 Our next speaker Jackson Washburn is a 19 year old freshman pursuing a major in religious studies from Arizona State University. Raised in an interfaith household, his passions include Mormon and religious studies and interfaith activism. He is the current youth advisor for the Arizona interfaith movement, has spoken at venues such as the Parliament of the World's Religions and the United Nations and is looking to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this summer. Please welcome Jackson. So before I start I just want to give a warm thank you to the Mormon Transhumanist Association. The reason I'm here I believe is because of French toast as weird as that may sound. About a year ago I was taken out to Brunch by Blair Osler, Carl Youngblood, Nathan Hadfield and Lincoln Cannon and they we engaged in some good conversation and they extended a healthy invite to consider joining the Mormon Transhumanist Association and funnily enough I I remember you know leaving that the Brunch and after returning home to Arizona talking to my dad about it you know he asked me how it was and I'm like oh you know they're really nice but they're a bit too eccentric for me I don't know if I'll ever you know do anything with the MTA but a year later it looks like I've changed my mind so I've come around. So today I'm gonna be talking about transfiguration and divine embodiment in the Hindu and Latter-day Saints tradition and I'll begin with a kind of engaging with a summary of what I'm to be speaking of. The conceptualization of divine embodiment and Western religious thought is often deeply tied to works of literature and sacred myths found within the Judeo-Christian tradition. Lesser known and equally striking instances of such can also be found within the wider corpus of Vedic scripture an example of such being depicted in the 11th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita wherein Krishna reveals his universal form to the mortal prince Arjuna. Though certainly a minority perspective when compared to its matured theological predecessors Mormonism likewise carries within its theological tradition a rich and dynamic emphasis on the materiality of the divine and their respective corporeal interchanges with morals such as textually exemplified by various accounts in the Pearl of Great Price and the Book of Mormon as well as in several pivotal events in the Mormon restoration. This presentation will analyze the themes of transfiguration, theophany, incarnation as held within the traditions of Hinduism and Mormonism giving credence to their similarities as well as their points of difference on a metaphysical, textual and theological basis with special emphasis being given to the conducive nature of divine embodiment with Mormon transhumanism demonstrating that while much of its terminology might be unfamiliar Latter-day Saints can stand to benefit greatly by studying the parallel narrative elements and spiritual themes held between the Bhagavad Gita and their own sacred texts and it looks like I have about 12 minutes to do that or so. So don't expect too much right? We won't go too deep but here we have a picture of the theophany that Moses experiences as recorded in the Book of Moses and the one that Arjuna experiences at the feet of Krishna within the Bhagavad Gita. So to start we need to kind of understand what transfiguration is especially within a Mormon context considering this is the MTA right? So the prophet Joseph Smith explained that quote God dwells in eternal fire flesh and blood cannot go there for all corruption is devoured by the fire and then he goes to say that our God is a consuming fire which has many parallel biblical themes as well. Within the New Testament with the transfiguration of Christ we have the description that his face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light that's in Matthew 17 to spiritual change allowing them to not only behold the glory of God but to enter his presence it is characterized by illumination of countenance such as Moses experienced as will elaborate and comes about by an infusion of God's power so you know there's a there's a physical and a spiritual element to the process of transfiguration. Dr. Incovenants 6711 through 12 says for no man has seen God at any time in the flesh except quickened by the spirit of God neither can any natural man abide the presence of God neither after the carnal mind and so transfiguration as we'll see has some very interesting implications for those involved with its process. So to set a context we must first comprehend kind of the setting of the subjects at hand so we'll begin with two mortals separated by time space and mythic textual traditions and they'll be the subject of our analysis moving forward and their Moses is described in the book of Moses and Arjuna within the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita being a sacred text stemming from the Hindu tradition aptly described as containing a summary of all the essentials of Vedic teachings. The Gita begins in the midst of the great Kurukshetra war where in two warring families the Kauravas and the Pandavas don't mind my pronunciation I probably butchered that they make battle over control of the throne said to have set in what is now known as the Harayana region of contemporary India fighting for the Pandavas the warrior prince Arjuna finds himself at the helm of his his army the time for the two sides to meet in combat rapidly approaching. As should be expected the brutality of the conflict and the number of lives that have been lost therein causes Arjuna to take a massive psychological blow especially as he considers the identity of those standing opposed to him on the other side. Grandfathers, uncles, brothers, grandsons even Arjuna's childhood mentor Drona stands on the army opposite him and with the embodied God Krishna as his advisor he says oh Krishna seeing our own people standing near eager to fight my limbs weakened and my mouth dries up my body trembles my hair stand up my bow slips from my hand and truly my skin burns I have no power to stand my mind reels oh Krishna and I see ill omens I foresee no good in killing our own people in battle and seek neither victory nor kingdom nor pleasures so shaken disheartened and disenfranchised from the conflict he is overseeing Arjuna experiences the damaging effects of the war firsthand albeit on a mental and emotional level the spiritual Nadir then sets him up to be instructed in eternal wisdom by Krishna who seeks to confide in him what are considered by many to be the principal teachings of all Vedic literature touching on the nature of divinity true worship individual dharma or duty and many other spiritual facets of the Hindu system so serving as a climax for this sacred text is the cosmic vision that Krishna bestows upon Arjuna after being prompted to show him his true form and this will find comparison in the book of Moses where in the prophet Moses experiences several cosmic visions and theophany's and to give a similar context for the book of Moses contrary to what many might within the Latter-day Saint tradition might think the book of Moses would be best described as a kind of scriptural pseudopigrapha so from a literary perspective the revelation features a biblical like Inclusio bracketting the text through the repetition of key words in its introduction and conclusion I'm quoting David Bacavoy here in his authoring the Old Testament beginning with the superscription in Moses 1 1 the revelation then concludes 41 verses later with an editorial colophon that repeats key thematic elements from the beginning of the text Moses is set and the the scene is set in with Moses being on top of a mountain which has parallel themes in Ezekiel revelation first Nephi and other passages of scripture within the Mormon canon and you know to kind of bolster my belief that it's best described as pseudopigrapha we have an omniscient narrator in the text speaking about Moses in the first person the text itself does not view Moses as the author and so thus I think as well as Richard Bushman that it should be described as pseudopigrapha so moving forward now that we kind of have the two scenes set Moses also in his experience in the book of Moses which is a rather short book of scripture he experiences several visions like I mentioned some of them with God some of them with the devil and so you know he has some interesting experiences that also teach him about the nature of God the existence humanity and so on and so forth so moving forward my focus at ASU deals with a text practice and representation so I do a lot of textual work and so we're going to try and put these two texts in dialogue because that's where I think the benefit is so you know from the narrative structure and thematic elements as you've likely read that's what happens to Krishna moving forward with the transfiguration of Moses Moses experiences some similar things as well so he's shown the whole of creation Moses after being transfigured returns to his natural state it causes him to more fully realize the gulf between divinity and humanity he's shown a secondary cosmic vision and so there's different parallel themes that we'll explore so Krishna or Arjuna specifically starts off with what is oh let me go back what is a desire to see God's true form he says oh Lord you are as you have said yet I wish to see your divine cosmic form oh supreme being oh Lord if you think it's possible for me to see your universal form then oh Lord of the yogi show me your transcendental form and Lord Krishna says in response oh Arjuna behold my hundreds and thousands of multifarious divine forms of different colors and shapes behold all the celestial beings and wonders never seen before also behold the entire creation animate and animate and whatever else you'd like to see all at one place in my body but you are not able to see me with your physical eye therefore I give you the divine eye to see my majestic power and glory we turn to the book of Moses and he saw God face to face and he talked with him and the glory of God was upon Moses therefore Moses could endure his presence Moses just like Arjuna is given some type of spiritual assistance in order to withstand being in the presence of God and it's then that they see God in a more heightened or super sense Arjuna saw the universal form of the Lord with many mouths and eyes many visions of marvel and numerous divine ornaments he describes him if the splendor of a thousand sons were to blaze forth all at once in the sky even that would not resemble the splendor of that exalted being so where else do we find parallels of that within Mormonism you know I think I'm gonna be using that one in the first discussion on my mission in the let's see Arjuna saw the entire universe divided in many ways but standing is all in one and one and all in the transcendental body of Krishna the Lord of celestial rulers we have Moses with well God speaking to Moses behold I am the Lord God Almighty and endless is my name for I am without beginning of days or end of years and is this not endless and behold I will show you the the workmanship of my hands and not all for my works are without end and also my words for they never cease then we have Arjuna after being given this experience he becomes afraid it becomes too much for him to handle perhaps the the supernatural assistance that he's been given begins to wear off because he cries out to Krishna for mercy to descend back into his lesser form and we also see something similar with Moses I'm running short on time but and it came to pass Moses looked and beheld the world upon which he was created and of the same he greatly marveled and wondered and then we are told that the presence of God withdraws from Moses his glory was not upon Moses Moses was left unto himself and as he was left unto himself he felt the earth and it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man and he said unto himself now for this cause I know that man is nothing which thing I had never had supposed later in the Bhagavad Gita we have Lord Krishna saying Arjuna I am pleased with you I have shown you through my own yogic powers this particular supreme shining universal infinite and primal form of mine that has never before been seen by anyone other than you switching to a different book of Mormon scripture the book of the ether contained in within the book of Mormon we have a similar theophany taking place with the brother of Jared with God wherein Christ says behold this this body which he now behold is the body of my spirit and man have I created after the body of spirit he says and never have I shown myself unto man whom I have created for never has man believed in me as thou hast so the brother of Jared is given a vision and similar wording is used where you know the deity in question says you you are special you are unique I've never given anyone a vision quite like this we can continue forward and we have Krishna saying the one who does all works for me and to whom I am the supreme goal who is my devotee who has no attention and is free from enmity towards in being attains me oh Arjuna and where else better than you know perhaps the Gospel of Matthew do we hear the blessed are the pure in heart they shall see God the Bhagavad Gita and the Christian Gospels both have this theme that it is the pure in heart it is when we are cleansed we transcend we are transfigured into a state higher than this that goes beyond our own carnal insecurities and weaknesses that we are able to fully withstand the presence of God and that is all so that we can participate in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man now of course there's similarities and differences between Hinduism and Mormonism I don't nearly have enough time to elaborate on all of them I wish I did this very interesting stuff for me but one thing that's similar in both is that that we've seen in the book of Moses and in the Bhagavad Gita is that mortal transfiguration perceives increased cosmic knowledge it is this increased capacity that we are given that allows us to receive that knowledge come to a higher understanding today we've already been talking about you know the limits of human cognitive abilities and how we might expand that well you know I think that very aptly describes the process of transfiguration of us transcending to a higher state that mortals can take on attributes of deity like you know having higher capacities for knowledge like that like being able to withstand that kind of divine light or glory but you know as a warning this increased knowledge should lead to humility and increased devotion we see this both in the book of Moses and in the Bhagavad Gita where the two individuals who are transfigured and experience these visions at the end they don't become arrogant or prideful or you know feel like now that they have seen these visions that they can hold that against others that they are holier than now instead they're that much more devoted to serving God to loving others and that they've truly changed their state into one that is closer to God and to further understand these principles at least for us as Mormons Latter-day Saints and I would just say people in general we must seek out the best books words of wisdom I'm quoting the doctor in Covenants here to guide technological spiritual and societal advancement it's by taking different traditions putting them in dialogue with one another that we're able to see their similarities and differences that we're able to see where some work more than other better than others and I think this is a very Mormon activity and one that we should all be anxiously engaged in I'm going to end with this quote and well two more two quotes including this one Philip Barlow says that he's a Mormon scholar says that if certain truths were not originally included in the Bible there are truths nonetheless and readers will be edified by studying them it is not the text of the Bible is such or just any scripture but rather the truths of God that are sacred we can get these truths by studying different books of wisdom Spencer W. Kimball in our close with this says is it hard to project ourselves from the elemental world of puny man to the world of omnipotent God who with great purpose has developed precision instruments operated through his omnipotent knowledge is it difficult to believe that the Urim and Thummim carried down through the ages by the prophets even in the hands of our own modern-day prophet could be that precision instrument which would transmit messages from God himself to supreme creation man and women can God have limitations can atmosphere distance or space hold back his pictures would it be so difficult for Moses or Enoch or Abraham or Joseph to see a colorful accurate moving picture of all things past and present and even future could one doubt that the holy man Moses could stand on the mountaintop and see and so I hope that all of us moving forward desire to stand on top of this holy mountain to have these visions for ourselves because I believe that the religion of Mormonism affords us this capacity and invites us to partake in such and so I want to close with that thank you