Azazel

Chapter 5

Jae-Hyun Kim's mind raced as he rushed across the congested network of Los Angeles roads, while Loveless by My Bloody Valentine is playing in the background. He was contemplating not just the voyage ahead but also the Garden of Eden and its relationship to nondualism, a central idea in Buddhism. One could argue that humanity's fall into dualistic thought occurred when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge, establishing the difference between good and evil. Human misery stems from this dualism, which is the idea that there are only two things in the world: good and terrible, right and wrong, and fear and want. It is possible to see the seduction by the serpent and the consequent fall from grace as the beginning of this mental disconnection from the totality of existence, the point at which people started to perceive the universe in fragments.

Meanwhile, Maria Reyes read a note slipped inside of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis:

There was another tree in the Garden called the Tree of Eternal Life. Adam and Eve, however, never parched from its fruit. Now, in the middle of his rush, the main character muses over this. He interprets the fruit of eternal life not as something that is withheld from humanity but rather as a sign that the concept of good and evil is a myth. In order to experience the world in its pure, unadulterated form and transcend duality, one must eat from the Tree of Eternal Life. Good and evil, fear and desire—they are only labels imposed by the mind. To experience life in its timeless form, beyond the conceptual divisions that keep us in pain, is to see through these illusions.

Buddhism holds that the path to enlightenment lies in nondualism, or the notion that all distinctions are illusions. The character considers how this is consistent with the myth of Eden: the act of categorizing reality into opposites, like good and evil, results in a basic ignorance of the ultimate essence of existence. Similar to how Adam and Eve were banished from Eden and sentenced to labor and suffering, ignorance, or avidya, keeps beings caught in the cycle of suffering. On the other hand, nondualism is the understanding that all of these distinctions are products of the mind and that real freedom originates from looking past them.

"What kind of freaky evil shit these motherfuckers are into?" Maria murmured to herself.

Jae-Hyun Kim mused on how the idea that fear and want are distinct from one another may be the most widespread delusion of all as he navigated through Los Angeles traffic. In Buddhism, both fear and desire emerge from attachment—fear of losing what one has or desire for what one does not have. However, if the character had the ability to look past the illusion of these emotions, he might be able to realize that they are simply opposing viewpoints stemming from the dualistic thinking that shapes both his perception of himself and the outside world. Regaining a sense of one with life itself would mean breaking free from the dualistic bonds that bind one from transcending both fear and want.

Jae-Hyun Kim realized in this hurried moment of reflection that the knowledge that is bound by duality is the fruit of the forbidden tree, whereas the knowledge that dualism never really was is the fruit of endless life. Therefore, the Garden of Eden is not a place from which humanity was banished, but rather a level of consciousness to which, should we choose to go beyond illusion, we have always had access. Similar to how Los Angeles's congested, expansive roads are but a portion of a much bigger, interconnected metropolis, so too are good and evil merely pieces of a much larger, nondualistic totality that is everlasting and ever-present.

Detective Jae-Hyun Kim was driving for hours when he felt a strong intuition telling him to stop at a nearby church. He and Ethan ran across the black street, their legs burning from exertion, and staggered into the chapel. Behind them, the monstrous shapes of Shub-Niggurath and the Mother of Pus slithered and surged, their grotesque limbs grasping at the pavement. The monsters were alien, spawned from shadows and dreams, their very presence warping the surrounding atmosphere. The weight of their presence was crushing down on Jae-Hyun, causing him to feel as though his skull would burst.