follow.
If the nature of the Lord-God, which is perfect and complete, is to appear, there must be some one to observe this appearing. Who is this onlooker? Living soul. There must be a recognizer of all that creation includes. If there is a knower, must be something to know, and vice versa.
Here is a man in this garden, who is put there to dress it and keep it. This man is not a mistake, and yet he is not the Image of God. He is a kind of man. The man of the “Seventh Day, a personality” not the expression of First Cause, but the off-spring of the “living God” and as such, a necessity of Being without which creation could not be finished. Of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat, said the Lord God. There are no restrictions. (Note here again that the Ideal is personified. “The Lord God” is represented as a man speaking. How would the Principle of Matheematics (if personified) speak to a child? It would say, “You may use all the rules and principles, but if you do not mind the rules and apply the principles, you will make certain mistakes which will bring their consequences. Thus, the “Lord God,” our Ideal Being, in a sense, says to the soul, “Of every tree, thou mayest eat, but if you do eat of such and such a tree, a consequence will follow. If you eat of the tree of knowledge, a result will ensue for you. Taking the reading literally, we shall “surely die.” But right knowledge brings up and out of old views and gives us, “open vision.” Every soul is only seeking its own through divine attraction. If we eat of the “fruit of knowledge” simply, we will die to ignorance, or our false sense of self, — so, we find that this statement is not an arbitrary decree, but simply foretells a consequence growing out of the changeless law of Cause and Effect.
And the Lord God saw that it was not good for man to be alone. Every beast of the field, every green thing, all that was formed by the Lord-God is brought to Adam to name. All the fractions remain in the unit, but in the Seventh Day these parts or potencies will appear or be represented. This day, in which we exist, is the “Lord’s Day” and these “fractions” or component parts of Being are all seen in the world today. They are in the inner line which represents the fractions of the invisible unit. All these fractions are reproduced in the soul, and have their counterpart shape in the world. The Real is the Spiritual. In the world we have shapes. These are not real, only the figures that represent the Number. Representation must be full and complete as a whole because Expression is full and complete as a Whole. The Spiritual is represented by the material. The material returns to dust while the spiritual is eternal.
TruthUnity note: “The Real is the Spiritual. In the world we have shapes. These are not real...” This belief that some or all of the material world (shapes) is not real comes from Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science. The author has not completely given up an earlier perspective from metaphysical religion. Emilie Cady also kept that belief in her original edition of Lessons in Truth; see paragraph 23 of chapter on Denials: “There is no reality, life or intelligence in matter.” Unity reversed this perspective to say that all matter is good.
All are brought to Adam to see what he would call them, and what he called them was their name, but it does not say that he called them aright. Among them all however, there was not found a help-meet for Adam, nothing among them all, sufficient for his need. And the Lord God said, “I will make him a help-meet for him,” for these material objects in the world are inadequate, and do not meet his need. The day will come when they will fail him. He must find his real Help within Himself, not in the world of externals. We come to a place in soul development where it is patent to the soul that nothing in the “outer” can either hurt or help us, and that we must “work out” our salvation from the stand-point of our God-Being. The soul has a destiny to fulfill. It must grow from least to greatest, and so in this transition, these objects may not satisfy the soul always. Again, the Lord God causes a “deep sleep” to fall upon Adam, and during this “sleep” the Lord God took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh thereof, and of the “rib” made He a woman. Taking this literally, what sense could you make of it? Paul says: “These things be an allegory.” As we know, the “rib” of a vessel is its main-stay — the Intuitional Nature (or the woman) is the main stay of the man. In the 1st chapter of Genesis, it reads “Male and female, created He them.” The two halves of our being corresponding to this, in the world of representation, “a man” and a “woman.”
TruthUnity note: “the ‘rib’ of a vessel is its main-stay — the Intuitional Nature (or the woman) is the main stay of the man.” The author continues in the next paragraph, “This is now flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone.” He discovers that the “woman” nature is a part of himself in himself... The perfected soul is androgynous.” A wonderful contribution from Feminist metaphysics.
We are all in this Adam sleep, and seem to be separate, but the two natures are in each. When we awake from the “Adam sleep” or “sense dream” we shall be its as one. “Deep sleep” means unconsciousness of true being. “Awake” means knowledge of real Being and its right relation to God. To “Awake” is a vital necessity for the soul. When awake, Adam said, “This is now flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone.” He discovers that the “woman” nature is a part of himself in himself. So, Adam and Eve are the male and female natures in our real Being, and they twain, shall be made one flesh, and this flesh or union shall be eternal. The perfected soul is androgynous.
