The inner Silk Road view

I discussed briefly the view of history and the way of looking at the world that I’m calling the Silk Road vision. That’s part of what I would call the external aspect of the silk road view. There is a more internal aspect of this vision, the spiritual vision of the silk road world. Throughout the ages many societies have interacted and contributed their best ideas to the cultures along this network. Since ancient times this has been the case, and every culture along this route has been affected by this dialogue.

In ancient times the Western Christian tradition was also clearly affected by this tradition.

Many parts of the Christian tradition have their roots in Classical Greek and Roman philosophy. The clearest connection is between Neo-Platonism and early Christian philosophy, particularly through St. Augustine as well as Origen and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism_and_Christianity) The Neo-Platonic tradition is a vast one, but so much of it was absorbed into early western Christian thought that it would be impossible to remove it. From Plotinus to Iamblichus, Neo-Platonism sits at Christianity’s very foundation.

Neo-Platonism was developed in the Hellenic world and then continued into the Roman world. It originated as a unique school under Plotinus, a great philosopher who was born in Egypt and was educated in Alexandria, the great home of western learning at that time. Alexandria was a miraculous place of learning, where people from across the world came to exchange ideas and to teach. Nobody is quite sure how he got his ideas, but theories exist that eastern Buddhists were teaching there. Plotinus himself attempted to travel to India but was unable to complete the trip due to a war. Alexander the Great, a student of Aristotle had himself travelled to India and set up a Greek settlement on its borders.

Neo-Platonism has a lot of stand out aspects, but some of its most interesting features are non-dualism, theurgy, and meditation exercises. Some of the exercises described by Plotinus seem to be strikingly similar to Eastern mandala practices, while other aspects seem strikingly similar to Zen type practices. The later neo-platonic teachings of Iamblichus are strikingly similar to the eastern tantric teachings. The teachings of Sextus Empiricus bear a striking similarity to Nagarjuna, the great Buddhist teacher of Emptiness philosophy. (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/N%C4%81g%C4%81rjuna%E2%80%99s_Emptiness_and_Pyrrho%E2%80%99s_Skepticism,_by_Anthony_Peter_Iannini)

The teachings themselves are very similar to their Eastern counterparts, and were integrated into Western spiritual traditions in similar ways. How did these teachings, emerging at almost the exact same time as the same teachings emerged in the East come to be so alike. The two traditions are so similar as to even use the same metaphor to illustrate the same point. A metaphor about confusing a snake and a rope is used to illustrate how beliefs can be wrong. It first appears in De Elocutione circa 270 BC in Greece, but the exact same metaphor to illustrate the very same point is used by Nagarjuna (Thomas McEvilley, The Shape of Ancient Thought, pp 498-499) in the third century CE to illustrate his emptiness philosophy.

What is illustrated by this simple example is that ideas traveled from the Mediterranean all the way into southern India because of the interconnection of these worlds. This also reminds us that these two seemingly distant societies were learning from each other, and this never hasn’t happened. In later centuries Neoplatonism was not only a development in the West. The same idea complex developed in the East. Did these ideas originate in the East and move west or vice-versa? Almost definitely it was a two -way street. The formal emptiness philosophy appears to have been developed in Greece so that idea probably moved east, but later ideas probably moved west. The reality is that the entire region from Africa to China and India was a network. Ideas were shared, and, inwardly, extremely similar integrations of these ideas developed out of this sharing process. The resultant local cultural product would have been different, taking on local form, but the roots would be common. (http://home.earthlink.net/~drmljg/id17.html)

The general flavor of the teachings of this network of schools is very similar. There is an emphasis on directly experiencing the True Nature of Reality, and this is unified with acting in Selfless Virtuous Service to Others. The teaching that the ultimate Nature is Empty, lacking a fixed quality, formless and without describable properties, is a common thread in all these teachings. The teaching of Non-Dualism, or the purity and non-separation of the spiritual and superficial material world, is a common them in these traditions. The integration of one’s spiritual and material natures are a common part of these traditions.

This is true in Sufism; in Mahayana Buddhism (in the various Tantric schools of Buddhism this is called the union of Wisdom and Compassion); Taoism (Tao and Te); some strains of Hindusim (schools connected to Advaita and Tantra); and Eastern and Chinese Christianities as well. The Classical Greeks had a similar teaching as well. In his cave allegory Plato described that a philosopher, once he has realized the truth if living in darkness in the cave, would return to help others still lost in darkness: “In the Republic Plato states “When the philosopher has managed to turn his eyes away from the “mock-show” of shadows on the wall of the cave of ignorance, has cleansed and turned his wisdom-eye and has attained the vision of the Good, he must not “linger there” on the presence of the Real and refuse to go down again among the bondsmen in the cave; rather, for the good of the human endeavor as a whole, “down they must go again, each in his turn….[to places] ruled darkly as in a dream by men who fight one another for the shadows.”” (Mcevilley, pp168-169)

To achieve this union with one’s True Nature there are meditation methods. Faith is part of these various schools but it is not a blind faith. Intellectual study also plays an important role as part of the refinement process, but is only as a temporary supportive role. The goal is not intellectual, but the intellect needs refining before it can be transcended in formlessness. The intellect is also necessary when one reengages with the world as the world is built from the mind in every teaching.

Another common teaching of the schools of thought of the silk road world is that all religions are valid but different paths to God or our True Nature. There is a universalism to the understandings of these schools. Even in Islam this has been the case (http://aljamiah.or.id/index.php/AJIS/article/viewFile/149/69). They may say they believe that theirs is the best approach and has the greatest wisdom, but they do not deny the validity of the other traditions and so they are able to peacefully coexist to some extent. They have also been able to learn from each other and many ideas have been exchanged throughout history. (https://www.academia.edu/7714662/Quest_for_Selflessness_Tracing_the_Influence_of_Buddhism_in_Development_of_Sufism_in_Persia)

So, instead of a faith and fear-based theology, Silk Road spiritual traditions tend toward using various spiritual practices to achieve a direct experience of one’s own Nature and then acting in service to the world. The focus is not on either intellectualism or blind faith. There is a non-dual integration of one’s own spiritual center with one’s external world. The teachings tend to emphasize the purity of the physical world once one has achieved this realization. The tend toward syncretism with other traditions and toward peaceful coexistence with these other traditions.

Even today the seed of this tradition continue in Central Asia, even in the Islamic world. (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/opinion/moderate-islam-look-to-central-asia.html)

In ancient times the Western Christian tradition was also clearly affected by this tradition.

Neo-Platonism was developed in the Hellenic world and then continued into the Roman world. It originated as a unique school under Plotinus, a great philosopher who was born in Egypt and was educated in Alexandria, the great home of western learning at that time. Alexandria was a miraculous place of learning, where people from across the world came to exchange ideas and to teach. Nobody is quite sure how he got his ideas, but theories exist that eastern Buddhists were teaching there. Plotinus himself attempted to travel to India by joining a military campaign to the East but this campaign was unsuccesful. Alexander the Great, a student of Aristotle had himself travelled to India and set up a Greek settlement on its borders.

The teachings themselves are very similar to their Eastern counterparts, and were integrated into Western spiritual traditions in similar ways. How did these teachings, emerging at almost the exact same time as the same teachings emerged in the East come to be so similar? The skeptical school has older roots in Greece than Sextus, but the two are so similar as to even use the same metaphor to illustrate the same point. A metaphor about confusing a snake and a rope is used to illustrate how beliefs can be wrong. It first appears in De Elocutione circa 270 BC in Greece, but the exact same metaphor to illustrate the very same point is used by Nagarjuna (Thomas McEvilley, The Shape of Ancient Thought, pp 498-499) in the third century CE to illustrate his emptiness philosophy.

The general flavor of the teachings of this network of schools is very similar. There is an emphasis on directly experiencing the True Nature of Reality, and this is unified with acting in selfless virtuous service to Others. The teaching that the ultimate Nature is Empty, lacking a fixed quality, formless and without describable properties, is a common thread in all these teachings. The teaching of Non-Dualism, or the purity and non-separation of the spiritual and superficial material world, is a common them in these traditions. The integration of one’s spiritual and material natures are a common part of these traditions.

To achieve this union with one’s True Nature there are meditation methods. Faith is part of these various schools but it is not a blind faith.

So, instead of a faith and fear-based theology, Silk Road spiritual traditions tend toward using various spiritual practices to achieve a direct experience of one’s own Nature and then acting in service to the world. The focus is not on either intellectualism or blind faith. There is a non-dual integration of one’s own spiritual center with one’s external world. The teachings tend to emphasize the purity of the physical world once one has achieved this realization. They tend toward syncretism with other traditions and toward peaceful coexistence with these other traditions.

Even today this tradition continues in Central Asia, even in the Islamic world. (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/27/opinion/moderate-islam-look-to-central-asia.html)