Blog Entry VII - The Dunhuang Exchange

A prefecture and place of military importance, Dunhuang was a major point of cultural exchange during the Han and Tang dynasties. Dunhuang was accessible from both east and west on the Silk Road, and thus made it a primary stopover for pilgrims, merchants, and monks who were passing through the region. The variety of art and artifacts found at Dunhuang attests to the diversity of the people who made their way along the Silk Road at various times, from various places.

Buddhist masters and monks alike, from India and Central Asia, often stopped at Dunhuang while travelling to the Chinese capital of Chang'an. The abundance of painted caves and illuminated manuscripts made it an ideal place for Buddhists to meditate, read, or learn about Chinese culture before entering the capital. It was a Buddhist epicentre that provided temples, gardens, and lecture halls for anyone who desired to utilize them, and as such, Dunhuang was a thriving monastic community.

Frescoe from one of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. Preservation of these frescoes is of utmost priority, with visitors from all around the world who come to Dunhuang to view them.

Blog Entry VI - Parallels in Buddhism and Christianity

Thematic parallels among religions are consistently evident. For example, the fundamental themes of typology, purity, and morality that are found in Zoroastrianism are found also in the three major religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Following the reading there was nothing that inspired me to write an entry immediately. Suddenly, I just thought it would be interesting to look into possible parallels, obvious ones perhaps, between Buddhism and other religions, as following the thematic form of my previous entry, entitled "A Thematic Approach to Zoroaster’s Gathas". The parallel I’d like to point out, with no solid scholarly proof but merely opinion, is the possible link between the Holy Trinity in Christianity and the Three Jewels in Buddhism. It’s not necessarily that one was derived essentially from another as a carbon copy, but the concepts in themselves, rather, what the Holy Trinity means to Christianity, and what the Three Jewels means to Buddhism, are similar in their function and their meaning to each religion.

In Buddhism and Christianity, the counterparts of the Three Jewels and the Holy Trinity are not more important than the other, but the counterparts form one cohesive unit that cannot exist without the individual counterparts. The three counterparts in each respective religion form what could be interpreted as emanations of a greater “godhead”, or the entity in it's entirety. From a most rudimentary approach, let’s take a look at the actual names, representations, and parallels of the figures within the Three Jewels and the Holy Trinity. The Father, and the Buddha, the Son and the Dharma, the Holy Ghost and the Sangha, respectively.

First let’s focus on the parallels between the purpose of the Father, and the purpose of the Buddha. Both the “father” and “Buddha” are actual representations of a “person,” but also metaphorical, as well as metaphysical representations of the concept of someone more divine than us unenlightened ones. Second, let’s look at the parallels between the purpose of the Son, and the Dharma. The son was the “person”, or concept, that diffused the ways and doctrines of the overall “religion.” The son and the Dharma are the constructs of the father, or rather, the father and Buddha were the vehicles for wisdom to be diffused through the Son and the Dharma upon the less enlightened ones. The son and Dharma could also connote “the ultimate and sustaining reality which is inseperable from the Buddha.” Just as the Son is the real, tangeable representation that is inseperable from the Father. Third, we have the Holy Ghost and Sangha. The Holy Ghost is how access to enlightenment is gained within the entire entity. We gain access to the Son through his Holy Ghost, and through the Son we gain access to the Father. The Holy Trinity and the Three Jewels are individual, but cannot exist without one another and therefore represent a whole “experience” within each religion.

Relief depicting "The Holy Trinity", Basilique Saint-Denis in Paris, exact date and artist unknown.



Sculpture, or possibly a relief of "The Three Jewels" or "The Three Refuges", exact date and artist unknown.

Blog Entry V - A Thematic Approach to Zoroaster's Gathas

Founded in approximately 1,000 BCE by Zoroaster—also known as Zoroastra, or Zarathustra—Zoroastrianism comprises his philosophical and ethical wisdom as preserved in his Gathas, or hymns, written in Avestan, which is said to be a sister language to Sanskrit. Zoroastrianism was at one time the dominant faith of the Persian Empire, and today it maintains significance as the smallest major religion in the world. As Mary Boyce explains; “Zoroastrianism is the oldest of the revealed world religions, and it has probably had more influence on mankind, directly and indirectly, than any other single faith.”

Zoroaster was the first known person to interpret and teach the doctrines of light and dark as metaphors for truth and falsehood, “heaven and hell”, the “last judgment”, and the “everlasting” states of the reunited mind, body, and soul. These doctrines—which for the purpose of this blog I prefer to call concepts—became recognizable and significant interpretations of faith to much of mankind, evidently inspiring Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The themes in the Gathas have inspired themes in the world’s three major religions, and even a rudimentary understanding of any of the three faiths will prompt immediate recognition of the great similarities in the fundamental themes of these religions and the fundamental themes of Zoroastrianism. In the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an, most general messages, doctrines, concepts and so forth revolve around the themes of good and evil, cleanliness and impurity, righteousness and wickedness, life and the afterlife—that constitute the teachings underlined in the Gathas.

Even routine practices, still implemented currently, seem to be inspired by practices explained in the Gathas, and there are two examples which immediately came to my mind while reading the course material. Firstly, in the Jewish faith, one cannot blow out a lit flame, but rather let it burn until the flame dies out naturally. Secondly, in the Muslim faith, one must wash before entering a place of worship, and before beginning prayer. I had never realized the overwhelming significance of Zoroastrianism before…!

Interpretive image of Zoroaster. Dare I say, note the similarity between this image of Zoroaster and the modern image of Christ?