Unusual Creator
The mitevma Temely, which describes the origin and structure of the Universe, begins with the logion: “There was a time when there was no Universe; then there was a great living being, which should be called the Creator” (Temely I, 1). This immediately raises a question: why is the Creator (i.e., the one who creates) at the same time a creature (i.e., the one who was created)? To a mindset accustomed to familiar mythological and religious clichés, this appears paradoxical. Typically, the creator of the world — whether a character from folklore, myth, or religious doctrine — is not himself a creation of someone else (at most, he may be a descendant of another being, but that is not quite the same). From this perspective, the ability to create worlds is a manifestation of supreme power, and it is difficult to conceive of an even greater force capable of creating the creator himself. However, the Teaching knows of such a force. It is evolution.
Our Creator resides in his own world, which is a part of Being, and therefore, the laws governing its existence stem from the laws of Being itself. And the fundamental law of Being is the law of evolution. Being evolves in order to exist. All its components, all the structures within it — including the Creator’s world — participate in this process. Evolution occurs there as well, and the Creator is one of its products. More precisely, it is his people who are the product, much like humanity is the product of evolution in our own world. Thus, it can be said that evolution is the creator of creators. And our Creator is not only created by it but has, through his evolutionary development, attained the ability to do what makes us call him the Creator.
Following the path of knowledge, understanding his world and himself, he reached the necessity of undergoing a special phase of self-knowledge, which can be described as knowing oneself from within — quite literally. He restructured his own organism, transforming it into what we know as our Universe.
Its creation was neither a miracle nor a supernatural act — because the Creator himself is not a supernatural being. But it is difficult even to imagine the level of evolutionary development that enables such capabilities. To human perception, it indeed seems like a miracle. And yet, this is a natural stage in the development of the Creator himself and others of his kind. Each of them goes through this stage. To illustrate this more clearly, let us use an analogy commonly employed in the Teaching: the analogy of a butterfly. At a certain stage of its development, a caterpillar turns into a chrysalis. During this time, its body undergoes profound changes, restructuring completely — and from the chrysalis emerges a butterfly. By this analogy, the Creator is now something like a chrysalis, in which his body undergoes changes — one could say, it matures, in a sense — and from which he will one day emerge transformed, more perfect, possessing new qualities and abilities. Like a crawling caterpillar turning into a flying butterfly. But on a universal scale. This can indeed be called a miracle — but a miracle of evolution. And what is even more astonishing is the idea of an entire world inhabited by such beings. A world where, perhaps, something like trees bear clusters of ripening Universes.
This article is titled “Unusual Creator”. At first glance, such a title may sound strange. Any Creator is unusual by definition. After all, it is an incredible being that has created an entire world — or even more than that, an entire Universe. What could be more unusual than a creator? Only a creator himself. And our Creator is indeed unusual compared to other creators — or rather, compared to existing conceptions of them. The paradox is that when dozens and hundreds of mythologies and religions tell stories about the creation of the world and the creators as they imagine them, the incredible and awe-inspiring eventually turns into routine. This always happens when something extraordinary occurs over and over again. When the first champion in a sport emerges, it is something new and remarkable. But when there are twenty of them, each can be called “just another champion. Nothing special.” The same can be said of creators. When one encounters the twentieth or thirtieth story of world creation, one is in a position to make broad generalisations and identify common themes and recurring elements among them. I will not conduct a comparative analysis here, as that would turn this short article into a religious studies treatise. I will simply highlight what makes the Creator, as envisioned in the Teaching, unusual — what sets him apart from other portrayals.
Before doing so, let me offer a brief explanation. As the reader has likely noticed, I sometimes write “Creator” with a capital letter and sometimes with a lowercase one. I capitalise it when referring to the Creator from the perspective of the Teaching; I use lowercase in other cases. This is not intended to diminish other views or elevate my own, but simply because “creator” is a description of status, while “Creator” is also a name. In various mythologies and religions, creators typically have proper names — such as Brahma, Yahweh, Izanami and Izanagi, or even just the Raven. In the Teaching, the Creator has no name. Or rather, he must have one — but we do not know it. Therefore, we simply call him the Creator, writing the word with a capital letter, as if it were a name. I should note that this is not unique to the Teaching. In some other traditions — such as the mythologies of certain tribes — the creator of the world is also referred to simply as the Creator.
So, what is unusual about our Creator compared to others? What sets him apart from other portrayals? Of course, one might first say that those portrayals are products of imagination, whereas our Creator is real. But every mythology and religion considers its creator real. Therefore, the Creator’s reality — while in fact his most fundamental distinction — is not perceived as such in a comparative context. One might also say that our Universe and the Creator are one and the same, and that this is the most unusual aspect. Yes, this is unusual compared to most other conceptions — but it is not unique. Similar ideas are found in all pantheistic teachings that equate the creator with his creation. This, incidentally, may indicate that such views are based on true knowledge, albeit in a more or less distorted yet recognisable form. We should also recall perspectives close to pantheism that likewise show clear intersections with the Teaching — for example, the Hindu concept of Purusha and his act of creating the world from himself. Another distinguishing aspect is that the Creator is not alone but belongs to an entire people of his kind, meaning that other Universes exist, similar to ours to varying degrees. This sharply contrasts with traditional depictions, in which the creator is a singular, unique being — at least in his ability to create. But even this is not the main point.
What truly makes him fundamentally different from all other creators is that he is part of a natural evolutionary process. He is not supernatural, not omnipotent, cannot arbitrarily rewrite the laws of Nature and create worlds at will. On the contrary: he himself is subject to these laws. And even what is happening to him now, even the act of creation itself, is not the result of his whim or some supernatural predestination, but an evolutionary necessity. Being evolves, its various structures evolve, and among them is the world of the Creator, within which the Creator himself evolves, within whom his own structures and inhabitants evolve — including us, humans. Everything is interconnected. Evolution weaves its infinite tapestry, where everything that exists serves as threads and fibres. And it is unlikely that we will find another worldview that presents a creator as a mere component of such a vast and natural evolutionary process.
This is what primarily allows the Teaching to seek and find common ground with science. Unlike religions, it not only acknowledges evolution — it places it at the forefront, recognising it as the driving force behind the existence of Being itself and each of its structures, including our Universe. That is, the Creator. And us. The idea of evolution is a shared path of the Teaching and science — the only correct path. The only difference is that the Teaching currently sees further than science.
One might say that the Creator in the Teaching is a Creator acceptable to science. Although science itself does not yet realise this. But that is a matter that can be resolved.
© Atarkhat, 2016