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Today I did an endowment at the Salt Lake Temple with one of my physics buddies. It was the first time I’ve been to the temple since my faith reconstruction. It was actually more profound that it was when I was a TBM. I saw a deep symbolism in the movement from the Garden Room, then upstairs to the World Room, then to the Terrestrial Room and the Celestial Room. It paralleled my faith journey very well. Being a TBM was like being in the Garden of Eden. Then I ate the forbidden fruit by asking the forbidden questions, reading the forbidden books, and entertaining the forbidden doubt. And I was thrust into a world of turmoil and strife, the World, or my faith crisis. Then, after a time, I moved to the Terrestrial Room, retaining the knowledge I’d gained in the World Room, which could be metaphorically represented by the ceremonial clothing. In the Terrestrial Room there was more peace and beauty than in the World Room, and it symbolized the reawakening that I’ve experienced. Then I moved to the Celestial Room, which is a level of fulfillment that I’m still working towards. It was profound that I cannot go back to the Garden of Eden, nor do I want to. The price of the knowledge I gained was the time I had to spend in toil in the World Room, but I wouldn’t trade the Celestial Room for the Garden Room. The Garden was beautiful, but greater knowledge awaits. I will quote Arthur Miller:
“The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less.”
Thank you for posting this. It’s important to hear the good experiences. I went with my wife and oldest son to the temple on Thursday, accompanied by our Bishop. It was our son’s first time in a long time, and our Bishop has been wonderful in expediting it so our son could attend our other son’s sealing next month.
We saw the newest movie – and we all loved it. The actors took more time to show emotion and contemplation, and I really liked what they portrayed in doing so.
We all absolutely loved that Eve was much more involved in this version than she had been previously. She didn’t have any extra lines, but she came across as much more of a real person, with emotions and a brain. She was shown as seriously thinking about and struggling with the choice she made to eat the fruit; she was shown as being more in tune with who Peter, James and John were; they interacted directly with her more than once, whereas previously she had remained solidly in the background; overall, she simply was a much stronger, more thoughtful, intelligent, contemplative person than in the older movies.
My wife, who is as faithful and naturally believing as anyone I’ve ever known made the following comment in the Celestial Room, spontaneously and without any previous discussion with me about it:
Quote:I hope the first thing that is changed in the next movie is to remove the phrase “unto your husband” when they talk about kings and queens, priests and priestesses. The wording should be exactly the same for the men and the women.
It was a great experience for all of us, overall.
Beatifull post and parallel! I haven’t been to the temple for a while either but will def. think of your parallel next time I go. Thanks:) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Tanks, IM. “Like” Wonderful metaphore. Thank you! :thumbup: Thank you, Inquiring Mind. I too have gone back to the Temple on certain occasions after reconstructing (which is actually a process not a one-time occurrence). It was good to read of someone going to the Temple with a specific objective of enlightenment in mind and not just to do work. I think it is possible both to not go to the Temple enough (or not enough to provoke any kind of epiphany) and to go too often (relative to one’s sense of purpose). Your experience is a good example of how we should really be teaching Temple attendance if we were concerned about spiritual enlightenment and not numbers or legalistic thinking. The one time that I went to the Temple with a very specific objective was in 2007, and I wanted to verify an impression I got from spiritual manifestations. It has to do with what is meant by the levels of priesthood represented in the endowment ceremony, and what Joseph Smith probably understood. These questions were burning in my head, so I jumped the gun and went on the Internet to look it up on a website that had the modern post-1990 ceremony. (I really didn’t want to do that but I couldn’t wait.) Then I went to the Temple and yes, I felt my impressions were correct. Joseph Smith most likely saw the levels of priesthood as representing levels of enlightenment that people can attain in mortality.
That’s just my own impression. I am not preaching this as gospel. Maybe JS wasn’t that deep and I’m reading too much into him. But that is the beauty of the Temple experience that I see in your account. Thanks.
InquiringMind wrote:It was profound that I cannot go back to the Garden of Eden, nor do I want to. The price of the knowledge I gained was the time I had to spend in toil in the World Room, but I wouldn’t trade the Celestial Room for the Garden Room. The Garden was beautiful, but greater knowledge awaits. I will quote Arthur Miller:
“The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less.”
Thanks for posting this. I like the reminder that the temple aims to move us forward and upward.
I would like to be able to have an experience like this one day. Thanks so much for sharing these thoughts. You definitely made me think.
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