According to what I've read, the first dualist philosophy was probably
the Indian Samkhya system - the term 'samkhya' pertains to number.
Samkhya is a Vedic first cousin to the Avestan dualism of the Persian
Zoroaster and the Manichaen Manes. Sankhya is the basis of all
subsequent Asian dualisms including Indian Vaishnavism, Buddhist Tantra,
Gnostic dualism, Chinese Yin-Yang and Taoism. Go figure.
There are many reason for identifying the dualistic Gnostic movement
with the the 'Appearance Only' theory of the Buddhist Mahayana, which is
well documented. There are clear links between the "causation" theory of
the Indian Sage Kapila, the Buddha, and Gnosticism.
"When we review these in the light of what we now have come to know,
both from the Nag-Hamadi trove and from our understanding, recently
gained, of the Docetic doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism (the growth and
flowering of which exactly coincided with the high period of the Gnostic
movement), the implications of their imagery can be judged with enlarged
appreciation" (364).
Reference:
Joseph Campbell
The Illusory Christ
"The Masks of God'
Volume III Occidental
Viking, 1964
On 10/20/2013 8:45 AM, Jason wrote:
The story of the fallen angel is figurative, metaphorical
story.
It's the process of creation itself, the bigbang. The
spirit became matter, or "fell" into matter.
Long long ago, we were one with the "word". We lost our
oneness with the word as soon as we bit the "apple". The
entire sprititual journey or evolution is to regain that
oneness again.
I remember reading this in one of Blavatsky's book
(theosophical society) many years ago.
_http://davidpratt.info/spir-mat.htm _
> --- "s3raphita" <s3raphita@...> wrote:
>
> Re "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every
> tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the
> tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
> eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
> shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17). ":
>
> Precisely! Man didn't die so God was telling porkies!
> (Spare me the bollocks of saying man dying "spiritually".)
>
> The early Gnostics were right in seeing the Serpent as the
> true friend of mankind. The Serpent wanted us to see that
> we are immortal (we're *really* the One Self - "Christ
> Consciousness") but "God" wants us to remain slaves. Of
> course, we're using mythological language here, but the
> God of present-day Christians still doesn't want people to
> become seers - ie, those who see clearly.
>
> > --- "punditster" <punditster@...> wrote:
> >
> > The Fall of Man myth is a universal story that teaches
> > by means of a confidence trick.
> >
> > And the Lord God said, "Behold, the man is become as one
> > of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth
> > his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat,
> > and live for ever... therefore the Lord God sent him
> > forth from the garden of Eden ..." (Genesis 3:22-3).
> >
> > And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every
> > tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the
> > tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
> > eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
> > shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17).
> >
> > Clearly, humankind did not die on that day of the Fall,
> > but instead became mortal.
> >
> > We can see how the creation of man from clay, as related
> > in the Jehovistic account of Genesis, belonged to one
> > branch of the world's universal clay-man myths springing
> > from Southeast Asia. According to Oppenhiemer: "In these
> > stories a malign creature, originally either a devil or
> > snake, interfered with the attempted animation of the
> > clay models by the creator. A a clear reference to human
> > creation is in the Austronesian cultures of Southeast
> > Asia as totemic props for mythic drama" (Oppenheimer
> > 356).
> >
> > Work Cited:
> >
> > "Eden in the East"
> > The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia.
> > By Stephen Oppenheimer, M.D.
> > Phoenix 1998
> > p. 355-382
> >
> On 10/19/2013 2:14 PM, Share Long wrote:
>
> Richard, do other cultures have a myth about the fall of humanity
that centers around acquiring some forbidden knowledge? And in other
cultures is the fall blamed on the women?
>
>
>
>
> On Saturday, October 19, 2013 2:04 PM, Richard J. Williams
<punditster@> mailto:punditster@ wrote:
>
>
> It seems obvious that the stories and myths gathered in the Bible
were assembled from immortality and fertility myths which were in
common circulation at that time, that is, about 3000 years ago.
Stephen Oppenheimer, writing in "Eden in the East" notes that many of
these same mythic elements are still to be found in lands stretching
from Egypt to India, Southwest Asia, Melanesia, and America.
>
> This Levantine creation myth is closely allied to other older myths
concerning creation, and as Harris points out, every known culture
expresses social values and religious views through myth (Harris 101).
A clear reference to human creation is in the Austronesian cultures of
Southeast Asia where the idea of creation from clay or red earth is
also used "as totemic prop for mythic drama" (Oppenheimer 356).
>
> Work Cited:
>
> Oppenhiemer, Stephen, M.D., "Eden in the East." London: Phoenix, 1998
>
> On 10/19/2013 11:56 AM, emptybill@ mailto:emptybill@ wrote:
>
> According to the Orthodox, "Ancestral Sin" caused the reversal of
paradisaical deathlessness by creating the consequential mortality
that we all inherited. Obviously a mythologized explanation but this
is how they explain why humans are prone to concupiscence and deviance
of will.
>
>
>
> Better yet is this explanation of the Orthodox view of "original" sin.
>
>
>
> http://oca.org/questions/teaching/st.-augustine-original-sin
>
>
>
> ---In [email protected]
mailto:[email protected], <authfriend@> mailto:authfriend@
wrote:
>
> Thanks, this is great. For the moment, one question: "The expulsion
from the Garden and from the Tree of Life was an act of love and not
vengeance so that humanity would not 'become immortal in sin.'" What
does "immortal in sin" mean, and how would that happen?
>
>
> emptybill wrote:
> Read this and then see if you have questions.
>
>
>
http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/articles/ancestral_versus_original_sin
http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/articles/ancestral_versus_original_sin
>
