In the garden of Eden, there were two trees. One was the tree of life, which granted the eater perpetual youth and life while they continued to eat it. The other was the tree of knowledge, which bore fruit that was forbidden by God to eat.
The tree of knowledge gave the eater a greater awareness of reality. Unlike the tree of life, which had to continue to be eaten in order to continue its effect, the effect of the tree of knowledge was in place immediately after one bite and stayed in place until death, which itself was one of its effects. Upon eating the fruit, Eve and then Adam both became aware of reality to a greater degree than they previously had been. The fruit opened the door to mortality—a state most clearly classified by its continual and varied exposure to increased awareness.
Prior to eating the fruit, Adam and Eve were perfectly reconciled to good and evil as they understood them. That their knowledge of good and evil was already existent is clear by the fact that they had some level of perception: they knew who God was, they had joy in his presence, they had enough understanding to name the animals, and they were capable of obeying or disobeying God’s instructions. Although they had knowledge, that knowledge was limited, as shown by the fact that they were not ashamed of their nakedness. They felt perfectly comfortable in the presence of God. This all changed when the fruit of the tree of knowledge was consumed.
Opening the door to increased awareness sets off a two-step cycle. In the first step, you are exposed to more of reality than you were previously. This exposure cuts you off from the presence of God until and unless you correctly parse this new awareness into good and evil according to the light given you by God. In the second step, you reconcile yourself to God through obeying your awareness of good and evil. This triggers a greater revelation of awareness, which starts things back at the first step. This cycle repeats until one of two things happens: either you choose to quit the process or you come to the point that you trust God so fully that you immediately and correctly react to any increased awareness that God provides.
Those few people who reach the point where they trust God enough to correctly react to anything he will reveal to them have made their calling and election sure. It is by them and them only that salvation is obtained.
Awareness is the revelation of things previously unknown to you. It is an increased perception of reality. It is the realization of the incorrectness or incompleteness of something you previously thought was true, whether external (in the world) or internal (in yourself).
Awareness is what is changed by more light. It is a decrease in darkness. Darkness is what is unknown or incorrect. Light reveals what is unknown or incorrect in your perception. It increases awareness.
Awareness is how your perception is advanced. The key difference between higher order and lower order truth is that higher order truth contains more details. It includes a view that is both broader and more detailed.
In the scriptures, awareness is described in conjunction with the word “eyes.” When Adam and Eve’s “eyes” were opened, it was not their physical eyes that changed, but their awareness of reality.
The Lord’s complete awareness is described by his saying that he “knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes;” (D&C 38:2) The Psalmist wrote: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3) What does it mean that the Lord’s eyes are in every place? It means that he is aware of all things. It is important to note that awareness includes both the evil and the good. Unlike God, our awareness is not complete. However far it extends, it must comprehend both the evil and the good, because there is opposition in all things.
The Lord’s mission is to extend our awareness. The Lord said the sign of his divinity was that “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Matthew 11:5) Why did the Lord open the eyes of the blind? It was a type to show that, as Christ, he is the key to opening our awareness. We are not all blind in sight, but we are all blind in awareness.
You have more or less awareness than others
God has greater awareness than any person. He explained that all people have different levels of intelligence, and that his intelligence is greater than anyone else’s:
...These two facts do exist, that [if] there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all. (Abraham 3:19)
Spiritual intelligence is called light because it shows greater detail; a greater awareness. Because God’s awareness is greater than ours, we ought to submit to him in order to receive the greater benefits that accompany a greater awareness: “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.” (Proverbs 3:7) What does it mean to be wise in our own eyes? It means to judge our righteousness based on our own limited awareness.
Far too many people think they see, and therefore will never see more:
39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. (John 9)
To fear the Lord is to operate under the assumption that his ways are higher than ours because he possesses more awareness than we do. It is to believe that although “all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes” (Proverbs 16:2), men’s hearts continually desire less than what is best due to ignorance and nature. Wise men do not lean on their own understanding (see Proverbs 3:5) “...because of their humility; because they were not proud in their own eyes.” (Alma 1:20). They do what is right “in the eyes of the Lord.” (1 Kings 15:5) Like the Psalmist, they ask God to instruct them beyond their awareness: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” (Psalm 119:18)
The Lord makes a distinction between normal intelligence and “the noble and great ones” (Abraham 3:22). How does God distinguish between the intelligence of one vs. another? It comes down to how much light they seek, receive, and live: “Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God.” (1 Nephi 17:35)
God provides equal opportunity to all his children, but recognizes the fact that our differences in heed and diligence produce unequal outcomes. God provides an equal opportunity to all people, but many do not accept his invitation at all, and very few accept it completely:
18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come. (D&C 130)
Clearly, all people do not exert the same diligence or obedience in searching for and assimilating light and truth. The Lord taught this on multiple occasions.
In the parable of the sower, he indicated that there would be people whose seed was eaten by birds, seed that withered in the sun, and seed that produced thirty, sixty, or one hundred times the quantity of seed planted:
3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. (Matthew 13)
Not everyone perceived the same depth of meaning in the parables, even though everyone heard them equally. Likewise, although the same seed is scattered in the hearts of all men, some bring forth one hundred times the fruit of others, some sixty times the fruit of others, some thirty times the fruit of others, and some don’t respond to it at all.
In the parable of the talents, the Lord taught that there would be people whose efforts reap more rewards, and that some people would not exert any effort:
14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25)
Mormon wrote the following, making a distinction between “chosen vessels” who are of a “strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness” and “the residue” of men:
30 [Angels show] themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness.
31 And the office of their ministry is to call men unto repentance, and to fulfil and to do the work of the covenants of the Father, which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the way among the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony of him.
32 And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men. (Moroni 7)
It may be offensive to modern sensibilities to recognize that we all possess differing amounts of light and truth, but we should not feel bad about this. Instead, we should be grateful because we can assume that no matter how much truth we have, someone has more.
If we do not accept that one person can have more light than another, we must also believe that the most depraved individual is no different than Jesus Christ himself, who also lived once as a man. In such a blind state, we must suppose that anything goes, and there is no need for repentance or improvement. Even if we believe repentance is necessary, how could we identify the way forward if we believe all people are the same? The very process of repentance consists in a) recognizing some behavior that is more righteous than your own and some bit of light and truth more advanced than what you currently have, and b) implementing it in your life. If one person can't be better than another, you can't recognize superior light and truth to your own, and you can't advance towards God.
You can grow or diminish in your awareness
We all have vastly different levels of awareness. Those who desire salvation must acquire more.
We can learn more about what is required by analyzing the properties of Zion, the city of the saved. When Zion comes again, it will be among a group of people who will have the same level of awareness:
18 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.
20 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. (3 Nephi 16)
In order to live there, you have to know and keep all of God’s commandments: “...when men should keep all my commandments, Zion should again come on the earth, the city of Enoch which I have caught up unto myself.” (JST Genesis 9:21)
In the book of Revelation we read of advanced beings who are covered with eyes in front and behind. These eyes represent increased awareness:
6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind....
8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. (Revelation 4)
As we acquire greater awareness, we too will obtain these figurative eyes before, behind, and within, demonstrating the categories of awareness, referring respectively to the future, the past, and internally (our desires and presence or absence of knowledge):
5 For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.
6 Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory.
7 And to them will I reveal <u>all</u> mysteries, yea, <u>all</u> the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom.
8 Yea, even the wonders of eternity shall they know, and things to come will I show them, even the things of many generations.
9 And their wisdom shall be great, and their understanding reach to heaven; and before them the wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall come to naught.
10 For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will—yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man. (D&C 76)
The quantity of light and truth each person possesses is completely within their own control. This life is the time to prepare for eternity, and it is where you have the opportunity to grow in your awareness.
We get according to what we are willing to receive. We alone control what heed and diligence we exercise to acquire and assimilate truth. Alma recorded that we were all given an equal opportunity to acquire light, and any differences in our possession of it are due to our own action or inaction:
1 ...I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people.
2 And those priests were ordained after the order of his Son, in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption.
3...being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.
4 And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren.
5 ...in the first place they were on the same standing with their brethren; thus this holy calling being prepared from the foundation of the world for such as would not harden their hearts, being in and through the atonement of the Only Begotten Son, who was prepared—
6 And thus being called by this holy calling, and ordained unto the high priesthood of the holy order of God, to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also might enter into his rest—
10 Now, as I said concerning the holy order, or this high priesthood, there were many who were ordained and became high priests of God; and it was on account of their exceeding faith and repentance, and their righteousness before God, they choosing to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish. (Alma 13)
One’s awareness is not static. As you obey, you will open more opportunities to acquire more light and truth. As you acquire more light and truth, your perception of what is good and what is evil will change. You will add more items to your sets of good and evil by becoming aware of the moral nature of situations that you were previously unaware of. You will add more items to your sets of good and evil by breaking up items that are already there into several more specific concepts. The items in each set might change from good to evil, or vice versa. On the other hand, if you are disobedient to your present understanding, you will lose light and truth, and your conscience will deteriorate: “And he that repents not, from him shall be taken even the light which he has received” (D&C 1:33). You will be less capable of discerning between what improves you and what pulls you back.
The Lord had an interesting exchange with his disciples during his mortal ministry. He told them: “whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” (Matthew 13:12) In doing so, he described that light and truth accrete in high abundances among the few—just as wealth does. The more light you have, the more you get. This flies in the face of the sentiments of modern society, who wish that the world were a place where everyone obtained equal outcomes. As previously quoted in the parable of the sower from Matthew 13, the Lord explained that the exact same seed yields wildly different outcomes depending on the receptivity of the soil. The reaction of the person to truth is wholly responsible for how much fruit it bears. Those that choose to turn away from it because of persecution, love of lesser things, and lies produce no fruit. Some few produce fruit. But even among those, there is a stunning variety of outputs, with some few of the few bearing a hundred times more than their peers.
What are these fruits the Lord speaks of? They are the outcomes of gospel living: resilient adherence to godly character through all situations; maintaining reconciliation to the light you have in all scenarios without exception. Those who bear fruit are those who have come to think, feel, and act like God to some degree. Those bearing more fruit have acquired and live more advanced levels of God’s light.
How are these levels manifested? When teaching his disciples, the Lord explained the difference between those with more or less light:
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. (Matthew 13)
Those with more light understand more advanced topics, have more advanced experiences, and become more advanced people than those who have less light.
You gain awareness by obeying what you have and seeking for more
Truth is eternal, meaning progressively expanding forever as you learn more of it. When you are obedient to your light, you receive more: your level of both awareness of reality and understanding of right and wrong increase:
23 And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness.
24 That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and <u>continueth in God, receiveth more light;</u> and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
25 And again, verily I say unto you, and I say it that you may know the truth, that you may chase darkness from among you; (D&C 50)
26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth;
27 And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments.
28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, <u>until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things. (D&C 93)</u>
Awareness is like a flooded bank. As you acquire truth, the water recedes, and you see things about yourself, the world, and the gospel that you had never before imagined. God graciously hides all but the minimum amount of truth from us at first so that we are not overwhelmed by being exposed to what we are not prepared to see. As soon as and as often as we obey what we have, he reveals more. Eventually, when our faith and trust in him becomes unshaken, we begin obeying what he reveals immediately when he reveals it. Though this does not mean he reveals all remaining truth in this sphere to us at once, it does mean that he can do it faster than before, because we no longer need to follow the alienation-reconciliation repentance cycle each time he teaches us something new. Because we retain the spirit, we are able to learn more, faster.
We can obtain more awareness by making our “eye single to the glory of God,” or desiring to understand and obey all the truth of which we are aware. Anything less than this is rebellion against God: “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezekiel 12:2)
Those who do otherwise either rebel against what their eyes show them, or they believe all they see is all there is to see, and thereby cut themselves off from anything better than what they have (see Matthew 13:15-17, quoted above).
Acquisition of knowledge requires obedience to everything you know as you know it.
34 He that receiveth of God, let him account it of God; and let him rejoice that he is accounted of God worthy to receive.
35 And by giving heed and doing these things which ye have received, and which ye shall hereafter receive—and the kingdom is given you of the Father, and power to overcome all things which are not ordained of him— (D&C 50)
Awareness from God; Awareness from Satan
Increased awareness can come from God or Satan. Both possess awareness beyond your own, and both have a reason to give you more, but the reasons differ.
God recognizes we are all in bondage to our ignorance. He gives light to everyone, knowing that most will use it to harm themselves and others, because it is the only way to bring people out of bondage.
Satan recognizes we are all in bondage to our ignorance. He tries to keep everyone in ignorance through means that cause people not to think, not to question, and not to act for their own improvement. He wants them to be satisfied, addicted, unintelligent, docile, dogmatic, frustrated, confused, and angry. His strategy is to keep everyone in ignorance, but he realizes that some people have certain traits that make them dangerous. With these people, he takes a different strategy, depending on their traits.
Those who have the gift of belief, but who have not developed the skill of discernment are flooded by Satan with extraneous nonsense. You can tell these people by how much of their lives they spend on unfruitful practices—practices that might be readily recognizable by others as hokey, superstitious, or cult-like. Note the intentional use of the word “practices.” Those who are believing but neutralized by Satan remain on the hamster wheel of action without ever becoming better people. They are far too busy with their rituals to actually buckle down and learn something: about themselves, about God, etc. These people embrace a very watered-down view of God, and usually subscribe to the simplistic and weak idea that God exists to uniformly accept any and every desire they might have. Satan can rest assured that these types of people will never exert the testing necessary to let go of their time-consuming beliefs, and since their identities are so wrapped up in their false ideas, he can count on their rejection of anyone with higher light and truth who comes along trying to dislodge them.
Those who have the skill of discernment, but not the gift of belief, tend to write off out of hand (either initially or after a grace period of blind obedience to typically inherited religion) anything connected to God. These people readily accept that temporal knowledge is sufficiently complex to require years of professional education and practice, but expect spiritual knowledge to come all at once, with no effort whatsoever. They expect child-level spiritual explanations to endure the weight of adult-level problems, while having no such expectations in temporal areas. All that is required for Satan to derail these people is to expose them to greater awareness than their belief can support. They will not invest the experimentation and study required to grow their faith.
Those with a tendency towards obedience will be bound up in the dogmatic acceptance of whatever they currently believe to the crowding out of anything that is better.
As a result of these tactics, most who would otherwise acquire great light and truth end up turning away from the productive paths and spend their lives doing very little good in the world.