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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
The coats of skin, the Lord God is said to have made for Adam and Eve, signify the limits put on their sense of individuality which they regarded as extending to their outer skin, but no further. In consequence of this sense of limitation, man regards himself as identical with the physical body, enveloped by the skin; and it is this false and erroneous sense of individuality which is at the root of all notions of duality between God and man and is the selfish), grasping, appropriating, copyrighting self-the apparent man.
As regards fear, we have already observed that it came into existence with ignorance. The calamitous. metamorphosis, brought about by the loss of God-consciousness, consequent on the fatal desire to become like Gods, could not but carry conviction of their utter helplessness and degradation to the minds of the transgressors. They had hoped to acquire the wisdom of Gods, but the very first thing they became conscious of was not wisdom, but its antithesis, that is, ignorance. Fear took hold of their souls, and made them tremble for their safety against the forces of nature, as yet but dimly perceived. Belief in immortality was gone, and its place taken by a sense of powerlessness and terror. The false ego was the child of ignorance and desire, and God declined to foster it up. Man had no alternative left but to nurse it himself. Thenceforth, its bringing up and preservation from harm became the sole care of man, and brought him all sorts of conceiva able trouble and worry.
It only remains to point out the physiological effect of fear. It paralyses healthy action, generates worry,
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