Buddhist flood myth? (Jataka); Garden of Eden

Crystal Quintero and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Sujato.wordpress.com; via ARRCC.org.au (Australian Religious Response to Climate Change)

Was there really a worldwide flood? Was there ever a Noah's Arc full of DNA samples? Climate chaos recently led to rains and flooding in Thailand where this reclining Buddha was almost inundated (framework.latimes.com)

Hidden Human History (mcremo.com)

Ven. Sujato retells the Samudda-Vanija Jataka (Jat 454), "The Tale of the Merchants at Sea" as a Buddhist version of the flood story:

This "great little tale," according to ARRCC, depicts our current environmental situation with uncanny precision. It is the Buddhist version of the widespread flood myth, which probably originated in Mesopotamia perhaps in 3000 BCE. The setting here depicts the flood as afflicting lost merchants in a far-off land possibly preserving a memory of the distant origins of the story. The Rebirth Tale (Jataka) is ideal for a children’s class on the environment, but there are few modern translations. (Here are some old ones). Using these as a basis, the language was modernized and the narrative cleaned up a little.

Story of the Past

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, there stood nearby a great town of carpenters, populated by a thousand families.

• King Brahmadatta refers either to a dynasty of Brahmadattas reigning for thousands of year or even aeons in Benares (Varanasi, India). He may have been a long-lived hybrid-human (akin to a dynastic pharaoh in Egypt) during an earlier epoch when space visitations from devas, asuras, and other humanoid beings were well known.

The carpenters from this town would advertise that they could build a bed, chair, or house. But after securing payment in advance, they wouldn’t produce a thing. So people abused those dishonest carpenters whenever they met them. They were harassed so much that they could no longer live in that town.

 

“Let’s go into some foreign land,” they said, “and find a place we can live.” So they went to the forest, cut down trees, built a mighty ship, launched it in the Ganges river, and went away from that town. Then, together with their families and friends, they sailed downstream to the great ocean.
 

There they sailed at the wind’s will, until they reached an island that lay in the middle of the sea. On that island grew all kinds of fruit trees and wild plants: rice, sugarcane, banana, mango, rose-apple (jambu), jackfruit, coconut, and every other kind of delicious food.

• Jambu gives India its ancient name, Jambudvipa, the "Rose-apple Land," which refers to the continent. Dvipa is synonymous with "island" and may, in some contexts, refer to the Earth in a sea of stars and space.

Another man was already marooned on that island after a shipwreck. He lived there, eating the rice and enjoying all of the plants, by which he had grown strong and sturdy. He went about naked, and his hair and beard had grown very long.

 

Native Yeti, Sasquatch, Wild Men

The carpenters worried, “If this island is haunted by demons or ghouls, we'll all perish! So let's explore it first.” Then seven brave and strong men, armed with the five kinds of weapons, set out to explore the island.

 

At that time the castaway had just had breakfast, washed it down with sugarcane juice, and was in high spirits, content to lie on his back in a lovely spot in the cool of the shade on sand that glistened like a silver plate.

 

He was thinking, “Life is good here! If I were in civilized lands, I would have to work all day for my food. Here I have all I could want, provided by Nature!” Feeling an upwelling of joy, he suddenly burst out in song.

 

Ogre (yakkha) or giant (asura) (Ianh3000/flickr)

The seven scouts exploring the isle heard this singing and said, “That seems to be a human voice. Let’s go and find him!” Following the sound they came upon the castaway. But when they found him naked with long shaggy hair, they were terrified.

 

“It’s a goblin!” they cried, and put arrow to bow ready to shoot.

 

When the man saw them, he called out in fear, “I am no goblin, sirs, I am a man: spare my life!”

 

“What?” they asked. “Do men go about naked and defenseless like you?”

But they soon realized was a man, and eventually they began to talk pleasantly together. The newcomers asked how the castaway came to be there.

 

He told them what had happened. “As a reward for your good deeds you have come here,” he said. “This is a first-rate island! No need to work with your hands for a living. There’s endless rice and sugarcane, and anything else you could want, all growing wild without effort or intervention. We can all live here without anxiety.”

 

“Is there nothing else,” they asked, “to hinder our living here?”

 

“Only this,” he explained, “the isle is haunted by spirits, who get furious when their home is polluted. So when you go to the toilet, dig a hole in the sand, and hide it there. That’s the only danger, no other. Just always be careful on this point.”

 

So they all made their home on the island and lived happily, becoming strong and healthy on the plentiful diet of fruits, plants, and grains.

  

Now, among these thousand families there were two master workmen, one at the head of each five hundred people. One of these was foolish and greedy for the best food, the other wise and not always worried about getting the best of everything.

 

Then they thought, “We have not had a party for a long time. Let’s make some strong toddy, liquor, from the juice of the sugarcane.” So they fermented some sugarcane juice and made toddy. They all got drunk, sang, danced, and laughed together. But being thoughtless they relieved themselves here, there, and everywhere without hiding it, such that the island became foul and disgusting.

 

The spirits were enraged that these thoughtless humans had fouled their beautiful island. They got together for a spirit conference to discuss the matter.

 

“We have cared for this island for a long time,” one spirit said. “We made it beautiful, and provided it with everything one could want. When these strangers came, we welcomed them and shared everything with them, holding nothing back.”

 

“All we asked,” said another spirit, “was that they respect the land and not pollute it. They knew this, but they nevertheless fouled everything.”

 

They sat in silence for a time. Finally, one of the spirits spoke out.

 

“It is too much,” he yelled. “We cannot endure this any more! Let us call the sea and cleanse the island! Let us bring forth a flood, and wash the humans back to the ocean from where they came!”

 

The other spirits agreed. They determined to raise up the ocean to drown the island in 15 days' time, at the full Moon when their power was greatest.

 

But there was a goodhearted spirit among them who thought, “These people have done wrong, but they don’t deserve to die on account of it.”

 

So out of compassion she approached the people while they were sitting at their doors chatting pleasantly after dinner. The spirit made the whole island one blaze of light. Adorned in splendor she stayed poised in the northern sky and spoke to them.

 

“Carpenters!” she said. “The spirits are angry with you. Do not stay in this place! In half a month, the spirits will bring up the sea and destroy you one and all. Flee now, or you will surely all perish!”

 

With this advice, she returned to her own home. All the people were terrified, and a great noise arose as they argued in confusion about what this message meant.

 

Meanwhile a cruel-hearted spirit, who wanted revenge on the people, thought, “Perhaps they will follow her advice and escape. I will prevent them from leaving, and bring them all to utter destruction!”

 

So he approached the people just as the other spirit had done, blazing with light and standing in the southern sky.

 

“You have been warned of a great danger,” he said. “But that was untrue! There will be no flood. The spirits have always looked after you -- and we wish you no harm. That other spirit is just selfish, and wants the island all to herself. Ignore her and her ridiculous threats. Look, the sky is clear, the living good. Stay, enjoy the good life you have made for yourselves here. The spirits of this place will bring you all you deserve.”

 

When the spirit had left, the foolish carpenter lifted up his voice and cried, “Let all people listen to me! We have been a people lost. We were cast out of our homes, driven to wander across the wide ocean. Against all hope we found this, our new home. How can we leave now? Surely the southern spirit speaks the truth!”

 

And all of those foolish people who only wanted to eat and drink listened to him and stayed as they wished.

 

But the wise carpenter disagreed. “We have advice from two spirits,” he said. “One speaks of danger, and begs us to flee, while the other tells us all is well and that we should stay. We do not know which of these is really telling the truth. But it shows that one should not simply believe everything one hears. Considering both messages, the wise should consider carefully in their own hearts and then make a balanced decision. So let us build a great ship [an arc]. If we work hard together, we can complete it before the full moon. Then, if the warning of a flood comes true, we will be saved. If there is no flood, then no harm is done. We can leave the ship and continue to live here.”

 

“Ridiculous!” cried the foolish carpenter. “You see a crocodile in a teacup! The first god spoke in anger against us, the second in affection. We know this, for the spirits have always been kind to us here. If we leave this wonderful island, where shall we go? And why should we go back to working hard like slaves, when we have all we want here? But if you wish to go, take your tail with you! We want no ship!”

 

The Forbidden Archeologist (mcremo.com)

And so the foolish carpenter, with his 500 followers, went back to their drinking. They laughed and sang even louder, ate and fouled the land, paying no attention to the filth that they were making.

 

The wise man went with his 500 and built a ship, large enough to hold them and their belongings.

On the day of the full moon, at moonrise, up from the ocean a massive wave arose, and it swept knee deep over the entire island.
 
The wise man, when he saw the tsunami wave rising, cast loose the ship. Those of the foolish carpenter’s party were scared, but they said to one another, “A wave has arisen! Never mind, it will sweep over the island, but it will be no deeper.”

 

But the tsunami did rise deeper. It rose waist-deep, then fathom-deep, even as deep as a palm-tree, and it rolled over the entire island.

 

The wise man, skilful and reflective, rather than greedy for good things, departed in safety with his party of 500. But the foolish and greedy carpenter, having no thought for future dangers, was destroyed with all his people.

The Garden of Eden today

Stand Deyo , George Noory (coasttocoastam.com, Sept. 10, 2014)

What's the real reason God endorsed a knowledge-is-bad policy in Eden? Watch 2011's premiere of Robot Chicken, "The Curious Case of The Box," to find out.

WARNING: Racy language and themes! Robot Chicken is Adult Swim's long-running stop-motion animated homunculus of a sketch show. Witness sex, violence, and 80's toy references collide through fan-favorite characters like the Humping Robot and the beloved Robot Chicken Nerd as creators Seth Green and Matthew Seinreich are joined by an unparalleled roster of celebrity voices to skewer pop culture in this balls-to-the-wall comedy.

Biblical "Garden of Eden" discovered by Stan Deyo: It's now the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, Tanzania!
 

Come on, babe. He can't see us under the garden canopy. Anyway, he wants us to.

.

(Sept. 10, 2014) Research physicist and author Stan Deyo announced his most recent work -- the discovery of the exact location of the Bible's Garden of Eden. To explain its whereabouts and how he was able to find it, he revealed his theories of Earth expansion, how the Earth got tilted on its axis, and revelations about dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs? The idea that many dinosaurs (like the newly discovered monster Dreadnoughtus shrani) were too heavy to support their own weight first suggested to Deyo that the Earth was at one time smaller with less gravitational pull.
 
According to his computations, the Earth may have been 20 percent smaller, and spun considerably faster, yielding 16 to 19-hour days rather than 24-hour cycles.

The "gods" didn't create it but terraformed it.

The planet's gravity would have therefore been neutralized by two-thirds. Consequently, massive dinosaurs would have been much lighter and able to function better before the planet expanded, Deyo explains. 

Other planets in our solar system also show evidence that they grew in size over time, according to Deyo, who has determined that the location of the biblical Garden of Eden is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania, Africa.

Knock it off, Adam, and get your leaf out of my

There grows a type of fig tree that produces large, leathery leaves such as those worn by Adam and Eve [the Adama, the first males and females created by space visitors through genetic manipulation and placed in an ideal setting in the past few thousand years] to cover themselves. 

Deyo discovered a reference to various rivers in the biblical account of Eden. This led him to the Ngorongoro area, which is surrounded by five volcanoes. Ancient eruptions left a 102-mile crater with natural walls -- an ideal site for Eden, as seen in aerial photos, he comments. It may sound outrageous, but he has many links to graphics, photos, and videos to support his maverick assertions. More + AUDIO

• PREVIEW: Jim Henson's "Witches"