No wonder the Near-Eastern realm got so mixed up. It seems that as Manichean ideology spread to the East it incorporated Buddhist concepts along the way in a effort to show the superiority of the "Religion of Light." Mani lived during the third century of the current era. Mani used the epitaph "Buddha of Light" and identified himself as Maitreya. He and his followers specifically borrowed from early Pure Land Sutras and Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka philosophy. As it entered the region of Gandhara and spread to China it used the Buddhist Hinayana tradition to support its views of "matter, the body and the world." MANICHAEAN VIEWS OF BUDDHISM
David A. Scott Christ Church College of Higher Education
