[Ralph Rickenbach]

In my opinion, we have limited understanding of the archetypal story of Genesis, as we interpret it with our LH. I look at it as a description of the process of humankind becoming conscious. We woke up into a dualistic worldview of right and wrong, good and evil, and into a growth process onward into non-duality and individuated unity. We became aware of our impending death, the hardship of daily life, the pain of birth, the distribution of physical power. We were not thrown out of paradise. We rather saw behind the curtain and did so in our new-found dualistic worldview. It introduced shame, a feeling of separation, and the need of sense-making.

Value is fundamental. We just have a limited view of it. In our sense-making, we have constructed hierarchizations of values, trying to uncover value while surviving in this rather hostile world. I don’t know whether there had been an alternative path (the tree of life) and we made a mistake, or whether we would have stayed non-dual, one with everything in a childlike, immature fashion. (Think of a baby.) Now, we have the chance to grow into conscious oneness, the above-mentioned individuated unity, through the growth pangs of duality.

The hierarchizations of values have taken different forms over the millennia, and they compete. Traditionalism, modernity and postmodernity are some such hierarchizations. They come in healthy and unhealthy forms. Looking at our history, the biblical narrative, and the story of the two hemispheres, I would always be cautious to divide things in a dualistic way into us versus them. Knowing how wrong the LH can be, and how prominent LH dominant thinking is in our society, let’s strive forward toward a more profound understanding of foundational value, beauty, goodness, and truth rather than trying to convince others that they are mistaken.

Polarizations are best solved by searching for a more profound third way of looking at things.

Like you and Iain, I see value expressed in beauty, goodness and truth as foundational. Let me try to find a way closer to value.

Looking at chesed and emet (grace and truth) in Hebrew, they express something rather different than we interpret.

Grace is granted from a higher to a lower and usually expressed as unwarranted favor. Chesed is favor, love, giving space, kindness, an open heart, a loving attitude, and much more. Chesed is the fruit of the Spirit as expressed in Galatians. It is extended between equals.

Emet is not factual truth. It is an uncovering, revealing of foundational principles and substance. That is why the New Testament uses the Greek word aletheia, which is best translated as uncovering and “not holding back.” Emet and aletheia lack the notion of convincing others.

Chesed and emet, charis and aletheia, grace and truth are how we are to travel along the shared journey of finding foundational value: in a loving, giving, inviting fashion that makes room for the other to uncover what has always been true.

My five cents. What do you think?