Wednesday, June 13, 2018

The Secret History of the Buddhist Christ


IsIs Evocation for the Western Medical Practitioner and Baseball Hero


The Patron Saint of Athletes and Heroes; Saint Hercules (1), Labored against great odds to receive spiritual absolution. Today he iz the reason for world unity via the Olympic Games, but is also a piece in the puzzle of global terrorist ideology. Our digital world is much more connected than the times of the ancient world, but not that much more than we might believe. Busy trade routes and educational exchange existed between the far East and Egypt since the beginning of recorded history. Ancient Central Asian Kings corresponded with Kings from Greece and Pharaohs in Egypt on a regular basis centuries before the Roman Empire. Much of those exchanges were lost with the burning of the libraries of Alexandria. What was left is being threatened today by international terrorism and their war on polytheism and religious accordance between the East and West.


What has survived those fires did so by the Greeks such as the Gnostics, so called “radical Christians” and Mahayana Buddhism. The record of those exchanges formed what would become western religion and thought for the next two thousand years as many historians have noted the the early church fathers recorded the influence of Buddha on the Greeks that would go on to form the first Christian churches and sects, and eventually embody the Eastern Orthodox Church.


What left of those artistic and cultural exchanges are being destroyed by groups like Isis, the Taliban and Al Qaeda, in covert war against the Eastern Orthodox Church, the spiritual body of the Roman Catholic Church. Much of the press and publicity for this destruction relies on the idea that these fundamentalists groups are not only destroying art history, but also that they are selling priceless art from the Sumerian and Central Asian civilization that are thousands of years old, creating a blackmarket for antiquity.





Herkules the Man the, the Myth, the Meme





A baby named Alcaeus (Alcide in French and Italian) who would be known to history as Hercules was born to a princess named, Alcmene as the child of Zeus, on October 31st 1276 BCE towards the end of the Neolithic Stone Age. Alcide was the great grandson of Perseus and even more ancient fertile crescent hero, but there seems to be entwined in this legacy an older, prehistoric story. One facet of the legend that the early Greeks adhered to was the phenotype, a physical trait of hercules; he had red hair as did the Druid semites in the fertile crescent (3), this is supported by Disney’s depiction(4) of the classic hero despite getting one major facet wrong.


In the film Hercules is beset by a jealous uncle in Hades. But, this seems to be because a Disney prince must only be antagonized by an Uncle while a Princess is allowed a wicked stepmother. Hercules was pursued and tortured by Hera the Queen of the gods and the wife of Zeus, his step-mother. This is the major distinction between the Greek and Roman versions of the Hero and his treatment by society and pop culture.


This reddish hair is important in that it links Hercules with the description of other wildman superheroes of the ancient world such as Enkidu from Sumerian legend who was created by the cosmic goddess Aruru to humble the more cultured, but arrogant and cruel warrior-king of the ancient Sumerian renown, Gilgamesh. Enkidu was granted immortality amongst the gods for his heroism on earth, despite being a caveman who once lived amongst the animals.


It also links him with other prehistoric strongmen like red haired Goliath from the Bible and Aboriginal American legends about twelve foot strongmen who roamed the midwest plains and had long untamed red hair. The mummified remains of these giants have been discovered in 1868 and news papers published articles complete with photos, before the bodies and relics were removed by a clandestine government entity. Are these characteristics actual genetic qualities linking individuals across oceans and centuries or are these cultural qualities that oral storytelling traditions of the prehistoric era saved in meme form?


This redhead-giant quality is preserved in modern stories like DC Comics best selling series Seven Soldiers by Scottish writer Grant Morrison.(8) Morrison explained during an interview with Rolling Stone that he wanted to preserve his people's Celtic myths and legends when he refined the world's first superhero; Aurakles as a red haired caveman from the fertile crescent and Near East, who had been genetically enhanced by cosmic gods.


In the comics, the New Gods; a pantheon of superhero gods who were manifest after the death of the old gods, captured a caveman and engineered him into a warrior king who predated ancient societies, Atlantis and Lemuria. Aurakles was tasked with bringing order to chaos and was given seven magical items a few being; caliburn exCalibur and Merlin a being made of living language that could bend reality. Here the author is stating a lineage claim between Aurakles and the fabled King Arthur, another Celtic not Anglo myth. Morrison was explicit about generating an updated meme for the mythic character Herkules from his peoples myth and history. Morrison also noted that the hero’s name, Aurakles means “light conquers”(13), the hero having successfully transmuted a sour gift from Hera into a process that produces the light of Reason.


Part of the stories complex plotline involves Aurakles being captured by evil spider-beings from the future. These beings called the Sheena are an evil and twisted version of Celtic fairies or fae who are very different from Disney’s Tinkerbell. In Seven Soldiers, they have attacked modern day New York, and with Aurakles imprisoned centuries before, evil and suffering plorefiate on Earth. It’s not until the New God; Mr. Miracle, DC’s Christ-like redeemer character, frees Aurakles by sacrificing his freedom and morality that the ancient hero is once again liberated and able to protect humanity. It’s worth noting that Mr. Miracle is reborn with new found powers of the Soul which empower him with the vision of Faith and the “eyes to see”. This keeps the plot inline with the Gnostic and Mahayana view of Hercules and Jesus. Morrison is stating here the sediment of Gnosis and Mahayana, that Hercules was a spiritual successor to Jesus and protector of Buddha.


The most common spelling of the Classic Greek hero’s name comes to us from the Roman spelling; Hercules which means, “Hera’s Glory”. The actual spelling reflects the time Athena the goddess of Heroes and Wisdom tricked Hera into nursing a gravely wounded Alicede. Hera eventually sees through the disguise Athena crafted and at once stops nursing the hero with her divine milk and pulls herself away, creating the Milky Way in the process. Escaping to the mortal plane with the rejuvenated Alcide Athena changes his name to Herakules which meant “Hera nourishes”.


Furious at this deception Hera convinces the goddess Lyssa to intervene on her behalf. Putting away his wild past of violence and sexual exploits Hercules eventually married and had two children. Much like Enkidu, Hercules was domesticated through his marital relationships. Hercules married a woman named Megara who birthed two children. This domestication was interrupted by Lyssa as she preyed upon Hercules caveman emotions. Lyssa drove Hercules into a fit of madness which led him to commit infanticide.


What makes this regression into devolution historically notable is that Herakules, after regaining his sense, laments his sin and values the loss of innocence instead of relying on a, might makes right argument. He then declares that his life would be spent in atonement of these sins and he sets out into the world to defend the weak and bring order to chaos. Before he does there is one historical footnote that comes to us from an ancient play about the hero. In it after he sees the horror he has wrought the cosmic hero laments and changes the spelling of his name by one letter, pronouncing it as, “Hera Conquers” (6)


In the book; Sophists in Plato's Dialogues, it is stated that, it was through right deed and right thinking that Hercules was able to evolve past his Neolithic standards and lack of morals. (7) Hercules’ Twelve Labours that maintain qualities of the zodiac as 12 life lessons that require scriptural understanding to decode. To these ancient philosophers and priests Hercules the caveman was evolving and developing what modern psychology refer to as Executive Function a key aspect of homo sapiens cerebral development and a predecessor to evolved cognition like Empathy and Compassion.


Hercules the hero works through problems with his mind rather than just relying on his physical powers, despite being a demigod renown for his strength. In this way he deviates from all other barbarians of the past and starts a journey towards the logical modern man. Herakules’ develops of Executive Function “... allow (one) to; reflect, predict, question and hypothesis life and its complex process and relationships...help to address abstract issues like time, task, initiative...allows for the preservation of Individuality.”(8) It’s that last point that is seemingly most important and the root of the issue Near Eastern terrorists have with this legendary story. The preservation of Individuality as opposed to Collective ideology associated with submission and groupthink. To the Gnostics and the Egyptians Hercules was a template or codex to follow towards a path of religious righteousness and Individuality.


Hercules is a major factor for the acceptance of the Greeks by the Buddhists after Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor. Two Millennia after the religious fusion modern civilizations took note of the Grecian influence and synergy in Buddhists temples stone reliefs of the Buddha’s journey show him accompanied by Hercules. Many news agencies report on the terror groups attacking museums or ancient temples and destroying artwork that is thousands of years old. Much of this artwork represents a western trend in eastern and central asian religious art, but is also representative of the older wildman traditions of Enkidu and the process of apotheosis, becoming a god. Today we might think of this as Sainthood. Sainthood is a primary issues that that terrorists have taken issue with western religion. This idea of man possibly being more than a particle in the divine process is an affront to the more ancient eastern ideology and is sediment held by orthodox Buddhists and orthodox practitioners of Abrahamic faith as well. This is clearly displayed when the group sacked and destroyed the Tomb of Jonah, the biblical hero who spent time in the belly of a whale. Today the Church acknowledges him as Saint Jonah.


After Alexander took Asia Minor, Hellenistic artists began a cultural exchange with their Buddhists counterparts. This exchange leads to many of the Greek gods being adopted into Eastern and far eastern mythology as in the case of Boreas the god of the Northern wind being adopted by the Japanese as Fugi. Hercules was adopted by the Buddhists seventy years after the Buddha has died. He was artistically represented as two individuals who protect the Buddha.


These two individuals are known as the Nio and can fuse together forming a greater being, the Vajrapani the “wielder of the thunderbolt.” Here Hercules is wielder of the “diamond thunderbolt” a weapon akin to Thor’s hammer which is fueled by the righteousness of the Logos. Hercules’ own neolithic weapon was a caveman type club, but it’s origins are auspicious. His club was made from the trunk of a holy olive tree. Since Mahayana Buddhism practices forms of yoga they would know that a perfected spinal column is the crux of yoga practice. This perfected spinal column would operate all of the spines energy vortexes or chakras, and enlightened Hercules. It’s this enlightenment that would lead to developed executive function and the acknowledgement of Individuality.


Preserved in ancient religious art we find the cultural mixing of the East and the West, a thousand years before Christianity sent missionaries into the world. This artistic meme is important to the fourteenth Dalai Lama who addressed this phenomenon in his foreword to the book Echoes of Alexander the Great; "... art that emerged in north-west India...has been clearly influenced by the naturalism of the Classical Greek style. Thus, while these images still convey the inner peace that results from putting the Buddha's doctrine into practice, they also give us an impression of people who walked and talked, etc. and slept much as we do. I feel this is very important. These figures are inspiring because they do not only depict the goal, but also the sense that people like us can achieve it if we try." (12)


This is the central drama that irritates eastern religious orthodoxy to this day. With the Western introduction of the Humanities and the complex structures of Philosophia into the established orthodoxy, the focus of religion moved away from the veneration of deity to the human beings at play in the celestial drama. The Individual is finally front and center in the divide drama. No longer is humanity a footnote to the whim of the gods.


The individual being acknowledgement meant that men, women; like Joan of Arc and eventually children would be acknowledged as vehicles for the divine and not a commodity in the lives of others. This is the central reasoning behind the idea of Liberty and the goal of liberty for all individuals as an inherent quality. This central tenet of the Herculean legend and myth is one of the reasons he was accepted into the Buddhists pantheon of cosmic figures. By dedicating his life to the service of others to atone for his sin, the strongest and most independent hero of all time liberated the independence of others.




Appendix 1-A Contrary to the self-sacrificing heroes of the Classic World the modern incarnations of heroic motivation and morality, Disney’s Spiderman has foregone the patriarchal wisdom that endeared him to millions of diverse readers for decades. In the newest incarnation of the hero, Spiderman Homecoming, the Disney-Marvel hero is being raised by a retconned and younger Aunt Mae and filling in for the absent Uncle Ben is cultural and technology kingpin Tony Stark as played by Robert Downey Jr. As Uncle Ben was never present to inspire Peter Parker’s tragic hero or embedded the character’s moral code and motto; With great power comes great responsibility, this incarnation is already lacking the ideal of responsibility and strength being entwined.
Without this acknowledgement of personal responsibility this cultural icon takes the first steps into his postmodern journey from which he may never emerge, the hero falls back through evolution, according to visionary artist Paul Laffoley's in his master piece Dimensionality the Manifestation of Fate. Spiderman falls, lost without his fatherly light to guide him or to illuminate the path before him with a shade of peach blossom. Spiderman plunges towards simplicity from the causality of Myth to through Legend and into the duality of the Tale. If he is able to gain traction before losing himself and his cannon to the lower worlds of cause and affect he might be able to again pull himself to the heights of evolved literature he once help. Although, one could safely wager that he'll crawl from that abyss altered and with many new Miles.









Citation





(1)Staff. “Brief History of the Olympic Games.” Nostos Gnostic Hellinistic Society, Gnostic Hellinistic Society, Apr. 2013, www.nostos.com/olympics/#Hercules%20(Herakles)%20myth.





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(3)Radford, Tim. “Irish DNA Originated in Middle East and Eastern Europe .” The Gaurdian , 28 Dec. 2015, onlinelibrary.https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/28/origins-of-the-irish-down-to-mass-migration-ancient-dna-confirmswiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.20737/epdf.





(4) “Disney's Hercules.” 1998.







(6)Wilson, Emily R. Mocked with Death: Tragic Overliving from Sophocles to Milton. JHU Press, 2004.





(7)Corey, David D. Sophists in Plato's Dialogues. State Univ Of New York Pr, 2016.





(8)Ardila, Alfredo. “On the Evolutionary Origins of Executive Functions.” Brain and Cognition, Academic Press, 7 Apr. 2008, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278262608001656





(8)Morrison, Grant, et al. Seven Soldiers. DC Comics, 2006.





(10) Kandola, Jivan Deep. “Hellenistic Trends Influencing Buddhist Art and Architecture.” Wiley Online Library, URSS, 2007, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.20737/epdf.





(11) ABC, News, and ISIS Terror. “ISIS Is Latest Radical Group to Destroy Ancient Art.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 2 Mar. 2015, www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-latest-radical-group-destroy-ancient-art-n315451.





(12) Wenzel, Marian. Echoes of Alexander the Great: Silk Route Portraits from Gandhara: a Private Collection. Eklisa Anstalt, 2000.





(13) Hiatt, Brian. “Grant Morrison: Psychedelic Superhero.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 22 Aug. 2011, www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/grant-morrison-psychedelic-superhero-20110822.


Citation





Citation





(1)Staff. “Brief History of the Olympic Games.” Nostos Gnostic Hellinistic Society, Gnostic Hellinistic Society, Apr. 2013, www.nostos.com/olympics/#Hercules%20(Herakles)%20myth.





.





(3)Radford, Tim. “Irish DNA Originated in Middle East and Eastern Europe .” The Gaurdian , 28 Dec. 2015, onlinelibrary.https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/28/origins-of-the-irish-down-to-mass-migration-ancient-dna-confirmswiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.20737/epdf.





(4) “Disney's Hercules.” 1998.







(6)Wilson, Emily R. Mocked with Death: Tragic Overliving from Sophocles to Milton. JHU Press, 2004.





(7)Corey, David D. Sophists in Plato's Dialogues. State Univ Of New York Pr, 2016.





(8)Ardila, Alfredo. “On the Evolutionary Origins of Executive Functions.” Brain and Cognition, Academic Press, 7 Apr. 2008, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278262608001656





(8)Morrison, Grant, et al. Seven Soldiers. DC Comics, 2006.





(10) Kandola, Jivan Deep. “Hellenistic Trends Influencing Buddhist Art and Architecture.” Wiley Online Library, URSS, 2007, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.20737/epdf.





(11) ABC, News, and ISIS Terror. “ISIS Is Latest Radical Group to Destroy Ancient Art.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 2 Mar. 2015, www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-latest-radical-group-destroy-ancient-art-n315451.





(12) Wenzel, Marian. Echoes of Alexander the Great: Silk Route Portraits from Gandhara: a Private Collection. Eklisa Anstalt, 2000.





(13) Hiatt, Brian. “Grant Morrison: Psychedelic Superhero.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 22 Aug. 2011, www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/grant-morrison-psychedelic-superhero-20110822.


Citation

































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