Tag: the first man and woman
Races and Languages: From Where? Answering Racism
People often mentally categorize others by race. Physical features, like skin color, that distinguish one group of people, a ‘race’, from another, are easy to notice. So Caucasians are ‘white’, while those of Asian and African decent are darker. These traits distinguishing groups of people from each other easily leads to racism. This is the…
Was there an Adam? The Testimony of the ancient Chinese
The Bible is a remarkable book. For one thing it claims that the Creator God inspired it and therefore accurately records the activities of history. For many this raises questions about the opening chapters in the first Biblical book – Genesis. Genesis records the account of Adam & Eve’s creation in an initial paradise with…
Confronting the Great Naga-Dragon: History’s Beginning, but Looking To Its End
The serpent or Naga has deeply entrenched itself in Asian folklore, art and mythology. It rivals the dragon which shares many similarities with the serpent in mythology. Both Asian mythology as well as the Hebrew Scriptures group the naga and the dragon together. The Hebrew scriptures also records a confrontation between the serpent/dragon and the…
Mankind’s Duhkha Curse
We saw that ancient Hebrew scriptures record how cravings (Tanha) and wrong thoughts (Kleshas) arose at the beginning of history. But what about the suffering, pain or unhappiness, known as Duhkha/Duhkka? Duhkha and Tanha form the basis of the Four Noble Truths articulated by Gautama Buddha. Similarly, what about Impermanence, called anicca (Pāli) or anitya…
Origin of the Three Poisons and First Kleshas
The Three Poisons (Sanskrit: triviṣa; Tibetan: dug gsum) or the three unwholesome roots (Sanskrit: akuśala-mūla; Pāli: akusala-mūla), refer to the three root mental states that give rise to other mental states, or kleshas. Kleshas cloud the mind, resulting in harmful actions. Sages and monks have long understood the destructive power of the Three Root Poisons,…