Michael Cremo - Human Devolution - A Vedic Alternative To Darwin's Theory

The hierarchical nature of the traditional Chinese cosmos is further revealed in accounts of the Taoist saintly persons. One group called the Holy Men (Shêng Jên) live in the “highest heaven.” Another, the Ideal Men (Chên Jên), live in the second heaven, and the Immortals (Hsien Jên) live in the third heaven and in remote parts of the earth such as the sacred central mountains called the K’un Lun. The latter group appears from time to time on earth to perform acts of mercy, including the curing of the sick (Latourette 1934, p. 162).

At the top of the Taoist cosmic hierarchy is the chief Taoist god, Yü Huang Shang Ti, who was called Father of the Gods (Day 1940, p. 125). He resides in the highest heaven, in the jade palace Ta Wei, situated in a constellation near the Pole Star. This celestial region was the source of all life and natural energy on the lower levels of the cosmic hierarchy (Day 1940, p. 132). In the Pole Star itself dwelled T’ai Yi, known as the Great Unity, or Supreme Spirit. The Pole Star, around which the universe revolved, became a symbol of the terrestrial emperors. There is also a Queen of Heaven (Burkhardt 1954, pp. 126–127).

According to Chinese traditional wisdom, humans are made of two elements or souls, kwei and shen, which are identified respectively with terrestrial matter (Yin) and the immaterial celestial substance (Yang). In a book called tsi, Confucius said to Tsai Ngo, “The khi or breath is the full manifestation of the shen, and the p’oh is the full manifestation of the kwei; the union of the kwei with the shen is the highest of all doctrines. Living beings must all die, and the soul which must then return to earth is that which is called kwei. But while the bones and the flesh moulder in the ground and imperceptibly become the earth of the fields, the khi or breath departs to move on high as a shining light” (De Groot 1912, pp. 12–13).

It thus appears that according to Taoist and Confucian teachings, a human being, and all other living things, are composed of a material body (identified with kwei and p’oh ) and a conscious self (identified with shen and khi ). At birth they come together, and at death they separate. The material elements of the body merge back into Yin, earth, and the true soul, the shen, returns to Yang, or heaven. However, for the soul to remain in Yang, it has to be pure; otherwise, if infected with desires for lordship over matter, it comes again to earth in an earthly body.

The Taoist saint Chwang mentions another saint, Shen-pa, who lived in a cave, taking only water. He preserved his youthful complexion up to the age of seventy, at which time a tiger ate him. But Chwang noted that “this saint had nourished his inner man, and the tiger merely devoured the outward” (De Groot 1912, p. 88).

In the Taoist conception, souls who achieve liberation go to live in the abode of Shang-ti, the highest god, whose throne is the Pole Star. The other gods of nature, such as the gods of the sun, moon, stars, winds, clouds, thunder, and rain, surround Shang-ti in humanlike forms. The divine abode of Shang-ti is one of peace, stillness, and goodness, compared to the terrestrial realm, which is full of intense materially motivated action, which sometimes degenerates into dark savagery. This is somewhat like the Vedic conception of the three modes ( gunas ) of nature— sattva-guna (goodness), raja-guna (passion), and tama-guna (ignorance). In both the Chinese and Vedic systems, humans at death go to the place appropriate for the qualities they have acquired (De Groot 1912, pp. 170–180).

In the Chinese Taoist tradition, there are celestial warriors ( t’ien ping ), commanded by divine generals, who at the request of saintly persons sometimes come down to the terrestrial world to fight to establish principles of goodness (De Groot 1912, p. 180). The Buddhist strain of traditional Chinese cosmology also has personalities who descend to the terrestrial realm to mercifully assist humans. They are the boddhisattvas, who are worthy to enter nirvana but instead voluntarily take birth repeatedly in the material world to act for the benefit of others. We have already mentioned one such boddhisattva, Ti Ts’ang, the deliverer of souls from hell. Others are Kuan-yin, the goddess of mercy, and Wên-shu, lord of wisdom. Those who have attained complete supreme enlightenment are called Buddhas (MacNair 1946, p. 293).

In addition to the Taoist supreme god, Shang-ti, traditional Chinese cosmology also includes a creator god named P’an Ku. Emerging from an original cosmic egg, P’an Ku expanded in size, pushing the heavens (Yang) upward and spreading the earth (Yin) outwards. Then P’an Ku is said to have died. Harry Titterton Morgan (1942, p. 4) wrote: “In dying P’an Ku added to the completion of the Universe, for his head was transmuted into mountains, his breath into winds and clouds and his voice into thunder. His left eye became the light of the sun, his right eye the moon, his beard the stars; his four limbs and five extremities the four quarters of the globe and the five mountains. His veins and muscles became the strata of the earth, his flesh became the soil, his skin and the hairs therein changed into plants and trees, and his teeth and bones into minerals. The marrow in his bones became pearls and precious stones, his sweat descended as rain, while the parasites which infested his body, being pregnated by the wind, were the origin of the human race.”

The Chinese understood that there were practical connections between different levels of the cosmic hierarchy. Such understanding is revealed in feng shui— the art of locating dwelling places, graves, and religious sites so as to receive the most favorable influences from the gods and goddesses of heaven and earth. If altars and temples are not properly situated, gods will refuse to dwell there. If graves and altars dedicated to ancestors are not properly situated, the ancestors cannot receive and distribute beneficial influences from higher powers (De Groot 1912, pp.285–286). Feng shui means “wind and water.” Valentine Rodolphe Burkhardt (1954, p. 130) said in Chinese Creeds and Customs, “The forms of hills, direction of watercourses, forms and heights of buildings, direction of roads and bridges, are all supposed to modify the Ch’i, or spiritual breath of the universe, and Feng Shui is the art of adapting the residences of the living and the dead to conform, as far as possible, with the local currents.”

Altogether, the traditional Chinese cosmology appears to match our template Vedic cosmology quite well. Both have a high god, Vishnu or Krishna in the Vedic cosmology and Shang-ti in the Chinese cosmology. Both have a creator god, P’an Ku in the Chinese cosmology and Brahma in the Vedic cosmology. Both systems have a multilevel cosmos inhabited by various levels of demigods and demigoddesses. In both systems, humans have material bodies and nonmaterial souls.

Cosmology of the ainu of Japan

The religion of the mysterious Ainu people of Japan is animistic. John Batchelor (1927, p. 345) noted in ainu life and lore : “The Ainu certainly believe that whatever has life moves, and that whatever moves has life. . . . The welling up of the bubbling water spring, the rippling rivulet, the gliding stream, the rushing torrent, the tearing rapids, the whistling winds, the flying clouds, the pouring rain and falling snows, the mist and fog, fine weather and foul, the quiet lake and the restless oceans, thunder and lightning, the falling tree and the rolling of a stone down a mountain side; all such phenomena have, so they think, each a real life or soul, either good or bad, or both good and bad, abiding in it.”