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(Continued from page
26)
An unusually lazy being
could not be bothered to gather wild rice before
every meal, and so started the practice of
hoarding it for longer and longer periods. This
once again affected the food supply; perhaps it
was being over-exploited. The rice developed
husks, and did not regrow when cropped. The
beings held a mass meeting, lamenting the results
of their `unskilful ways', and decided they would
now have to invent farming, and cultivate the
rice. This led to property, as each had his own
plot with a marked boundary, and to theft, when
one greedy being stole rice from a neighbour's
field.
Now all the features of society as we know it
crowded in apace. Caught, the thief promised not
to steal again, but relapsed twice, and was
seized, rebuked, and beaten up. Thus stealing,
lying, censuring, and punishment all appeared.
Another meeting was called, and the consensus was
to elect the most handsome, capable, and
kind-hearted of their number as a judge, to
censure or banish wrong-doers. This first ruler
was named `the People's Choice' (the Buddha in a
previous life, according to one version). The
`Beginnings' text goes on to explain the origins
of the various trades and occupations.
At first sight, this myth is describing a
degeneration rather than an evolution. There is
something in this, but I prefer to see it as a
co-evolution of the perceived and social worlds
as human nature comes to terms with external
reality. The radiant beings at the beginning are
completely subjective, self-absorbed, and
passive; they may hint at the pre-self-aware
state. A perceived world grows around them as
they interact with it.
They carry through pre-human greed into a
self-aware, social existence, and so the
perceived world evolves to match that greed.
(Objective reality is still, in a relative sense,
objective, but how we perceive it stems largely
from our emotional attitude to it.) Thus, for
example, farming and property do not evolve in
the myth until the wild rice is over-exploited.
The greed and ignorance were already present in
the shining beings, but it took active
intervention in the world before evolution could
solidify these tendencies into the social
structures of self-interest and self-protection
that we know today. At first, self-awareness gave
expression to greed and delusion, but it is also
the foundation for higher evolution. The shining
beings were not enlightened, and were too passive
to work for enlightenment. The human state, for
all its faults, is said to be best for that.
From Appendix to The
Evolving Mind, by Robin Cooper.
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