The Therapeutae - The Ancient Mystics that Inspired Christian Monasticism (& were maybe Buddhists?) 

They’ve found ancient swastikas in the city of Troy so there’s definitely a connection there, Proto-Indo-European origins.

@@reimer0015 for the Greek-Buddhism connection we already know it was contemporary, not deep-ancient stone age leftovers. One of the early key Buddhist texts Questions of King Malinda features known Greco-Bactrian king Menander, and Buddhism had stupas and statues right through the Hellenistic far east out of north India right through to modern Afghanistan- right in the autonomous and later breakaway far eastern parts of the Greek Seleucid Empire based in Syria and Iraq. Lots of Greek writers referenced India as well, so we have literary and art/physical evidence of extensive contact on both aides

Schopenhauer intuitively thought Christianity was dependent on Buddhism. Since then scholars have learned that the Christian legends of Saint Josaphat, Christopher and Eustace are based off of Buddhist jatakas and the Lalitavistara.

I just read in The Many Faces of Christ by Philip Jenkins that some of the Tibetan Buddhist tours of hell by Buddha were inspired by the Gospel of Nicodemus.

@@_thisismeisthatyou9277 nice try, not! The Buddha's descent into hell to save the hell-dwellers appears in many pre-Christian Buddhist works. It also appears assigned to Bodhisattvas like Avolakitsvsra, Samanthabhadra and has parallels with the earliest Buddha's vow to not enter nirvana untill he has ferried everyone out of samsara. There are many other tell-tale signs the Gospel of Nicodemus is a Buddhist pirate-copy. in the Gospel of Nicodemus, or the Acts of Pilate, Jesus is said to enter hell as a man shining light that heals the afflicted. Also in this gospel is found the idols bowing down to Jesus, which is found in the Lalitavistara, among other Buddhist texts, and Pilate wishing that Jesus would walk on his bandana just as Sumedha hoped to have his jacket walked on by Dipankara Buddha. Though the Bodhisattva is said to go to all destinations in order to save people, the particular Buddhist texts which precisely parallel Jesus’s descent into hell are in the Lotus sutra and the Karandavyuha sutra where the “blinding light” which illumes hell is without question more at home than is the blinding light in the Christian version. In the Gospel of Nicodemus, Jesus is located at mount Mamilch and in the Karandavyuha sutra the Mleccha kings are placed in a copper cave. Like the NT appearance of the Devil, the descent of Jesus into hell appears out of place and was introduced, according to most textual critics, as a later addition. This Gospel states that the compassionate lord was up in heaven and was “looking down” which, besides being a verb often related with compassion in the Pali texts, is the most popular etymology given to Avalokitesvara who is said to look down on those in hell with compassion. Avalokitesvara is also said to change into innumerable forms when he is in hell, while the Christian version has Jesus in multiple forms. In the Buddhist version Yama, the escort and king of hell, is upset that the Bodhisattva was emptying hell. This parallels how Sakra gets upset when a Buddha arises. In the Christian versions, Satan, who takes the place of Yama, tells Hades that Jesus, who anoints with the oil from the “tree of mercy,” where Avalokitesvara heals with his rivers of life-giving water, is rescuing those who were subject under his domain. Hades tells his generals to hold secure the iron bars and the Buddhist hell is said to have the same bars. There are some other Buddhist originals to be found in the Gospel of Nicodemus which cannot be covered here, except to take notice of Jesus’s perfect signs (or bodily marks), the disciples taking “a knee,” the two Saints who vow to not die (i.e. enter nirvana) until the defeat of the “evil one,” and of the casual dialogue between Hades and Satan, all of which are distinctly Buddhist.

Another ExMo here in the Esoterica corner! I am really looking forward to Dr. Sledge’s work on Mormonism. Personally I have found myself exploring process theology as a parallel to my interest in Guattari and Deleuze, since apparently both were influenced by Alfred North Whitehead and his Process Metaphysics. I can’t and won’t go back to Christianity, especially that cult, but current atheist philosophy feels lacking and has a lot of toxic baggage. Agnosticism felt too much like sitting on my hands. So I am going to look at Process Theology and see what I can do about the perennialist and Christian-centric problems I have seen in it. Maybe I will find something of worth. Maybe I will just find more reasons to distance myself from Christianity, even a heterodox branch like Process Theology.

now yer thinkin' with Socrates (wisest man in the agora for understanding that he knew nothing)

Yep, they're their own rabbit hole

I love the rabbit holes I find on this channel.

Maybe there was a perceived overlap or similarity of their powers and aspects? They were both literal parental figures associated with temples, mysticism, magic and healing. Perhaps the long distance descriptions or translations of Buddhism had an accidental parallel to the temple hierarchy of Isis or the mystery religion of Isis

Consider that deep core truths are universal. And that pollination among mystics was not uncommon. There are core principles in gnosticism, sufí, Egypt, daoism and even Buddhism because they all hone in on the same truth. A truth NOT dependent on religion, but the inner cultivation of consciousness.

Yep, me too, I love the idea of "jewbu's" though, i imagine gautama would find it amusing too! Love this community!

@@MrSomethingElse yeah, he’d get a kick out of that one, in my head canon if he heard it he would laugh riotously like watching a Carlin, Hicks, or Mooney standup.

Do you know you can pay for RU-vid premium and listen to any video as a podcast?

They were gold dawning it.

Yep!

Maybe / doubtful & no evidence of baptism, but they were Jewish (probably) and ritual immersion was/is important. Also living near the lake is salient. Who knows?

Thanks for responding Justin! Is there any evidence the Therapeutic were practicing Merkabah mysticism?@@TheEsotericaChannel

No everything we know about them is from that one essay of Philo

And Western Massachusetts, Upstate NY, too!

Maybe !