dimanche 17 mars 2024

Eric Voegelin on “Gnosticism”

Eric Voegelin

From: Science, Politics and Gnosticism: Two Essays (1968)
“In these essays, Voegelin contends that certain modern movements, including positivism, Hegelianism, Marxism, and the "God is dead" school, are variants of the gnostic tradition he identified in his classic work The New Science of Politics. Voegelin attempts to resolve the intellectual confusion that has resulted from the dominance of gnostic thought by clarifying the distinction between political gnosticism and the philosophy of politics.”
For a totally different opinion on the political role of “Gnosticism” see Pacôme Thiellement's La victoire des Sans Roi (PUF, 2017) or his video series L'empire n'a jamais pris fin.

The before-last paragraph could without difficulty be applied to esoteric Buddhism, that ended up creating its own “empire” (“the Tantric bloc”).
And now a word on gnosticism itself—its origins and some of its essential characteristics.

For the cosmological civilizations of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, as well as for the peoples of the Mediterranean, the seventh century before Christ inaugurates the age of ecumenical empires. The Persian Empire is followed by the conquests of Alexander, the Diadochian empires, the expansion of the Roman Empire, and the creation of the Parthian and Sassanian empires. The collapse of the ancient empires of the East, the loss of independence for Israel and the Hellenic and Phoenician city-states, the population shifts, the deportations and enslavements, and the interpenetration of cultures reduce men who exercise no control over the proceedings of history to an extreme state of forlornness in the turmoil of the world, of intellectual disorientation, of material and spiritual insecurity. The loss of meaning that results from the breakdown of institutions, civilizations, and ethnic cohesion evokes attempts to regain an understanding of the meaning of human existence in the given conditions of the world. Among these efforts, which vary widely in depth of insight and substantive truth, are to be found: the Stoic reinterpretation of man (to whom the polis had become meaningless) as the polites (citizen) of the cosmos, the Polybian vision of a pragmatic ecumene destined to be created by Rome, the mystery religions, the Heliopolitan slave cults, Hebrew apocalyptic, Christianity, and Manichaeism. And in this sequence, as one of the most grandiose of the new formulations of the meaning of existence, belongs gnosticism.

Of the profusion of gnostic experiences and symbolic expressions, one feature may be singled out as the central element in this varied and extensive creation of meaning: the experience of the world as an alien place into which man has strayed and from which he must find his way back home to the other world of his origin. “Who has cast me into the suffering of this world?” asks the “Great Life” of the gnostic texts, which is also the “first, alien Life from the worlds of light.” It is an alien in this world and this world is alien to it.

“This world was not made according to the desire of the Life.” “Not by the will of the Great Life art thou come hither.” Therefore the question, “Who conveyed me into the evil darkness?” and the entreaty, “Deliver us from the darkness of this world into which we are flung.” The world is no longer the well-ordered, the cosmos, in which Hellenic man felt at home; nor is it the Judaeo-Christian world that God created and found good. Gnostic man no longer wishes to perceive in admiration the intrinsic order of the cosmos. For him the world has become a prison from which he wants to escape: “The wretched soul has strayed into a labyrinth of torment and wanders around without a way out.... It seeks to escape from the bitter chaos, but knows not how to get out.” Therefore the confused, plaintive question asked of the Great Life, “Why didst thou create this world, why didst thou order the tribes here from thy midst?” From this attitude springs the programmatic formula of gnosticism, which we became, of where we were and whereinto we have been flung, of whereto we are hastening and wherefrom we are redeemed, of what birth is and what rebirth.” The great speculative mythopoems of gnosticism revolve around the questions of origin, the condition of having-been-flung, escape from the world, and the means of deliverance.

In the quoted texts the reader will have recognized Hegel’s alienated spirit and Heidegger’s flungness (Geworfenheit) of human existence. This similarity in symbolic expression results from a homogeneity in experience of the world. And the homogeneity goes beyond the experience of the world to the image of man and salvation with which both the modern and the ancient gnostics respond to the condition of “flungness” in the alien world.

If man is to be delivered from the world, the possibility of deliverance must first be established in the order of being. In the ontology of ancient gnosticism this is accomplished through faith in the “alien,” “hidden” God who comes to man’s aid, sends him his messengers, and shows him the way out of the prison of the evil God of this world (be he Zeus or Yahweh or one of the other ancient father gods). In modern gnosticism it is accomplished through the assumption of an absolute spirit which in the dialectical unfolding of consciousness proceeds from alienation to consciousness of itself; or through the assumption of a dialectical-material process of nature which in its course leads from the alienation resulting from private property and belief in God to the freedom of a fully human existence; or through the assumption of a will of nature which transforms man into superman.

Within the ontic possibility, however, gnostic man must carry on the work of salvation himself. Now, through his psyche (“soul”) he belongs to the order, the nomos, of the world; what impels him toward deliverance is the pneuma (“spirit”). The labor of salvation, therefore, entails the dissolution of the worldly constitution of the psyche and at the same time the gathering and freeing of the powers of the pneuma. However the phases of salvation are represented in the different sects and systems—and they vary from magic practices to mystic ecstasies, from libertinism through indifferentism to the world to the strictest asceticism—the aim always is destruction of the old world and passage to the new. The instrument of salvation is gnosis itself—knowledge. Since according to the gnostic ontology entanglement with the world is brought about by agnoia, ignorance, the soul will be able to disentangle itself through knowledge of its true life and its condition of alienness in this world. As the knowledge of falling captive to the world, gnosis is at the same time the means of escaping it. Thus, Irenaeus recounts the meaning that gnosis had for the Valentinians: Perfect salvation consists in the cognition, as such, of the Ineffable Greatness. For since sin and affliction resulted from ignorance (agnoia), this whole system originating in ignorance is dissolved through knowledge (gnosis). Hence, gnosis is the salvation of the inner man. . . . Gnosis redeems the inner, pneumatic man; he finds his satisfaction in the knowledge of the Whole. And this is the true salvation.

This will have to suffice by way of clarification, save for one word of caution. Self-salvation through knowledge has its own magic, and this magic is not harmless. The structure of the order of being will not change because one finds it defective and runs away from it. The attempt at world destruction will not destroy the world, but will only increase the disorder in society. The gnostic’s flight from a truly dreadful, confusing, and oppressive state of the world is understandable. But the order of the ancient world was renewed by that movement which strove through loving action to revive the practice of the “serious play” (to use Plato’s expression) —that is, by Christianity.












samedi 16 mars 2024

Vases, fibres optiques, véhicules célestes et autres objets volants

Mondes imaginaires, mondes imaginaux (photo AR Post)
"Xénophane et les éléates avant lui, ne voyait que l’Un dans le Tout, la totalité de la Nature. Parménide d'Élée (VI-Ve siècle av. J.-C.), élève de Xénophane, serait, selon Diogène Laërce, le premier à déclarer que la Terre est de forme sphérique. Il affirma aussi qu’il existe deux éléments, le feu et la terre[1], « le premier investi de la fonction de démiurge, le second de celle de matière. » Selon Alexandre d’Aphrodise, « [Parménide] admet que l'univers est un, inengendré, sphérique » et pour expliquer la génération des phénomènes « il prend deux principes, le feu et la terre, celle-ci comme matière, celui-là comme cause et comme agent."[1]
Aristote remarque qu’Empédocle fut le premier à parler des quatre éléments, mais qu’il s’en servait comme s’ils étaient seulement deux : le feu d’une part, et « opposés à lui et constituant comme une nature unique, la terre, l’air et l’eau. » (Aristote, Métaphysique, A, IV, 985 a 21[2]). Quand on parle de deux éléments, on les classe en l’humide et le sec, ou le chaud et le froid[3]. Le feu (chaud) peut s’allier à l’air (sec) pour former le “pneuma” le souffle chaud de la vie. La terre (froid, sec) peut s’allier avec l’eau (humide) pour former la boue, l’argile, la matière. Le pneuma (feu, air) est “investi de la fonction de démiurge”, et la terre “de celle de matière[4]. L’air chaud monte et est en haut, la terre froide et humide en bas. L’air chaud mobile est actif et la terre froide et humide passive. Les éléments peuvent être rassemblés en un Un, ou être dissociés à partir d’un Un, par l’action de l’Amitié et la Haine[5]. Attraction et répulsion.

L’air chaud (pneuma) tend naturellement à “monter” vers “l’Un”, au-delà des sept sphères, la huitième et la neuvième. Le pneuma “aime” l’Un[6]. La terre humide et lourde… penche plutôt vers le bas, elle “ressent” naturellement “de la répulsion” pour l’Un.

Vase "âme" avec flamme,
Cimetière St Pierre, Marseille

Dans une conception cosmique religieuse, le feu (céleste) est souvent associé avec le démiurge, et le monde intelligible dont est issu celui-ci. Et la terre humide froide et lourde, avec la matière, qui quand elle reçoit l’air chaud du démiurge devient le monde sensible. L'intelligible, qui est tout léger et “immatériel”, est en haut, et le sensible, lourd, figé, en bas. Les humains sont vivants et intelligents à cause du souffle chaud (pneuma) qui leur a été insufflé par le démiurge. Les animaux n’ont qu’une âme végétative et sensitive, les humains ont en plus une âme intellectuelle, qui constitue leur lien avec le monde intelligible. La dualité intelligible-sensible est dépassée, mais peut encore être philosophique sans être religieuse. “L’âme” qui compte réellement est “l’âme intellectuelle”. L’animal n’est pas à “l’image de Dieu” et n’a pas d’âme intellectuelle, pas de ligne directe avec le Logos.

Ange de la résurrection avec trompette. St. Pierre Marseille
Tout en haut le vase "âme" avec flamme, attendant le jugement dernier. 

Il y avait donc dans l’antiquité une âme supérieure (flammée) et une “âme inférieure”. L’âme supérieure “aime” naturellement l’intelligible et l’Un. L’âme inférieure, c’est l’âme végétative et sensitive, que l’homme partage avec les animaux, et qui est constituée des quatre éléments. Durant la vie, l’âme supérieure et l’âme inférieure forment un ensemble, mais que se passe-t-il à la mort ? Les opinions divergent. Seule la partie de l’âme (feu et air) qui est compatible avec l’intelligible peut rejoindre le monde intelligible, et éventuellement poursuivre son ascension, “le reste” retournant aux quatre éléments. Ou, quand on croit en la résurrection du corps, c’est l’ensemble qui “resurgira” dans un habit céleste, quand l’ange de la résurrection sonnera sa trompette. Cet “ensemble” peut former comme un “petit corps organique et indestructible” au sein du corps grossier constitué des quatre éléments, et qui retrouve une liberté relative après la mort du dernier.
Si l‘ on veut bien admettre cette supposition unique, l‘ on aura le fondement physique d‘un état futur réservé aux animaux. Le petit corps organique et indestructible, vrai siège de l‘ame, et logé dès le commencement dans le corps grossier et destructible , conservera l‘animal et la personnalité de l‘animal.”

Il est donc possible que l‘ animal se conserve dans ce petit corps indestructible auquel l‘ame demeure unie après la mort. Les différentes liaisons qu‘ il soutenoit avec le corps grossier, et en vertu desquelles il recevoit les impressions du dehors, produisoient dans les fibres qui sont le siège de la mémoire , des déterminations durables, et ces déterminations constituent le fondement physique de la personnalité de l‘animal. C‘ est par elles, que l‘état futur conservera plus ou moins de liaisons avec l‘état passé , et que l‘animal pourra sentir l'accroîssement de son bonheur ou de sa perfection.” (La palingénésie[7] philosophique, Charles Bonnet[8] (1720-1793, connu du syndrome de Charles Bonnet).
D’autres, et pas des moindres, ont eu des pensées similaires longtemps avant Charles Bonnet… “Animal” a ici d’ailleurs le sens de l’être animé (par le “premier moteur immobile”). On retrouve l’idée d’un contenant de “l’âme” dans les pratiques du bouddhisme tibétain ésotérique qui sont associées autransfert de la conscience” (pho ba) au moment de la mort. Il arrive alors que l'on parle d’un “corps-vase” (bum sku), visualisé[9], à ne pas confondre avec le concept de “corps-vase de jouvence” (gzhon nu bum sku). Ce corps-vase au niveau du Coeur, contient le bindu blanc du père biologique, et le bindu rouge de la mère biologique, ainsi que la divinité médiatrice auquel "l’âme" s'identifie. Lors du transfert, les bindus se séparent, et la divinité-"âme" dans le corps-vase au Coeur est imaginée être emportée par un rayon de lumière, et propulsée par le prāṇa (air chaud) venant du bas, qui accompagne son mouvement ascensionnel le long du canal médian, jusqu’à la khecarī (mkha' spyod ma). Celle-ci emporte le couple divinité-"âme" vers le domaine céleste khecara (mkha' spyod). La divinité médiatrice est dans ce cas comme “le petit corps indestructible auquel l‘âme demeure unie”, et qui sert à cette dernière de contenant/véhicule pendant son ascension. Il y a bien l’idée d’un transfert, d’un “objet” transféré (“âme”), et transporté, qui part d’un point Omega en bas, pour arriver au point Alpha tout en haut. Le tout évidemment scellé par la vacuité…[10] puisque la vacuité sert de contenant (“vase”) axiomatique bouddhiste pour toute manipulation (upāya)[11].

Au Coeur du corps physique, constitué des quatre éléments, qui sont comme des “vases[12], se trouve un corps-vase, telle une citadelle intérieure, dans lequel sont préservés les bindus blanc et rouge, et une sorte d’ “âme”, qui est comme un fragment, le contenant ou le médium du Logos, qui la lie au Logos universel. Le corps-vase préserve cette part intelligible du sensible, dans lequel elle est temporairement enfouie. Mais en même temps, cette “âme” est aussi accompagnée, d’une sorte de “mémoire” ou “base de données” sensorielles, psychiques, émotionnelles, etc. (“karma”), qui déterminent son “état futur”. Elle est lestée par ce fardeau qui empêche son ascension jusqu’à tout en haut, et qu’elle doit donc d’abord déposer (Dialogue du Porteur de fardeau (P. bhāra-sutta, Saṃyutta III, p. 25)). Dans le bouddhisme pāli, il n’y a pas de destination finale déterminée pour autant, mais dans le bouddhisme mahāyāna ésotérique, les véhicules célestes et les terres pures foisonnent.


Cela est rendu possible non par la vacuité, mais par la “Lumière” ou “Radiance” inhérente dans la tathāgata-garbha, le germe ou l’embryon du tathāgata. Cette “Lumière” n’est pas ici la simple faculté de “luminosité” naturelle de l’esprit, toujours active et capable de tout imaginer. Elle est plutôt conçue comme une Lumière “divine” dans le bouddhisme ésotérique du Tibet au XIVème siècle, et notamment dans le bouddhisme “funéraire[13] de l’école Nyingmapa. Comme l’explique David Germano, il y a des visions (post-mortem ou autres), qui sont le résultat “d'efforts contemplatifs ardus” de la pratique de la phase de génération (bskyed rim). Mais il y en a d’autres, qui sont “une efflorescence naturelle de la nature de bouddha interne[14], ou “l'illumination interne de la nature de bouddha qui brille extérieurement dans les visions post-mortem[15]. C’est “l’âme” qui en tant que borne du Logos universel illumine “l’extérieur” non par “les apparences déformées ('khrul snang)” par le sensible, mais par des visions réelles, des épiphanies du monde intelligible. Des terres pures et des divinités, des ḍākinī, des khecarī, des anges, des âmes bienheureuses…. Ce n’est plus du bouddhisme, mais de lillumination et de l’illuminisme. Ce n’est pas la lumière humaine, mais la lumière divine par tathāgata-garbha interposé. Dans ce “bouddhisme funéraire”, le tathāgata-garbha est la borne du Logos/Noûs, capable de produire les épiphanies du monde intelligible, à l’aide de Lampes (sgron ma) permettant la “transcendance directe” (thod rgal). Imaginez une sorte de réseau de fibre optique de bout en bout (FttH)...
Ce processus unique d'efflorescence spontanée de bouddhas à partir d'un intérieur caché se retrouve, comme spécifié ci-dessus, non seulement dans les visions post-mortem, mais aussi dans le processus contemplatif central de transcendance directe [thod rgal], le processus cosmogonique connu sous le nom de “Epiphanies de la Base[16]” [gzhi snang], et le processus de manifestations ou d'expositions d'un bouddha. Ce processus unique, présent dans quatre contextes différents, constitue la nouvelle base visionnaire de l'Essence Perlée [snying thig] sous tous ses aspects : contemplatif, philosophique, psychologique, cosmogonique, etc.

Il a des racines distinctes et variées dans le bouddhisme indien, et chacun de ses quatre contextes doit être étudié individuellement quant à d'éventuels développements distincts - en particulier en relation avec la mort - avant leur unification au sein de l'Essence Perlée [snying thig]. En d'autres termes, quelle est l'histoire d'un tel processus dans la description de la cosmogonie, de la contemplation, de la mort et des bouddhas ? Il est clair que le processus lui-même a ses racines les plus anciennes dans la description d'un bouddha qui déploie des réseaux infinis de terres pures et de multiples corps divins à partir de sa propre expérience de l'illumination. Ce processus a ensuite été intériorisé - au moins implicitement - par la notion de nature de bouddha [tathāgatagarbha], une notion qui a été radicalisée et élaborée de manière contemplative avec l'essor beaucoup plus tardif des pratiques du corps subtil dans le tantra bouddhiste.[17]
Le processus de la mort, comme d’ailleurs celui du sommeil et de la contemplation, passe dans le Yoga ésotérique, par des dissolutions progressives (émanation rétrograde) des “vases” d'éléments, etc., façon poupées russes. Du plus grossier vers le plus subtil, mais où le plus subtil est en quelque sorte le “contenant” du plus grossier. L’intelligible est aussi vaste que l’espace, tout en étant aussi petit que l’essence perlée. Tout comme le Point de Terminaison Optique (PTO) donne accès à tous les mondes du Métavers, et à la naissance dans une Deuxième vie.
"Il y a plusieurs demeures dans la maison de mon Père. Si cela n'était pas, je vous l'aurais dit. Je vais vous préparer une place". (Jean 14:2)
Sans lumière, pas d'image. Sans images, pas d'idéologie. Sans idéologie, pas de visions. Pas de vision, pas de contemplation.

Nagarjuna écrit dans les Stances du milieu par excellence: (Madhyamaka-kārikās), traduit par Guy Bugault (chapitre 3) :

" En fait, la vision ne se voit point soi-même. Ce qui ne se voit point soi-même, comment verra-t-il les autres ?" (3.2) " La vision ne voit pas, l'absence de vision non plus. Quant au sujet voyant, on répétera pour lui ce qui a été expliqué pour la vision. (3.5)" et "Solidaire ou non de la vision, le sujet voyant n'existe pas. S'il n'y a personne pour voir, comment pourrait-il y avoir visible et vision." (3.6)   

Visual Poems with Language Is a Virus, MrLhewett

***

[1] Les écoles présocratiques, édition établie par Jean-Paul Dumont, Gallimard, Folio essais (1988), p. 326

[2]Ce qui est à l'honneur d'Empédocle, c'est que, parmi tous ses devanciers, il est le premier qui ait introduit la cause motrice dans les recherches philosophiques, bien qu'en la divisant en deux, puisqu'il n'assigne pas une cause unique au mouvement, et qu'il le fait venir de deux causes contraires l'une à l'autre. Il faut lui rendre encore cette autre justice que c'est lui qui le premier fixa à quatre le nombre des éléments, considérés au point de vue de la matière; mais il faut aussi reconnaître qu'il n'emploie pas toujours ces quatre éléments, et qu'il les réduit d'ordinaire à deux, [985b] en considérant le feu isolément, et en lui opposant les trois autres, la terre, l'air et l'eau, qu'il réunit en une seule nature. C'est ce dont on peut s'assurer en consultant ses vers. Voilà donc, encore une fois, comment Empédocle a envisagé les principes et à quel nombre il les a portés.” Traduction : Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire

[3] Les écoles présocratiques, p. 145-146

[4] Parménide, Cité par Diogène Laërce, Vies et opinions des philosophes illustres, IX, 22.

[5] Simplicius, Les écoles présocratiques, p. 145

[6]L’Âme se meut autour de Dieu, l’embrasse (ἀμφαγαπάζεται) et s’y attache de toutes ses forces : car toutes choses dépendent de ce principe[2] (ἐξήρτηται αὐτοῦ πάντα)... Tout astre, en quelque endroit qu’il se trouve, est transporté de joie (ἀγάλλεται) en embrassant Dieu ; ce n’est point par raison, mais par une nécessité naturelle.” Ennéade II, livre ii : Du Mouvement du ciel, Notes, traduction de M. N. Bouillet.

[7] Retour à la vie, renaissance qui est en même temps une régénération. Atilf

[8] “[ ] son œuvre la plus ambitieuse est sans doute sa Palingénésie philosophique (1769) dans laquelle il poursuit le développement de son système leibnizien. Il y défend l'immortalité de l'âme de l'être humain mais aussi de celle des animaux. C'est un vaste essai où il puise à des connaissances très vastes comme la géologie, la biologie, la psychologie et la métaphysique pour décrire la vie sur Terre et son futur. Il poursuit cette réinterprétation de la Genèse dans les Recherches philosophiques sur les preuves du christianisme de 1773.”

Dans ses traités « biologiques » sur la nature, Charles Bonnet s'attache à montrer que tous les êtres forment une échelle ininterrompue ; que tous proviennent de germes préexistants, etc. Dans ses traités de métaphysique, il accorde une grande part au cerveau et à l'organisation animale, mais sans tomber[non neutre], comme on l'en a accusé, dans le matérialisme et le fatalisme. Tout au contraire[non neutre], il était profondément religieux et optimiste quant au devenir des êtres et des espèces : il a tâché d'établir dans sa Palingénésie la nécessité d'une autre vie, non seulement pour l'homme, mais aussi pour les animaux.” Wikipedia

[9] P.e. dans la pratique Shangpa kagyu mgon po snying zhugs kyi gdams pa 'pho ba dang bcas pa.

[10]14. Those for whom emptiness is possible, for them everything is possible. Those for whom emptiness is not possible, for them everything is not possible.”

14. /gang la stong pa nyid rung ba//de la thams cad rung bar ‘gyur//gang la stong nyid mi rung ba//de la thams cad mi rung ‘gyur/ 

Nāgārjuna’s Verses of the Center, Chapter 24. Investigation of the Ennobling Truths, translation by Stephen Batchelor

[11] stong pa nyid du gyur/ stong pa’i ngang las…

[12] Aristote, De la Génération et de la Corruption/Livre I/Chapitre V

Je m’explique : par exemple, s’il se forme de l’air, venant de l’eau, ce ne sera pas parce que l’eau change, mais parce que la matière de l’air sera renfermée dans l’eau, qui le produit, comme dans une espèce de vase ;”

[13] The Funerary Transformation of the Great Perfection (Rdzogs chen), David Germano (2005)

[14]This version of post-death visions of Buddhas is thus still based on the generation phase (bskyed rim) ideology of visions following strenuous j contemplative exertions, rather than a natural efflorescence of internal Buddha-nature. In addition, the post-death intermediate process is still presented as a single unitary period, while the general stress is on visions of five-colored light rather than on anthropomorphic visions of deities.” Funerary Transformation

[15]The discussion clearly points to a Seminal Heart-like scheme: the intermediate process of reality is defined as the cessation of distorted appearances (’khrul snang) followed by luminous manifestation of one’s own primordial gnosis for up to five days. It also has a discussion of light channels in the body, a characteristic of Seminal Heart texts that is bound up with the internal illumination of buddha-nature that shines externally in the postmortem visions.”

Even more striking is the Secret Cycle text entitled The Victorious Intention of the Quintessential Esoteric Precepts (Man ngag snying gi dgongs pa rgyal ba).28 It gives a detailed discussion of the one hundred peaceful and wrathful deities (zhi khro rigs brgya) located in the tsitta of the heart and the conch chamber of the brain (klad pa dung khang). These are the iconographic representations of the body’s internal buddha-nature, which form the visual content of the postmortem visions in which they are externalized.” Funerary Transformation

[16] Voir p.e. Jean-Luc Achard. Epiphanie de la Base (gzhi snang; gzhi yi snang ba). 2022.

[17]This single process of the spontaneous efflorescence of Buddhas from a concealed interior is found, as specified above, not only in the postmortem visions, but also in the central contemplative process of direct transcendence, the cosmogonic process known as ground-presencing, and the process of a Buddha’s manifestations or displays. This single process found in four different contexts forms the new visionary basis of the Seminal Heart in all its aspects: contemplative, philosophical, psychological, cosmogonic, and so forth.

It has distinct and varied roots in Indian Buddhism, and each of its four contexts must be investigated individually as to possible separate developments – especially in relationship to death – prior to their unification within Seminal Heart. In other words, what is the history of such a process in describing cosmogony, contemplation, death, and Buddhas? Clearly, the process itself has its most ancient roots in the description of a Buddha as unfolding endless arrays of pure lands and multiple divine bodies out of his/her own enlightenment experience. This process then was interiorized – at least implicitly – through the notion of Buddha-nature, a notion that was radicalized and worked out contemplatively with the much later rise of subtle body practices in Buddhist tantra.” Funerary Transformation



samedi 9 mars 2024

Before the gods, and their human laborers...

Paradise Jan Bruegel the Elder (1620 wikimedia). Pardēz in old Iranian, a walled garden.

The religions we still know are not that old, and like nations they are superposed on a reality that doesn't fit them. Also like nations, religions seek to be applied retroactively by tweaking and rewriting their history and thus influence their respective audiences. Their discourse is written in the genre of semi-eternal truths, that reality can never live up to. Reality has always been very much on its own, but the day will come (a sort of Last Judgement Day), it will bite both religions and nations in the back. Not necessarily a good day for anybody, except for planet Earth perhaps.

After this small apocalyptic reminder let’s look at the times before there weren't any gods, no heaven, no hell below us, no countries, no religion, no possessions, just imagine.

I already wrote about the time when heaven was not invented, in a place that was not yet Greece, not even ancient Greece. Unfortunately we only know about this because of archaeological material and documents dating from the times when there were countries, heaven above and gods. It seems though there has been a time when there was only the world and the “netherworld”, the water table. There was the sky with the sun and the moon, and stars, but the generations of humans living on that land were born, died, and went back into the earth as the seeds for future generations, although not as an individual metempsychosis, and there was no role for heaven in this. At one point “the dead” were thought to linger on in the Asphodel Meadows in the underworld, or at least their seed, their souvenir, their ghost, their spirit, their soul. A two level system, where the invention of a specific place in the underworld, with god like entities, was like a prototype of what was to come, but "on high".

From the documented times in Mesopotamia we know about ideas that may have been going around in non-documented times. Documented times are times with gods, heaven, hell, countries, religion, and possessions though. We always have to be careful when the “haves” write about the “have nots” in the non documented times. It’s difficult to take abstraction from the order that came later, and to not see the “seeds” of that, and therefore the justifications of what came later, in the chaos of the early days. We’re looking back at an alleged chaos through the eyes of the order we live in[1]. In this case a Mesopotamian order looks back at its alleged chaos with its current references. I will be following lectures at the most interesting conference “Comment dire les origines dans le monde biblique et le Proche-Orient” (2023-2024) organised by Collège de France, and specifically the intervention by Nele Ziegler of the French CNRS on February, 29th 2024, Les dieux créateurs (et destructeurs) selon la documentation mésopotamienne du IIe millénaire av. J.-C.

Nele Ziegler looks at two Akkadian documents of that era: Atram-hasis (Story of the Flood (Atraḫasīs)) and Enuma eliš (Poem of Creation (Enūma eliš)), the latter in the French translation by P. Talon and S. Anthonioz[2]. English translations of these documents can be found at the Electronic Babylonian Libreary (eBL).

The Poem of Creation (Enūma eliš) is thought to have been written during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I (1125-1104 BCE), when there were gods, countries, kings, possessions etc. I will use the English translation[3] of the verses on the eBL website. The first chapter of the poem has the title “When On High No Word Was Used For Heaven”. When there was yet “no Heaven” “on high”. These are the opening verses:
1 When on high no word was used for heaven,
2 Nor below was firm ground called by name,
3 Primeval Apsu was their progenitor,
4 Matrix-Tiamat was she who bore them all,
5 They were mingling their waters together,
6 No lea was packed together, no canebrake matted close.
7 When no gods at all had been brought forth,
8 Nor called by names, none destinies ordained,
9 Then were gods formed within these two.
10 Lahmu and Lahamu were brought forth, were called by name
.”
With regard to the later “Order” there was “chaos” then, there were no names for the sky “on high” and the firm ground “below”, but there was above and below. There also was “Primeval Apsu”, the water table (“nappe phréatique”), the sweet water (“eau douce”) under the world, who seemed to have been male, and the future progenitor. And there was “Matrix-Tiamat”, the salty water, “the Sea” and the Creative power, a she "who bore all". The sweet and salty waters were not separated in the primordial world, yet the text mentions “When the Father and Mother mingled their waters together”. There were no gods yet, no names (and name calling), no destinies (divine plans, eons etc.). Nothing exists unless it's named...

Nele Ziegler points out that Apsu and Tiamat were no gods, because their names are not written with the distinctive Dingir symbol of a god: 𒀭Yet Apsu, “the progenitor”, “the begetter”, he, is superior to Tiamat, shewho bore them all”, because of the symbol “amtu” added to her name indicating “a servant, a slave”. The first two aquatic gods, Lahmu and Lahamu, male and female, formed “within” “their mingled waters”, were brought forth and called by name. The other gods descend from this aquatic couple, each generation better and stronger than the previous one, with Marduk being the absolute climax. Note how this goes against the principle in emanationism, where each generation (hypostasis, s. tattva t. de nyid) is further removed from the source, the One etc., and therefore “weaker” and more “watered down”, but also stronger, more operational and with more agency in the “order” of the world.

The god Marduk and king Marduk (Thomas Römer)

We have to remember this text dates from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I, who recovered the cultic idol of Marduk, the king being his representative in his country. The two aquatic gods begot Anšar (totality of heaven) and Kišar (totality of earth), who begot Anu. “15 Anu, his son, became Anshar’s equal”. There seems to be no mention of a mother. Anu, Ea and Enlil are the triad of Mesopotamian gods called the Anunnaki (princely seed).
16 Then Anu begot his own equal, Nudimmud,
17 Nudimmud was one to dominate his forebears:
18 Profound in wisdom, acute of sense, he was massively strong,
19 Far more stalwart than his grandfather Anšar,
20 No rival had he among the gods his brethren
.”
Nudimmud is one of the names of the god Ea, also known as Enki, the equivalent of Toth, Hermes and Mañjuśrī. Ea is the future “begetter” of the great Marduk. But there is going to be a rebellion among the gods against their forebears. What would Plato have thought of that? The young gods are much too noisy (and busy) for the inert Primeval Apsu (water table), who wants to destroy them, against the will of Matrix-Tiamat (the Sea).
36 Saying to her, Tiamat, in a loud voice,
37 “Their behavior is noisome to me!
38 “By day I have no rest, at night I do not sleep!
39 “I wish to put an end to their behavior, to do away with it!
40 “Let silence reign that we may sleep.
Apu’s vizir Mummu helps Apu in his destructive plan. Ea and the young gods manage to put Apsu (water table) “into deep slumber” with “his incorruptible magic spell” and kill his vizir. Then Nudimmud/Ea/Enki settles himself with his wife Damkina in “Apsu” (the water table, in fact the main land).
71 He founded his dwelling upon Apsu,
72 He secured Mummu, held firm by a lead rope.
73 After Ea had captured and vanquished his foes,
74 Had won the victory- over his opponents,
75 In his chamber, in profound quiet, he rested.
76 He called it “Apsu,” (which means) “They Recognize Sanctuaries.”
77 He established therein his living quarters,
78 Ea and Damkina his wife dwelt there in splendor.
79 In the cella of destinies, the abode of designs,
80 The most capable, the sage of the gods, the Lord was conceived,
81 In the midst of Apsu was Marduk born,
82 In the midst of holy Apsu was Marduk born!
83 Ea his father begot him,
84 Damkina his mother was confined with him
.”
When Anu his grandfather saw him (89), He was happy, he beamed, his heart was filled with joy (90). He perfected him, so that his divinity was unique (91). That is, Anu gave boons or gifts to Marduk and called him “The son, the sun, the sunlight of the gods (Mar-Utu)” (102). These boons were the four cardinal winds, with whom he managed to control his forebear Matrix-Tiamat (the Sea). The constant noise prevented the gods associated with Matrix-Tiamat to sleep. Sleep is very important for old gods… And so they schemed with great-great-grandmother Matrix-Tiamat alias “Mother Hubur” against the new gods. Mother Hubur is not into Peace and Love!... (see verses 141-162 and Chapter II Tiamat Assembled Her Creatures). In a Moby Dick like scene we see the god Marduk with bis big arms take on his great-great-grandmother the Sea, but with a different ending.
101 He shot off an arrow, it ruptured her belly,
102 It cut to her innards, it pierced the heart.
103 He subdued her and snuffed out her life,
104 He flung down her carcass, he took a stand upon it.
105 After he had slain Tiamat, the vanguard.
106 Her forces scattered, her host dispersed.
107 As for the gods her allies, who had marched beside her,
108 In fear and trembling they turned tail,
109 They tried to find a way out to save their lives,
110 There was no escaping the mesh that encircled them.
111 He drew them in and smashed their weapons.
112 They were cast in the net and sat in a heap,
113 They were heaped up in the corners, full of woe,
114 They were bearing his punishment, held in confinement
.”
Captain Ahab and Moby Dick (wikimedia)

With the carcass of Tiamat Marduk/Bel created the heaven and the universe (128-140, distributed tasks among the gods, created the luminaries that are reflections of the gods (astrology). Marduk created the calendar[4] and established rites, and the grateful gods built his temples in Babylone.
137 He split her in two, like a fish for drying,
138 Half of her he set up and made as a cover, heaven.
139 He stretched out the hide, assigned watchmen,
140 Them he ordered not to let her waters escape.
141 He crossed heaven, he inspected the firmament,
142 He made it a counterpart to Apsu, the dwelling of Nudimmud.
145 The Lord measured the construction of Apsu,
144 He founded the Great Sanctuary-, the likeness of Esharra
145 (In) the Great Sanctuary; the Esharra he had built, (and in) heaven,
146 He made Ea, Enlil, and Anu dwell in their holy-places
.”
The demiurg made the two level system into a three level system, with the invention of heaven. Technically, the two level system didn't exist either, because it was not named yet... The three “princely seed” gods rule the different levels. Anu rules over heaven (Ašrata), Enlil rules over the surface of earth (Ešarra) and Ea over the the underground water table (Apsu, Ešgalla).

Igigi protest... (photo website)

The demiurg’s creation is not finished though, and is carried out by working class gods, the Igigi. Enlil puts them to work on digging watercourses on the surface of the Earth. The story about the battle between the Ruling class gods and the working class gods can be read in the Story of the Flood (Atraḫasīs).
1 When gods were man,
2 They did forced labor, they bore drudgery.
3 Great indeed was the drudgery of the gods,
4 The forced labor was heavy, the misery too much:
5 The great Anunna-gods, the seven, were burdening
6 The Igigi-gods with forced labor.
The working class gods declare war against Enlil. Wê was their spokesperson.
We want to do battle and fight!
The [Igigi] gods listened to his speech
They threw their tools into the fire
They set
To their spades the fire,
To their (earthen) baskets the Flame (god Girra).
They grasped (their hands) as they walked
Towards the door of the sanctuary of the hero Enlil.
In the middle of the vigil, it was night,
The house was surrounded.
The god did not know.
In the middle of the vigil, it was night,
The Ekur was surrounded.
Enlil did not know.
(47-73)[5]
Ea/Hermes decided to create man in order to alleviate the work of the Igigi working class gods. For this they needed a god to be sacrificed in order to use his body to create man.
"Let one god be slaughtered and let the gods purify themselves in it.
Let Nintu mix the clay in his flesh and blood
[6]."
The spokesman Wê turned out to be the chosen one, as the working class god whose blood would be shed, so the other gods could purify themselves in it[7], and so that the first human couple could be created. Marduk announced his plan to create mankind.
5 I want to knot the blood vessels, create bones,
6 And so create a human prototype, let "Man" be his name.
7 I want to create this human prototype, this man
8 So that he can do the gods' chores and the gods can rest
[8].”

33 With his blood he made mankind.
34 He made him do the work of the gods and set the other gods free.
35 After the wise Ea had created mankind
36 And imposed on him the drudgery of the gods,
37 This work is impossible to understand,
38 For Nudimmud came into being through the wonders of Marduk!
(...)[9]
The flood monster spitting water (U.Seidl)

Under the leadership of the Mesopotamian ruling classes, human laborers continue the chores of the Igigi gods. As we could have guessed, the human workers made too much noise. It needs to be mentioned here that until now humans were immortal in the sense there was no natural death, but they were subject to accidental deaths. Enlil wanted to make an end to “the noise” and to relative immortality… Enlil tried to spread illnesses, drought and famine, but to no avail. Next plan was a great deluge (Abûbu). Ea didn't agree and secretly helped Atram-hasis (Noach) to build an arch and save his family. Although this would be his kind of job, Ea left the creation of the Deluge-monster (a sort of “gargouille”) to Enlil. All humans save Atram-hasis die. Enlil who regretted even one survived, was held responsible by the other gods who agreed to make man mortal in order to avoid future nuisances.

I will end with some ideas expressed by Thomas Römer during his course on February, 29th 2024 “Il nest pas bon pour lêtre humain dêtre seul… “ on the creation of humankind (Genisis 2,4-25), also part of “Comment dire les origines dans le monde biblique et le Proche-Orient” (2023-2024) organised by Collège de France.

Thomas Römer notices the use of the plural in Genesis 1:26-28: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness[10] and suggests it could point to a celestial court (pleroma) or to the Babylonian tablet VAT17019 (or Enûma Eliš Tablette VI quoted above). “In our image”: “ in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”. This could point to a God, Father and Mother. The image of God is also used as the epithet of a king (e.g. Marduk see above). The created humans were supposed to continue the work (creation) of God… see the rebellion of the working class gods and the reason for the creation of mankind above. Adam and Eve were supposed to take over the digging of the water courses in Paradise (Gn 2:10)... "8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed." (Gn 2,8) "15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." (Gn 2,15). Perhaps the first humans, just like the working class Igigi gods, didn't like the garden works and decided to go on strike. Have a break, party, smell the flowers, eat an apple...  Perhaps an Igigi union man advised them to do so.

As for the ideas that humans are put to labor by the gods, it is also found in India.
"The māyā had already been understood as the power of illusion by which the gods hold mortals captive in the bonds of desire and fear, so that, driven by the hope of rewards in this world or the hereafter and by the fear of celestial punishment, they never cease to work on behalf of the gods, constantly 'feeding' them through the sacrifices they offer them. The metaphysical ignorance that the gods arouse and exploit for their benefit is thus described in the most ancient Upanisads as a kind of self-unawareness natural to man, according to which he forgets that his own inner essence, or ātman, far from being reduced to a finite and dependent reality, is identifiable, beyond even the gods, with the ultimate foundation of the universe, i.e. brahman." Blog L'ignorance comme une manipulation des dieux 28/04/2014 Based on Michel Hulin, Qu'est-ce que l'ignorance métaphysique, J.Vrin, pp. 8-12
As an illustration Römer shows a slide with a photograph that reconstitutes the mosaic-covered interior of the octagonal dome (photo) of the Florence Baptistery (Baptistery of Saint John), because it represents the simultaneous creation of Adam and Eve, “in our image”. As above, so below, with the sun and moon as limit and mirror point. Römer notes that Adam, the "sweet water" main land with the land animals and the sun share the same colour. And so do Eve, the sea, the aquatic animals and the moon. Coincidence?

The sun is warm, the moon is cold, hence the warmer and colder colours.
"Since it is necessary that the weaker animal also should have a residue greater in quantity and less concocted*, and that being of such a nature it should be a mass of sanguineous liquid, and since that which has by nature a smaller portion of heat is weaker, and since it has already been stated that such is the character of the female—it is necessary that the sanguineous matter discharged by the female is also a residue. And such is the discharge of the so-called menstrual fluid." (Generation of Animals, Aristotle, 1.19.726b30-727a2) *Female bodies do not concoct semen, for lack of heat. "Semen, then, is a compound of spirit (pneuma) and water, and the former is hot air (aerh)." "semen, if exposed in frosts to the open air, does not freeze but liquefies, as if it was thickened by the opposite of cold." (Generation of Animals)
Detail Florence Bapistery

This representation reminds me also of Primeval Apsu and his sweet waters (water table), and the sea water of Matrix-Tiamat (see above). The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 

Adam and Eve chased from the walled garden of Eden
The Childrens Book of Old Testament Story,
Mrs C D Francis 1913 (chromolitho)

***

[1] The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, David Graeber and David Wengrow (2021).

[2] Enûma Eliš. Lorsqu'en haut, LAPO 22, Paris, 2022

[3] Foster, 2005: 436–486; Lambert, 1994; Lambert, 2008: 37–59.

[4] Every 1st, 7th and 15th day of the month, there will be purifying baths.
Compare with Thomas Römer regarding the seventh day in Genesis:
A reinterpretation of the 7th days in the Babylonian calendar, where the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days of the month were considered dangerous, and nothing was to be done to avoid angering the gods.”
Une réinterprétation des 7e jours dans le calendrier babylonien, où les 7e, 14e, 21e et 28e jours du mois étaient considérés comme dangereux, où il ne fallait rien faire afin de ne pas irriter les dieux.” “Il nest pas bon pour lêtre humain dêtre seul”.

[5]Wê parla et
Dit aux dieux ses frères :
« (...) Enlil, le conseiller des dieux, le héros Allez, nous voulons le faire sortir de sa demeure ! À présent, proclamez la guerre, Nous voulons mener bataille et combat ! » Les dieux écoutèrent son discours
Ils jetèrent leurs outils dans le feu
Ils mirent
À leurs bêches le feu,
À leurs paniers (de terre) la Flamme (dieu Girra). 
Ils saisirent (leur main) en marchant 
Vers la porte du sanctuaire du héros Enlil. 
Le milieu de la veillée, c'était la nuit, 
La maison était encerclée. 
Le dieu ne le savait pas. 
Le milieu de la veillée, c’était la nuit, 
L’Ekur était encerclé. 
Enlil ne le savait pas.”

[6]Qu’on égorge un seul dieu et que les dieux se purifient dedans.
Que Nintu mélange l’argile dans sa chair et son sang
.”

[7]Ils se purifient en vain par le sang lorsqu'ils sont souillés par le sang, comme si quelqu'un ayant marché dans la boue se lavait avec de la boue : il semblerait être fou si quelque être humain le remarquait en train d'agir ainsi. Et ils font des prières à ces statues comme quelqu'un qui parlerait à des maisons, ne connaissant en rien ce que sont les dieux et les héros.” Marcel Conche, Héraclite Fragments, PUF, p. 171 See my blog De la lumière humaine January 28th 2024.

[8] Enûma Eliš Tablette VI
(Marduk annonce son projet de créer l'homme :)

"5 « Je veux nouer les vaissaux sanguins, créer des os,
6 Et susciter ainsi un prototype-humain (Julliï), qu'« Homme » soit son nom.
7 Ce prototype-humain, cet homme, je veux le créer
8 Pour qu'il soit chargé des corvées des dieux et qu'eux puissent se reposer.
"

[9] Enûma Eliš Tablette VI
"33 De son sang il créa l'humanité.
34 II (lui) imposa la corvée des dieux et libéra les autres dieux.
35 Après que le sage Ea eut créé l'humanité
36 Et lui eut imposé la corvée des dieux,
37 - Ce travail est impossible à comprendre,
38 Car Nudimmud accomplit sa création grâce aux merveilles de Marduk! -e’est ale» que (...)
"

[10] Genesis 1:26-28 New International Version
"26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

"27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them
."

"28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”