This might be defined as Greek Taoism!
THE JESUS SUTRAS: AN ANCIENT MESSAGE FOR A POST-MODERNIST FUTURE
by Martin Palmer
MARTIN PALMER
For over 30 years I have been profoundly interested in the faiths, cultures, history and philosophies of ancient China. Most especially, I have been intrigued by that strange phenomenon, ancient Christianity in China. When I mention this deep interest, the most common response is a puzzled look and the question “What ancient Christianity?” Chinese Christianity dates from early in the Seventh Century, but it has been a closely kept secret, both for China and for Christianity. The tradition, as it developed, drew upon not only Christian imagery and philosophy, but also the wisdom of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The texts that survive are few, but fascinating. My colleagues and I, in recent years, entered, through them, the conceptual world of these early Chinese Christians. Most marvelous of all, hidden in plain sight in China’s heart, we discovered the earliest monastery—adorned with the earliest Christian artwork—that still survives.
The Discovery of a Treasure
The place was not far from where, if legend can be believed, Lao Tzu wrote the Dao De Ching. In an incident straight out of a fairytale, it was an aged seller of amulets who was the instrument of revelation. My colleagues and I had come to Lou Guan Tai, the site of the greatest official Daoist temple. I believed that the earliest Christian church in China was located nearby.
West of the main temple, we saw a perilously leaning seven-storey pagoda. We asked an old woman, a vendor of amulets, sitting nearby what religion it represented. “It is Buddhist,” she replied. As we turned away disappointed, she added, “But it wasn’t always Buddhist.”
Our hopes were aroused until she continued, “It used to be Daoist,” she told us. Crestfallen, we again prepared to leave. With impeccable timing, she again prevented us from departing.
It doesn’t really belong to either of them, though,” the old woman confided. “It was built by five monks who came from the West and believed in one God.”
To explore further, we climbed the steep hill into which the site had been cut. We scrambled to the top—and were welcomed by another aged lady, a Buddhist nun who informed us that she was 115 years old.
We searched for proof that the pagoda had once been Christian. No evidence offered itself. Only when I climbed still higher did I discover that we had found what we had sought. Daoist, Confucian, and Buddhist temples, almost without exception, run north-south. This terrace, cut to hold the temple, ran east-west: the cosmic alignment for Christian churches.
Why So Much Noise?
“Why so much noise?” the Buddhist nun asked as I ran down the hill shouting the news. I explained my conviction that we stood on an ancient Christian site, then worried that I had offended her when she drew herself up to her full height of five feet. “Well, of course it is!” she informed us.” This was the greatest Christian monastery in China. We all know that!”
We were told that local people remembered the five monks who had come from the West and the building that they had made. Memory lost to the wider world for over a millennium had persisted here.
We were saying our farewells when the old nun turned to me. “You want to pray, don’t you?” she asked. “Go ahead, then. They will all hear you.”
I prayed on ground sanctified by Christian and Buddhist supplications. We know only a little about how they prayed, these spiritual ancestors of China. One Tang Dynasty painting shows Christians with hands raised in simple devotion. Another shows a saint—or perhaps Jesus himself—in the Buddhist mudra (pose) associated with teaching. I know how I prayed that day. I prayed weeping.
The Chinese Madonna
Discoveries followed, once excavation had begun. Within the center of the mountain was a cave, and in the cave was the lower portion of a statue. The design of the mountain and the cave were classical Chinese. The figure was not.
The Orthodox Church bases its representations of Christ’s birth on the Book of James, which recounts that Mary gave birth alone, in a mountain cave. The figure in the cave echoed thousands of Orthodox depictions of the Nativity. A woman, semi-reclining, gazes at the child she holds. She is Mary. Outlined in the dirt was the shape of a child. The earliest known Christian statue in China was composed of Orthodox iconography surrounded by Chinese art. The second statue seems to represent a favorite prophet of the Church of the East, Jonah.
Architecturally and historically, these were important discoveries. Even more important, perhaps, is the spiritual discovery of The Jesus Sutras.
The Jesus Sutras
On its publication, my book translating these Sutras aroused great interest. The Christianity revealed in the texts emerges in a form unknown to most of us. In showing what the past has been, these writings suggested what the future could be. An ancient faith revealed a way of believing ideal for those who live today.
My colleagues and I found classics brought to China by the first official Church mission in 635 CE, texts not extant only in Chinese. We found Persian books retelling the life of Jesus; documents from the Subcontinent exploring the fusion of Greek and Indian Buddhist traditions; evidence of religious dialogue among Christians and Hindus and Jains; even a fragment of a text from the ancient Church of Tibet. The insight into Greek, Persian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist and shamanic cultures was remarkable. So was the ability of the Church to fuse Christian teachings and images with wisdom and symbolism from other traditions...
http://www.sevenpillarshouse.org/article/the_jesus_sutras_an_ancient_message_for_a_post_modernist_future/
Topic: Greek Buddhism