232 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
232 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Dominion
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World Scripture
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DOMINION
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Although we humans are part of the natural world, we have a unique position in
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it that makes us superior to all other beings. This is not a matter of
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physical size or strength, for on that scale of things we are only
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infinitesimal specks on a planet that is itself but a speck in the infinite
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reaches of the universe. Rather, the reason humans are regarded as the crown
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of creation is due entirely to our unique spiritual endowment. Humans have the
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ability, unparalleled in the natural world, to know God and to attain the
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transcendent purpose. In the special intimacy which we share with God, humans
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are potentially of more value than the entire world of creation. In this
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light, the bounty of creation has been regarded as a gift of divine love.
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In the Abrahamic religions, humans are said to have been created as God's
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"viceregents" and granted the blessing of dominion over all things. All things
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exist for our benefit, by which we can develop ourselves to become co-creators
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with God. Furthermore, humans are uniquely able to have dominion because we
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can understand the nature of all other creatures--symbolized by our giving them
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names. The blessing of dominion was not originally sanction for developing
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technology to extract wealth and a comfortable artificial environment at the
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expense of nature; in the agricultural societies for which this mandate was
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first given, human creativity was seen as essentially in harmony with natural
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processes. Today it may be interpreted as a call for artistic and creative
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projects to enhance the beauty and productivity of nature and the quality of
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human life.
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Do you not see that God has subjected to your use all things in the heavens and
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on earth, and has made His bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, both seen
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and unseen?
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1. Islam. Qur'an 31.20
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I will create a vicegerent on earth.
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2. Islam. Qur'an 2.30
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And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill
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the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over
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the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."
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3. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Genesis 1.28
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When I look at Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,
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the moon and the stars which Thou hast established;
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What is man that Thou art mindful of him,
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and the son of man that Thou dost care for him?
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Yet Thou hast made him little less than God,
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and dost crown him with glory and honor.
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Thou hast given him dominion over the works of Thy hands;
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Thou hast put all things under his feet.
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4. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Psalm 8.3-6
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God is He who created the heavens and the earth, and sends down rain from the
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skies, and with it brings forth fruits to feed you; it is He who made the ships
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subject to you, that they may sail through the sea by His command; and the
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rivers He has made subject to you. And He made subject to you the sun and the
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moon, both diligently pursuing their courses; and the night and the day He has
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made subject to you. And He gives you of all that you ask for. But if you
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count the favors of God, never will you be able to number them. Verily, man is
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given up to injustice and ingratitude.
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5. Islam. Qur'an 14.32-34
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The whole world was created only for the sake of the righteous man. He weighs
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as much as the whole world. The whole world was created only to be united to
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him.
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6. Judaism. Talmud, Shabbat 30b
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Truly do I exist in all beings, but I am most manifest in man. The human heart
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is My favorite dwelling place.
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7. Hinduism. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.2
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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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Qur'an 2.30: See the complete passage, Qur'an 2.30-33, p. 313; see also Sun
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Myung Moon, 10-13-70, p. 313. Genesis 1.28: Cf. Shabbat 33b, p. 1014.
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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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We did indeed offer the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains;
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but they refused to undertake it, being afraid of it. But man undertook it; he
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was indeed unjust and foolish.
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8. Islam. Qur'an 33.72
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His movement is of Heaven, his stillness of Earth. With his single mind in
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repose, he is king of the world; the spirits do not afflict him; his soul knows
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no weariness. His single mind reposed, the ten thousand things submit--which
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is to say that his emptiness and stillness reach throughout Heaven and Earth
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and penetrate the ten thousand things. This is what is called Heavenly joy.
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Heavenly joy is the mind of the sage by which he shepherds the world.
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9. Taoism. Chuang Tzu 13
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Man, as the manifestation of God, is the leader of all things, and no creature
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is more honorable than man. All things upon the earth, following their own
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individual names, fashioning their true way, will know that Thou hast brought
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them to sight for man's sake. All things whatsoever, forgetting not their
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source, deviating not from their determined pattern, are made to work as well
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as to understand their part; humbling themselves and honoring man, without
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anger, without haste, without anxiety, without grief, neither linked nor
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parted, they are made to work out their true personality.
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10. Perfect Liberty Kyodan. The Ritual Prayer
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Having created the world and all that lives and moves therein, He, through the
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direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon
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man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him--a capacity
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that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose
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underlying the whole of creation.... Upon the inmost reality of each and every
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created thing He has shed the light of one of His names, and made it a
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recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man,
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however, He has focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and
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made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man has been
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singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.
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11. Baha'i Faith. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah 27
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Qur'an 33.72: The 'Trust' means the responsibility to choose good and reject
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evil, to live by God's purposes. Among all created beings, only humans have
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free will and the responsibility it confers. Yet we have abused it. Cf.
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Shabbat 886-89a, p. 313. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah 27: Cf.
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Aitareya Upanishad 1.1-3.12, pp. 306f.; Sun Myung Moon, 9-30-79, p. 307;
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10-13-70, p. 313.
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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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Rangi and Papa, or Heaven and Earth, were the source from which, in the
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beginning, all things originated. Darkness then rested upon the heaven and
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upon the earth, and they still both cleave together, and the children they had
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begotten were ever thinking amongst themselves what might be the difference
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between darkness and light. Hence the ancient saying, "There was darkness from
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the first division of time, unto the tenth, to the hundredth, to the
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thousandth."
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At last the beings who had been begotten by Heaven and Earth, worn out by the
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continued darkness, consulted amongst themselves, saying, "Let us now determine
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what we should do with Rangi and Papa, whether it would be better to slay them
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or to rend them apart." Then spoke Tumatauenga, the fiercest of the children
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of Heaven and Earth, "Let us slay them." But Tane-mahuta, the father of
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forests and all things that inhabit them, said, "Nay, not so. It is better to
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rend them apart, and to let heaven stand far above us, and the earth lie
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beneath our feet. Let the sky become a stranger to us, but the earth remain
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close to us as a nursing mother." Five of the brothers consented to this
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proposal, but not Tawhiri-ma-tea, the father of winds and storms. He, fearing
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that his kingdom was about to be overthrown, grieved greatly at the thought of
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his parents being torn apart.
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Then Rongo-ma-tane, the god and father of cultivated food, rises up to rend
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apart the heavens and the earth; he struggles, but is unable to rend them
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apart. Next Tangaroa, the god and father of fish and reptiles rises up; he
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struggles, but he is unable to rend them apart. Next Haumia-tikitiki, the god
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and father of the food which springs up without cultivation, rises up and
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struggles, but he, too fails. At last, slowly rises Tane-mahuta, the god and
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father of forests, birds, and insects, and he struggles with his parents. With
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his head firmly planted on mother earth and his feet upraised and resting
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against the skies, he strains his back and limbs with mighty effort and rends
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apart Rangi and Papa, all the while insensible to their shrieks and cries. Thus
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it is said, "It was the fierce thrusting of Tane which tore the heaven from the
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earth, so that they were rent apart, and darkness was made manifest, and so was
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the light."
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Then there arose in the breast of Tawhiri-ma-tea, the god and father of winds
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and storms, a fierce desire to wage war with his brothers, because they had
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rent apart their common parents without his consent. So he rises, follows his
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father to the realms above, and hurries to the sheltered hollows in the
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boundless skies; there he consults long with his father, and as the vast Heaven
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listens to the suggestions of Tawhiri-ma-tea, thoughts and plans are formed in
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his breast, and Tawhiri-ma-tea also understands what he should do. Then by
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himself and vast Heaven were begotten his numerous brood: the mighty winds,
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squalls, whirlwinds, dense clouds, massy clouds, gloomy thick clouds, fiery
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clouds, clouds reflecting glowing red light, and the wildly bursting clouds of
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thunderstorms. In the midst of these, Tawhiri-ma-tea sweeps wildly on. Alas!
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alas! then rages the fierce hurricane; and while Tane-mahuta and his gigantic
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forests stand unconscious and unsuspecting, the blast of the breath of the
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mouth of Tawhiri-ma-tea smites them, the gigantic trees are snapt off right in
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the middle. Alas! they are rent to atoms, dashed to the earth, with boughs and
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branches torn and scattered, lying on the earth, left for the insect, for the
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grub, and for loathsome rottenness.
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Tawhiri-ma-tea next swoops down upon the seas, and lashes in his wrath the
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ocean. Ah! ah! waves steep as cliffs rise, with tops so lofty as to make one
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giddy; these soon eddy into whirlpools, and Tangaroa, the god of the ocean and
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father of all that dwell therein, flies affrighted through the seas....
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Tawhiri-ma-tea next rushed on to attack his brothers Rongo-ma-tane and
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Haumia-tikitiki, the gods and progenitors of cultivated and uncultivated food,
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but Papa, to save these for her other children, caught them up and hid them in
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a place of safety; and so well were they concealed by their mother Earth that
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he sought for them in vain.
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Tawhiri-ma-tea, having thus vanquished all his other brothers, next rushed
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against Tumatauenga, to try his strength against his; he exerted all his force
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against him, but he could neither shake him nor prevail against him. What did
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Tumatauenga care for his brother's wrath? He was the only one of the whole
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party of brothers who had proposed to kill their parents. Now, against the
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storm winds, he shows himself brave and fierce in war. His other brothers had
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been broken or fled or had been hidden, but Tumatauenga, or man, still stood
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erect and unshaken upon the breast of his mother Earth.
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Tumatauenga reflected upon the cowardly manner in which his brothers had acted,
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in leaving him to show his courage alone, and he determined to turn against
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them. To injure Tane-mahuta, he collected leaves and made snares--ha! ha! the
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children of Tane fell before him, none could any longer fly in safety. To take
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revenge on his brother Tangaroa, he sought for his offspring leaping and
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swimming in the water. He netted nets with flax, dragged with them, and hauled
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the children of Tangaroa ashore. To be revenged upon his brothers
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Rongo-ma-tane and Haumia-tikitiki, he soon found them by their distinctive
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leaves, and scraping into shape a wooden hoe and plaiting a basket, he dug in
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the earth and pulled up all kinds of plants with edible roots.
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Thus Tumatauenga deposed four of his brothers, and they became his food. But
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one of them, Tawhiri-ma-tea, he could not vanquish by eating him for food, so
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this last-born child of Heaven and Earth was left as an enemy for man, and
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still this brother ever attacks him in storms and hurricanes, to destroy him
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alike on sea and land.
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12. Maori Religion. On the Origin of the Human Race (New Zealand)
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Maori Tradition: On the primordial androgyne, cf. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
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1.4.3, p. 252. On separating light from darkness as the first act of creation,
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compare Genesis 1, p. 126. This story is also interpreted to show the origin
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of evil: from the parricide of the primordial family has come division and
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strife between man and man.
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