Manichaeism (Group Project)

Manichaeism is indeed syncretic religion. And from the readings, in Jonas' words it appears that Manichaeism is even the most syncretic, or gnostic religion compere to the other ones. Jones claimes that status to it on the bases that Mani consciously was combining the elements from other religious traditions and merging them all together with the purpose to create the 'ultimate', or the 'universal' religion.

I think that all (or most, as more politically correct term ;) religions are syncretic to some degree, as in order for the belief system to become popular, or institutional, it inevitably have to merge with a local social traditions or/and political laws.

I think the idea that Mani was deliberately mixing the elements of popular and already trusted religions together, without trying to hide that fact, is what separates Manichaeism from other 'syncretic' religions. As most of the religions are taking the ideas from already established traditions, but changing it around a bit to compete with popular movements. From this respect Manichaeism in some sense can be compered to New Age movement. As it seems that New Age tradition is also in a similar way borrowing random elements from many popular religions without masking that fact, and combining it together to create 'something new and more profound'. From the perspective of the followers of an old, established tradition, such borrowing of separate elements is meaningless, because it means using them "out of context". Although, for those who are borrowing, it is meaningful because in their minds they are creating something 'new and better'.

For us, as scholars of religion, recognizing similarities with other traditions might be helpful for the purpose of following the footprints of possible origin of some thoughts and ideas. Or, if not an origin, then a chain of historical development.

When thinking about Manichaeism as a textual tradition, the syncretism as an 'organizing principle' helps us to divide the ideas into 17 or so different languages, and as the result to see where all those compounding elements were taken from.

The images included are: the bottom one is Manichaeistic painting, which looks very similar to a Tibetan Buddhist thangka painting, with Buddha in the middle, and the cross on his left. And the top one is the founder of Manichaeism.

Tang Dynasty: the Reflection on Schafer's Description

Schafer's "The Glory Tang Days" is written in very romantic language, describing the eighth century China as the most beautiful and magical time. In fact, as he mentioned, his references are taken mostly from Su O's writings. And Su O was describing the time almost a century before his own. And there is a tendency to romanticize the past. It feels like Schafer did the same thing, as his writing reads like a beautiful fairytale. Anyway, there is no way to find out what "actually" was happening during those times, as there is no such thing as more objective or less objective reality. But Schafer's interpretation depicts his fascination and admiration of the story (time and place) he describes. In 'reality' we don't know what actually was happening in China during Tang dynasty. But it feels like Schafer was describing his own inner beautiful world rather than whatever he attempted to describe.

Buddhism: The Goal or the Path?

In The Parable of the Burning House, to get his children out of the burning house the rich man promised them rare toys which are better than those they already had. In other words the man used a manipulation, a mind game, and children's attachment to toys in order to turn their attention to another desire.

The same idea with pure lands, nirvana, etc. Perhaps such 'pure places', or 'heavens' are promised in order to help people develop flexibility and let go of narrow mindedness. Therefore, from this perspective the promise of nirvana, or 'nirvana' itself could be used as the means, not the end. Therefore, the path itself is important and not as much the goal.

Evidently that what Mahayana view is about. It is not where you will end up later, but what you are now. Apparently that what the selfless compassion and unconditional love is.

Zoroastrian Anscient Texts

While reading the translation of an early Zoroastrian texts I came across some key terms which has analogies in other religions. For example the idea of the Cow, who seems to be representing something similar to the Holy Spirit in Christianity. The Cow in Zoroastrian ancient text is addressed from the capital letter; it is in the company of her fashioner and the Ahura Mazda, all of whom are conversing with each other; Zarathustra is considered to be the soul of the Cow. All signs points towards the spiritual nature of that Cow. Perhaps the roots of the idea of a spiritual cow in Hinduism at some point intersect with this Zoroastrian Cow.

Another example of interreligious interconnectedness is the writing about dewas and asuras. The asuras in Zoroastrianism is considered of a higher status than dewas, as oppose to their Buddhist status. Nevertheless, the qualities of Zoroastrian asuras, who considers gods, are very similar to the qualities of Buddhist asuras, where they are sort of demons, or sometimes called semi-gods. For instance, the asura's qualities described in Zoroastrian ancient texts depicted them as vindictive, revengeful, who often give a violent lessons to people in order to punish them for disobedience. In fact, in Buddhism asuras do exactly the same, that is why they are called semi-gods, as they are not in complete bliss or unity with themselves, from the Buddhist perspective that is why they are competitive, and tend to pick up fights with dewas, who are above them in the status of spiritual hierarchy. Dewas in Buddhism are simply feeling too good to be interested in punishments, controlling other beings, etc. Unfortunately, there was no clear description of dewas' qualities in that Zoroastrian text, which would indicate what Zoroastrian dewas tend to do, how they like to appear, and why they considered as demons in Zoroastrianism. I am sure there is a parallel between the opposing views of two religions, which can be understood deeper with farther research on this topic.

What is Religion?

Some people see religion as private, intellectual activity, and others as social, bonding factor. Early religious study scholars, being under the influence of dominating Christianity, used to look at other religions from the perspective of the rigid unilineal evolutionist approach. They saw the inevitable movement from savagery to barbarism, to civilization. Therefore, religious believes were an important indicator of the evolutionary level of a society. In other words the general assumption was the inevitable progression from primitive superstition to more sophisticated and monotheistic view.

Later studies analyzed religious phenomenon from various perspectives, such as historicist, functionalist, psychological, structuralist, ecological, cross-cultural, cognitive, and symbolic. Modern scholars, such as Partridge, identified other groups as religious, which have not been traditionally considered as such before. For example the psychedelic users, cyberspirituality, extraterrestrial UFO believers, Occultic Western Demonology, and Eschatological apocalypcists, to name a few. I agree with Smith's (1962) view that when people are saying "I am not religious, I am spiritual", it is more than likely that they are participating in a different and probably competing tradition, requiring devices to distinguish and authorize it.

Sogdians, Their History and Culture

Sogdians originated in the area where presently Ukraine is located. According to linguistic history they are the originators of Indo-European languages. After Alexander the Great invaded the area, many of them moved South-East, and settled around present Southern Uzbekistan and Western Tajikistan. Their capital was the city of Samarkand. During that time it considered the Chinese territory.

Sogdians adapted quickly to Chinese customs. Some of them even changed their last name to Chinese "An", the most common one. They played an important role in commerce on the Silk Road between the fourth and ninths centuries CE. Sogdians merchants travelled across Eurasia to do business of making and selling things. As well, Sogdians played a major role in transmitting religions such as Manicheism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism eastwards along the Silk Road.

It was very florishing culture, even though they never invented their own empire. The impressive architecture, art sculptures and paintings were found in the area many centuries later can tell us about Sogdian cultural sophistication. They also invented many things, such as paper printing machine, which did not exist in Europe before then.

Below is the link to the article about Sogdian art:
http://weecheng.com/silk/tajik/sogdian.htm

Hou Hanshu

Hou Hanshu can be easily classified as the historical writing, as it is full of heroes, as well as descriptions of wars with precise dates. The people described in the text are very warlike. Their strength is measured by the size of the territory they inhibit.