Daily Theosophy

Moimoi understood such things better, and she has already quite some experience with trading and having things, like cloths – and it had already touched her character.

(124)

(the sacred text)

Time came to return home. Shano had acquired a book and that was now the only thing that interested him – next to Moimoi and the family and his friends of course. He had brought some bows and arrows to sell, but because he had no time to sell them he just gave them away. Back home Shano started studying the book – with the key of ‘concreteness and abstractness’ in his mind. The first few weeks he understood only fractions, and that sometimes wrongly, he found later. But after many months he had kind of completed the book like a jigsaw puzzle, and he began to see the unity of the story. It was about the past and the future.

To briefly summarize the text read by Shano:

In the beginning (or before the beginning) there was the sky only. There were no concrete creatures. There was no world, no sea, and it was dark, because there was no visible light yet. There was no time, no space, no past, no future, no directions of space. There was nobody to think or have feelings or perceive something around in space. It was totally empty. The sun did not exist, but there were stars in the dark sky. There was nobody here to see them. Then there was an empty place in the sky between twelve animals made of stars, where the sun was to be born. From the center of the Universe the soul of the Sun speeded invisibly between myriads of shining stars. The soul of the Sun knew not his destination, yet he knew that he was on his way to the unknown. Then the gods started preparing a welcome for the soul of the Sun. The twelve expected him. By fire with two sides which came out of empty space, the space where the Sun had to be born was filled with a cold fire-mist from itself. The cold fire-mist created a cloud of attracting and repulsing particles of very fine matter. The Sun was not visible yet. The soul of the Sun came there and made himself a globe of the fiery dust. He made seven layers and seven parts of himself lived in the seven layers. The gods gave him and the parts all that was their share. It was dawn for the first time in the new time and space.

All seemed to come alive, and all dead creatures remembered the past and the future, and became aware. They created themselves from memory. They were helped by the gods who knew their destiny. Thus consciousness was born. Consciousness was born from empty time and space, yet it had never not existed.

Here the scripture seemed to end. The next page had a different story.

The gods measured space with their mind, and divided it into four directions, and above and below, each direction with its own character. There mind also created measurable time. It was the illusion they created with their mind. This they did because later souls had to understand.

Nothing more on that palm leave. The next one read:

“The world was seven, but one only was known.”

So Shano concluded that now there were beings who could understand. Apparently a long part of the history was skipped. He also understood that he himself and all people were beings who could understand. From the former it was clear that they had never been created, because they had always been there, though they had no existence. So he himself had not always existed, even though he was born first at the beginning of measurable time. But he had always been, even when there was no ‘always’ and no ‘measurable space’ and ‘measurable time.’

The fourth [world] was empty. There was the sky above, and water below, but nothing to enjoy it. The gods were working there. They came seven times. The fourth world became hard, and fluid turned into earth. Then plants began to grow, in the water, on the land. Small plants without color – they could not breathe. They became green and began to breathe. Then the gods helped souls who wanted to move by building bodies of the Earth and the Moon. They came from the moon. First the Moon than the Earth. Intelligence of their progenitors caused their bodies to move and caused their consciousness to desire. Many were they, uncountable they were in number, all different, and all creating progeny of their kind. Some stayed long, some stayed short, and each made forms according to their desires according to their kind. Some walked on six or eight or four or on their belly to satisfy their desires. They were busy. Among the uncountable of them a few were special – they were to become men and women in the far future.

These had first been made of soft mud, like jelly, luminous and transparent, without hardness and resistance. But they could not procreate, they just changed from the one into the other form, but never died and never were born. They could not support the heat of the sun. Therefore almost all of them withdrew when they had done there work. The jelly forms perished. Then the gods gave new shapes to house their souls, made of palm heart – and they could bud, and could die and be reborn by another bud. But still they could not bear the energies of the sun. Only few remained. The gods gave new shapes to house their souls, now made of hard wood. They were strong, big and were successful. In the beginning they were stupid like animals. Later some were strong enough to bear the energies of the Sun. They became the first of man – godlike. They procreated and got more and more children – less godlike than the first. All could understand each other – they spoke one language until the moment their minds became distrustful and confused. And they mixed with the monkeys. They went down with the stream of time. Their lands were destroyed. Then the gods made vehicles of heavy flesh. Those who had learned enough incarnated in the flesh. From them came men and apes. The men acquired great knowledge and then became white and black. They used magic against each other and for their own desires. There were terrible wars and natural disasters and the white won from the black and incarnated in bodies of light flesh. The two-legged realized the mistake and started to fight their way back to the Sun. Many failed because of their past. Many terrible wars were fought, and peace was made. Many turned back to the moon, but more and more of them were striving towards the sun. They were both unjust and just, bad and good, ugly and beautiful [of character], both stupid and wise, and they choose matter or spirit. The world declined. But some were like gods, and intelligent and compassionate. At the end came a god from a sacred village on a horse to save the just and destroy the unjust. It is called the day of judgment. Those who are of high character and understanding will rule the next embodiment. Wisdom will conquer mental intelligence. Knowledge will overcome ignorance. Their bodies become transparent and shine like light. They become like gods. They become helpers, many of them. In the end they merge with the Sun and become gods.

Then there was again a break in Shano’s text, and at first sight the rest did not fit in the previous.

From the Sun were sent thinkers to the fourth [world] when it was almost grown to adulthood. Some had come earlier and they became the leaders of humankind. Others refused at first and came later. They are we. The sun sent his own sons. They went into the bodies of the moving souls, those with two legs. These bodies went upright and started to think and wonder. They knew too much and therefore their eyes were blinded. They could only see physical matter now – a small space, a small past and no future. They had to gain everything they lost back by their own effort. They searched in caves of death and suffering, they searched on mountains of evanescent beauty. They harmed themselves and others, and gained great knowledge, but only about matter. The rest was hidden for them. Some worked hard and opened their eyes. They were helped. The animals had left or were sleepy, first the dinosaurs, than the mammals. They had gone to the fifth [world] in the sixth [level of space] and the lands of the fourth [world] had become barren. The two-legged lagged behind.

The two-legged were made of the earth, the moon, the sun, and of space. They knew themselves, but not well yet. They had to learn to know where they came from and where they were going to. That is what the gods had decided before the beginning.

Two were at the side, and one in the middle. And the myriads. Thus the Sun traveled in their bodies, and their bodies were his vehicle. And he visited his seven brothers carefully, lest they would be burned. They gained their powers slowly. The sun followed low thoughts and high thoughts. It made their character and their path. They died many times but before the end became immortal gods.

Then the text described many dynasties of god-kings and human kings of the past and the future. And how and why people separated into different nations and creeds and languages. And how the people of the present land came from a huge island with a great king, and how and why they left from that island, and regretted it later. And how fire came to them. And how some idols drank blood. And how they made war on each other – until the present day.

Thus ended the scripture.

The actual present day was that of Shano and Moimoi in the forest, as described in the story.

You would expect no wars in such a perfect environment as that tropical rainforest, where people had all they needed and had only minor worries. Moreover there was space enough for everyone in those days. But their was the psychological impact of the black magicians – even though they were as nothing compared to the giant black magicians of the far past.

But strange enough – or not so strange perhaps if you think of powerful and healthy young man following the impulses of nature – they created wars. Groups of villages (or very large villages) would make stories about other peoples or villages. These things happened when the men were sitting around the fire during long evenings. These stories told about the evil of the others. Those others had magic powers and had low morality. They formed a continuous ominous presence on the background of their quiet existence. They were a threat for humanity, and could attack at any time without warning. They would than kill and destroy, and abduct and rape the women, and eat the children. They were possessed by dark forces and were part of the kingdom of the devil. (The devil was derived from an idea of a master black magician who died long ago, but was still exerting his power.) He and his people should be destroyed.

And this was what the other party thought about this side. And to prevent worse, they thought, young leaders would bring all men who could and would fight together for the great adventure of battle. Sometime one party came first, sometimes the other. Some wars involved many villages, other were of a smaller scale. Apart from the warriors themselves, they invoked all the spirits of the forest to help them and they were convinced that they themselves were on the right side and would be helped – even by the spirits of the enemy when it came to the point. They had a concept of good and evil – but the evil was always outside themselves – and they could not imagine any goodness in the hearts of the people on the other side. What they wanted is to fight, to be called heroes – to go loose and to kill as many as possible of the other side, and when possible to decapitate them and eat their flesh. There was no religion to teach them higher ethics than that of external good and evil.

It happened also once in Shano’s time – and he was fiercely against it, and warned his fellow tribals and tried to explain that the other party were just people like they themselves – but nobody listened to him, and even accused him of cowardice because of his handicap. There were so-called negotiations between representatives of both parties, but these always failed. In fact both parties just wanted to fight and show their dominance. Both were convinced that they were strong enough to wipe out the others. Both were convinced that to do so was their moral duty. This was the ethos of the time. They even invented new weapons for the opportunity. And when stories – presumptions – came that the other party was already on its way – the process could no longer be stopped. Many were killed and wounded, two of Shano’s best friend were eaten, he was told. The enemy had almost succeeded in killing their fire, where it not that Shano had kept a hidden fire burning away from the village and the battle field. Women lost their husbands, children became parentless, or were stolen by the opposite party. On the other hand they had managed to kill at least fourteen of the devil-possessed opponents and ten were taken prisoner. These ten appeared to have quite good characters (at least most of them), but nobody could understand how people of the other party could have good characters, and some always remained suspicious. The women believed in peace, and pleaded that war should be banned for ever. Many men agreed with them, at that time. The ‘prisoners of war’ married within their new community and got their children and everything was forgotten – until a next generation had become of the right age. And then it started all over again.

Shano spend much of his time studying and thinking. He could talk about it with nobody.