Woman, Thy Name is Ezer ["Rescuer"] The [Judeo-Christian] LORD God said, “It is not good for the man [Adam] to be alone. I will make a helper [ezer, rescuer, Eve] suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18). [Hey, LORD, but what about my first wife, Lilith? - Don't worry about her, Adam, my boy, I'll send her away to become a demoness and jealous eater of babies. That ought a teach her to mouth off. - Like your wife, Asherah, LORD, who I suppose was therefore my mom? - Don't ever bring her name up, Adam, or else! Anyway, my boy, we were better off alone just kicking it in this groovy garden planet we grew out of effort. Enjoy it before I throw you out. Unless you want a guy-pal to hang with. How about a Steve? - Whatever, LORD, as you see fit.]
Don't you mention that woman, young punk! - Were Adam and Eve made stupid? : r/Christianity
- Jesus' "helper" Mary Magdalene | Bible Mystery Resolved:
Ezer is a powerful word
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| More Than Enchanting (Saxton) |
Theologian and author Dr. Walter Kaiser notes that ezer appears in the Old Testament often in parallel with words denoting strength and power. The word ezer does not mean that a woman should never be an assistant, an ally, a supporter.
There is nothing negative about a man or a woman helping someone or being called by the [God] to fulfill that role! It’s always a privilege to serve [the God] as we serve others. But it is also crucial that we understand that in the biblical definition of “helper,” the ezer can also fulfill a different role.
It seems that ezer has more to do with what helping looks like, because it doesn’t seem to suggest anything about hierarchy. In some instances, ezer is a word with military connotations; the ezer is also a warrior.
In this context, help comes from one who has the power and strength to provide it. Ezer is a verb as well as a noun, meaning “to defend, protect, surround and cherish.” The ezer is an amazing mix of strength, power, proactivity, and vulnerability. Source
— Adapted from Chapter One, “The Blueprint,” by J O Saxton
What is anyone to make of Adam and Eve on Earth (Eden)?
Of course, the story of Adam and Eve (the Adama or first iteration of humankind and its other half, Eva, the second woman after Lilith in Judaism) is deep and ludicrous.
It is deep that it must be hinting at something else, a truism set in a mythological tale, ludicrous if taken at face value after centuries of translation and misinterpretation.
For instance, there is no "apple," but Christians will swear there is. The "snake" is a humanoid reptilian. There is much here, likely inherited from Sumerian sources, spun by countless rabbis and sincere students to take some useful teaching from it.
Likewise, Buddhism has an origin myth -- not of how it "all" started but rather how human life on this earth began. Long, long ago, light beings (devas, which are a superior class of brahmas) alighted on this planet and over the course of time devolved and became coarser and coarser until we find ourselves the way we are today.
The full tale the Buddha told, almost certainly rooted in true things but explained simply in ways that are hard to take literally, is known as the Aggañña Sutta or "A Buddhist Genesis," "On Beginnings."
- Read Wiki version of this sutra
- The Aggañña Sutta (DN 27)
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| Dhamma Aboard Evolution |
In this analysis, the "light beings" (lit. "shining ones") are not humanoid beings who can fly alighting on earth by light itself reaching earth like photons from a faraway source. The author explains his motive for writing it:
The Aggañña Sutta of the "Long Discourses of the Buddha" (Dīgha Nikāya) is no satire or parody, as seen by some scholars. Drawing upon cosmology, Darwinism, psychology (Freud, Piaget, etc.), and linguistics, it paints a historically and scientifically accurate picture of devolution and evolution, going beyond the Big Bang. Sentient beings emerge [on earth], bringing with them the latent defilements of craving and passion, nourished by evolving plant life around them. Compatible with Western science, the breakthrough comes when Abhassara beings [from the Abhassara heaven or plane of existence] are taken to be photons, taking Abhassara in a literal etymological sense of "Hither-come-shining-arrow." However accurate this picture may be, the Buddha’s point, is that knowledge of the Dhamma is more important than anything else, explaining the title. More
Buddhist cosmology
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| Artists paint images of space for NASA |
So this sutra is saying this is the divine and sublime world we came from, not evolving from microbes in a primordial soup up to great apes or hominids (though that may be the origin of these bodies). We are fallen devas with every potential of becoming devas again, so in that sense we are divine beings in these sensual bodies.
Our karmas (actions, deeds, intentional acts) determine where we are subsequently reborn, just as previous karmas led to our rebirth on the human plane. We also have the potential to fall further down.
- ābhassara: The "Radiant Ones" are a class of heavenly beings of the Fine-Material Sphere (rūpa-loka); cf. deva.
Abhassara is a brahma-world where radiant devas ("shining ones") live from whose bodies rays of light are emitted, like lightning.
This plane of existence belongs to the rūpaloka (the Fine-Material Sphere)
- The Buddhist cosmos (universe/multiverse) is classified into three spheres: the Sensual Sphere (kama-loka), where earth and the sensual heavens are, as well as every other plane below the human world (animal, ghost, titan, hells), the Fine-Material Sphere, where more ethereal heavens are, and the Immaterial Sphere, where non-material worlds of pure mind are. This is an interesting distinction as it suggests that all that we call "form" or ultimate "materiality" (rupa) is coming from finer energy that is not yet form. All there is is called nama-rupa, "name and form" (mind and body). Form is of two general kinds, sensual and subtle (matter and light). And there is a sphere of worlds without form, only name or mind, a kind of Logos or Platonic "forms").
- It is essential to note that they are brahmas, as this means they are neither male nor female but "god-goddesses" ("supremos") without sexual dimorphism like the lower devas of the Sensual Sphere.
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| Is there a "heaven"? - There are many! |
All being depend on nourishment: The devas living on this plane subsist on joy (pītibhakkha) (S.i.114.; DhA.iii.258; J.vi.55).
Their span of life is two aeons (kalpas, kappas or more loosely speaking two "eternities"), but there is no guarantee that a person reborn here may not later be reborn in some unfortunate destination/unhappy condition (A.ii.127; but see Abhs. v.6, where their lifespan is given as eight kappas), as is the case for all beings who have not yet attained the first stage of enlightenment.
From time to time these devas utter shouts of joy exclaiming, "Aho sukham, aho sukham!" This sound is said to be the best of sounds.
These devas are completely enveloped in ease (sukhena abhisaññā parisaññā) (A.iii.202; D. iii.219). Their plane forms the third station of consciousness (viññānatthiti). Like humans on the human plane, they are of uniform body, but their perceptions are diverse (ekattakāyā nānat-tasaññino) (A.iv.40, 401; D.ii.69; D.iii.253).
During the periods of the development of the world (evolutionary cycle), many beings are reborn in the Abhassara world, and they are then called the highest of the devas. Yet, even they change their condition (A.v.60).
In lists of devas (e.g., M.i.289) they are listed below the Appamānābhā and above the Subhā. More
- Video shorts: Robot Chicken; Magnify explaining ezer, "rescuer" Eve; Billy Carson on the Sumerians; irate Irish lass on feminism overdoing it and crapping on the menfolk
- J O Saxton, More Than Enchanting; Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; Suwanda H. J. Sugunasiri, Dhamma Aboard Evolution; Agganna Sutta (DN 27, Digha Nikaya, Pali canon); G. P. Malalasekera (Dictionary of Pali Proper Names); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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