The Bible’s 2nd Creation Story: Receive Divine Autonomy & Accept Your Eden Buddhahood
Scripture
Genesis 2:18-25
And Jehovah God said, “It is not good for the human to be alone. Let me make him an aid that seems to be his.” And out of the soil Jehovah God formed every animal of the field and every bird in the heavens and brought it to the human to see what he would call it. And whatever the human called the living soul, that was its name. And the human gave names to every beast and to the bird in the heavens and to every wild animal of the field; but for the human no aid was found that seemed to be his. And Jehovah God made slumber fall on the human, and he went to sleep. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. And Jehovah God built a woman out of the rib that he took from the human and brought her to the human. And the human said, “This time, bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. This is why she will be called ‘wife’: because she was taken from man.” Therefore, a man will leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they will become one flesh. And they were both naked, the human and his wife, and did not blush.
The Bible’s 2nd Creation Story: Receive Divine Autonomy & Accept Your Eden Buddhahood
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
Many scriptural reflections on “the fall of humanity” tend to point to Genesis’ serpent and Adam and Eve’s eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but interestingly, the Christian-mystic Emanuel Swedenborg pointed to a chapter before these events when he describes what he thought was the true beginning of our movement into feelings of separateness and isolation from God. Indeed, living up to his title as the Buddha of the North (given to him by the famous D.T. Suzuki), Swedenborg wrote that it was our desire for autonomy and sense of ownership that drove us further away from being led in deep connection with Divinity, as well as a truly Divine sense of autonomy. I find it further interesting that this start to our “fall” occurs right before Adam starts naming the things in creation: cognitively labeling and dividing things is another key attribute of what many lines of Buddhism describe as part and parcel with our vain need for disconnected self-direction, which keeps us from our Buddhahood and re-entry into the Garden.
Swedenborg’s conception of the fall was vastly different than that of your average Evangelical Christian in that to him there’s no such thing as “original sin,” nor is that sin something that we carry from birth. However, being the scientist and mystic that he was, Swedenborg believed that we adopt many of the tendencies of our parents and cultures – both spiritually and physically, and are called to turn back to Divinity to the extent we feel disconnected and behave uncaring towards others and our environment. In this way, like many others, Swedenborg was similar to many Buddhists and it’s partly why a key Japanese originator of Zen Buddhism in the West (Suzuki) called him a Buddha.
To some it may be surprising to learn that major lines of Buddhism call on its adherents to turn to “their Deity” or Divinity, but indeed, becoming reconnected to our own intrinsic consciousness, compassion, and inter-connectivity (key goals of Buddhism) is often considered synonymous with truly reconnecting with the Deity (a term that’s often used!), which is the same thing as the One Life or Transcendent Consciousness of the Universe.
Moreover, Swedenborg made the point that the Buddhist-like practice of letting go of our self-driven autonomy and accepting Divine leadership eventually leads to our re-entry into the Garden of Eden on a spiritual level – a state of deep peace, connection, and inspiration. Practically, this means working to let go of our selfish motives and vain aspirations and fantasies, and instead allowing compassion, love, and an awareness of our oneness with all being to start to reawaken and pervade our consciousness. He lists shunning both evil and judgment as part of this process, and we learn through the details of his life that lengthy meditations, political engagement, and acts of kindness were key practices for him as well.
In Genesis, Swedenborg believed that like a Christ-given parable, we are to reflect on the details and characters as spiritual allegories for aspects of ourselves and past states of humanity. Adam, from the Hebrew word for earth (Adamah), initially represents all of us in our most connected state to God and the earth. However, our need for autonomy and to “not be alone” ironically drives us away from God and the Garden, and is represented by God reflecting that we’re not doing well on our own (Genesis 2:18), God’s creation of animals and our naming of them (Genesis 2:19-20), Adam’s sleep, and God’s creation of Eve for Adam “the human.”
As these details are from Genesis’ “second” creation story, we might think of Adam “the human” as all the sentient life from the first creation story living in humane harmony – as one, like Buddhas with the cosmos. This might be why there seems to be no other animals anymore, at least until Adam is drawn to a desire for separateness and autonomy. It’s also fascinating to note that after Adam goes to sleep before the creation of Eve, it’s never said that he wakes up!
As from a Buddhist perspective, this says that our need for selfish, disconnected self-direction puts us to sleep and drives our desires for self-gratifying company and attachments, as well as our fear of losing these things – which ultimately drives us out of our state of peace and bliss and toward anger, discontent, and divisiveness. However, we can overcome our feelings of separateness through receiving a Christ-like perspective and practice, centered on non-judgment and active efforts toward meditative oneness, love, and Divine direction. This also means accepting that God or the Divine Consciousness is the source and root of all of our goodness, life, and consciousness, no matter our differences of form or religion.
When we let go of our selfish modalities and give into the guidance from the Lord, “the Universe,” the Tao, we find a deep wellspring of peace within, and indeed, a Divine sense of autonomy which is actually more freeing than how we were before. Allowing our intrinsic consciousness and Buddhahood to reemerge is said to bring peace to both our spirit and our world, as our actions going forward no longer center on disconnected selfishness but on a deep compassion and wisdom rooted in our oneness with all being. This message is more than just Christian or Buddhist, but one that transcends many traditions and is asked of us throughout ancient and diverse spiritualities for the healing of our hearts and our world.
Peace and blessings to you,
Rev. Cory