In the beginning there were only two: Tawa, the Sun God, and Spider Woman, the Earth Goddess. All the mysteries and power in the Above belonged to Tawa, while Spider Woman controlled the magic of the Below. In the Underworld, abode of the Gods, they dwelt and they were All. There was neither man nor woman, bird nor beast, no living thing until these Two willed it to be.

ronsfi on March 14, 2008 at 12:02 AM

In the beginning there was no world, no land, no creatures of the kind that are
around us now, and there were no men. But there was a great ocean which occupied
space as far as anyone could see. Above the ocean was a great void of air. And in the air
there lived the birds of the sea; in the ocean lived the fish and the creatures of the deep.
Far above this unpeopled world, there was a Sky World. Here lived gods who were like
people—like Iroquois.

ronsfi on March 14, 2008 at 12:02 AM

Sikh

For millions upon millions, countless years was spread darkness,
When existed neither earth nor heaven, but only the limitless Divine Ordinance.
Then existed neither day or night, nor sun or moon;
As the Creator was absorbed in an unbroken trance.
Existed then neither forms of creation, nor of speech; neither wind nor water.
Neither was creation or disappearance or transmigration.
Then were not continents, neither regions, the seven seas, nor rivers with water flowing.
Existed then neither heaven or the mortal world or the nether world;
Neither hell or heaven or time that destroys.
Hell and heaven, birth and death were then not–none arrived or departed.

Then were not Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva:
None other than the Sole Lord was visible.
Neither existed then female or male, or caste and birth–
None suffering and joy received.
Unknowable Himself, was He the source of all utterance; Himself the unknowable unmanifested.
As it pleased Him, the world He created;
Without a supporting power the expanse He sustained.

Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva He created and to maya-attachment gave increase.
(To a rare one was the Master’s Word imparted.)
Himself He made His Ordinance operative and watched over it:
Creating continents, spheres and nether worlds, the hidden He made manifest.
Creating the universe Himself, He has remained unattached.
The compassionate Lord too has made the holy center [the human being].
Combining air, water, and fire, He created the citadel of the body.

The Creator fashioned the Nine Abodes [of sensation];
In the Tenth [the superconscious mind] is lodged the Lord, unknowable, limitless.
The illimitable Lord in His unattributed state of void assumed might;
He, the infinite One, remaining detached:
Displaying his power, He himself from the void created inanimate things.
From the unattributed void were created air and water.
Raising creation, He dwells as monarch in the citadel of the body.
Lord! In the fire and water [of the body] exists Thy light;
In Thy [original] state of void was lodged [unmanifest] the power of creation.

ronsfi on March 14, 2008 at 12:07 AM

Tahitian

He was. Taaroa was his name.
He stood in the void: no earth, no sky, no men.
Taaroa calls the four corners of the universe; nothing replies.
Alone existing, he changes himself into the universe.
Taaroa is the light, he is the seed, he is the base, he is the incorruptible.
The universe is only the shell of Taaroa.
It is he who puts it in motion and brings forth its harmony.

ronsfi on March 14, 2008 at 12:09 AM

Japanese

In the beginning, heaven and earth were not divided. Then, from the ocean of chaos, a reed arose, and that was the eternal land ruler, Kunitokotatchi.

Then came the female God, Izanami, and the male, Izanagi. They stood on the floating bridge of heaven and stirred the ocean with a jewelled spear until it curdled, and so created the first island, Onokoro. They built a house on this island, with a central stone pillar that is the backbone of the world. Izanami walked one way around the pillar, and Izanagi walked the other. When they met face to face, they united in marriage.

Their first child was named Hiruko, but he did not thrive, so when he was three, they placed him in a reed boat and set him adrift, he became Ebisu, God of fishermen.

Then Izanami gave birth to the eight islands of Japan. And finally Izanami began to give birth to the Gods who would fashion and rule the world — Gods of the sea and Gods of the land, Gods of wind and rain. But when Izanami gave birth to the God of fire, she was badly burned and died.

Izanagi was furious with the fire God and cut him into three pieces. Then he set out to search for Izanami. He went right down into the Land of Gloom looking for her. He called her, saying, “Come back, my love. The lands we are making are not yet finished!”

She came to him, saying, “You are too late. I have already eaten the food of this land, But I would like to return. Wait here for me, and I will ask permission from the spirits of the underworld. But do not try to look at me.”

ronsfi on March 14, 2008 at 12:18 AM

Christian

When a person dies, the physical body is separated from the soul, and the soul must be judged to be in a state of grace or a state of sin. This is the Immediate Judgment, which determines where the person will spend eternity. If the soul is in a state of grace, it goes to Heaven to await the Last Judgment. heaven, the abode of the Christian God, is located beyond the skies. Here, amid choirs of angels, blissful souls enter gates of pearl and walk golden streets.

However, condemned souls await the Last Judgment in Hell, located in the Earth’s center or, on a vaster scale, beneath the visible cosmos. Here the leader of the fallen angels, Satan, dwells in exile from heaven, flapping vast bat wings. (Occasionally, he visits Earth to attempt to seduce humankind in defiance of his former God.) Hell is a pit of visible darkness where the damned are punished in fiery heat or intense cold. They may be lashed by horned demons, rolled over sharp stones, etc. Above all, they suffer the worm of conscience, which reminds them incessantly how easily in life they might have earned the eternal bliss of God’s presence. In a special compartment of Hell called Limbo, the souls of unbaptized children and morally righteous people who lived before Christ’s coming are confined, not in torment, but forever excluded from bliss.

In a variation, some souls, probably the vast majority, who die in a state of grace but with some taint of sin as yet unpaid for, will be sentenced to a term in Purgatory, a place or state in which the soul can be purified until it is ready to dwell with God. In Purgatory, suffering is intense; souls are deprived of God’s presence and suffer the sensations of physical tortures. [Note: Indulgences, which can be gained through special prayers uttered either by the person before death (they can be stored up) or by people praying for the deceased can mitigate the taint of sin that sends souls to Purgatory. During the Middle Ages/Renaissance period in Europe, these indulgences could be bought for money from traveling priests, confessors, ministers, etc.]

On the day of the Last Judgment, four angels standing at Earth’s four corners will sound trumpets to initiate cataclysmic events. Christ (the son of the God) will descend from Heaven in triumph to judge all people and nations in the presence of one another. In many versions, only Christians will share in the reign over Earth.

ronsfi on March 14, 2008 at 12:24 AM

Everyone has returned from death. Many persons do no believe this because they cannot remember it, yet although they have no memory of their birth, they do not doubt that they were born. The supreme goal is to be born no more. This can be accomplished when one understands that the world is an illusion, a mental construct. This knowledge, plus a willingness to understand that the self is likewise an illusion, liberates one to merge with the Universal Mind, the divine mind of Buddha, in the state of enlightenment known as Nirvana.

At the moment of death, the deceased enters the Bardo state, the afterdeath plane, lasting about 49 days between death and rebirth. The Bardo has three stages: the Chikhai Bardo, the Chonyid Bardo, and the Sidpa Bardo. The Chikhai Bardo begins at the moment of death, when the deceased has a supreme vision of the liberating Truth. But the dead person, unless trained in yoga or meditation, will not be able to remain in this transcendental state. Only those who have come close to negating the self can seize this opportunity to enter Nirvana. The great majority pass through the brilliantly intense divine light, unwilling to be absorbed into it. In this Bardo the deceased person may remain several days in a trancelike state, unaware that s/he has separated from the physical body.

In the second state, the Chonyid Bardo, the deceased encounters the dreamlike state of karmic illusion. (Karma is the psychic residue of our previous existence.) Thought forms generated by the deceased person’s own mental content take on terrifying reality. The deceased involuntarily fabricates encounters with good and evil powers, peaceful and angry deities. Buddhas (enlightened ones) and Bodhisattvas (semidivine beings who have deferred their own Nirvanic state in order to help others achieve it) appear majestic and awesome. Their radiance will cause the impure deceased person to shrink back so as to preserve his/her insignificant selfhood. Many lights and colors will bewilder the dead person. Evil karma may produce thought forms of flesh-eating demons making a frightful tumult, competing with each other to seize the deceased. In this Bardo, the deceased will experience a vision of judgment and punishment. Dharma-Raja, King of the Dead, holds a balance scale on which are placed black pebbles (evil deeds) and white pebbles (good deeds) to be weighed. Supervising the weighing is the monkey-headed god Shinje. Also present is a jury of Gods, some with animal heads, some with human heads. Dharma-Raja holds up the Mirror of Karma, in which the naked deceased person in reflected. Devils await to conduct evildoers to the hell-world of purgation. None of these deities or demons have any real existence; they are thought forms. If the deceased could realize this, s/he would enter the Nirvanic state.

In the third stage, the Sidpa Bardo, the deceased descends into the ultimate degradation of a new physical birth, having been unable to profit from experiencing the two previous Bardo states. Although the deceased might have taken rebirth in a nonhuman world or one of the Paradise realms, human life along generates the karma that makes it possible to end the rebirth cycle.

ronsfi on March 14, 2008 at 12:35 AM

Islamic
Allah, a supreme, personal, and inscrutable God, will punish those who turn to other Gods and fail to recognize his chosen messenger, Mohammed. A drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a night spent in his defense, is of more avail than praying and fasting. Whoever falls in battle will be forgiven for his sins.

At death, the soul in the tomb is visited by the Examiners, Munkar and Nakir, two black angels with breath like violent storms and eyes like lightning flashes. They question the terrified soul concerning its faith. If its answers are satisfactory, sweet breezes from paradise will blow upon the soul and its tomb will be filled with light until the Final Judgment. (Souls of prophets and martyrs are admitted to Paradise directly.) But it its answers are unsatisfactory, the walls of the tomb will close in to crush the soul; it shall await the Final Judgment while being stung by scorpions and beaten with an iron mace.

On the day of the Final Judgment, the angel Israfil will blow a warning blast upon his trumpet. At a second blast all creatures will die, and the material world will melt. At a third blast the souls of all humankind will issue from his trumpet like a swarm of bees to be reunited with their bodies made new. They will stand before the divine tribunal, waiting in silence before Allah as He sits in judgment, for no one may speak without Allah’s permission. Mohammed, advancing immediately to the front of the assemblage, will be permitted to speak for those who profess Islam.

The angel Gabriel will hold up an enormous scale, half of it covering Paradise, the other half covering Hell. Every person’s deeds will be weighed, and exact justice will be done. To each person will be given a book, the record of her or his life. Those whose books are placed in their right hands are blessed, while those whose books are placed in their left hands are damned. They await sentencing in shoes of fire, their skulls boiling like pots. At last, Allah passes sentence upon the righteous and the wicked.

Now all the souls must cross the Bridge of Sirat, which spans the distance from Earth to Paradise, passing directly over Hell. Although this bridge is hair-thin and razor-sharp, it will broaden out beneath the steps of the faithful. Infidels will lose their balance and topple into the abyss.

Hell has seven levels. The first and mildest is for sinners among the true believers, who will enter Paradise after purification. The second is for Jews, the third for Christians, the fourth for Sabians, the fifth for Magians, the sixth for abandoned idolators, and the seventh and worst for hypocrites of all religions. In Hell the damned will suffer various tortures. True believers, lying on couches in Paradise, will see the damned suffer and laugh at them scornfully.

Dividing Hell and Heaven is an impassable wall, al Araf, covered with contemptible beings whose good works exactly cancel out their evil ones, thus fitting them for neither place.

In Paradise every desire of soul and body shall be satisfied.

ronsfi on March 14, 2008 at 12:40 AM

Hebrew
The soul may have difficulty separating from the physical body at death and may experience a loss of identity. To prevent this, Dumah (Silence), guardian angel of the dead, asks each soul for its Hebrew name. If the soul in life has learned a Torah verse that begins with its Hebrew name and ends with the last letter of its name, it will remember its name in death.

The newly dead soul may be unable to silence all the sensory images and noise that cling to if from this world. Two angels stand at each end of the world and toss the soul back and forth to get rid of this earthly static. Otherwise, the lost soul would wander in the world of Tohu (Confusion and Emptiness), perhaps for hundreds of years.

After death the impure soul goes to Gehenna (Gehinnom). It is located beneath the land and sea and has entrances at both places. It is immeasurably large and cold, but within it are rivers of fire. Here the soul is purged of all defilement that it has accumulated during its lifetime. Punishments may consist of being cast into fire and snow or being hanged from different limbs of the spirit body. The thoroughly wicked remain here in everlasting disgrace. The ordinary soul need stay no more than a year, during which time it can be helped by prayers and sacrifices made by the living. Gehenna is emptied on the Sabbath, and the souls are given a glimpse of the light of Paradise.

Now the soul is ready to enter Gan Eden, where it will be bathed in a River of Light to cleanse away all lingering earthly illusions. First it goes to the lower Gan Eden, the heaven of emotional fervor. It will revel in benign emotions extended toward God and other souls. Souls with common interests form heavenly societies at which they serve God according to their area of specialization.

Ascending to the higher Gan Eden, the soul will once again bathe in the River of Light, this time to forget the tumultuous emotions of the lower Eden. Here the goal is to gain understanding of the divine mind. Each midnight God Himself visits upper Gan Eden to share His wisdom with those who have attained it.

Once the soul has gained all the understanding of which it is capable in heaven, it will be permitted to strive for further perfection on earth through reincarnation, a process which is repeated until the soul has built a complete spiritual body through good deeds.

After the number of souls meant to be created has been achieved, God will bring about the reunion of souls and bodies. At this time, the Messiah, an ideal ruler of an earthly Kingdom of God, will summon all humankind to dwell in peace and righteousness under divine sovereignty. The resurrection of the dead will take place; the spiritual body will be reunited with the physical body it formerly inhabited. Or, alternatively, the resurrection will be a materialization of the level of spiritual body that the soul has attained through many incarnations. these materialized souls will then perform the remaining deeds required of them to complete their spiritual bodies in a world free of death and evil.

After a time the earthly rule of the Messiah will end and the Last Judgment will take place. God, garbed in white raiment with hair like pure wool, will site upon a throne of fiery flames to judge all people in one another’s presence. The wicked will be doomed and the righteous will be transported to a newly created heavenly or earthly paradise.

ronsfi on March 14, 2008 at 12:43 AM