Apollonius the Nazarene
Edit Page
Report
Scan day: 01 March 2014 UTC
34
Virus safety - good
Description: An essay on the Gymnosophists of ancient Alexandria, Egypt, and their Indian Buddhist origins.
Apollonius the Nazarene [Image] [Image] 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. We now come to Apollonius's visit to the "Gymnosophists" of upper Egygt, whom Damis calls the "naked Egyptian philosophers," though according to Mead,* the word "naked" probably meant "lightly clad." That they might have been originally Buddhist missionaries who traveled westward is indicated by a statement by one of the younger members of the community who left it to follow Apollonius. He related that he came to join the community from the enthusiastic account of his father who told him that these "Ethiopians" were from India; and so he had joined them instead of making the long and perilous trip to the Indus in search of wisdom. If this is true, these Gymnosophists must have originally been Buddhist missionaries who traveled westward and settled in Egypt, recruiting members from the Egyptians, Arabs, and Ethiopians, and so in the course of time forgot their origin. This explains the great similarity of Gymnosophical, Essenian and Therapeut doctrines to Buddhist ones, aside from the direct importation of Buddhist teachings by Pythagoras and Apollonius.* (*According to Mead, the Gymnosophists, were really a sect of advanced Essenes, or Therapeuts, as described by Philo in his "On the Contemplative Life," the description that Philo gives of the Therapeut community he visited on the shore of Lake Mareoris near Alexandria corresponding almost exactly with Damis's description of the Gymnosophist community in Upper Egypt. Both show the following unmistakable signs of Buddhist influence and origin. (1) In both cases the members gave away all their worldly possessions before joining the community. (2) There was a novitiate period and an initiation into the order, (3) Abstinence from
Size: 2048 chars
Contact Information
Email: —
Phone&Fax: —
Address: —
Extended: —
WEBSITE Info
| Page title: | |
| Keywords: | |
| Description: | |
| IP-address: | 65.254.250.106 |
WHOIS Info
| NS | Name Server: NS1.POWWEB.COM Name Server: NS2.POWWEB.COM |
| WHOIS | Status: clientTransferProhibited |
| Date | Creation Date: 01-sep-1999 Expiration Date: 01-sep-2014 |