Getting Past the Mind

Most people have heard the story of Adam and Eve and their affair with a snake and a tree in the Garden of Eden. Few realize that it describes the essence of the struggle of every human being. Here is a brief summary, according to how it is told in the Zohar and explained by the Kabbalists and Chassidic masters:

The primal state of the human mind is paradise. A state where all that matters is to reach to the light and to bring more light in.

There is a single temptation in that paradise, and that is to know the darkness as well. What could be so terrible about knowing the darkness as well? says the mind. To know darkness is to know as G-d knows, for from Him come all things.

For G-d to know darkness is to create darkness. That is part of creating light. For us to know darkness is to become darkness, and to imprison light within it.

That is because the human mind is not the creator, but the lens of creation, where all things come into focus. Until passing through that lens, all is no more than a blur, a semi-morphous idea that could take many different meanings. It is our perception and consciousness that places bounds upon G-d's thoughts, to solidify them as concrete things. In that process of resolution and definition, we define and bind ourselves as well.

That is how we become bound to the struggle of darkness and light. Once the two coexist side by side in our minds, the world falls into chaos. Not a place remains as light without darkness or darkness without light. Where there is beauty, there is pain; where there is love there is selfishness. Kindness shares its bed with egotism and confidence with cruelty. In the most pristine palace of holiness in this world, the closets are filled with skeletons. And in the deepest cavern of depravity, the most sublime souls are held captive.

In this murky swamp of confusion, darkness becomes evil, for it entraps the light. When we tug to fissure their bond, an iron resistance opposes us. In the final release, a burst of energy shakes the cosmos.

When the world was renewed, the Zohar tells, Noah resolved to escape the prison of mind. He planted a vineyard, made wine and drank until the darkness was gone -- for him. But nothing had been repaired. So the darkness continued to grow.

It was Sarah who first repaired human consciousness. She descended into the lair of the snake, into Pharaoh's palace, holding a tightrope thrown to her by Abram, and arose from there untouched. She was the first who was able to descend below yet stay above.

Therefore, Sarah was buried in the cave where Adam and Eve lie. For it was she who granted them their first rest.

If darkness had never become mixed with light, it would have eventually found its place and become benign. Now that it has entered into battle, it has only one destiny remaining: To renounce its cloak altogether, and to reveal its inner essence. That darkness itself shines a truth that light on its own can never know.