Hey everyone,
I thought I’d kick off the
discussion about the readings with some comments on Brain Black’s The Character
of The Self in Ancient India. In particular, I’d like to touch on the Vedic
conception of “creation” and it’s similarities (and differences) to creation
myths in western religions. As Black writes, "one of the most prevailing myths
in the Vedic ritual texts is that the universe began with the sacrifice and
dismemberment of the primordial male body.” Such an idea – that man and God are
linked more closely than God is to any other terrestrial life form – is
prevalent in just about every modern religion. In Genesis, however, man is
derived from the Earth (“God formed the man from the dust of the ground“). In
Vedic mythology, Earth (and the entire Universe, for that matter) derives from
man.
I was also intrigued (and
admittedly a bit puzzled) by the idea that “in humans…åtman is said to be
clearer than in other beings.” The text did not really follow up on this
assertion. Any ideas?
I can follow the logic that
atman is some sort of intangible force that provides for the essence of life
(that is, it is separate from experience, and is in fact what gives rise to
experience). But I don’t quite understand why atman would be “clearer” in
humans than other life forms. I think this gets at the Vedic idea that
humanity is somehow distinctly different from all other life forms (this idea
is also present in western religions i.e. man being created in the image of
God). I suppose it should come as no surprise that any human creation myth will
seek to give humanity some intrinsic value beyond being the most sophisticated
life form on Earth.
Anyways, I hope that wasn’t
too hard to follow. I felt like I was able to draw a lot of parallels between
the Vedic conception of creation and the western conception of creation in
these readings. I’m curious to hear what you all think about Vedic creation
myths and how they are similar/different to other creation myths you have been
exposed to.
Nice post Zach, but please give page numbers with any quotes so that it's easy for all of us to track them down. There's a widespread idea in Hinduism and Buddhism that humans are ideally positioned to seek liberation. Gethin mentions this in Buddhist terms: if beings are gods, they're too happy, and aren't able to see the deeper causes of discontent and so don't seek liberation. Hell beings, on the other hand, suffer so much that they don't have the capacity to think of much else at all. So, yes, there's definitely a sense that humans are special, but it's pretty circumstantial. We just happen to have the right balance of factors in our existence that we can both recognize the need for liberation and pursue it.
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