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The garden between records

Records in this room

01storyEzekiel · The chariot vision02researchAncient Text Research Kit03storyAt the threshold of Kesh · The temple hymn’s conclusion04storyA Vessel on a White Lotus · Amoghapāśa05storySamuel · The source of the voice06storySpeech that went unheard · Vāk and understanding07storyWind, Dust and the Body · An Incantation of Ningirim08storyMoses · Fire in the bush09storyElijah · After the fire10storyA Voice from the Depths · Jonah11storyJacob · The place he did not know12storyThe empty space · A wheel, a vessel and a room13storyJacob · Tell me your name14storyKena · That through which15storyThe yaksha · Power that is not enough16storyWho knows the beginning · The hymn of origins17storyThe Waters of Nun · Book of the Dead18storyZhuang Zhou · The butterfly dream19storyForm and Emptiness · Heart Sūtra20storyThe Kālāmas · When you know for yourselves21storyThe ending of hostility · Pairs22storyThe cessation of suffering · What can change23storyDiscern and choose · Thought, word and deed24storyMusa · Where the two seas meet25storyThe Plant That Could Not Be Kept · Gilgamesh26storyAfter the Flood · Gilgamesh and Genesis27storyNachiketas · The third boon28storyThe unborn · The body and its dweller29storyA Weapon That Can Be Recalled · Mahābhārata30storyThe Stayed Hand · Abraham and Isaac31storyJob · Before explaining32publicationSuffering is not a required course.33storyAn explanation is not pain relief.34storyWhat Shall I Bring? · Micah and Hosea35storyWho sinned? · A question on the road36storyTo follow · To save and to lose37storyLife within me · No longer I38storyThe transfiguration · A voice from the cloud39storyAre you Elijah? · Three Gospel testimonies40storyWords on the Gates · Deuteronomy41storyElijah and Elisha · On the other side of the Jordan42storyThe seven seals · Who can stand?43storyThe image of the beast · Breath and a name44storyThe river and tree after the end · After the visions of judgment45storyAt the foot of Sumeru · Four mountains46storyMani · The name Maitreya47storyWait here for Maitreya · A dialogue48storyBuddha Mani · The Moon God49storyA place by the water · The garden between records

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The Waters of Nun · Book of the Dead

Book of the Dead · Chapter XVII · first three declarations and their glosses · lines 5–14 in Budge

“I am the god Tmu in [my] rising; I am the only One. I came into existence in Nu. I am Ra who rose in the beginning. [He hath ruled that which he made.]” Who then is this? It is Ra who rose for the first time in the city of Suten-henen [crowned] as a king in [his] rising. The pillars of Shu were not as yet created, when he was upon the high place of him who is in Khemennu.

“I am the great god who gave birth to himself, even Nu, [who] created his name Paut Neteru as god.” Who then is this? It is Ra, the creator of the name[s] of his limbs, which came into being in the form of the gods in the train of Ra.

“I am he who is not driven back among the gods.” Who then is this? It is Tmu in his disk, or (as others say), It is Ra in his rising in the eastern horizon of heaven.

Reading notes

Immediately before this excerpt, the spell names the scribe Ani. His speech gives the deceased the god's voice: he speaks of coming into existence in Nu and identifies himself as Ra. The funerary setting helps explain why an account of beginnings is spoken in the first person.

The question ‘Who then is this?’ and the answer that follows belong to the spell itself. They connect the declarations to divine names and images. The final answer retains two interpretations: Tmu in his disk and the rising Ra. Both voices of the ancient text remain part of the reading.

In Budge's version, the gods' emergence is connected to the names of Ra's limbs. His footnote explains Paut Neteru as ‘substance of the gods’. This is the reading of a historical edition; UCL's modern composite edition renders the corresponding passage differently. Their wording should not be merged into a single quotation.

A comparison with the Rigvedic hymn on the world's beginning can follow a different way of speaking about origins: the deceased takes the creator's voice, and the spell answers its own questions. This comparison concerns the form and imagery of the selected texts; it does not establish a shared origin for the two traditions.

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