The Buddha in Manichaeism

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Siddartha Gautama (釋迦文佛)
The Buddha in the Manichaean Diagram of the Universe
PredecessorZarathustra
SuccessorJesus (夷數)
Ethnic groupMagadhi Prakrit

In

Gautama Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus were incomplete, and that his revelations were for the entire world, calling his teachings the "Religion of Light".[2]

Manichaeism also often calls Jesus a Buddha[3] This is because the term prophet was unfamiliar to a Chinese audience so Buddha was used as a substitute. It does not imply a belief in enlightenment.[3]

Manichaeism was introduced into China during the Tang dynasty through Central Asian communities[4] and was regarded as an improper form of Buddhism by the Tang authorities.

Influences from Buddhism

Main article: Manichaeism § Influences

Indo-Iranian source. Mani considered himself to be a reincarnation of Buddha. He also claimed that he was preaching the same message of Buddha.[6] 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."[7] When the mercantile economy declined due to the decline of the Roman Empire, Manichaeism lost its support.[8] The Manichaeans were hostile to the closed society of farming and landownership, just like the Buddhism conflicted with the "non-urban world controlled by Brahman laymen."[9][a]

Mani, an

Sassanid Empire.[14] According to the Cologne Mani-Codex, Mani's parents were members of the Jewish Christian Gnostic sect known as the Elcesaites.[15]

Mani believed that the teachings of

Buddhist
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 Buddhist

sangha.[17]

According to Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer, evidence of the influence of Buddhist thought on the teachings of Mani can be found throughout texts related to Mani.[18] 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 complete Nirvana

Manichaeism might have also adopted Buddhist meditation.[19]

The pure devout must sit down in pious meditation and he should turn away from sin and increase what is pious.

Usage of the term to refer to other individuals

After Manichaeism was introduced into China, because the image of Jesus was quite unfamiliar to Chinese culture, missionaries combined it with Buddhist culture, called Jesus Buddha, and gave him a model of great mercy and relief. Buddhist image.

Chinese Manichaean hymn scroll
:

The Buddha-Jesus, who is the most powerful and compassionate person in the world, forgives my sins.
Listen to my painful words and lead me out of the sea of poisonous fire. I wish to give the fragrant water of liberation, the twelve jeweled crowns and the drapes. To cleanse me from the dust of my wonderful nature, and to adorn my pure body to make it upright. May I be rid of the three winters and three poisonous knots, and the six thieves and six poisonous winds. Let the great dharma spring glorify my nature, and let the trees of nature and flowers flourish. May the great waves of fire and the dark clouds and fogs be quenched. Let the great dharma day shine brightly, so that my mind may always be pure. May I be relieved of the disease of dumbness and blindness, and of the monsters and devils. Send down the great Dharma medicine for speedy healing, and silence the divine incantation to drive away the spirits. I have been subjected to so many obstacles and countless other hardships. In view of this, the great sage should forgive me and save me from all the disasters.
May Jesus have mercy on me and free me from all demonic bonds.

The Manichaean Painting of the Buddha Jesus is titled referring to Jesus as a Buddha.[e][20]

In the

buddhas.[21]

Late syncretism and decline

Main article: Chinese Manichaeism

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 increasing involved themselves with the

White Lotus Sect.[23]

Manichaeism survived among the population and had a profound influence on the tradition of the

White Lotus Sect.[24]

Due to the rise of the Ming dynasty the name for Manichaeism Mingjiao was seen as offensive to the Emperor, so it received particular persecution[25]

An account in Fozu Tongji, an important historiography of Buddhism in China compiled by Buddhist scholars during 1258–1269, says that the Manichaeans worshipped the "white Buddha" and their leader wore a violet headgear, while the followers wore white costumes. Many Manichaeans took part in rebellions against the Song government and were eventually quelled. After that, all governments were suppressive against Manichaeism and its followers and the religion was banned by the

Ming Dynasty in 1370.[26][27]

During and after the 14th century, some Chinese Manichaeans involved themselves with the

southern China. Those Manichaeans practiced their rituals so closely alongside the Mahayana Buddhists that over the years the two sects became indistinguishable.[28]

Manichaeism in China assumes certain Chinese characteristics, assimilating to both

Gautama Buddha.[31] At the same time, the supposedly Taoist treatise, the Huahujing "Scripture of the Conversion of the Barbarians", popular with Chinese Manichaeans, declared Mani to be a reincarnation of Laozi.[32] As to the Confucian civil authorities of the Song state, when the clandestine cells of Mani's followers came to their attention, they were usually lumped together with assorted other suspicious and potentially troublesome sects as "vegetarian demon worshipers" (Chinese: 吃菜事魔).[33]

Not surprisingly, such Manichaean temples that were erected in Song China usually had an official Buddhist or Taoist affiliation.

Siming. This temple - one of the northernmost known Manichaean sites of the Song era - was established in the 960s, and was still active - in a more standard Taoist way, but with a memory of Manichaeism retained - in the 1260s.[35]

In Qianku there is also a strong veneration of the Sun and the Moon, which are often called the Sunlight Buddha and Moonlight Buddha by locals[36]

Cao'an temple

Main article: Cao'an
The Buddha of Light (Prophet Mani) carved from the living rock

The Cao'an temple in Fujian stands as a vivid example the subsumption of Manichaeism into Buddhism, as a statue of the "Buddha of Light" is thought to be a representation of the prophet Mani.[37]

The most remarkable Manichaean relic in the temple is the statue of Manichaeism's founder Mani, commonly referred to in the Chinese Manichaean tradition as the "Buddha of Light". According to an inscription, the statue was donated to the temple by a local adherent in 1339.

While the statue may look like any other Buddha to a casual observer, experts note a number of peculiarities which distinguish it from a typical portrayal of the Buddha. Instead of being curly-haired and clean-shaven, as most other Buddha statues, this Buddha of Light is depicted having straight hair draped over his shoulders, and sporting a beard. The facial features of the prophet (arched eyebrows, fleshy jowls) are somewhat different from a traditional Chinese stone Buddha as well.[38] It is even said that the stone Mani the Buddha of Light used to have a mustache or sideburns, but they were removed by a 20th-century Buddhist monk, trying to make the statue more like a traditional Buddha.[39]

Instead of looking down, as Buddha statues usually do, the Mani statue looks straight at the worshipers. Instead of being held in a typical Buddhist mudrā, Mani's hands rest on his belly, with both palms facing upward.[38]

Restored inscription urging the faithful to remember "Purity (清净), Light (光明), Power (大力), and Wisdom (智慧)", and "Moni (摩尼) the Buddha of Light (光佛)"

In order to give the statue an overall luminous impression, the sculptor carved its head, body, and hands from stones of different hues.[38]

Instead of a nianfo phrase, universally seen in China's Buddhist temples,[40] an inscription on a stone in the courtyard dated 1445 urges the faithful to remember "Purity (清净), Light (光明), Power (大力), and Wisdom (智慧)", which are the four attributes of the Father of Light,[38] one of the chief figures of the Manichaean pantheon.[41] These four words (eight Chinese characters) were apparently an important motto of Chinese Manichaeism; it is described as such in an anti-Manichean work by the Fujianese Taoist Bo Yuchan (real name Ge Changgeng; fl. 1215).[42] The original inscription was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but later "restored" (apparently, on another rock).[39]

See also

Annotations

Notes

  1. Buddhism declined in India after the end of the Gupta Empire (c. 320–650 CE), which was related to the decline of the Roman Empire and the decline of sea trade with the Romans. Power was decentralised in India, and Buddhism lost its support from royal courts, being replaced by Brahmanical Hinduism.[10]
  2. ^ "He was Iranian, of noble Parthian blood..."
  3. ^ "Manichaeism was a syncretic religion, proclaimed by the Iranian Prophet Mani."
  4. Bamiyan are attributed to him.[citation needed
    ]
  5. ^ "夷數" (pinyin: Yíshù; Wade–Giles: I-shu) is the Chinese translation of the name Jesus by the Manichaeans.

References

[39] [38]

  1. ISBN 978-90-04-30894-7
    .
  2. ISBN 978-90-04-17574-7
    . Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-986-316-114-1
    .
  4. ^ Ma & Meng (2011), p. 55–56.
  5. ^ Verardi 1997, p. 323.
  6. ^ Verardi 1997, pp. 323–324.
  7. ^ Verardi 1997, p. 332.
  8. ^ Verardi 1997, pp. 332–333.
  9. ^ Verardi 1997, p. 333.
  10. ^ Michaels 2004, p. 42.
  11. ^ Boyce 2001, p. 111[b]
  12. ^ Ball 2001, p. 437[c]
  13. ^ Werner 2009.
  14. ^ Coyle 2009.
  15. ^ Koenen & Römer 1988.
  16. ^ Coyle 2009, p. 13.
  17. ^ Foltz 2010.
  18. ^ Barnstone & Meyer 2005.
  19. ^ Scott 1985.
  20. ^ Gulácsi, Zsuzsanna (2009). "A Manichaean Portrait of the Buddha Jesus". academia.edu. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  21. ISBN 9789004255067
    p. 75
  22. ^ Yar 2012.
  23. ^ Ma & Meng 2011.
  24. ^ Ma & Meng (2011), p. 19-56.
  25. ISBN 9780719010880
    .
  26. ISBN 978-1-285-54623-0
    .
  27. ISBN 9789004174559
    .
  28. ^ Dr. Char Yar. "Monijiao (Manichaeism) in China". academia.edu. Lecture presented at the Worldwide Conference for Historical Research, 2012.
  29. ^ Mair 1987, p. 316
  30. ^ Mair 1987, pp. 317–318
  31. ^ Lieu 1992, pp. 243, 255–257
  32. ^ Lieu 1992, pp. 258–259.
  33. ^ Lieu 1992, pp. 280–283, 298
  34. ^ Lieu 1992, pp. 268
  35. ^ Lieu 1992, pp. 268, 292–294
  36. ^ Lin Shundao; Cai Ting Tao (2017-08-18). 杨道敏 (ed.). "There are Mingjiao ruins in the treasury-Xuanzhen Temple, right here..." sohu.com. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  37. ^ Samuel N. C. Lieu and Ken Parry, Manichaean and (Nestorian) Christian Remains in Zayton (Quanzhou, South China). ARC DP0557098 Archived 2014-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
  38. ^ a b c d e Lieu 1992, pp. 256–257
  39. ^ a b c Samuel N. C. Lieu and Ken Parry, Manichaean and (Nestorian) Christian Remains in Zayton (Quanzhou, South China). ARC DP0557098 Archived 2014-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
  40. ^ Lieu 1980, pp. 80–82
  41. ^ Lieu 1998, p. 136
  42. ^ Lieu 1992, pp. 291–292

Bibliography

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