Adam's Apple

 

 

That is the meaning of the biblical story: Adam is turned out of the Garden of Eden because he has eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. It is a very significant parable. Because of knowledge Adam is turned out of heaven, loses all his blessedness, loses all his innocence, happiness, loses immortality, becomes a mortal, becomes miserable. This is the original sin: knowledge is the original sin. Meditate on this parable as much as possible, again and again, from different angles. There is no other parable so significant in the whole history of religion.

 

Adam’s sin is knowledge. Then what is Jesus’ virtue? It must be ignorance. Christians don’t talk about it. It must be ignorance. That’s what Jesus says when he says, “Unless you are like children you will not enter into the kingdom of my God.” “Unless you are like children”? means unless you are innocent, ignorant like children, unless you drop all your knowledge, you will not enter, you will not be received back. Knowledge is the sin and ignorance is the virtue.

 

To be ignorant and to know that all knowledge is false, is a radical revolution. Then you remain virgin, then knowledge never corrupts you. Yes, knowledge is a corruption, it is a poison.

 

-Osho, "Ecstasy - The Forgotten Language, #5“

 

 

⯎

 

 

Let me tell you again one of the most beautiful stories ever devised: the story of Adam’s fall.

 

It says God forbad Adam to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Zen will agree perfectly because it is knowledge that is making you stupid, it is knowledge that is not allowing you to know. Adam was capable of knowing before he ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. The moment he ate knowledge, the moment he became knowledgeable, he no longer knew; the innocence was lost. He became cunning and clever. That intelligence was lost. Yes, he started growing in intellect, but intelligence was no longer there. Intellect has nothing to do with intelligence; it is just the contrary, the opposite.

 

The more you are an intellectual, the less intelligent you are bound to be. In fact, intellect is a substitute to hide your unintelligence; it is counterfeit. You don’t have intelligence, so you substitute it with intellect. Intellect is of course cheap; you can purchase it anywhere. It is available. In fact, people are too willing to impart their knowledge to you. They are ready to throw all their rubbish on you.

 

Adam became knowledgeable, hence the fall. So knowledge is the fall.

 

The story says he ate an apple, a fruit, from the Tree of Knowledge. It can’t be an apple. Apples don’t grow on the Tree of Knowledge. Somewhere the story got mixed up. Apples are so innocent. Just by eating an apple you cannot be thrown out of heaven, you cannot be expelled. God cannot be so angry with you. No, it can’t be an apple; the apple is just metaphoric. It must be words, language. On the Tree of Knowledge the fruit of words, concepts, philosophies, systems, grow – not apples. Forget the apple. Remember the word.

 

Then the serpent: the first teacher of humanity, the first education system. That serpent is the first demagogue, the first academician. He taught the trick of knowledge. He persuaded Eve to eat because he could not persuade Adam directly. Why could he not persuade Adam directly? Why did he have to persuade Eve first? Eve was more vulnerable. Women are always more vulnerable, more open, soft, can be taken anywhere by anybody, more suggestible. They can be hypnotized more easily than a man.

 

The serpent persuaded the woman. He was not only the first academician, he was the first salesman too – he did well. He was not wrong, whatever he was saying was right. He said, “You will become knowledgeable, you will know what is what. Without eating this fruit you will never know what is what.”

 

There is a kind of knowing which is totally different: you know and yet you don’t know what is what. It is a very diffused kind of knowing. It doesn’t categorize, it doesn’t divide; it is nonanalytical. Adam must have lived in that nonanalytical innocence. Science was not possible. Religion was there, showering all around. Adam must have been a mystic before he ate from the Tree of Knowledge – as every child is a mystic. Every child is a born mystic. Then we drag him toward school and education, and the serpent.

 

The serpent is civilization, culture, conditioning. The serpent is such a cunning animal that the metaphor seems to be perfect. Such a crooked animal, so slippery, just like logic. You can’t decide where it is moving – and it moves without legs. It has no legs to move but it goes so fast. It is exactly like untruth; it also has no legs, That’s why untruth always has to borrow legs from truth. That’s why every untrue statement tries hard to prove that it is true. Those are the borrowed legs.

 

-Osho, " Zen: The Path of Paradox, Vol. 1, #3“