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Gnostic sects and founders
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BuddhologistEdward Conze (1966) has proposed that similarities existed betweenBuddhism and Gnosticism, a term deriving from the nameGnostics, which was given to a number ofChristian sects. To the extent thatBuddha taught the existence of evil inclinations that remain unconquered, or that require special spiritual knowledge to conquer,Buddhism has also qualified as Gnostic.
Edward Conze claimed to have noted phenomenological commonalities betweenMahayana Buddhism andGnosticism,[1] in his paperBuddhism and Gnosis, following an early suggestion byIsaac Jacob Schmidt.[2][a] Conze explicitly compared Mahayana Buddhism with "gnosis," that is, knowledge or insight, and not with the Gnostics, because too little was known about the Gnostics as a social group.[2] Based on Conze's eight similarities,Stephan A. Hoeller gives the following list of similarities:[4]
According to Conze, these commonalities were not by chance, but inherent to the essence of both religions.[1] How these similarities came into existence was unclear for Conze,[1] but according to Verardi they may be related to the sea trade between theRoman Empire andIndia, which was intense at the time.[5] Verardi further notes the similarities between the social-economic base of both Gnosticism and Buddhism, namely merchants, which both had to compete with the "great organised powers," of Rome and theChristian Church, and of theBrahmans.[6] Both communities represented "an open economy and society lacking the defenses (and the vexations) ofnomos," the law and institutions of the establishment.[7]
Conze's suggestions were noted byElaine Pagels as a "possibility," in the introduction toThe Gnostic Gospels,[8][9][b] but Pagels' and Conze's suggestion has not gained academic acceptance or generated significant further study.
Manichaeism was directly influenced byBuddhism. Like Buddha,Mani aimed fornirvana and used this word, showing the significance of Buddhist influences. He further believed in thetransmigration of souls, sangha, and used various Buddhist terms in his teachings.[1]Mircea Eliade noted similarities in the symbolism of light and mystic knowledge, predating Manichaeism, and possibly going back to an early commonIndo-Iranian source. Mani considered himself to be a reincarnation of Buddha. He also claimed that he was preaching the same message of Buddha.[10]Giovanni Verardi notes that Manichaeism is the prime source for comparisons between Buddhism and Gnosticism, Manichaeism representing "the same urban and mercantile ambience of which Buddhism was an expression in India."[11] When the mercantile economy declined due to the decline of theRoman Empire, Manichaeism lost its support.[12] The Manichaeans were hostile to the closed society of farming and landownership, just like Buddhism conflicted with the "non-urban world controlled by Brahman laymen."[13][c]
Mani, anArsacid Persian by birth,[15][16][17] was born 216 AD inMesopotamia (modernIraq), then within the PersianSassanid Empire.[18] According to theCologne Mani-Codex, Mani's parents were members of theJewish ChristianGnostic sect known as theElcesaites.[19]
Mani believed that the teachings ofBuddha,Zoroaster, andJesus were incomplete, and that his revelations were for the entire world, calling his teachings the "Religion of Light."[20] Following Mani's travels to theKushan Empire[f] at the beginning of his proselytizing career, variousBuddhist influences seem to have permeated Manichaeism:
Buddhist influences were significant in the formation of Mani's religious thought. The transmigration of souls became a Manichaean belief, and the quadripartite structure of the Manichaean community, divided between male and female monks (the "elect") and lay followers (the "hearers") who supported them, appears to be based on that of the Buddhistsangha.[21]
According toWillis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer, evidence of the influence of Buddhist thought on the teachings of Mani can be found throughout texts related to Mani.[22] In the story of the death of Mani, the Buddhist term nirvana is used:
It was a day of pain
and a time of sorrow
when the messenger of light
entered death
when he entered completeNirvana.
Following the introduction of Manichaeism to China, Manichaeans in China adopted a syncretic, sinified vocabulary borrowed primarily from Chinese Buddhism. Between 9th and 14th-centuries, following centuries of pressure to assimilate and persecution by successive Chinese dynasties, Chinese Manichaeans increasingly involved themselves with thePure Land school ofMahayana Buddhism insouthern China, practicing together so closely alongside the Mahayana Buddhists that over the years Manichaeism came to be absorbed into the Pure Land school making the two traditions indistinguishable.[23] Through this close interaction, Manichaeism had profound influence on ChineseMaitreyan Buddhist sects such as theWhite Lotus Sect.[24]
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