One interpretation of the Garden of Eden narrative might include an understanding of non-duality as premature in God-ordained human evolution, as well as an expression of the second of the two great commandments.
As Phil summarized on one of threads with Jim Marion, non-dual mystical phenomenon would be grouped with efforts to open the chakras, raise kundalini, etc . . . IOW, awareness focused via the will upon its own subtle physiology with the purpose of achieving a certain experience, including "non-experience." And even when it is a devotional effort, if one lacks an understanding of grace beyond human invention, then the possibility of opening the heart is quite limited. This all, of course, from a Christian pov.
As for correlating the tree of eternal life with non-duality, I'd say there's plenty of evidence that human beings have failed to secure, or stabilize this state of awareness, even among the most adept shorn of their legendary status. I'd like to speculate on why this is so.
Most of this depends upon the distinction between the nature of being and consciousness. Just as God's being isn't in our being, yet our being is rooted in His, so too is the present moment inhering in the Eternal, while the Eternal is only inflected in the inherently unstable present moment.
As such, the present moment, along with our unstable, internal dialogue-dependent body-mind, is an expression of the Fall, where our wills have lost their capacity for union, never meant to achieve this of our own accord except as resposiveness/consent (praise, gratitude, love), just as before the Fall such union was upheld as a dynamic, created reflection of the Father and the Son's continual outpouring/surrender to each other.
And so the forbiddenness of the tree of life, or non-duality (full alchemy of polarities within the central channel of the subtle bodies), is based upon the loss of full relational contact with God, which is the only graced condition in which the present moment can be stabilized via the Eternal in which it inheres. This is no different than saying that human consciousness cannot recover its non-trance state of presence until human being comes to rest in the uncreated being of God, a rest we'll never procure by ourselves, anymore than we can understand the Eternal through the present moment.
Another important link between this story, the Trinity and human endeavors to achieve fulfillment is the way in which the endless struggle among humans for our own divinity reflects the two great commandments of Jesus, which most religions share:
Non-duality, from this pov, is meant to arise in human experience quite differently once God has been allowed to purify the soul beyond its own sense of ownership than when we seek this state of mind prior to a substantial devotional, personal relationship with God, wherein we are children who trust enough to let Him re-order his own creation. To love our neighbors as ourselves is impossible without that love being infused with a grace beyond our own making, where we are only empowered to consent.
Non-dual mysticism attempts to capture the Eternal via the present moment which is its creature, so to speak. The Eternal simply isn't the domain of man, and as long as we insist otherwise we'll confuse these two and lose much of our resposiveness to the call of relationships which are ultimately not ours to orchestrate to completion.
Yes, w.c., well-done. Of the three developmental pathways I sketched in the dialogue with Jim Marion (discussion Jesus thread), the metaphysical mystical pathway seems most intrinsically fraught with pitfalls unto pride and arrogance. If "higher consciousness" is considered "more evolved" and manifesting of divinity than lower, then we're more likely to submit themselves to those who've attained it than we are to the psychologically integrated or the Saint who is more likely looking up to see how to serve us than vice versa. Of course, the Buddhists and others who promote this pathway do emphasize ethical living and have much wisdom concerning these states, and they do emphasize compassion.
Relating this to the "Tree of Life" symbol in the Garden is something I've wondered about as well. Good topic.
Glad you both feel this is a worthy metaphor for treating the issue of non-dual meditation from a Christian pov. Some more reflections, probably a bit redundant:
What makes the Tree of Life eternal isn't kundalini (assumed to be this tree from an alchemist's standpoint) or our inherently unstable capacity for non-dual awareness, but how these two human dynamics (they are not Divine) are sourced in the Trinity, the uncreated relational ground of all created being.
With the Fall, the natural grace of creation has lost its consonace with supernatural grace. We now must, out of fear, continually resist death, for which full consent in the ascended Jesus leads to life, and cannot of ourselves restore the graced state wherein our faculties are harmonized.
Our inability to resolve the internal dialogue shows our limited capacity, within natural grace alone, to achieve the mythical completion of non-dual consciousness, or the alchemy of opposites within kundalini (different expressions of the same fallen energy).
This duality is resolved via the Holy Spirit's capacity to form union out of nothing via His relationship with the Father and the Son. In the forming of this union, the internal dialogue dissolves into a reverent silence and re-emerges as praise, gratitude and love. We are reformed in this way beyond our own doing in even the subtlest way, where prayer is a relational understanding given by Him to us in ways we cannot conflate or own as our creation.
And so prayer is quite different from anything in Hinduism or Buddhism or perhaps even Sufism, as we are taught to pray by means we cannot comprehend. The Holy Spirit's re-forming us out of nothing comprises the various Dark Night Passages, for which any subtle effort of meditation is simply made impossible.
I really enjoyed learning something new. Thank you.