Quote:just how is christianity a buddhist experiment gone wrong, in particular whats this encounter between buddhists (indians??) and essene jews, that gave rise to the biggest religion in the world??
there was a lot of buddhist influence in the ME or ANE (ancient near east), including that upon apollonius which was detailed in McEllivey's book, referred to previously by member sushmita. But apparently the mideast culture could not digest the buddhist influence, and we did get such monstrosities as iconoclastic Christianity coming out of the exchange. In East Asia, by contrast, the integration of buddhist teaching was near seamless.
Quote:Apollonius the Nazarene - Part 8:
Events in the life of Apollonius of Tyana Visit to the Gymnosophists as recorded in "The Life of Apollonius of Tyana" by his biographer, Philostratus
By: Dr. R. W. Bernard, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
..Indeed, the Gymnosophical community that Apollonius visited could very well have been one of the Therapeut communities described by Philo and which he
visited at about the same period.* [*See the books by Arthur Lillie ("Buddhism in Christianity" and "India in Primitive Christianity") for details on the contribution of travelling Buddhist monks to Palestine, Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor, to the formation of the early Essene/Therapeut/Nazarite communities in these areas, which later became the base upon which Christianity was raised. A large number of the volumes in the Library of Alexandria were likewise of Buddhist origin.
According to Mead, this Gymnosophical community was originally of Buddhist origin, having been established by Buddhist monks. The origin of the Essene and Therapeut doctrines has been traced by some of the Buddhist missionarie sent out in the middle of the third century B.C. by ASHOKA, Buddhist Emperor of India, who traveled to Syria, Egypt, Macedonia and those parts of Asia Minor where the Essene communities were later known to exist. While it is possible that these communities may have existed previously and have been of Orphic and Pythagorean origin, it is probable that these Buddhist missionaries found in them a responsive audience.
Mead writes, "Just as some would ascribe the constitution of the Essene and Therapeut communities to Pythagorean influence, so others would ascribe their origin to Buddhist propaganda; and not only would they trace this influence to the Essene tenets and practices, but they even refer to the general teachings of the Christ to a Buddhist source in a Jewish monotheistic setting. Not only so but some would have it that two centuries before the direct general contact of Greece with India, brought about by the conquests of Alexander - INDIA, through Pythagoras, strongly and lastingly influenced all subsequent Greek thought.")
<b>Alot has been covered up by western societies' need to have the Buddha as a contemporary of their socrates figure. </b>Socrates was a relative unknown in the ancient world -
[qoute]is the story of the saviour indeed a fable?? he never existed?[/quote]
Alot of the elements of the christ fable such as the virgin birth and resurrection of a dead god, and almost the entire repertoiry of parables was manufactered from previous existing traditions, including those of the persians. The buddhist influence was paramount, however.