Good and evil, desirable and undesirable, adaptive and non-adaptive, are all contrasts that typify the dualistic philosophy. The seven deadly sins, the ten commandments, redemption, atonement, salvation, all would be superfluous if the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had never been eaten. This story, of course, of adam and eve in the garden of eden, is analogous to the simplicity of of sentience prior to the programming of the cultural mores learned through interactions with parents, teachers, the media, even our language.
Paradise, eternal life, all seemingly traded for the "godlike" sense of right and wrong, desirable and undesirable. The Tao Te Ching reads, "life flows form the formless wherein is no death". the understanding of which is that life is the flow, god is the flow, the tree of life is a symbol of this flow, just as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a symbol for the false will we exert to choose that which is desirable and avoid that which is undesirable.
Radical acceptance of all that flows with life, all that flows form the formless dimension is a sudden return to paradise. The present moment becomes all there is. The future and past dissolve into the present and time ceases to exist.
The mental processes of judgment, interpretation, perception,and hence choice become unnecessary. The energy extended into the future in hopes, dreams, and expectations gathers into the present. The energy relating past experience, knowledge, and beliefs from the past is also gathered and becomes available in the present.
The current of life, god, is the only reality, despite our feeble attempts to change what is into what could be, or what used to be. if the judgments and attempts to modify the present moment, what is, are suspended what is left is contentment. bliss and joy become possible when strife and struggle are abandoned to the present reality.
this flowing with the current without judgment and attempts at control is the expression of true will.
Life and relationship present us with mirrors that enable us to see what we really are. When you see another sentient being you are actually viewing yourself. How can that be? You are not as separate from other beings as it appears to your perception. The "other" sentient being you perceive is an expression of the same life force that you are, you both are, in many ways, a single expression, not multiple expressions.
This can be understood through inquiry into the emotional responses that others initiate in you. When direct and intensive inquiry is applied to any situation, we find that the emotion is tied to our own internal states and connected to our own issues, not those of the other.
Tao Te Ching Section 58:
Bad fortune rests within good fortune
Good fortune hides within bad fortune
Oh the things that heaven sends
Who can know their final aim?
Who can tell of their endless ways?
Section 73:
Good fortune, bad fortune
One seems to bring benefit, the other to cause harm
But heaven rejects both views
Both views, in the end, tether one to this world
Who can know the reasons of heaven?
Who can know its endless ways?
"Endless ways" may be interpreted as the interconnectedness of all things. The "Great Form" is that source of beingness that we are all an expression of. The "Great Form" is the source of all life and the flow of life which manifests itself in our lives as events. We judge each of these events as "desirable" or "undesirable".
The main point of these sections is that the categorization of "desirable" and "undesirable" is a difficult, if not impossible, one to make. And that this tendency causes suffering and keeps us "tethered to this world", or conditioned to the dualistic programming that limits our creative intelligence.
If we walk outside and our car does not start, we immediately classify that as "undesirable" and often may react negatively, causing turmoil to ourselves and those around us. Now if the reason the car does not start is that the teenager did not fill the gas tank, all hell may break loose with scolding, and blaming, even threats and punishment.
The fact that the car does not start is an event that "heaven sends" and we have no way to know the future connectedness of that event. Our minds may go toward the reflection that perhaps a fatal car crash was inevitable that day, had we drove ourselves to our destination. The empty gas tank "saving" us from that event.
This reflection is based on the fact that we consider the fatal car crash to be "undesirable" and the "saving" from that to be "desirable". Even the tendency of the mind to move in this direction is based on the conditioned duality that is keeping us in a coma, much the same way that Neo was hooked into the Matrix.
The angelic message is that, "Gratitude is the only appropriate response to whatever arises in our lives."
Whatever happens, if we react with gratitude instead of judgment, we will be in a calmer, more peaceful place to respond in appropriate action to the event, rather than the knee jerk reaction that brings pain and suffering to ourselves and those we love.