Small Universe

Among scholars who study the "historical Jesus," there seem to be two views. Bart Ehrman calls Jesus an "Apocalyptic prophet" who expected the imminent end of history. Earthly, human kingdoms and empires would be no more, and God's imperial rule would commence, and this would happen real soon now. You have to search no farther than your television to find people still expecting it!

John Dominic Crossan, however, argues for a sapiential kingdom of God, in which "the Kingdom of God is within you." According to this view, the kingdom is similar to the Buddhist nirvana. According to a Zen saying, "Nirvana is Samsara fully realized; Samsara is Nirvana rightly understood."

Now what interests me is that two such scholars and historians as Ehrman and Crossan could come to such diametrically opposite conclusions. Maybe Christianity and the teachings of Jesus are susceptible of both interpretations, like the trick drawing that is either of a young or an old woman, depending on how you look at it.

Even if Jesus did not expect the imminent end of history, Paul and other early Christians did. This is confirmed by scholarly criteria such as multiple attestation. But later new testament texts, as well as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, downplay the imminent aspect of the kingdom. Maybe early Christians got tired of waiting and turned to ideas from hellenistic and Jewish mysticism, hence Gnosticism.

So a task for further research: the extent to which ideas from the East, like the Hellenistic Indo-Greek and Greco-Buddhist kingdoms influenced early Christianity. The last Indo-Greek Kingdom was overturned in 10 a.d. It is quite possible that Buddhist missionaries scattered along the Silk Road to Antioch and Sephoris, where early Christians would easily have come in contact with them.

Sustained single-minded focus is what works.

From Wikipedia:

"Hesychastic practice involves acquiring an inner stillness and ignoring the physical senses. In this, Hesychasm shows its roots in Evagrius Pontikos and even in the Greek tradition of asceticism going back to Plato. The Hesychast interprets Christ's injunction in the Gospel of Matthew to "go into your closet to pray", to mean that he should ignore the senses and withdraw inward. St John of Sinai writes: "Hesychasm is the enclosing of the bodiless mind (nous) in the bodily house of the body." (Ladder, Step 27, 5, (Step 27, 6 in the Holy Transfiguration edition).)"

"While he maintains his practice of the Jesus Prayer, which becomes automatic and continues twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the Hesychast cultivates sobriety (Gr. nepsis). Sobriety is the mental ascesis described above that rejects the tempting thoughts; it puts a great emphasis on focus and attention. The Hesychast is to pay extreme attention to the consciousness of his inner world and to the words of the Jesus Prayer, not letting his mind wander in any way at all."

"The goal at this stage is a practice of the Jesus Prayer with the mind in the heart, which practice is free of images (see Pros Theodoulon). What this means is that by the exercise of sobriety (the mental ascesis against tempting thoughts), the Hesychast arrives at a continual practice of the Jesus Prayer with his mind in his heart and where his consciousness is no longer encumbered by the spontaneous inception of images: his mind has a certain stillness and emptiness that is punctuated only by the eternal repetition of the Jesus Prayer."

This practice of the Eastern Orthodox Church is very similar to the Pure Land Buddhist practice.

"Some Pure Land Buddhists have taught that in order for a devotee to be reborn in Amitabha's Western Paradise or Western Pureland, they should chant or repeat a mantra or prayer to Amitabha as often as possible to reinforce a proper and sincere state of mind"

Maybe consciousness and life are fields that pervade all of space. Maybe there is a sense in which the universe is both large and small, as claimed by both string theory (see t-duality) and Zen Buddhism.

For Dante, God is a single point such that: "every where is here and every when is now."

Divine Comedy, Canto XXIX, Paradiso, Beatrice speaking:

"I tell, not ask, that which thou fain wouldst hear: for I have seen it where every where and every when is focused."

The Metamorphoses of the Circle Georges Poulet

Les Metamorphose du cercle, Paris, Plon, 1961 in Dante: A collection of Critical Essays edited by John Freccero
Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1965

"A cui tutti li tempi son presenti, ove s'appunta ogni Ubi ed ogni Quando"
Paradiso, XXIX, 12
("A point at which all times are present, to which all When and all Where are focused.")
page 153

"In Dante's poetry, exactly as in Neo-Platonic thought, God is a Point that infinitely enlarges Itself, a radiating seat of energy which diffuses Itself concentrically, universally"
page 156

" 'In divine things,' says Eckhart, 'everything is in everything else and the maximum is in the minimum.' "
page 158

"God is a point, because He is a center, not only of the universe, but of the soul. The synderesis, l'apex mentis, the Seelengrund, the Funkelein, all these expressions profusely employed by the mystics, signify that the maximum is in the minimum, the infinity of the divine sphere is in the infinite minuteness of the center, and that this center is indeed that of the soul."
page 159

"There is no trait more characteristic of the baroque imagination than this intercrossing movement by which the immensity of the universe becomes a toy in the hands of a child, while the smallness of the child becomes the immensity of a God Who embraces the world."
page 164

"It is man, who, equally with God, discovers himself to be center and infinite sphere. Even more, it is every moment, every place where man finds himself, that constitutes itself as the ever-renewed center of this infinite sphericity; for every place and every moment offer to man a new point of view."
page 169

Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism)

"The infinite created a void within its boundless existence by contracting itself into a primordial point. It went from unbounded infinity to unbounded finity... The being of Eyn Sof is thus infinitely shrunken into a point that has an edge and boundary. This is what modern physics calls a singularity."

From The Mystic Quest: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism, David S. Ariel, p. 166.

Dogen, 12th Century Japanese Zen Master

"If one directly illumines the true awakening that is not a dream, then one will see that the universe is not large and an atom is not small. Since neither is real, on what can a statement be based?"

Rumi, 13th Century Sufi Poet

"Hark, for I am at the door! Open the door; to bar the door is not the sign of good pleasure.
In the heart of every atom is a courtyard for You; until You unbar it, it will remain in concealment."

Mystical Poems of Rumi 1, A. J. Arbery 1968 University of Chicago Press, page 30

Jnaneshwar, 13th Century Hindu Mystic

"How sweet is their love!
The entire universe is too small to contain them,
Yet they live happily in the tiniest particle."

Teachings of the Hindu Mystics, Andrew Harvey, 2001, Shambhala, page 70

Surangama Sutra in "The Buddhist Bible"

"But I concentrate my mind so as to ignore all these contaminations and return to the mysterious, enlightening nature of non-death and non-rebirth so as to be in conformity with the Womb of Tathagata. Accordingly the Tathagata's Womb becomes the clear intelligence of the true and mysterious Mind of Intuition that throws its perfect reflection and insight into all the phenomenal world. Therefore, in Tathagata's Womb Oneness has the same meaning as Infinity, and Infinity has the same meaning as Oneness, the minimum is embraced in the maximum and the maximum in the minimum. The tranquility and peacefulness of my concentration of mind in Samadhi prevails all over the ten quarters of the universes, my body embraces the vast spaces of the ten quarters, and even within a single pore of my skin there is a Buddha-land with a Buddha sitting on a seat no larger than a particle of dust, absorbed in Samadhi, but endlessly radiating there from all the forces of Life-giving Truth and ceaselessly drawing inward into its perfect unity all of its multitudinous manifestations. Since I have ignored and forgotten all worldly objects, I have fully realized the mysterious, enlightening Nature of the Pure Essence of Mind." page 189

The Flower Ornament Scripture

"On a hair tip more buddhas than grains of sand in trillions of anges rivers peaceful, peerless, teach the pure doctrine, preeminent, supreme. In a single pore are infinite lands, each with four continents and seas, As well as polar and peripheral mountains, all seen therein, uncrowded. On a point the size of a hair tip are all realms of being - Ghosts, beasts, fiends, humans and gods, goblins and serpents, experiencing the various realms of action. In all the spheres of the lands the supreme wheel of the Purifiers is turned, As the buddhas teach while adapting to the minds and thoughts of beings. In the body of each being are various lands, in the lands, beings; Those of higher development are humans and celestials - Knowing them in their variety, the Buddha teaches them. A great land comes to seem to be minute, a mote of dust comes to seem huge - These and more are the spiritual powers of Buddha, of which all beings could not exhaustively tell." page 764

The Flower Ornament Scripture: A translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra;
Translated by Thomas Cleary; Shambhala, Boston 1993

I'd been sitting in Zazen for about a year when I remembered my father's question about my various enthusiasms: "but is it practical?" (Never mind that my interest in Philosophy, Logic and Math led eventually to a career in programming.) So I started thinking about what could be a practical application for Zen. That was a tough one. It would have to be something that required staying still. Then it struck me. Figure modeling! Of course! I called various art schools in the area and asked who were the life class instructors. At first I had a tough time saying what I wanted, but the receptionist guessed and gave me the numbers of several instructors. So I called and basically said I wanted to get naked for them and their class!. After about a month, one of the scheduled models couldn't make it and I got my chance. Soon I got used to it, the concentration and focus required seemed very similar to my state of concentration during Zazen. And they paid me for it.

Once, I noticed this passage from "Crooked Cucumber, The Life and Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki" by David Chadwick:

"P. had transcendent experiences both playing football and painting, but it was modeling for other artists that first gave him the calm, subtle state of mind that led to his interest in meditation. Everyone in life drawing class at the San Francisco Art Institute wanted to draw his big, muscular body. It exploded with energy, and when he modeled, he found his energy becoming focused in stillness rather than in the fierceness of combat sport. He felt at home in that state of mind. It wasn't fixed, it flowed, and it was devoid of the complication of social life." page 192

Answers to some frequently asked questions about modeling:

Q: I've often thought about it, but how do I get started?


A: Find out where in your area "life classes" are held. Look under "Art" in the Yellow Pages. Call universities, colleges, community colleges, art associations, art schools, schools of design. Say you want to model and ask for the life class instructors. Be polite but persistent. Be honest when asked if you have experience. It takes a while to get started. You may first get your chance to pose clothed for a portrait class, or asked on short notice to model for a life class because the scheduled model couldn't make it. That's how you get experience.

Q: How much does it pay?


A: Don't quit your day job. I get between 8 and 15 dollars an hour for a 2 1/2 hour class. The most I've heard of is $30.00 an hour.

Q: What if I'm too thin/fat/tall/short/medium/old/young?


A: Everyone is insecure about their body. This is a way to get over that. You can be too young. I think the minimum age is 18, but that may vary by area. Other than that, if you can hold a pose well, you're perfect. ALL body types are needed (and appreciated). One cannot be too fat, thin, etc. Just make the pose interesting. You need to learn different types of poses other than straight sitting, standing or lying down that you can hold for the alloted time. You can easily learn these so do not worry. If the artists accept your body well enough to draw it, why can't you? They want to draw what's there. Besides, it's fun being the center of attention.

Q: How do I prepare?


A: It's a natural progression for naturists to try modeling. Also dancers...they bring in lots of poses and are very flexible. I've heard acting students do well too.

Try staying still for a few minutes, then gradually increasing the time up to 20 minutes. A meditation practice such as Zazen helps. Zazen (Zen Buddhist meditation) is great training for life models. Also, I've been told yoga and any physical training are good preparation. Go to the library and get books on classic art, figure drawing, nude photography, and dance. You can sometimes use or adapt poses from them.

Q: What should I wear?


A: This question is not as dumb as it sounds. Bring a robe with you and put it on after removing your street clothes. When the instructor indicates he/she is ready to start, take it off. Put it on during breaks and when the class ends. You may also want to bring with you a single sheet and a bath towel to sit, stand or lie on ( sometimes you need to sit on a metal stool and they're cold!) Also, some favorite music to play in class may be allowed. Also, bring in some props such as a pole, hat, tennis racket, etc. to pose with. Carbon from the students pencils is all over the floor and usually the soles of my feet are black by the time class is over. You may want to bring a few moist towelettes to clean your feet with, or wear a pair of easily removed sandals or flip-flops and take them off with the robe.

Q: How should I conduct myself?


A: A good model doesn't talk and stays still. Be friendly and wait for breaks to chat. Don't undress in front of the class.


Q: Then where should I undress?

Usually there's a restroom or a screen nearby where you can undress and don your robe and sandals.

Q: What is a typical class like?


A: Some instructors have the model do do two minute poses for gesture drawings the whole class. One had me keep the same pose for three 2 1/2 hour classes in a row. But usually, the class starts with 5 2 minute poses, then increasing up to 20 minutes each till the class ends. You may be asked to work with another model, either male or female. Make sure that you are comfortable working nude first before you try this. You can learn from the other model.

Meditation is an experience. It's an adventure. It's fun. If you ask, "Why meditate?" it's difficult to answer. Just do it, and you'll know. Well then, how to meditate, you may ask.

Instructions are easy to find. A quiet place, a cushion and a mat; a chair. Meditation is a skill, the practice of stilling the mind in order to know Mind. Set aside 5 or 10 minutes a day. Make it a habit. Not a duty; just something you owe yourself. Stretch first (yoga helps.) If sitting in the lotus or half lotus posture, don't get up abruptly. Just let the circulation come back.

As thoughts arise, examine them and let them go.

There may be anxiety. The false self panics as it fades away. Stillness grows. A paradox: The still mind is not unconscious. Silence Bliss, peace. come and go.

There are stages of meditation - called in the literature four jhanas and four trances.

First Jhana: Bliss and thought together

Thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion.

Second Jhana: Bliss without thought

Internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration. (But don't get attached, or you'll get stuck here and miss what follows!)

Third Jhana: fading away of rapture

Passing away of joy and displeasure, dwelling equanimous and mindful and clearly comprehending, happiness with the body.

Fourth Jhana: Abandoning of pleasure and pain

Neither painful nor pleasant, and includes the purification of mindfulness by equanimity.

The four stages of meditation or "trances" that follow the fourth Jhana are where we really get down to business.

First trance: Infinite space

Second Trance: Infinite consciousness

Third Trance: Emptiness

Fourth Trance: Neither perception nor non-perception.

But notice that the third and fourth stages are not the end of practice, just the beginning!

This will come as no shock to those of us who remember the sixties and experimenting with exotic substances!

Using unusually rigorous scientific conditions and measures, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the active agent in "sacred mushrooms" can induce mystical/spiritual experiences descriptively identical to spontaneous ones people have reported for centuries.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=47094

Krishnamurti was "discovered" by C.W. Leadbeater of the Theosophical Society and hailed as Maitrea, the next great teacher of humanity. In 1925, they expected him to walk on water all the way to Sydney, Austrailia. He didn't. Instead, he disbanded "The Order of the Star," an organization he was to lead as Maitrea. Instead, he spent the rest of his life like Socrates, asking questions.

"Truth is a pathless land. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection."

"So, the questioner wants to know why it is that he cannot go beyond all these superficial wrangles of the mind. For the simple reason that, consciously or unconsciously, the mind is always seeking something, and that very search brings violence, competition, the sense of utter dissatisfaction. It is only when the mind is completely still that there is a possibility of touching the deep waters."

So, ironically, maybe he did turn out to be a great teacher of mankind, just not the way they expected in the Theosophical Society.

In studying Buddhist literature, I have often been struck by ideas and phrases that seem similar in Mahayana Buddhism and Christianity. (I provide some examples below.)

I sometimes see references to "Indian Fakirs," "Gymnosophists" and missionaries from emperor Ashoka living in Alexandria in centuries immediately preceding the common era. My question is, to what extent can it be documented, and do we know any details? Were there Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, maybe all three? Others? It's possible, though, that both Mahayana and Christianity had a common influence, Zoroastrianism. In fact, Zorastrianism had influence on both predecessor religions, Judaism and Hinduism.

The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra, Thomas Cleary, Shambhala, 1993 (composed in in the first century c.e. in an area of India that was culturally Greek.)

"When great enlightening beings see sentient beings in prisons or dungeons, dark and dim, shackled and chained, unable to rise or sit in comfort, assailed by myriad pains, without relatives or friends, without refuge or salvation, naked, hungry, emaciated, suffering unbearable torture, the enlightening beings, having seen this, give what they have, all their wealth, their spouses, children, and households, and even their own bodies, to rescue those creatures in prison." Page 587

"Great enlightening beings give their bodies to those who come ask for them; when they give, they engender a humble mind, a mind like the earth, a mind enduring all suffering without changing or wavering." Page 608

"Great enlightening beings also form this thought: 'for the sake of even one sentient being... I would cause countless worlds to be filled with my own body, arousing the will for enlightenment, to be used for giving; ... I would cause countless worlds to be filled with my body's blood, flesh, bones and marrow..." (Pages 628 - 629.)

"They also induce sentient beings to cultivate themselves, accepting suffering for the sake of all conscious creatures." Page 633

John the Baptist preached "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Or did he? the Greek work usually translated in the New Testament as repent is μετάνοια or metanoia.

But:

"Metanoia is therefore primarily an after-thought, different from the former thought; a change of mind accompanied by regret and change of conduct, "change of mind and heart", or, "change of consciousness." (Wikipedia article "Repent.")

And if "meta" means after, that makes it much closer to meditation, "after or beyond thinking" i.e. focusing and stilling the mind. Also, the Greek work for sin, ἁμαρτία or harmatia, means something closer to "an arrow missing it's mark" rather than regret.

Maybe the intended meaning is something like: "To reach the kingdom, stop missing the mark by meditating. For the kingdom is within you."

In fact, the Eastern Orthodox practice of Hesychasm is very close to the practice, very common in Eastern religions, of stopping and focusing the mind on a single thing or point, such as a koan, sound ( aum, for example) or name of Buddha (Ahmitaba in Pure Land sects.)

The Millennial cults and movements of the Middle Ages in Europe described by Norman Cohn in his book "The Pursuit of the Millenium" are very similar to the "Ghost Dance" movements among so-called primitive peoples in the modern world by Weston LaBarre in his book, "The Ghost Dance." The "Brethren of the Free Spirit" was one such movement that along with their clothes seems to have chucked off all moral restraint as well. The trouble was that in their state of "innocence" they imagined they could steal, rape and murder without sin. See Cohn's book for more details.

"In this context the Adam-cult which is frequently found amongst the adepts of the Free Spirit becomes perfectly comprehensible. One can probably discount the chroniclers' claim that this cult involved communal sexual orgies. From the days of the early Church onwards such tales have been told for the purpose of discrediting minority groups and there is nothing in the extant documents to suggest that even when told of adepts of the Free Spirit they were justified. On the other hand the adepts did at times practice ritual nakedness, just as they did at times indulge in sexual promiscuity; and there is no doubt that in both cases they were asserting - as one inquisitor put it - that they were restored to the state of innocence which had existed before the Fall. That acute commentator Charlier de Gerson saw the connection perfectly clearly. He noted that the 'Turlupins' were often naked together, saying that one ought not to blush at anything that was natural. To be naked and unashamed, like Adam and Eve, they regarded as an essential part of the state of perfection on earth; and they called this 'the state of innocence.'" p. 180

"...For the rest, these Adamites are said - just like the adepts of the Free Spirit - to have lived in a state of community so unconditional that not only did nobody possess anything of his own but that exclusive marriage was regarded as a sin. Whereas the Taborites in general were strictly monogamous, in this sect free love seems to have been the rule. On the strength of Christ's remark about harlots and publicans, the Adamites declared that the chaste were unworthy to enter their messianic Kingdom. On the other hand no couple could have sexual intercourse without the consent of 'Adam-Moses', who would bless them saying: 'Go, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.' The sect was much given to naked ritual dances held around a fire and accompanied by hymn-singing. Indeed, these people seem to have spent much of their time naked, ignoring heat and cold and claiming to be in the state of innocence enjoyed by Adam and Eve before the fall." p. 220

From "The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages" by Norman Cohn; Oxford University Press New York 1970

Could Indian religion, in particular Buddhism, have influenced Christianity? Certainly it's possible. Consider that from the Northeast Mediterranean to India, Athens to New Delhi for example, the distance is roughly 3,200 miles. Allowing for rest stops, sea and river crossings, steep terrain and detours, walking only 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, that distance could be covered in less than a year.

Travel along the Silk Road, as well as sea routes to India, were well established in the centuries before Christ. And Christianity had spread to India, possibly by the Apostle Thomas himself, by the end of the 2nd, if not first century A.D. Also, Christianity was in China by 641 A.D.

And so, after Buddha (d. approximately 483 b.c.) there was plenty of time for Buddhist, as well as Vedic and Jain ideas to influence Christianity.


From Wikipedia entry on Greco-Buddhism

The Mauryan Empire (322–183 BCE)

The Indian emperor Chandragupta, founder of the Mauryan dynasty, re-conquered around 322 BCE the northwest Indian territory that had been lost to Alexander the Great. However, contacts were kept with his Greek neighbours in the Seleucid Empire, Chandragupta received the daughter of the Seleucid king Seleucus I after a peace treaty, and several Greeks, such as the historian Megasthenes, who resided at the Mauryan court.

Consider this quote from Megasthenes lost book on India, written almost three hundred years before the Gospel of John.

FRAGM. LIV

Pseudo-Orign, Philosoph. 24, ed. Delarue, Paris,
1733, vol. I. p. 904.

Of the Brahmans and their Philosophy
(Cf. Fragm. Xli, xliv, xlv.)

"Of the Brachhmans in India. There is among the Brachhmans in India a sect of philosophers who adopt an independent life, and abstain from animal food and all victuals cooked by fire, being content to subsist upon fruits, which they do not so much as gather from the trees, but pick up when they have dropped to the ground, and their drink is the water of the river Tagabena. Throughout life they go about naked, saying that the body has been given by the Deity as a covering for the soul. They hold that God is light, but not such light as we see with the eye, nor such as the sun or fire, but God is with them the Word,--by which term they do not mean articulate speech, but the discourse of reason, whereby the hidden mysteries of knowledge are discerned by the wise. This light, however, which they call the Word, and think to be God, is, they say, known only by the Brachhmans themselves, because they alone have discarded vanity, which is the outermost covering of the soul. The members of this sect regard death with contemptuous indifference, and, as we have seen already, they always pronounce the name of the Deity with a tone of peculiar reverence, and adore him with hymns. They neither have wives nor beget children. Persons who desire to lead a life like theirs cross over from the other side of the river, and remain with them for good, never returning to their own country. These also are called Brachhmans, although they do not follow the same mode of life, for there are women in the country, from whom the native inhabitants are sprung, and of these women they beget offspring. With regard to the Word, which they call God, they hold that it is corporeal, and that it wears the body as its external covering, just as one wears the woollen surcoat, and that when it divests itself of the body with which it is enwrapped it becomes manifest to the eye. There is war, the Brachhmans hold, in the body where with they are clothed, and they regard the body as being the fruitful source of wars, and, as we have already shown, fight against it like soldiers in battle contending against the enemy. They maintain, moreover, that all men are held in bondage, like prisoners of war, to their own innate enemies, the sensual appetites, gluttony, anger, joy, grief, longing desire, and such like, while it is only the man who has triumphed over these enemies who goes to God. Dandamis accordingly, to whom Alexander the Makedonian paid a visit, is spoken of by the Brachhmans as a god because he conquered in the warfare against the body, and on the other hand they condemn Kalanos as one who had impiously apostatized from their philosophy. The Brachhmans, therefore, when the have shuffled off the body, see the pure sunlight as fish see it, when they spring up out of the water into the air."