On 12/9/2014 4:29 PM, s3raph...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife] wrote:
>
Take the *Gnostic* element. Where did Gnosticism originate?
>
Gnosticism is probably derived from Mani's dualism. It should be noted
that the first dualist philosophy was the Indian Sankhya (pertaining to
number), a Vedic first cousin to the Avestan dualism of the Persian
Zoroaster and the Manichean Manes - Sankhya being the basis of all
subsequent Asian dualism including Vaishnavism, Tantra, Gnostic dualism
and the Chinese Yin-Yang.
There are many reason for to identify the Gnostic movement with the the
dualism and the rise of Buddhist Mahayana, which is well documented.
There are clear links between the radical dualism of the Indian Sage
Kapila. According to Campbell:
/"When we review these in the light of what we now have come to know,
both from the Nag-Hamadi trove and from our understanding, recently
gained, of the Docetic doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism (the growth and
flowering of which exactly coincided with the high period of the Gnostic
movement), the implications of their imagery can be judged with enlarged
appreciation."/
Edward Conze noted that /"This Buddhism I propose to compare with
"Gnosis" rather than "the Gnostics," because the connotation of the
latter term is still so uncertain" and remains undefined." /Conze's
speculations are supported and expanded by Pagels in /"The Gnostic
Gospels"/ where she appeals to Buddhist scholars to find evidence for
contact between Buddhism and Gnosticism.
We find evidence that Buddhist thought had major influence on the
teachings of Mani. Barnstone cites many authenticating references
proving the centrality of Buddhism in Mani's formulation of Gnosticism.
Apparently Buddhist influences were significant in the formation of
Mani's religious thought. After Mani's vist to India (Kushan Empire)
there were religious paintings in Bamiyan that were attributed to Mani.
On the death of Mani:
/"It was a day of pain//
//and a time of sorrow//
//when the messenger of light//
//entered death//
//when he entered complete Nirvana" /
*Works cited:*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_Gnosticism
*
**The Masks of God*
Volume III Occidental; The Illusory Christ
by Joseph Campbell
Viking, 1964
p. 364
*Religions of the Silk Road*
Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century
by Richard Foltz
Palgrave Macmillan, 2010
