Today is the last lesson in Art and Culture, and I hope this course will open up your wisdom. So, what is wisdom? You must know the "Genesis" story in the Bible, one of the plots is that the serpent induces Adam and Eve to steal the forbidden fruit. This clichéd Bible story actually contains a profound philosophy of life, because it raises two questions that deserve our deep consideration. The first question is that the serpent induced Adam and Eve to steal the forbidden fruit, in fact there were two, one was the fruit of wisdom and the other was the fruit of immortality, why did the two of them choose to steal the fruit of wisdom? The second question is why did God banish those who possessed wisdom from the Garden of Eden?
The first question is, why did Adam and Eve steal the fruit of wisdom? Because people are naturally curious about the unknown. Adam and Eve could obviously have predicted stealing the fruit of eternal life, which is to gain an immortal body from then on, to live forever in this world; but since they had no wisdom, they did not know what it would be like to gain wisdom. This ignorance and curiosity about "wisdom" encourages and drives the two of them to steal the fruits of wisdom. But wisdom does not bring them worldly happiness and joy, but endless suffering. Why do people suffer when they have wisdom? On the one hand, God's punishment of men and women who steal the forbidden fruit, and partly because wisdom makes us aware of death, in this sense, human beings are destined to be a tragedy. However, the realization of death because of wisdom also makes us self-aware, as Adam and Eve begin to cover our shame with leaves. This partial hoodhood at least indicates that "I" do not belong exclusively to a certain group. Because man can predict that one day we will leave this world in the future, and this result is the same for everyone, so I have to control my own life and live my own life differently according to the guidance of the will to life.
The second question is, why were man banished from the Garden of Eden by God because of his wisdom? If God was banished from the Garden of Eden because man had wisdom; then, conversely, it was a bunch of fools who dwelt in the Garden of Eden. If this inference is fine; then God, like Zeus of ancient Greece, is only a flawed man, then he is not worthy of having many believers in the world. God loves people and Jesus will forgive Judas for betraying Him, which means that my inferences above are untenable. What was the reason why the wise Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden? That must be something wrong with "wisdom" itself. As mentioned above, "wisdom" makes people self-aware, and in a way, self-awareness can lead to self-expansion and oblivion. That is to say, it is not that God has abandoned the wise people, but that because of the wisdom, people feel that they have enough power to create a garden of Eden of their own, and do not need the garden of Eden that God has created for them. However, in fact, in the process of building their own homes, people are constantly destroying their own homes. For example, when we use our wisdom to constantly take from nature, we are also destroying our common home, the earth. This question makes us aware that wisdom is flawed, but wisdom itself can make us aware of this. So we want to use our wisdom to reflect on the finiteness of wisdom, in short, we have to constantly ask"Who am I?" "This fundamental proposition.
I interpret the Bible's Genesis story to you, and what I want to tell you most is that I hope that from now on you will think about how I should live this life; and I hope that you will have the ability to reflect and always ask the question of "who am I?" that needs to be answered with a lifetime. The first question is more specific, that is, to maintain the inherent curiosity of life, to dare to challenge the unknown life, to put their lives in an unknown, mysterious state, so that people's lives are full of various possibilities. From this point of view, I agree that students will find a stable job after graduation, such as: as a civil servant, a teacher, and to work in a state-owned enterprise, but you must remain sober, from the perspective of the state of life, this choice is not the optimal way of life. Because stable jobs make our lives transparent, that mystery, that possibility is killed. That's why I hope that one day students with a "good job" won't laugh at or look down on those who choose freelance work. Because of the secular, utilitarian attitude, the freelancer conforms to the state of life.
The second question, which goes a step further, is that please don't overestimate your wisdom. Wisdom itself is not perfect, it is a trap in itself. When you are oblivious and the ego is inflated to the point of invincibility, you also quietly and unconsciously fall into the trap of wisdom. How to understand this problem? To give an example, in the Civil War when the United States liberated serfs, the real intention to kill Lincoln was not all serf owners, but also a large number of serfs. Because the serfs were on the ceiling of their wisdom, they thought they were happy to have a master. Another example is a vicious incident that occurred in Henan a few years ago. A man imprisons two women in a basement, and over time, the happiest thing these two women do every day is to wait for the arrival of the evil person who imprisoned them (known in psychology as the "Stockholm effect"). Therefore, please do not overestimate your own wisdom, in fact, we are all prisoners of our own wisdom, and only by maintaining self-reflection can we truly gain wisdom in life. Finally, I wish everyone to live the life they want as soon as possible, and I wish you all to escape the trap of wisdom and pursue a bright life.