The Apostles of the Bloodless Altar.

There are two Zoroasters, or rather a sort of dual personality. One of these Zoroasters lived six thousand years B.C. according to Darmesteter, and the other about five hundred years B.C. The earlier Zoroaster swathed Persia in a network of silly rites and regulations. A culprit who "threw away a dead dog" was to receive a thousand blows with the horse goad, and one thousand with the Craosha charana. A culprit who slew a dog with a "prickly back" and a "woolly muzzle" was to receive a similar punishment. ("Fargard," xxx.) This Zoroaster was particular about the number of gnats, ants, lizards, that the devout had to kill. ("Fargard," xiv.) This Zoroaster proclaimed a god who loved to see on his altar a "hundred horses, a thousand cows, ten thousand small cattle," and so on. ("Khordah Avesta," xii.) But the second Zoroaster proclaimed a bloodless altar, and sought to tear the network of the first Zoroaster to shreds. What was the meaning of this? Simply that the Buddhist Wanderers had by this time invaded Persia, and had fastened their doctrines upon the chief local prophet. This was their habit. A study of this second religion, the religion of Mithras, will help us to some of the secrets of Buddhist propagandism.

Mr. Felix Oswald cites Wassiljew as announcing that the Buddhist missionaries had reached Western Persia, B.C. 450. This date would, of course, depend on the date of Buddha's life and Buddha's death. The latter is now definitely fixed by Buhler's translation of Asoka's Rupnath rock-inscription, B.C. 470. Wassiljew, citing Daranatha, announces that Madeantica, a convert of Ananda, Buddha's leading disciple, reached Ouchira in Cashmir. From Cashmir Buddhism passed promptly to Candahar and Cabul. (p. 40). Thence it penetrated quickly to Bactra, and soon invaded "all the country embraced by the word Turkistan, where it flourished until disturbed by Mahomet."

Tertullian has two passages which describe the religion of Mithras.

He says that the devil, to "pervert the truth," by "the mystic rites of his idols vies even with the essential portions of the sacraments of God. He too baptises some—that is, his own believers and faithful followers. He promises the putting away of sins by a laver (of his own), and, if my memory still serves me, Mithras there (in the kingdom of Satan) sets his mark on the foreheads of his soldiers, celebrates also the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of the resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown." (Pres. v., Hoer. chap. xl.)

Here is another passage.

"Some soldier of Mithras, who at his initiation in the gloomy cavern,—in the camp, it may well be said, of darkness,—when at the sword's point a sword is presented to him as though in mimicry of martyrdom, and thereupon a crown is put upon his head, is admonished to resist and cast it off, and, if you like, transfer it to his shoulders, saying that Mithras is his crown. He even has his virgins and his ascetics (continentes). Let us take note of the devices of the devil, who is wont to ape some of God's things." ("De Corona," xv.)

From this it is plain that the worshippers of Mithras had the simple rites of Buddhists and Christians, baptism and the bloodless altar; also an early Freemasonry, which some detect veiled in the Indian life of Buddha. Thus the incident of the sword and crown in the Mithraic initiation is plainly based on the menacing sword of MÂra in the "Lalita Vistara" and the crown that he offered Buddha. In modern masonry it is feigned that Hiram Abiff, the architect of Solomon's temple, made three efforts to escape from three assassins. These are plainly Old Age, Disease, and Death. He sought to evade the first at the east of the temple, in the same way that Buddha tried to escape by the eastern gate. The second and third flights of Hiram and Buddha were to the same points of the compass. Then Buddha escaped the lower life through the Gate of Benediction, and Hiram was killed. The disciples of Mithras had, in the comedy of their initiation, "seven tortures,"—heat, cold, hunger, thirst, fire, water, etc.,—experiences by no means confined to histrionics in the experience of Buddha's Wanderers. A modern mason goes through the comedy of giving up his gold and silver and baring his breast and feet, a form that once had a meaning. Mithras was born in a cave; and at Easter there was the ceremony called by Tertullian the "image of the resurrection." The worshippers, Fermicus tells us ("De Errore," xxiii.), placed by night a stone image on a bier in a cave and went through the forms of mourning. The dead god was then placed in a tomb, and after a time withdrawn from it. Then lights were lit, and poems of rejoicing sounded out, and the priest comforted the devotees. "You shall have salvation from your sorrows!" Dupuis naturally compares all this to the cierge pascal and Catholic rites. In Jerusalem the Greek pontiff goes into the cave called Christ's sepulchre and brings out miraculous fire to the worshippers, who are fighting and biting each other outside, imaging unconsciously Buddha's great battle with MÂra and the legions of hell, its thunder and lightning and turmoil, followed by a bright coruscation, and by the angels who greeted his victory. This sudden illumination, which is the chief rite of Freemasonry, of Mithraism, and of Christianity, has oddly enough been thrown overboard by the English Church.

That Mithraism was at once Freemasonry and Buddhism is proved by its great spread. Buddhism was the first missionary religion. Judaism and the other old priestcrafts were for a "chosen people." At the epoch of Christ, Mithraism had already honeycombed the Roman paganism. Experts have discovered its records in Arthur's Oon and other British caves.

A similar Freemasonry was Pythagoreanism in Greece. Colebrooke, the prince of Orientalists, saw at once that its philosophy was purely Buddhist. Its rites were identical with those of the Mithraists and Essenes. These last must now be considered. They have this importance, that they are due to a separate propagandism. Alexandria was built by the great invader of India, to bridge the east and the west. And an exceptional toleration of creeds was the result.

Neander divides Israel at the date of Christ into three sections:—

1. Pharisaism, the "dead theology of the letter."

2. Sadduceeism, "debasing of the spiritual life into worldliness."

3. Essenism, Israel mystical—a "co-mingling of Judaism with the old Oriental theosophy."

Concerning this latter section, Philo wrote a letter to a man named HephÆstion, of which the following is a portion:—

"I am sorry to find you saying that you are not likely to visit Alexandria again. This restless, wicked city can present but few attractions, I grant, to a lover of philosophic quiet. But I cannot commend the extreme to which I see so many hastening. A passion for ascetic seclusion is becoming daily more prevalent among the devout and the thoughtful, whether Jew or Gentile. Yet surely the attempt to combine contemplation and action should not be so soon abandoned. A man ought at least to have evinced some competency for the discharge of the social duties before he abandons them for the divine. First the less, then the greater.

"I have tried the life of the recluse. Solitude brings no escape from spiritual danger. If it closes some avenues of temptation, there are few in whose case it does not open more. Yet the TherapeutÆ, a sect similar to the Essenes, with whom you are acquainted, number many among them whose lives are truly exemplary. Their cells are scattered about the region bordering on the farther shore of the Lake Mareotis. The members of either sex live a single and ascetic life, spending their time in fasting and contemplation, in prayer or reading. They believe themselves favoured with divine illumination—an inner light. They assemble on the Sabbath for worship, and listen to mystical discourses on the traditionary lore which they say has been handed down in secret among themselves. They also celebrate solemn dances and processions of a mystic significance by moonlight on the shore of the great mere. Sometimes, on an occasion of public rejoicing, the margin of the lake on our side will be lit with a fiery chain of illuminations, and galleys, hung with lights, row to and fro with strains of music sounding over the broad water. Then the TherapeutÆ are all hidden in their little hermitages, and these sights and sounds of the world they have abandoned make them withdraw into themselves and pray.

"Their principle at least is true. The soul which is occupied with things above, and is initiated into the mysteries of the Lord, cannot but account the body evil, and even hostile. The soul of man is divine, and his highest wisdom is to become as much as possible a stranger to the body with its embarrassing appetites. God has breathed into man from heaven a portion of His own divinity. That which is divine is invisible. It may be extended, but it is incapable of separation. Consider how vast is the range of our thought over the past and the future, the heavens and the earth. This alliance with an upper world, of which we are conscious, would be impossible, were not the soul of man an indivisible portion of that divine and blessed spirit. Contemplation of the divine essence is the noblest exercise of man; it is the only means of attaining to the highest truth and virtue, and therein to behold God is the consummation of our happiness here."

Here we have the higher Buddhism, which seeks to reach the plane of spirit, an "alliance with the upper world" by the aid of solitary reverie. That Philo knew where this religion had come from is, I think, proved by another passage.

"Among the Persians there is the order of Magi who deeply investigate the works of nature for the discovery of truth, and in leisure's quiet are initiated into and expound in clearest significance the divine virtues.

"In India, too, there is the sect of the Gymnosophists, who, in addition to speculative philosophy, diligently cultivate the ethical also, and have made their life an absolute ensample of virtue.

"Palestine, moreover, and Syria are not without their harvest of virtuous excellence, which region is inhabited by no small portion of the very populous nation of the Jews. There are counted amongst them certain ones, by name Essenes, in number about four thousand, who derive their name, in my opinion, by an inaccurate trace from the term in the Greek language for holiness (Essen or Essaios—Hosios, holy), inasmuch as they have shown themselves pre-eminent by devotion to the service of God; not in the sacrifice of living animals, but rather in the determination to make their own minds fit for a holy offering." (Philo, "Every virtuous man is free.")

Plainly here the Essenes are pronounced of the same faith as the Gymnosophists of India, who abstain from the bloody sacrifice, that is the Buddhists.

I will now jot hastily down the points of contact between one of these monasteries described by Philo and a Buddhist monastery. In the centre is the sanctuary. Round it, in an enclosure "four square," are ranged the cells of the monks. The monks in Thibet, according to the AbbÉ Huc, may be divided into three categories.

1. Those who live in monasteries and perform the religious services, and also, like the Essenes described by Josephus, farm the convent land.

2. Hermits, in caves, like Banos dreaming holy dreams.

3. Wandering missionaries (Parivrajakas) who, like the "Apostles" described in the recently discovered "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," are not allowed to remain more than a day in the same place.

In the Buddhist Lent the community goes into a hastily built group of mud huts in the jungle. Each of these is tenanted by a monk and two novices. Each has a "guest chamber" for a sick man, or a wandering beggar. This throws light on much. Let us continue our parallelism.

Enforced vegetarianism, community of goods, rigid abstinence from sexual indulgence, also a high standard of purity, were common to both the Buddhists and the Therapeuts.

Neither community allowed the use of wine.

Long fastings were common to both.

With both, silence was a special spiritual discipline.

The Therapeut left "for ever," says Philo, "brothers, children, wives, father and mother," for the contemplative life.

Like the Buddhists, the Therapeuts had nuns vowed to chastity.

The preacher and the missionary, two original ideas of Buddhism, were conspicuous amongst the Therapeuts. This was in direct antagonism to the spirit of Mosaism.

The Therapeut was a healer of the body as well as the soul.

Turning to the kindred society of the Essenes we get a few additional points of contact.

The Essenes, like the Buddhist monks, had ridiculous laws relating to spitting and other natural acts, those of the Essenes being regulated by a superstitious veneration for the Sabbath day, those of the Buddhists, by a superstitious respect for a pagoda.

In Buddhist monasteries a rigid obedience, together with a quite superstitious respect for the person of a superior, is enacted. In Buddhaghosa's Parables is a puerile story of a malicious Muni, who, when an inferior monk had gone out of a hut where the two were sleeping, lay across the doorway in order to make the novice inadvertently commit the great sin of placing his foot above his superiors head. The penalty of such an act is that the offender's head ought to be split into seven pieces. With the Essenes similar superstitions were rife. If an Approacher accidentally touched the hem of the garment of an Associate, all sorts of purifications had to be gone through.

The principle of thrift and unsavouriness in dress was carried to extremes by both Essenes and Buddhists. The sramana (ascetic) was required to stitch together for his kowat the refuse rags acquired by begging. The Essenes were expected to wear the old clothes of their co-religionists until they tumbled to pieces.

In the Thibetan "Life of Buddha," by Rockhill, it is announced that when the great teacher first cast off his kingly silks he donned a foul dress that had been previously worn by ten other saints. This throws light on the story of Elisha.

Dr. Ginsburg ("The Essenes," p. 13) shows that the Essenes had eight stages of progress in inner or spiritual knowledge.

1. Outward or bodily purity by baptism.

2. The state of purity that has conquered the sexual desire.

3. Inward and spiritual purity.

4. A meek and gentle spirit which has subdued all anger and malice.

5. The culminating point of holiness.

6. The body becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost, and the mystic acquires the gift of prophecy.

7. Miraculous powers of healing, and of raising the dead.

8. The mystic state of Elias.

The Buddhists have likewise eight stages of inner progress, the Eightfold Holy Path. The first step, "Those who have entered the stream, the NaÍraÑjana, the mystic river of Buddha," is precisely the same as the first Essene step. Then follow advances in purity, holiness, and mastery of passion. In the last two stages the Buddhists, like the Essenes, gained supernatural powers, to be used in miraculous cures, prophecies, and other occult marvels. It must be mentioned that the Essenes were circumcised as well as the other Jews.

The word "Essenes," according to some learned philologists, means the "Bathers," or "Baptisers," baptism having been their initiatory rite. Josephus tells us that this baptism was not administered until the aspirant had remained a whole year outside the community, but "subjected to their rule of life."

I will here give the rite of Buddhist baptism (abhisheka) when a novice is about to become a monk. It consists of many washings, borrowed plainly by the early Buddhists from the Brahmins, and brings to mind the frequent use of water attributed to the Hemero Baptists or disciples of John. It may be mentioned that in some Buddhist countries—Nepal, for instance—the various monkish vows are now taken only for form sake. This makes the letter, retained after the spirit has departed, all the more valuable.

The neophyte having made an offer of scents and unguents (betel-nut, paun, etc.) to his spiritual guide (guru), the latter, after certain formalities, draws four circles in the form of a cross, in honour of the Tri Ratna (trinity), on the ground, and the neophyte, seated in a prescribed position, recites the following text: "I salute Lord Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and entreat them to bestow on me the Pravrajya Vrata." The first and second days of the ceremonial are consumed in prayers and formalities carried on by the guide and his pupil alone. On the second day another mystical cross is drawn on the ground, the Swastica. A pot containing water and other mystic ingredients, a gold lotus, and certain confections and charms, figure in these early rites. At last it is poured on the neophyte's head. This is the baptism.

Previous to this there is a confession of sins and much catechising. The catechumen's name is changed at the baptism, and his head is shaved. A light is lit which reminds one of the f?t?s?? [Greek: phÔtismos] of the early Christians. Besides their baptism, the Essenes and Therapeuts had a mystery (sacramentum), an oblation of bread. Part of this was placed upon the bloodless altar, and part eaten. The Buddhists with their wheat and rice do exactly the same thing.

Two other points remain, the most important of all.

The Buddhists have a Trinity, Buddha or Swayambhu, the Self-Existent, Dharma or PrajnÂ, which is the same word as Philo's Sophia Wisdom. From these two the Father and the Mother have been produced. Sangha, literally Union, the union of matter and spirit, like St. Paul's Christ, Humanity—ideal Humanity.

That a nation so "stiff-necked" as the Jews in the matter of their one God, should have accepted a Trinity, shows certainly a foreign influence.

The second point is stronger still. The Buddhist teachers in Persia and Egypt in days before Christ; in Japan, in IslÂm, during the Middle Ages; in Europe now,—have had and have one method of procedure. They say practically, "Religion as we conceive it has only one lesson—knowledge of God. This is to be acquired not externally through creeds and priests, but internally by the education and purification of the soul. Keep your Bibles if the weaker brethren insist on them, but explain that they are symbols, not history. Keep your prophets, your Moses, your Mahomet, your Zoroaster, and fasten our teaching on him. Keep your hob-goblins and folklore, but give up your bloody altar."

Now, in the view of the Jew, God had made a covenant with Israel, which was to last as long as the sun, the moon, and the stars. In return for the "offerings of the Lord made by fire" (Levit. xxiv. 9) on the temple altar of Jerusalem, Israel was to triumph over its foes and receive every temporal blessing. The advice of the Buddhist was practically that the Jewish half of the bargain was to be broken, but that the Bible, the document containing the contract, was to be retained. A priori could any one have guessed that advice of this sort could be taken?

And yet we see the Essenes "allegorize" the bloody altar out of their Bible, but cling to the document more fondly than ever. The early Christians and Justin and IrenÆus do the same. Scripture for the early Church was the Old Testament.