Is there a Buddhist parallel to this popular Western story of a Garden, a first human couple, a Wisdom Tree, and a tricky shapeshifting Serpent? There is. One need only look at the Agganna Sutta, "A Buddhist Genesis," a discourse given by the Buddha "On Beginnings."
But first it may be better to question the Sumerian, Jewish, Christian version -- made silly by its oversimplification over the millennia. The Christian version makes next to no sense, the Jewish interpretations a little more sense, and the much older Sumerian roots from texts like the Epic of Gilgamesh the Enūma Eliš. All of these are creation myths rooted in some kind of history.
Sadly, many readers misunderstand the Buddhist version of "Genesis." The Buddha is in no way explaining how life began. It is preexisting. He is merely explaining how it came to Earth and how karma (deeds) impacts the environment. As people become so, too, the world declines. We are not evolving so much as devolving from a Golden Age (Satya Yuga), and it is all cyclical. It happens again and again.
This is an echo of the older Vedic (Hindu) and Shramanic (Jain) versions, and that is because "Buddhism" does not begin with the historical Buddha. He is constantly referring back to previous buddhas (Great Heroes or Ford-makers as Jainism calls them, avatars and sages in the Old Vedic Religion that became Brahmanism and much later Hinduism).
At their pure inner core, all beings know that they are not separate from one another. In that state of mind, it is as if they live in a Garden of Eden, where they have no need for shame, no need to differentiate friend from foe, good from evil, and no need to imagine a creator god to oversee their behavior.
They have no expectations that their lives should be other than they are.
It's all me. I created everything. - Even us?
But something in our nature likes to delude us into forgetting this oneness [or unity] of all things and into believing that life should be fairer than it is.
We give that demon a name, Mara [Death, the Obstacle to Enlightenment], to help us identify it.
Suppose that, a very long time ago, the first two human beings evolved from earlier beings. We’ll call them Adam and Eve. Their inner core, or Buddha-nature [or natural state of only dreaming and soon to awake], was pure, and they had no fear of other beings, no sense of good and evil, no self that was separate from other beings and from whatever force brought them into being.
Adam and Eve did have a sense, though, that one of the trees in their garden bore intoxicating [entheogenic] fruit that they should stay away from.
That was the Tree of Duality. Looking for an opportunity to trick Adam and Eve into believing they were distinct separate beings, Mara [the Deceiver] took the form of a snake to talk with them.
No beings had ever lied to Adam and Eve, and they had no way of knowing that the snake was not really a being, so they listened as the demon Mara told them how much fun it would be to become intoxicated on the fruit of the Tree of Duality.
Zarathustra, Iran (Persia)
So Adam and Eve ate the fruit and became drunk with duality. They began to see the world as a conflict between good and evil [as taught in the novel Near East religion of Zarathustra called Zoroastrianism].
They decided that only a cruel god would create such an unfriendly place, so they invented the god of the Old Testament and then hid from him.
Because Mara had taken the form of a snake, they feared and despised all snakes. They made distinctions everywhere: friend and foe, human and animal, smart and dumb, handsome and ugly, strong and weak, rich and poor. They began to see old age, sickness, and death as unfair, as burdens, as suffering.
Four prophets: Mani, Zoraster, Buddha, Jesus
They thought child-bearing was punishment. So that was how Mara, for thousands of years to come, deluded human beings into forgetting that they could return to the Garden of Eden.
Every parable is supposed to have a moral. I’d say the moral is: Some believe in an original sin that requires salvation. Other believe in a delusion that requires awakening. — Mel Pine (Urgyen Jigme)
(MythVision Podcast) May 27, 2025: Uncover the hidden roots of the Garden of Eden narrative as we journey through ancient Near Eastern myths that shaped humanity's most influential story. In this episode, MythVision explores stunning parallels between Adam and Eve and earlier myths — Adapa’s lost immortality, Enkidu’s transformation from innocent harmony to wisdom, paradise gardens of Dilmun and the Cedar Forest, the rib-born Sumerian goddess Ninti, serpent-god Ningishzida, and ancient Canaanite myths. Discover how Genesis creatively appropriated and adapted these ancient motifs, challenging traditional views of biblical originality and history. #Adam #MythVision #Genesis[Adam is the Adama or Adamu, a generation of human beings, and the Garden of Aidenn is the Garden of Adam, of humankind.]
(Eric Dubay) May 1, 2024: Before the establishment of the Roman Orthodox Church, dating back to the first century A.D., the Gnostics were a sect of Christians with a very different set of beliefs from what the new blossoming religion of Christianity would soon become.
The Gnostics insisted they were in fact the original Christians and that the Roman Church leaders were imposters co-opting and changing their mythology.
Many original founders like Marcion [the creator of the first Bible] and Tatian were actually devout Gnostics who would later leave the Orthodoxy, claiming the church was “setting up the fraud of historic Christianity.”
Gnosticism continued to flourish alongside the Roman Church until it was declared heresy and outlawed by Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D.
Once the Orthodox Bible became canonized, all extra-biblical Gnostic gospels (the Apocrypha) were considered heretical and either hidden or destroyed on threat of death.
By the turn of the next century, any remaining Gnostics still openly practicing were hunted down as heretics...
What's so special about Marcion? Marcion concluded that many of the teachings of [good, kind, merciful] Jesus were incompatible with the actions of [genocidal, jealous, angry] Yahweh (YWVH, Jehovah). He concluded this by studying the Hebrew Bible[a simplistic version of the story told in a crude language with only 8,000 original words, which was derived from the much more sophisticated Ancient Greek and its half million words, according to classicist Dr. D.A.C. Hillman], along with received writings circulating in the nascent Church. Yahweh is characterized as the belligerent god of the Hebrew Bible. Marcion responded by developing a di-theistic system of belief around the year 144 [Note 2]. This notion of two gods — a Higher Transcendent One [a kind of Brahman] and a Lower World-Creator and Ruler [a kind of Maha Brahma] — allowed Marcion to reconcile perceived contradictions between harsh Christian Covenant theology and the nicer gospel proclaimed by the New Testament.
US soldiers in Vietnam reported seeing lizard people that walked like humans
These massive cave systems are newly found
(Wartime Stories) The Devil Creatures of Quang Binh? Reptilians (reptoids, Archons, reptiloids, Saurians (Exorcisms), Silurians, Draconians, or "lizard people") are reptilian humanoids who play a prominent role in ufology. Knowledge of reptilians was popularized more recently by David Icke (davidicke.com), who claims shapeshifting reptilian beings control earth by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate societies.
Reptilians are big and strong.
Icke has stated on multiple occasions that many world leaders are, or are possessed by, reptilians. Those who espouse an extraterrestrial hypothesis claim reptilians come either from the Draco constellation or hail from the Orion constellation or are allies with nefarious ETs from the Orion constellation.
Others claim they are interdimensional, coming from another dimension or universe. More: Reptilian conspiracy theory
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Enlil the Enslaver: The Matrix, the Gnostics, and the Serpent
(Ancient Astronaut Archive) The discovery of the Gnostic texts in Nag Hammadi, Egypt (near modern Israel), changed what we knew about the ancient world and brought to light competing concepts of creation and control.
Join the Archive as it illuminates the Gnostic worldview, examine our reality Matrix, and explain the symbology of the Serpent.
This documentary was written and produced by the Ancient Astronaut Archive with the use of material from its official brand partner Gaia. Clips from the series Ancient Civilizations were used with permission. Please visit the Archive portal on Gaia and learn about all that is available. before joining Gaia, take advantage of a free trial. It helps the Archive to continue these productions and would be greatly appreciated.
Tibetan Buddhist, plant spirit healer, and shamanic teacher Emma Fitchett is a lineage holder of the White Serpent teachings of the British Isle of Manx and the Pacific Island of Vanuatu, who has been initiated into ancient magical practices.
CIA madman Cleve Backster
How did she gain her powers? They were opened or vivified for her by Iboga, a psychoactive root from Gabon, she claims. The plant spirit sensitized her to our innate human gifts to see and sense beyond the ordinary five senses.
Appearing on Coast to Coast on April 2, 2024, she discusses how to access plant spirit healing through meditation with plants as well as the work of CIA mad scientist Cleve Backster, who gets credit for pioneering the measurement of how plants perceive human consciousness.
Such credit in fact belongs to Indian scientist in England
Emma Farrell (aka Fitchett), with a foreword by Pam Montgomery, has 4.4 out of 5 stars with 34 ratings.
This is a guide to communicating and working with plant and tree spirits for personal development, spiritual connection, inner peace, and healing.
It presents meditation journeys with specific plant and tree spirits, such as Mugwort (dreams), Rosemary (cleansing), Dandelion (liver), Yew (poison), Elder (healing), and Wormwood (artemisia).
Find details on how to achieve a calm mind, cleanse your energy field, and connect with your heart in preparation for meditating with the plants.
It includes a progressive series of introductory meditations, adapted from wisdom traditions, to lay the foundation for working with plant spirits.
In this book, Emma Farrell explains how to take your connection and relationship with nature to a deeper level and access plant spirit healing through meditation with plants.
Exploring the nature of plant consciousness and how plants perceive, she details how to achieve a calm mind, cleanse our energy field, and connect with our heart in preparation for meditating with plants and trees, showing how the plants can support us not only in the cleansing process but also in teaching us how to sense what is in our energy field.
Offering a progressive series of preparatory meditations adapted from shamanic and indigenous wisdom traditions, the author reveals how to lay the foundation for working, communicating, and developing relationships with plant and tree spirits -- for personal development, spiritual connection, and inner peace.
(Podcast: The Future is Beautiful with Amisha Ghadiali) How do we work with plant medicines in a meaningful and respectful way? In this episode, Amisha talks with Shaman Emma Fitchett, a plant spirit healer, teacher, and author initiated into and trained in indigenous healing and magical lineages of the British Isles and the Ecuadorian Amazon, who is also a Yew Mysteries initiate and a holder of the lineage of the White Serpent from Manx and Vanuatu. This conversation illuminates how we can grow our spiritual sovereignty and balance our inner and outer worlds in co-creation with nature’s medicines. It is a gift for all of those who want to explore more in relation to plant medicines, want to know how, and want to explore to reveal the truth of our existence in this living (animistic) world.
She then presents meditation journeys with specific plant spirits, focusing on the frequencies within the plant’s bio-resonance that will assist us.
For example, the meditation with Mugwort works with the plant spirit’s qualities of alignment and self-awareness to assist us with grounding and developing inner vision, while the meditation with Dandelion helps us break old habits by working with the plant’s qualities of release, reconnection, and fearlessness.
What do forest tradition Buddhist monks know?
Revealing how each plant is an expression of the soul force of Mother Nature and carries a unique blend of her medicine and wisdom, this book details step-by-step how to effectively work with plant spirits for emotional and spiritual healing, enabling us to awaken the eternal spirit, or soul, to become truly multidimensional and whole. More
British Emma Fitchett, with buffoonish host G-Man Noory, Coast to Coast AM com, 4/3/24; Dhr. Seven, Kelly Ani, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
In celebration of the Lunar New Year, for the Year of the Dragon, Angelenos and people from all over will come to LA' Chinatown to participate at the 125th Golden Dragon Parade.
According to legend, Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called the Nian (a beast that lives under the sea or in the mountains) during the annual Spring Festival.
The Nian would eat villagers, taking children in the middle of the night [19]. One year, they decided to hide. An old man [extraterrestrial] appeared before the villagers went into hiding and said that he would stay the night and take revenge on the Nian [draconianreptilian?]
The old man put up red papers and set off firecrackers. The villagers came back to town and saw that nothing had been destroyed. They assumed that the old man was a deity who came to save them.
The villagers then understood that Yanhuang had discovered the Nian's fear of the color red and loud noises [19].
The tradition grew when the New Year was approaching and villagers would wear red clothes, hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors, and use firecrackers and drums to frighten away the Nian. Nian never came to the village again and was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk [20]. More
This year's celebration
With 2024 to look forward to, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles will celebrate the Year of Dragon on February 17, 2024.
Tens of thousands of visitors are expected to gather and line the streets in the five block radius spanning North Broadway and Hill Street in Chinatown.
Families, friends, and children of all ages will cheer on marching bands, kung fu martial arts performers, lion dancers, and a newly crowned Miss Chinatown Los Angeles and her royal court. (Take that, Rose Parade).
This will be the 2024 Miss Los Angeles Chinatown Court’s first public appearance since being coronated on January 27, 2024, at the 61st Miss Chinatown Los Angeles competition at the San Gabriel Sheraton.
The 125th Golden Dragon Parade is sponsored and has floats, which with convertible cars will represent 120 years of this tradition.
ABC7 has done a live streaming on its website of the entire 2023 Parade. Massive broadcast and reports from all media, online media, and social media.
In 2024, a Pre-Parade VIP reception for the parade’s honored guests, main sponsors, and important dignitaries will be held at 11:00 am, with opening remarks from Chamber Chairman Chester Chong and President Kevin Chen.
The grand marshal and four honorary marshals represented by members of the City Council and Congress will preside over the festivities. During this reception, Chinese Chamber of Commerce will be recognized for both its work promoting US-Chinese business relations and cultural exchange and well as its avid support of important Chinese cultural traditions, such as this Lunar New Year Celebration.
I don't believe in dragons, and I don't care what Christianity has to say about them. It used to be that Christians had to believe in them because they are all over the Bible, but now people laugh.
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