So there they were. Thousands of years ago. Walking about Garden of Eden in complete freedom. Naked and unashamed. It was Paradise. Literally. The word Eden is synonymous with "paradise" and is related to a Hebrew word meaning "bliss" or "delight."If you remember this Bible story, you know that God had just previously - over a seven day period - created entire universe. Everything. Including man, who was created on sixth day.
At end of sixth day, God gazed upon all that had been created and deemed it ALL to be simply and completely . . .
V-E-R-Y G-O-O-D.
All was well in Garden until that one fateful moment, when, in an instant, mankind stepped out of it's blissful state of paradise into a world split down middle. At one end lie "goodness." At other end lie "evil-ness."
SIDEBAR: This is a bit confusing. Didn't God say everything was very good? How could there even be "evil" at this point? And if there was "evil," wouldn't God have created that? And if God did create it, wouldn't it also be "very good" just like everything else? Back to our story . . .
How did split between good and evil occur? Simple. Mankind chose, against God's better advice, to eat fruit from "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil."
Said another way, mankind chose to know "good" and "evil." Mankind chose to put itself in a place of judgment between what was good and what was not good.
Most of us make that choice - choice to know "good" and "bad" each and every day.
Each day, we're choosing to know good and evil or good and bad. And each time we make that choice, we step out of bliss and paradise.
Judgment itself is not good or bad. It just is. It serves a useful purpose in society as it's currently structured. But if you want to get back to bliss and paradise, it can serve as quite an obstacle.
So what does all this have to do with you and your life?
Stick with me here.
I have a client in London who buys run-down houses, fixes them up and sells them for more than she paid for them. She literally causes value of property to appreciate (important word).
She takes what Universe offers - a "dumpy" house - and she appreciates it. When she's done appreciating it, she gives it back to Universe for someone else to appreciate even more (or not).