tiso, francis, evagrius of pontus and buddhist abidhamma

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Evagrius of Pontus and Buddhist Abhidharma

Rev. Canon Francis V. Tiso

I.

Evagrius of Pontus (345399) was ordained to the diaconate in Constantinople during the great period of debate on the two fun-damental dogmas of orthodox Christianity, the Trinity and the Incarnation. He assisted St. Gregory of Nazianzus at the First Council of Constantinople (381), at which the Nicene Creed received its fi nal form. A disciple of the Cappadocian Fathers, Evagrius had studied the doctrines of Origen of Alexandria in considerable depth. He continued these studies in the company of Melania the Elder and Rufi nus of Aquileia on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. He received the monastic habit from Melania and proceeded to the Egyptian desert south of Alexandria to lead the life of an anchorite. He was in touch with both Coptic and Greek-speaking monks of the period, and became one of the leading fi gures because of his unusual learning and spiritual gifts.1

Evagrius penned (he was a noted calligrapher) a number of important works on training candidates for the monastic life. Among the surviving works are the Praktikos, the Gnostikos, and the Kephalaia Gnostika, which are considered to constitute a trilogy of texts on spiritual training.2 The Praktikos is a basic introduction to the inner practice of the monk, focusing Praktikos is a basic introduction to the inner practice of the monk, focusing Praktikoson conversion of heart, the rejection of sinful thoughts, and the cultivation of the virtues. 3 Evagrius called this aspect of ascetic training praktike. The Gnostikos is a short description of the characteristics of a qualifi ed spiritual Gnostikos is a short description of the characteristics of a qualifi ed spiritual Gnostikosguide. 4 This is given in order that the guide may know how to regulate his or her own life, and how a monk may know how to recognize someone who will be capable of guiding him or her to the higher and deeper dimensions of the Christian monastic life. Finally, the Kephalaia Gnostika provides 540 Kephalaia Gnostika provides 540 Kephalaia Gnostikaparagraphs or verses (organized into six chapters of ninety verses) on which the profi cient monk is to meditate sequentially as a method of maturing his already established practice of the inner life. 5

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The Praktikos offers those meditation topics which nurture spiritual Praktikos offers those meditation topics which nurture spiritual Praktikosprogress in seven stages:

1. Conversion of heart;2. Nurturance of the virtues in the direction of acquiring apatheia;3. Apatheia, or purity of heart (Latin: puritas cordis 6), which entails

freedom from the irascible and desire-driven aspects of the passions. These three praktike stages are preparatory to the contemplative life, praktike stages are preparatory to the contemplative life, praktike theoria, because in the habitual condition of purity of heart, it becomes possible for the spiritual life to unfold in the next three:

4. Charity (agape); 5. Intuitive knowledge of the created order (gnosis tou kosmou);6. Inner communion with God (theologia) in this life.

These stages of spiritual progress culminate in:7. Perfect blessedness (makariotes) in eternal life.7

In his trilogy, Evagrius demonstrated a mastery of the key elements of the Origenistic and Cappadocian theological speculations. His unique contribution, based on his rich philosophical and Christian training, was to make the theological program into a psychologically, spiritually and existentially coherent path of spiritual development. Evagriuss vision of the monastic life was adopted and adapted throughout the entire Chris-tian monastic movement, spreading to Latin and Celtic monasticism with Evagriuss disciple John Cassian. It was the cornerstone of Byzantine monasticism thanks to the work of Maximus the Confessor and Peter of Damaskos; the Athonite tradition embraces it in the anthology known as the Philokalia. The Syriac Churches took up the same system by preserving translations of Evagriuss works, commenting on them, and transmitting them to monastic communities in Central Asia and China with the spread of Nestorian Christianity. The importance of the system of Evagrius, even after its partial condemnation in the middle of the sixth century, 8 cannot be underestimated. Elements of this system even turn up in the Sufi writ-ings such as those of Ibn Arabi.9

Among the verses in the Kephalaia Gnostika, there are many that address topics that are similarly handled in the Buddhist Abhidharma literature. In some cases, the text of Evagrius treats topics such as the structure of the body, the operation of the sensory mechanism, distinctions among mental phenomena, the nature of the cosmos, material and non-material elements of nature, states of being, and other concerns in ways that are startlingly convergent with Buddhist Abhidharma works from the period 1 to 400 C.E.10

Did Evagrius simply borrow these themes from the Stoics, as he certainly did in some instances, or did he have a Buddhist philosophical source from which he was quoting? Or did some of the Stoic material have a Buddhist

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provenance, which only emerges with clarity in the contemplative milieu of the Desert Fathers of late fourth century Egypt? Evagrius does not usually cite his sources other than the Bible, but in some cases it is possible to detect a philosophical voice behind his practice instructions to disciples.

Had Evagrius been able to engage in dialogue with the Buddhists of northwest India in his own day, he would have found among them contem-plative scholar-practitioners like himself with many interests in common with his own. If we could verify that Evagriuss teachings made use of an Indian Buddhist source, we would have evidence, for the fi rst time, of an accurate and detailed transmission of philosophical teachings from India to the Hellenistic world. However, even should it be demonstrated that Evagriuss teachings derive exclusively from sources within the Hellenistic world and early Christianity, his writings would remain a source, as yet untapped, for a deeper contemporary dialogue between Buddhist and Christian contemplatives.

II.

Evagrius understood our human condition as a falling away from the pure contemplation of the Holy Trinity on the part of spiritual beings who are endowed with freedom from their primordial origin.11 Their return to contemplation is made possible by means of a process of divine pedagogy, itself of a spiraling character. Thus, a work like the Kephalaia Gnostika is not Kephalaia Gnostika is not Kephalaia Gnostikaa linear description of the stages of the fall nor of a linear return. Rather, across the six chapters, the means of return are proposed over and over again to the contemplative practitioner so that he or she may not only glimpse the way of return, but may be perfectly stabilized in that return in the form of an entire way of life, i.e., monasticism. This model was elaborated fully in Conferences and the Conferences and the Conferences Monastic Institutes, the works of Evagriuss disciple John Cassian, who was born in Dacia and went on to found monasteries in the south of France.

Unlike speculative theologians who describe a generalized overall pat-tern to the history of salvation and the process of sanctifi cation in divine grace, Evagriuss approach was to propose a series of topics of meditation that would transform the day-to-day thought patterns of disciples. We may contrast this approach to that of Origen, for example, who describes to his readers the coming forth of all things from God, their redemption in the Christ-event, and their return (apokatastasis) to God at the end of history. Origens pattern, a kind of great parabola coming from infi nity, turning at the Christ-event, and returning to infi nity provides a useful catecheti-cal model, a grand narrative of the fall, the redemption and the eschaton.

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However, it does not show how the grand narrative can be applied in the daily struggle of the ascetic Christian.

Evagrius, on the other hand, writes exclusively for those who have committed themselves to the ascetic process in the monastic life. These are people who have become aware of the subtleties of mental falls from and returns to the contemplative states accessible in Christian practice. Thus, Evagrius provides his disciples not so much with a systematic description of a theology of the spiritual life,12 but rather an actual workbook of spiritual exercises that are to be followed assiduously and in sequence. In fact, the entire six kephalaia represent a spiraling method of teaching in which spiritual progress takes place through periodic repetition of key themes. Also, in some sections, simpler verses alternate with more diffi cult ones. The method seems to have been that certain verses were assigned for meditation for a given period of time. The most likely pattern would have

been based on the way of life of the Egyptian anchorites. The monks lived in solitude for the entire week, follow-ing a rigorous rule of prayer, restricted diet and manual labor.13 On Saturday evening, they gathered together for common prayer and spiritual conversation in the course of a nocturnal vigil that ended with the Eucharistic synaxisat dawn. Evagrius would have assigned one or more verses

to individual monks during the vigil; the following Saturday, the insights gained during a week of meditation would have been discussed during the time of spiritual conversation.14 Evagrius himself followed this practice in his own daily monastic observance.

The exercises and their results in the mind of the contemplative are to be checked regularly by the spiritual director (the gnostic of the second volume of the trilogy). The goal of this practice is to attain the highest degree of sanctity humanly possible under grace in this life. This is in fact the numerological importance of the number six, which the author associ-ates with the six days of creation. The world and this human life constitute a place providentially created (Kephalaia Gnostika III.36) where rescue Kephalaia Gnostika III.36) where rescue Kephalaia Gnostikaand pedagogy would be provided for rational beings (logikoi), but eternal blessedness (the seventh day, i.e., the Sabbath) lies beyond the scope of spiritual practice in this life. Thus, there are six chapters in the Kephalaia Gnostika, but none of the chapters is dedicated to a single topic in the spiritual life. Rather, across the six chapters there are 540 meditations that are to be done in sequential order to bring about complete transformation in a mature and balanced way.15

The seventh day, the rest of Hebrews 4, is not discussed here within the sphere of spiritual method, but is hinted at in such sections as I.1; I.2;

Evagrius provides

a workbook of

spiritual exercises.

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I.49; VI.10,13; III.70; IV.9, 16, etc. In the plan of the Kephalaia Gnostika, we are still within the world-system wherein, by pure conceptual processes, a rational being can be lifted up to pure contemplation by means of the active life of conversion and growth in virtue, and in the contemplative life of purity of heart, charity, knowledge of the cosmos, and theological communion. We only look into the dimension of blessedness, the promised land of rest (hesychia), as Moses looked into the Promised Land from Mount Pisgah (Deut. 34:1), for as long as we continue to struggle in this embodied life.

In all these meditations, Evagrius takes the Bible as his guidebook, which he reads in a relentlessly mystical way, constantly drawing our atten-tion to allegory and anagogy in the great and well-known texts of scripture as well as in obscure references to minor events that only an assiduous reader of the biblical text might notice. Evagrius sees the Bible as an inspired work for teaching the subtle doctrines of both theological speculation (especially Eph. 1) and the more directly crucial concerns of guidance on the path to spiritual freedom. Evagrius frequently imitates the style of Greek that he knew from the LXX (Greek Septuagint) text, in particular the verses of the book of Proverbs,16 but he does not confi ne himself to that style of writing. His use of the LXX does not circumscribe him exclusively within the world of Jewish and early Christian Biblical interpretation from the Greek text. Rather, Evagrius makes it abundantly clear that he supports his Biblical reading with supplemental considerations derived from Hellenistic medi-cal, cosmological, psychological and even mathematical research. The fi nal goal of human perfection for Evagrius is thus anything but a renunciation of the world. Instead, the human consciousness, purifi ed of the passions, is disclosed as the most perfect instrument for a faith-enlightened under-standing of all phenomenamaterial, energetic, cosmic and divine.

III.

It is relatively easy to establish the Hellenistic background of most of Evagri-uss philosophical anthropology and psychology. He is clearly infl uenced by Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Porphyry and such Stoics as Zeno, Diogenes Laertius and Sextus Empiricus.17 In such works as the Gnostikos and in Gnostikos and in Gnostikosthe tractate On Thoughts, his Christian sourcesamong them Gregory of Nazianzus, Clement of Alexandria and Origenare harmonized with their Hellenistic colleagues, predecessors or contemporaries. All this is in the tradition of the Christian as the philosopher par excellence. Moreover, Evagrius is writing in a monastic milieu in which study and discussion were given the added dimension of rigorous ascetic practice. The themes

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treated in the works of the philosophers were experienced soteriologically and existentially in the daily meditations, temptations and prayers of this learned circle of monastics. For example, the notion that it is impossible for the mind to receive two thoughts simultaneously (Ch. 24, On Thoughts) could have been debated speculatively by any of the authors cited, but in the setting of the desert, among anchorites, the topic has crucial importance in the battle against evil thoughts.18 Ghin and the Guillaumonts tell us19 that this assertion arises from the Stoic notion that compares a mental image of its object to the imprint of a seal in wax. But notice how Evagrius treats this analogy in On Thoughts:

No impure thought arises in us without a sensory object. If our mind, because of its great rapidity of movement, ties one thought to others in series, one should not for that reason believe that the thoughts are formed all at the exact same time.20

This insight into the rapidity with which mental images can succeed one another corresponds to the experiences of yogins and meditation practitioners. The Buddhist sage Vasubandhu discusses the apparent con-tinuity of the mind-stream and distinguishes the instants of thought in his Abhidharmakosa, where he analyzes the distinct natures that constitute phenomena (dharmah)21 and the fl ux of existence of beings (dravya).22

This observation, for Evagrius and for Vasubandhu, is not a mere matter of psychological empiricism. The discussion of thoughts is concerned with the repulsion of evil thoughts. Only one evil thought can present itself in a single moment of mental attention. Thus, to rid oneself of such thoughts,

One must, in the moment of temptation, try to cause the mind to move from an impure thought to a second mental image, and from that one to a third, thus escaping the wicked taskmaster. If the mind does not displace itself and does not untie itself from its object, it is submerged in passions and runs the risk of moving in the direction of actually committing a sinful act. Such a mind really does need a great deal of purifi cation, of vigils, and prayer.23

We are clearly in a world of spiritual practitioners here, and at some remove from the style and approach of speculative philosophers.

IV.

When we observe the extraordinary convergences between Buddhist Abhid-harma 24 and the teachings of Evagrius, we fi nd ourselves drawn to one or more hypotheses to explain the connection. Is there a literary connection?

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Is there any possibility that a work of the Sarvastivada school of Kashmir such as the Abhidharmahr.daya was translated into Greek and entered into daya was translated into Greek and entered into dayathe thought world of Middle and Neo-Platonism?25 The Greek-Aramaic inscription of Ashoka gives an indication of the linguistic and cultural set-ting at the interface of Hellenistic and Indic civilizations.26 A Pali text, the Milinda-paha, shows a dialogue between a Greek prince and a Buddhist monk over topics extensively treated in Abhidharma. Much later, we have a Sogdian text, ms. C2,27 which reproduces the Syriac versions of several Christian ascetical works, including the Antirrheticus of Evagrius. Sogdian of this type is heavily infl uenced by Aramaic (i.e., Syriac), but is a Central Asian Indo-European language, bridging the Hellenistic and Indic worlds. The manuscript in question is latedating per-haps from the seventh or even eighth centurybut it is important because it indicates a rare instance in which a Greco-Aramaic Christian document undergoes retroversion into a Central Asian language linked to Indian Buddhist transmissions. The suggestion is that the Sogdian Christian community was interested in the same literature of asceticism that arose in Syria, Palestine and Egypt in the fourth century, and that it made use, in some cases, of terminology borrowed from Buddhist Sanskrit/Prakrit milieux. The inscription of Ashoka in the third century B.C.E. was not the last instance of linguistic and cultural exchange between the Indic and Hellenistic worlds.

Of course, we might also consider the possibility that contemplative teachers discovered these insights independently, as a result of long hours of meditation practice. Even should this be true, what particularly attracts our attention is the compatibility of the language in which the experience was embodied in the form of written teachings on the contemplative life.

V.

Beyond these more general speculations, we can detect specifi c instances of a confl uence of Buddhist ideas in the Kephalaia Gnostika by attempting Kephalaia Gnostika by attempting Kephalaia Gnostikato understand the teachings given there in cryptic, sutra-like form. There are many places in the Kephalaia Gnostika in which the full meaning of the Kephalaia Gnostika in which the full meaning of the Kephalaia Gnostikatext is made clear only by comparison with Indic texts on spiritual practice. Stoicism is not enough, and even Alexandrian Judeo-Christian allegorical hermeneutics does not fully open the door of meaning. Knowledge of In-dic, primarily yogic and Buddhist Abhidharma, texts is helpful, along with experience of contemplative practice and spiritual guidance.

Can a work of the

Sarvastivada school have

been translated into Greek?

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1. Two Syriac Versions of the Kephalaia Gnostika

In order to demonstrate that some of Evagriuss verses have an Indic, or even Abhidharma Buddhist referents, we need to summarize the nature of Abhidharma Buddhist referents, we need to summarize the nature of Abhidharmathe sources we are using. We have already discussed Evagriuss work On Thoughts, available in the Sources Chrtiennes series, as an example of a work Sources Chrtiennes series, as an example of a work Sources Chrtiennesclearly manifesting the infl uence of Stoic and other Hellenistic philosophi-cal ideas. When we come to the Kephalaia Gnostika, the third work in his trilogy on monastic training, we have a source that has come down to us in a number of versions.28 For our purposes, the two Syriac versions translated by Guillaumont are crucial, as are the large number of Greek fragments collected by Irenaeus Hausherr, S.J.,29 and by related scholarship. The two Syriac versions, S1 and S2, are signifi cantly different in many of the verses. S2 was made literally from the Greek original of Evagrius, while S1 seems to be a simplifi cation of S2 designed to remove most of the teachings that were condemned in Constantinople in the synod of 543.30 In some cases, however, S1 may have simplifi ed S2 for pedagogical purposes, and not merely to expunge heretical views from an otherwise valuable work of a Desert Father. Thus, the fact that S1 tones down the mythic content31 of S2 suggests two possibilities: fi rst, that the producers of S1 wanted to preserve Evagriuss teaching for younger monks in a doctrinally safe and digestible form so that they would know early on in their training about the road map to spiritual perfection; and, second, that the producers of S1 were aware of Justinians condemnation of Evagriuss ideas in the sixth century, and they were making an expurgated version that would be safe from ecclesiastical and state censorship. If S1 was S2 adapted for beginners, it is still likely that Syriac-speaking gnostic monks (gnostic in the sense of being spiritual masters, not in the sense of membership in an early Gnostic sect) would have known and used both versions. S1 may have been for the novices, while S2 served as the teachers guide which was not to be openly divulged.32

It is clear that S2 shows a better grasp of the more advanced contempla-tive practices advocated by Evagrius in Kephalaia Gnostika. The translator of S2 was a fi ne scholar and undoubtedly an experienced contemplative who was concerned about the guidance of others. While I do not think that S1 and S2 were produced by the same translator, it is possible that they were in some way related to one another. S2 was the manual for the advanced spiritual teacher and S1 was for the advancing scholar-monk. Evagrius himself advocated a pedagogy that takes into careful consideration the intellectual capacity and spiritual state of progress of the disciple.

As we examine some of the verses in the Kephalaia Gnostika, we fi nd recurring themes and resonances with a variety of sources. For example, the existence of a plurality of worlds:

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VI.45 (S2): Not one of the worlds was superior to the primordial world; it is said, in effect, that that [primordial] one was made from the original quality and in it all the worlds will be perfected; an athlete, a gnostic, taught us this.33

VI.45 (S1): Thus Mankind was made in the image of God, is pos-ited without restriction and the ones who are diligent arrive at this, according to the word of the Fathers.

First of all, note S2s reference to the myth of the cosmic fall and to the relationship between the primordial world and the subsequent worlds; this resonates with the Buddhist Aggaa-Sutta story of the origin of embodied Aggaa-Sutta story of the origin of embodied Aggaa-Suttabeings34 in a series of descents from subtler to coarser states of existence.

The athlete-gnostic who taught this would have been a spiritual master who had perfected the paths of praktike and gnosis; he could have been Macarius or Didymus the Blind, who were the two principal Egyptian teachers of Evagrius.35

2. The Great Origenistic Parabola

The Kephalaia Gnostika has a vision of the human condition based on a Kephalaia Gnostika has a vision of the human condition based on a Kephalaia Gnostikadescent from a higher spiritual state to a lower, coarser state. Conscious beings were once rational and absorbed in the contemplation of the Holy Trinity:

VI.75 (S2): The fi rst-order knowledge that is in the logikoi is that of the Holy Trinity. Following that, there was the movement of liberty, the providence that gives help, and the catching up [of the logikoi] not letting them dissipate completely, and then the judgment, and again the movement of freedom, providence, judgment and so on up to the Holy Trinity. In this way, a judgment is interposed between the movement of freedom and the providence of God.

This is a neat summary of the parabola of rational beings as discussed in Origens On First Principles. Abiding primordially in the pure knowledge of the Holy Trinity, rational beings experience a movement of freedom that entails their separation from that primordial state.36 Providence is Gods help extended to these beings who have separated themselves from primordial knowledge so as to rescue them by offering them the material creation and the three kinds of embodiment (without which they would have fallen indefi nitely) and a way by which to return; then comes judg-ment which might be a term for the Christ-event itself as the offer of grace so that beings may return to God, followed by a free response to the offer of grace, the providential experience of life in the Church as the way of

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return through ascetic discipline (praktike) and growth in contemplative awareness (theoria or gnosis). The fi nal judgment is to be the apokatastasis, and fi nal return to unity within the Trinitarian life of God. The pattern of spiritual growth is a pedagogical-gnostic one.37

Evagrius made use of the terminology fi rst order knowledge and second order knowledge to describe the two phases of creation. First order refers to the primordial state of pure contemplation; second order refers to the return to contemplation by means of an ascetic ascent in and through the created order of nature. S1 at VI.75 tries cautiously to sum this up as follows:

The fi rst order knowledge that was in the rational nature is contem-plation of the Holy Trinity; there followed the movement of freedom, and after that the help of the providence of God, [in the form of] the chastisement that causes a return to life, or by the teaching that causes an approach to fi rst-order contemplation.

3. Nonduality

The Kephalaia Gnostika opens with the following daring assertions:Kephalaia Gnostika opens with the following daring assertions:Kephalaia Gnostika

I.1. (S2 and S1): There is nothing over against the Primal Good be-cause it is in its essence that it is Good, and nothing could be contrary to that essence.

I.2 (S2 and S1): Contrariety is to be found in the characteristics, and characteristics are typical of embodiments; therefore, it is among cre-ated things that opposition is found.

The primordial state is oneness in the Good; as we have seen, the primordial rational beings abide in this oneness, contemplating the Holy Trinity. With their fall into negligence and the establishment of the vari-ous forms of the embodied state, there is the arising of contrasts, opinions and preferences. This same insight is found in Daoism and Buddhism: the fi rst movement from the primordial nature or ground is a movement into multiplicity that necessarily creates opposing characteristics. Hence in the Vajracchedika Sutra, the primordial Buddha nature is without char-acteristics. The same view of the absolute is taught in a late work from the Tibetan tradition, the MahaMaha-Mahamudra Clarifi cation by Milarepa; this work is mudra Clarifi cation by Milarepa; this work is mudra Clarifi cationrelevant despite its lateness in that it summarizes centuries of Buddhist contemplative experience:

Now, in this teaching, understand that the essence of mind is the natural state and this is Mahanatural state and this is Maha-natural state and this is Mahamudra. . . . The fi rst topic: The mode

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of abiding of phenomena in their natural state. . . . The intentions of the Buddhas and the nature of the mind of sentient beings are not established as shape or color, or margins or center; these are free from partiality and extremes. They neither engage in existence nor nonexistence; they do not err, nor are they free from error; they do not arise from any cause, nor do they change in relation to condi-tions. They are not contrived by a skillful (i.e., knowing) Buddha, nor corrupted by dull sentient beings; nor do they improve through Realization nor worsen by error. This is Ground MahaRealization nor worsen by error. This is Ground Maha-Realization nor worsen by error. This is Ground Mahamudra.38

Although the Gospel of John 17:213 has statements suggestive of a nondual view of reality, the notion of oneness without contrariety is alien to nearly all Christian theological discourse, with the telling exception of a theological poem attributed to Evagriuss bishop, St. Gregory of Nazianzus (Hymn to God, in PG 37, 507).

Evagrius works with two terms to describe the original state of beings. We have already encountered logikoi; there is also the even more charac-logikoi; there is also the even more charac-logikoi;teristic term nous, which refers to the cognitive capacity of mind beyond dependence on concepts and sense data. Evagrius even refers to the naked nous.39

I.49 (S2 and S1): This is not the Unity which, on its own, puts itself in motion, but it is put in motion by the receptivity of the nous, which, because of negligence, turned its face away and, being deprived of [Unity] engendered ignorance.

This could have been said by Origen of Alexandria (e.g., in On First Principles, book 1, ch. 4), but has obvious affi nities with the Buddhist cos-mogenesis depicted in the Aggaa Sutta.

III.70 (S2 and S1): It belongs to the naked nous to say that which is its nature; and there is now no reply to that question, but at the end there will not even be a question.

The section previous to the one just quoted, III.69 in S1, pointed out that among all things that have been produced, only the nous is capable of the knowledge of the Holy Trinity. III.69.S2 puts it more subtly: It is not possible that the nous be constituted of anything other than contemplationthat is, unless even that should prove incapable of [rising to] the Trinity.

IV.8 (S2 and S1): The co-heir with Christ is the one who arrives in the Unity and delights in contemplation with Christ.

VI.10 (S2 and S1): The Holy Trinity is not like a tetrad, a pentad, etc.; these are, in effect, numbers but the Holy Trinity is a single essence.

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Evagrius is not worried about failing in monotheism (since this is settled in the creedal formula homoousios), he is expressing a distinction in Being. He is also articulating a contemplative manner of knowing that goes beyond such oppositions as singular and plural; this contemplative cognitive capacity is characteristic of the nous. But the nous, having fallen from contemplation, and being enveloped in a soul (psyche) and a body (Origen, On First Principles, book 3, ch. 6, no. 9), has to undergo healing and transformation in order to recover its natural condition.

4. The Therapeutic Nature of the Stages of the Spiritual Life

The stages of the spiritual life are sequentially therapeutic; to become what we are meant to be, a condition of illness must be cured. This is the basic principle animating the entire project of the Buddhist teachings on the Four Truths of the Noble Ones (catur-arya-satya), which is diagnostic and therapeutic. As we have shown elsewhere in a discussion of the history of Buddhist systematic philosophy,40 the Abhidharma scholars organized their Abhidharma scholars organized their Abhidharmatherapeutic research into categories based on the classic Four Truths.41 The three poisons in Buddhism are desire (cf. epithumia), anger (cf. thumos), and ignorance (cf. agno-sia)just as they are in the Kephalaia Gnostika.

III.35 (S2): Knowledge cures the nous, love the state of anger (thu-mos), and chastity the state of desire (epithumia). And the cause of the former is the latter, and the cause of the latter is the third.

Further:

IV.81 (S2): All contemplation is immaterial and incorporeal according to the sign of ones understanding. But whether material or imma-terial, it is said that it [contemplation] is that which grasps or does not grasp the objects that fall under its attention. (Translating from Greek: All contemplation by the sign of its intellection is immaterial and incorporeal; but material or immaterial, it is said to be that which possesses or that does not possess objects which fall beneath it.)

Evagrius seems here to be making a subtle critique of ordinary speech in order to clarify the higher, noetic defi nition of contemplation that he would prefer his disciples to use. Notice again the language, so close to Abhidharma, of grasping and apprehending, coming from the notion of the senses (including the mental activity, caitta) as extending them-selves outward to their objects, a topic that will be repeated in Evagriuss discussion of the senses.42

Further therapeutic analysis relates to the infl uence of other kinds of beings over the human soul:

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IV.85 (S2 and S1): The demons prevail over the soul when the passions multiply, leaving a man without good sense, extinguishing the powers of his organs of sense, for fear that, should he perceive a nearby [sav-ing] object, he might cause the nous to rise as if from a deep well.

The organs of sense are understood to be powers, corresponding to the Sanskrit term indriya. Combat with tempters (cf. Buddhist Ma. Combat with tempters (cf. Buddhist Ma-. Combat with tempters (cf. Buddhist Mara) is unavoidable in this world system.

The health of the soul is primordial and needs to be restored:

II.8 (S2 and S1): The wealth of the soul is knowledge, its poverty is ignorance. But if ignorance is the lack of knowledge, then wealth precedes poverty and the health of the soul comes before its state of illness.43

Having undergone spiritual healing, the nous ascends to its primordial state:

III.42 (S2 and S1): Contemplation is spiritual knowledge of the things that have been and which will be, which causes the nous to ascend to its fi rst rank.

III.4 (S1): The spiritual renewal of the just is the ascent from one virtue to another and from one knowledge to a superior knowledge.

The world-system itself was established to provide a situation in which this transformation can occur:

III.3 (S2): The world is the natural system that comprehends the dif-ferent and varied bodies of the logikoi, for [the purpose of bringing about] the knowledge of God.

Rational beings have a primordial capacity to undergo transformation and to ascend:

II.19 (S2 and S1): The knowledge concerning the logikoi is older than duality, and the cognitive nature is older than all natures.

The body itself will become subtle:

II.62 (S2): When the noes [plural of nous] shall have received the contemplation that concerns them, then too shall the nature of bodies be taken away, and thus shall the contemplation [of the nature of bodies] become immaterial.

II.6 (S1): When the noes of the saints shall have received the contem-plation of themselves, then too shall the density of bodies be taken

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away from their midst, and at last the vision will become spiritual (cf. Origen, On First Principles, book 2, ch. 3).

S1 makes it clear that the body is not taken away, but rather it is the density of the body that is removed by the process of ascent. Thus, it is not density of the body that is removed by the process of ascent. Thus, it is not densitya question of eliminating the body from eschatology, but of transforming eliminating the body from eschatology, but of transforming eliminatingall that is material from density into subtlety by means of contemplation; nothing is actually lost or eliminated, but all becomes the soma pneumatikosof I Cor. 15:44. A familiarity with the reversal doctrine of Asanga involv-ing the return to a body mind-made, feeding on delight, self-luminous, moving through the air, glorious (Aggaa Sutta 10) would support the Aggaa Sutta 10) would support the Aggaa Suttaview given in I Cor. 15 on the spiritual body. Instead, condemning Evagrius and Origen, Epiphanius of Salamis and Jerome opted for the more material interpretation of the resurrection of the body.44

5. The Experience of Perception Made Progressively Subtle

One of the aspects of the Kephalaia Gnostika that most closely resembles the Abhidharma literature is in the theory of perception, based on an analysis Abhidharma literature is in the theory of perception, based on an analysis Abhidharmaof the senses and the perceiving subject/mind.

I.34 (S2 and S1): A sense is naturally made to perceive by itself those things which are its objects; but the nous at all times prepares itself and waits to see that spiritual contemplation that comes to it in vision.

This verse make clearer sense when we keep in mind the classic Ab-hidharma notion of active sense organs. This notion also distinguishes hidharma notion of active sense organs. This notion also distinguishes hidharmabetween the senses which are active, reaching out to their objects, and the deeper level of consciousness which is purely receptive. A distinct consciousness can be distinguished corresponding to each of the fi ve senses; a sixth corresponds to mind itself. For the Abhidharma masters, the Abhidharma masters, the Abhidharmasenses operate through, fi rst, six external bases of sensory consciousness: visible objects (ru-(ru-(rupa-a(rupa-a(ru-pa-a-(ru-(rupa-a(ru-(ru -pa-a-pa-ayatana), pa-ayatana), pa-a-yatana), -pa-a-pa-ayatana), pa-a-pa-a audible objects (sabda-a(sabda-a-(sabda-ayatana),(sabda-ayatana),(sabda-a(sabda-a-(sabda-ayatana),(sabda-a-(sabda-a olfac-tory objects (gandha-a(gandha-a-(gandha-ayatana),(gandha-ayatana),(gandha-a(gandha-a-(gandha-ayatana),(gandha-a-(gandha-a gustatory objects (rasa-a(rasa-a-(rasa-ayatana),(rasa-ayatana),(rasa-a(rasa-a-(rasa-ayatana),(rasa-a-(rasa-a tangible objects (spras(spras.(sprast.avya-atavya-at -yatana),avya-ayatana),avya-a-yatana),- and nonsensory (mental) objects (dharma-a-yatana);ayatana);a-yatana);- second, six internal bases of conscious perceptionyatana); second, six internal bases of conscious perceptionyatana); (faculties): eye (caks.(caks.(caksu indriya au indriya a-u indriya ayatana), u indriya ayatana), u indriya au indriya a-u indriya ayatana), u indriya a-u indriya a ear (srotra indriya a(srotra indriya a-(srotra indriya ayatana), (srotra indriya ayatana), (srotra indriya a(srotra indriya a-(srotra indriya ayatana), (srotra indriya a-(srotra indriya a nose (ghra(ghra-(ghrana indriya a-yatana), ayatana), a-yatana), - tongue (jihva indriya a(jihva indriya a-(jihva indriya ayatana),(jihva indriya ayatana),(jihva indriya a(jihva indriya a-(jihva indriya ayatana),(jihva indriya a-(jihva indriya a skin (ka(ka-(kaya indriya a(kaya indriya a(ka(ka-(kaya indriya a(ka-(kaya indriya a-ya indriya ayatana),ya indriya ayatana),ya indriya aya indriya a-ya indriya ayatana),ya indriya a-ya indriya aand mind (mana indriya a(mana indriya a-(mana indriya ayatana)(mana indriya ayatana)(mana indriya a-yatana)-(mana indriya a-(mana indriya ayatana)(mana indriya a-(mana indriya a 45; and third, six consciousnessess linked to the faculties (indriyas): sight-consciousness (caks.(caks.(caksu-vijau-vija-u-vijana),hearing-consciousness (srotra-vija(srotra-vija-(srotra-vijana), olfactory consciousness (ghra(ghra-(ghrana-vijavija-vijana), gustatory consciousness (jihva(jihva-(jihva-vija-vija--vijana), tactile consciousness (ka(ka-(kaya-vija(kaya-vija(ka(ka-(kaya-vija(ka-(kaya-vija-ya-vijana), and mind-consciousness (mano-vija(mano-vija-(mano-vijana).

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In this system, perception is the active, momentary and usually karma-driven connection of external objects with internal faculties. Mind and mental states (citta and citta and citta caittas) are classed as faculties; citta or mana is the mana is the manafundamental and ultimate factor that is treated by the Abhidharma masters Abhidharma masters Abhidharmaas a governing indriya, which predominates over the entire process of per-ception.46 The image of the body as a house where the senses lodge and where perception occurs suggests yogic practice, especially in the practice of cutting off the senses47 with the bhandhas (pratyahara):

IV.68 (S2 and S1): This body of the soul is the sign of the house, and the sense organs are the sign of the windows, through which the nous looks out and sees sensory things.

More evidence that Evagrius had some knowledge of systems of yogic practice may be found in his distinction between the senses and sense organs:

I.36. (S2 and S1): The senses and the organs of sense are not the same thing, nor is that which senses and that which is sensed. The senses (1), in effect, are those powers with which we customarily perceive materials; the organs (2) of sense are those members in which the senses reside; that which senses (3) is the living subject who possesses sense organs, and that which is sensed (4) is that which falls under the purview of the senses. But it is not thus with the nous, because it is without one [three?] of these four.

We could not be in closer harmony with the way of thinking on the topic of sense perception as expounded in the Abhidharma literature, sum-marized above.

II.28 (S2 and S1): The sensory eye, when it sees something visible, does not see its totality; but the intelligible eye, in either not seeing or even in seeing, surrounds on all sides that which it sees.

This is a yogic phenomenon and refers to the experience of seeing without use of the material sense organ: a hint at the divyam caksdivyam caks.divyam caksus, the divine eye in Bhagavad Gita 11:8. It ties in to seeing with the light of God Bhagavad Gita 11:8. It ties in to seeing with the light of God Bhagavad Gitain I.35 (S2 and S1):

Just as the light, as long as it makes it possible for us to see, has no need of a light with which it can be seen, so also God, insofar as he makes all see, has no need of a light with which he will be known; in effect, in his essence, he is light.48effect, in his essence, he is light.48effect, in his essence, he is light.

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We have already seen in Chaudhuris comments on the Abhidharmakosathat citta is the ultimate faculty; here Evagrius uses nous as a precise syn-onym for citta:

II.45 (S2): The organs of the senses and the nous share things acces-sible to the senses; but only the nous has understanding of intelligible things; it [alone] perceives [both] objects and of understandings (logoi).

This could be applied to empirical knowledge, since the meaning of things understood empirically can only be determined by the noetic capacity of the mind. As Yasomitra points out in his commentary on the Abhidharmakosa, The world is led by the mind, is entirely subjugated by the mind. All phenomena are subject to this one Dharma: the mind.49

As one makes progress in spiritual practice, sense perception is left behind and immaterial contemplation becomes possible:

III.17 (S2): Those who have arrived within immaterial contempla-tion are also in the same order; but it is not those who are in the same order who are from now on in immaterial contemplation. In effect, it is possible that they are in the contemplation that concerns intelligible things, which also needs a naked nous, if it is seen again another time nakedly. [The Greek has: Those who have attained to immaterial contemplation are also in the [same] state; but they are not those who are in the same state who are from now on also in im-material contemplation. Indeed, it is possible that they are again in the contemplation that concerns the intelligibles, which also requires a naked nous, if it previously has also seen it nakedly.]

Direct noetic cognition is superior to sense data. The previous two sayings indicate the character of the state of perfection:

III.15 (S2): If the perfection of the nous is immaterial knowledge, as it is said, and being that the immaterial knowledge is the Trinity alone, it is evident that in that perfection nothing material will remain. And if that is so, once naked the nous will become a seer of the Trinity.

III.14 (S2 and S1): The defi cient soul is that whose power subject to passion inclines towards vain [things].

III.16 (S2 and S1): The perfect soul is one whose passible power acts according to nature.

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The diffi cult text at III.17 refers to a form of subtle knowledge of intel-ligible things that is not quite the knowledge of the Trinity, but is at the same time not the knowledge of material sense objects either. It is the knowledge of the meaning of things that are created: gnosis tou kosmou, but it is not theologia. This distinction suggests that Evagrius has combined teachings on higher perception from Indic sources with the teachings he received from the Cappadocian Fathers on knowledge of the Holy Trinity:

IV.77 (S2): Objects are outside the nous, and the contemplation of them is constituted within it. But when the [contemplation] is of the Holy Trinity, it is not like that, because it is exclusively essential gnosis.

This is a key text on nondualistic consciousness. First, normal sense data are with reference to the second-order creation (Providence) and have a within and a without appearance. Second, the nous is the perceiver. Third, contemplation of the Trinity, which is gnosis, is not the same as sense-data perception. It is essential gnosis, i.e., fi rst order, of the primordial nature of nous in itself.

At this level of spiritual development, Evagrius is discussing visionary, charismatic forms of perception:

III.48 (S2): The change of the just is the passage of bodiesboth praktike and seeing, to seeing bodies or to increasingly seeing bod-ies. (Greek: The change of the just is the passing from bodies which are praktike and seeing, into bodies which are seeing or very clearly seeing.)

It is signifi cant that to translate this passage, the Syriac translation uses hzhy, i.e., visionary seeing, rather than a word based on the sense organs. S1 hzhy, i.e., visionary seeing, rather than a word based on the sense organs. S1 hzhytries to be helpful to the beginner: The spiritual renewal of the just is the ascent from one virtue to another and from one knowledge to a superior knowledge. Again we can see the pattern of a pedagogical process based on successive stages of refi nement. One undergoes this refi nement by un-dertaking rigorous spiritual discipline (praktike) and gradually opening up the faculties to their true, natural state of higher perception.

IV.67 (S1): The objects that, through the senses, come to the souls attention shape it to make it receive in itself their forms, because this is the work of the nous in knowing, just as the animals that breathe from outside, and it (the nous) falls into danger if it does not work, according to the saying of Solomon the sage: The light of the Lord is the breath of men (Prov. XX, 27).

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The theory linking sense phenomena with mind and with breath sounds very Indian. The impression of an object shapes the perceptive capacity of the soul, replicating itself therein; perception nourishes the soul as air nourishes the body; light is prana. Yogic theory, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, has mind riding upon breath; breath and internal ener-getic currents work together in the yogins body, under his or her control. Ultimately, breath, energy, mind and light are dimensions of the one basic reality. Those who are on the spiritual journey begin to notice these matters intuitively and with greater and greater clarity as they go along:

V.57 (S2): Just as we now approach sensory objects via the senses, and at the end, when we have been purifi ed, we will also know the ways of understanding them, so when at fi rst we see objects, and more so when we shall be purifi ed, we will know the contemplation that concerns them, after which it will be possible to know evermore also the Holy Trinity.

V.58 (S2): The nous discerns sensation not so much as sensory but as so much sensation; and sensation discerns sensory things not so much as objects, but in as much as they are sensory objects.

Here we can see how subtle Evagriuss thinking on sense perception really was, and how close to Abhidharma teachings. Here the nousAbhidharma teachings. Here the nousAbhidharma would correspond to the principle of consciousness, vijavija-vijana, as the base of percep-tion; the act of perception in which the nous receives data from the sense organs is a grasping of a set of sensations from which an object is inferred. All objects are therefore conceptualized as having suchness but are in reality an inference derived from a complex set of sense data assembled by the base of consciousness. S2 goes on to say in V.59 that sensation does not discern sensation, but it discerns only the sense organs, not as sense organs, but as entities capable of sense perceptions. The nous discerns sensation as a set of sensory perceptions, and the sense organs as a set of sense organs.

More on pedagogy:

III.57 (S2 and S1): Just as those who teach letters to children trace them on tablets, so also Christ, in teaching his wisdom to the logikoi, traced it in the corporeal nature;

III.58 (S2): The one who wants to see things that are written needs light; and the one who wants to learn the wisdom of beings needs spiritual love.

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The humanity of Christ serves as a model of conduct for humans, es-pecially when they are beginners in the spiritual life. The light is the text of the Scriptures, given a mystical interpretation (Psalm 35: In your light we see light), and spiritual love prepares one for the stage of the knowledge of created things in Evagriuss sevenfold scheme.

6. The Theme of Nourishment

Eating as a spiritual problem is theologically connected with the Fall (Gen. 3) and the eating of the forbidden fruit, and also with the Buddhist myth of the decline of primordial beings in the Aggaa Sutta. In fact, Evagriuss understanding of the Fall arises from the esoteric tradition of Biblical in-terpretation, in which, for example, the garments of skin are understood to be the body of fl esh given to Adam and Eve only after their sin.50 The original condition of the human person was to be immortal and nonfl eshly. These views were condemned in the anti-Origenist canons of 543 and 553, linked to the decrees of the Second Council of Constantinople.51 Evagrius, however, returns frequently to the theme of nourishment, both bodily and mental. Without a knowledge of Buddhist cosmological speculation, it is diffi cult to interpret his teachings:

I.23 (S2): Understandings of things of the Earth are the good things of the Earth. But if the holy angels know these, according to the word of the Tekoite [a wise woman from Tekoah who told David: Your majesty is as wise as the angel of God and knows all that goes on in the land 2 Sam. 14:20], the angels of God eat the good things of the Earth. But it is said that man ate the bread of angels [Ps. 77(78): 25]; it is thus apparent that also a few among men have known the understanding of that which is on Earth.

It is interesting to see how Evagrius cites an obscure Old Testament pas-sage to discuss the question of bread as knowledge, and knowledge as linking things of Heaven to things of Earth. At fi rst glance, the reference to the bread of angels in Psalm 77(78) seems to be to the manna story in Exodus, to which the Psalm alludes. But the relationship between noetic understanding and eating something good (i.e., sweet) on the Earth puts us very close to the Buddhist Genesis story of Digha Nikaya XXVII, 10ff, the Digha Nikaya XXVII, 10ff, the Digha Nikaya Aggaa Sutta (cf. Aggaa Sutta (cf. Aggaa SuttaAbhidharmakosa III, 98 a/b). Not only that allusion, but also the discussion of King David as having unusual knowledge in order to protect the land from the insidious plots of his son Absalom, suggests the Aggaa Sutta. In the sutta, the origin of the warrior (ksatriya) (ksatriya) (k.satriya) . caste is depicted in the need to protect the people from thieves who would steal crops from the fi eld. In the case of Absalom, to get Joabs attention, he has Joabs fi eld of barley

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burned (2 Sam. 14:3032). David is a true ksatriya, knowing and protecting burned (2 Sam. 14:3032). David is a true ksatriya, knowing and protecting burned (2 Sam. 14:3032). David is a true k.satriya, knowing and protecting .the fi elds (k.setra);(ksetra);(k.setra);. Absalom is a criminal plotting against the king, his father, setra); Absalom is a criminal plotting against the king, his father, setra);and destroying the fi elds; he is therefore unworthy of kingship.

Another reference to the Buddhist cosmological sutta is found in I.26. (S2 and S1):

If the human body is a part of this world and if the form of this world is passing [I Cor. 8:31], it is apparent that the form of the body is also passing.

This passage takes Evagrius on the road to denying the resurrection of the body in a literal sense. We are tempted to fi nd here a resonance with the notion in the Aggaa Sutta, in which the primordial form of the body is pure mind and luminous, only to become gross and material as a consequence of karmic negativity, which began with the act of glut-tony in consuming the sweet substance on the surface of the Earth. From the Evagrian point of view, the return to pure contemplation will require a reversal of the density of embodied existence and a purifi cation of the operation of the senses. A similar idea of reversal can be found in the writings of Evagriuss Indian Buddhist contemporary, Asanwritings of Evagriuss Indian Buddhist contemporary, Asan

.writings of Evagriuss Indian Buddhist contemporary, Asanga52, in the Bo-dhisattvabhudhisattvabhu-dhisattvabhumi. That this is about spiritual transformation is clear from the following passage:

III.7 (S2): Each change has been established to nourish the rational beings (logikoi); and those who so nourish themselves arrive at the excellent change, but those who do not so nourish themselves arrive at an evil change [cf. III.4 on the nourishment of angels, humans, and demons].

This is a key passage for understanding Evagriuss pedagogical theory, itself inseparable from the sevenfold scheme of growth in holiness (cited in the fi rst chapter of the Praktikos; see above). First of all, here we have the dimension of choice: one can choose to progress in virtue; the choices are programmed and established; the character of learning is a cognitive pro-cess (noesis) described as nourishment that leads to transformation. The Kephalaia themselves constitute this program of spiritual nourishment. Not Kephalaia themselves constitute this program of spiritual nourishment. Not Kephalaiato follow them leads one to a bad end, just as the student who does not study fails. Thus, we can identify the imperfect nous and the perfect nous:

III.10 (S2): The imperfect nous is the one who still needs that con-templation known through corporeal nature.

III.11 (S2 and S1): The perfect nous is that one which can receive easily the essential knowledge.

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The nature of this perfection corresponds to the luminosity that char-acterized the primordial beings in Buddhist cosmology. Bodies of light, which at fi rst seem to refer to stars but which are really the luminous clothing of the noes, are mentioned in III.5 (S2 and S1). The theory of the body of light is the basis for later Syriac speculation53 on the mystical experience of light: The noes of the heavenly powers are pure and full of knowledge, and their bodies are the luminaries that are resplendent upon those who come near to them. This may be compared to V.15 (S2 and S1):

The nous that has despoiled itself of passions becomes entirely like light, because it is lit up by the contemplation of beings.

7. The Theory That Beings Correspond to Their Proper Sphere or Abode (comparable to the Sanskrit term loka)54

Evagrius shows some familiarity with the idea of multiple worlds (some-thing also present in Origen), and he has clear ideas about the nature of beings in those worlds:

I.65 (S2 and S1): Those whose genesis is second-order are established by their own knowledge within various worlds wherein they pursue indescribable combats. But in the Unity, none of this occurs; there there is an ineffable peace and there are only naked noes who forever satiate themselves of its abundance, if, according to the word of our Savior: The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to Christ.

In Evagriuss understanding of cosmogenesis, the second-order creation was Gods providential offer of a material world within which beings could be held and eventually recovered and restored to fi rst-order contemplation. But the way of life that beings (angels, demons and humans) follow in their respective worlds or abodes is full of violence. Salvation will consist of an ineffable peace in which the noetic beings return to the primordial Unity, having purifi ed both the primordial fall and the subsequent combats of the world of the senses.

The worlds of beings have a variety of nourishments:

II.82 (S2): The spiritual powers do not have bodies, but only [beings that have] souls [have bodies], which are naturally made to nourish themselves from the world to which they belong.

In the Aggaa Sutta, the primordial food of all beings was sama-dhi, but they fell into the habit of indulging in the sweet Earth, which transformed itself according to the karmic level of successive appearances of beings. The

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spiritual powers mentioned here are the primordial noes before their fall and the appearance of embodied existence composed of various proportions of the prime elements. Spiritual powers correspond to the bodies made of mind, luminous, and undifferentiated as to sex in the early Buddhist account. As beings decline under the infl uence of negative karma, their consciousness principle (nous or vijaconsciousness principle (nous or vija-consciousness principle (nous or vijana) are enveloped by the soul, or subtle body, and are gradually distinguished by sex and the material body. The soul (psyche) (III.28) consists of the nous which, because of negligence, has fallen from the Unity and which, as a consequence of its nonvigilance, has fallen to the level of praktike. The nature of embodied existence in the Kephalaia Gnostikos strangely resembles Buddhist teaching:Kephalaia Gnostikos strangely resembles Buddhist teaching:Kephalaia Gnostikos

III.29 (S2 and S1): The sign of the human order is the human body, and the sign of each of the orders is greatness, forms, colors, qualities, natural forces, weakness, time, place, parents, growth, modes, life, death and that which latches on to things.

This list corresponds in several points to the twelvefold chain of prat-tyasamutpatyasamutpa-tyasamutpada: ignorance, karmic formation, consciousness, name and form, six involvements, contact, feeling, craving, grasping, existence, birth, old age and death.

This is also the theme of the categories of beings in V.11 (S2 and S1):

From the order of angels come the order of archangels and that of psychics; from that of psychics [will come that] of demons and of men; and from that of men will come anew that of angels and demons, if a demon is that which, because of an abundance of rage (thumos), has fallen from praktike and has been joined to a darkened and extensive body.

The text has strong affi nities with the notion of metempsychosis, even if it could be interpreted to refer to the spiritual state of a monk who has failed momentarily in his ascetic practice (praktike). It is also clear that there is some affi nity with the notion of distinct realms or destinies (San-skrit: gati) corresponding to karmic fruition. This later became the basis for the Tibetan Bardo Thodol (instructions to be heard after death in the Bardo Thodol (instructions to be heard after death in the Bardo Thodolintermediate statethe Book of the Dead).

Another text with affi nities with this thought-world is V.42 (S2), which hints at experiences encountered in Tibetan-style dark retreat:

The world built up out of thought is considered hard to see by day, because the nous is attracted by the senses and by the sensory light that shines, but it is possible to see it by night, when it is imprinted luminously at the time of prayer.

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Here, S2 is speaking of the world or body made of pure luminous con-sciousness, the state of the primordial beings in the Aggaa Sutta; being Aggaa Sutta; being Aggaa Sutta;involved with materiality and sense perception draws us away from that kind of interior universe. Dark retreat, or nocturnal contemplation, opens it up for us and teaches us about the spiritual world. (S1 occupies himself here with a discussion relevant to dealing with distractions at prayer.) VI.87 should dispel any doubt about this interpretation:

According to the word of Solomon, the nous is joined to the heart; and the light that appears [to the nous] seems to arise in the physi-cal head.

This is a very esoteric insight that could only be based on experience with meditation practice. Endless controversies about the nature of this light ensued in Eastern Christian monastic circles. Simeon the New Theo-logian and Gregory Palamas articulated the hesychastic doctrine on the inner luminosity. In the Buddhist Vajrayana, vijainner luminosity. In the Buddhist Vajrayana, vija-inner luminosity. In the Buddhist Vajrayana, vijana is in the heart chakra, accompanied by the seed syllable hung, which means indigo blue in color; the white light is experienced in the head (forehead) accompanied by the white seed syllable Om; at the throat chakra, the red seed syllable Om; at the throat chakra, the red seed syllable Om; Ah is Ah is Ahvisualized to give access to communication in the dream state. By working with this light, the contemplative initiates a process that will consume both soul and body to leave the nous naked and free:

II.29 (S2 and S1): Just as fi re has the power to consume the body of its fuel, so too will the nous have the power to consume the soul when it will be entirely blended with the Light of the Holy Trinity.

VI. The Method of Retroversion

Retroversions of Evagriuss Greek text into Sanskrit can give us some indication of the extreme closeness in worldview and approach between the Kephalaia Gnostika and Buddhist Kephalaia Gnostika and Buddhist Kephalaia Gnostika Abhidharma texts. I can justify this Abhidharma texts. I can justify this Abhidharmaprocedure on the basis of the translations from Prakrit into Greek and Aramaic that were done in the Ashokan inscriptions in the third century B.C.E. I am borrowing the Buddhist Sanskrit terminology from such works as the Abhidharmakosa of Vasubandhu, a contemporary of Evagrius whose writings accurately refl ect the evolution of Buddhist cosmology and psy-chology during the fi rst eight centuries of the spread of the Dharma.

My method will be as follows: I will give the Greek text of the Kephalaia Gnostika, recovered from surviving Greek fragments of Evagrius, and my English translation of the Greek. The translation from the Greek is refi ned by

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comparison with A. Guillaumonts French translation of Syriac manuscript S2. Then I will suggest corresponding Buddhist Sanskrit terms for a retrover-sion into a hypothetical Sanskrit source that came into the Hellenistic world some time before the composition of the Kephalaia Gnostika.

1. II.45 (S2)

Greek original: AstheAsthe-Asthesis men kai nous merizontai ta asthesis men kai nous merizontai ta asthe-sis men kai nous merizontai ta astheta; nous de monos echei ta noeechei ta noe-echei ta noeta kai gar to-ta kai gar to-ta kai gar ton pragmato-n kai to-n kai to-n kai ton logo-n logo-n logon ho autos ginetai theaten ho autos ginetai theate-n ho autos ginetai theates.

English translation: The organs of the senses and the mind share things accessible to the senses, but only the mind has understanding of intelligible things; it [alone] can perceive [both] objects and understandings.

Retroversion:English: Sense organs and the mind shareGreek: AstheAsthe-Asthesis men kai nous merizontaiSanskrit: indriyaindriya-indriyahindriyahindriya . ca cittah. vibhajanti

English: things accessible to the senses but only the mind Greek: ta astheta asthe-ta astheta nous de monosSanskrit: indriyaindriya-indriyarthartha-rthanrthanrtha . i cittah. eva hi

English: has understanding of intelligible things. It aloneGreek: echei ta noe-ta. Kai garSanskrit: upalabhate cittacitta-cittarthartha-rthanrthanrtha . i. Eva hi

English: can perceive both objects and understandings.Greek: ginetai theateginetai theate-ginetai theates to-n pragmato-n kai ton kai to-n kai ton logon logo-n logon ho autosutosuSanskrit: pasyan arthabuddhivisayaarthabuddhivisaya-arthabuddhivisayau

2. II.19.

The Greek corresponds to the Syriac text: Gno-Gno-Gnosis dioti to-sis dioti to-sis dioti ton logiko-n logiko-n logikon presbutera deutereian kai gar ho nous presbutera paso-deutereian kai gar ho nous presbutera paso-deutereian kai gar ho nous presbutera pason to-n logiko-n logiko-n logikon.

English translation: The knowledge concerning all the logikoi is older than duality, and the cognitive nature is older than all natures.

Retroversion:English: The knowledge concerning the rational naturesGreek: gno-sis dioti logikologiko-logikon Sanskrit: jaja-janahjanahja . prati sarva-cetana

-nisarva-cetananisarva-cetana

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English: (is) older than duality and the cognitive nature Greek: presbutera deutereian kai gar ho nousSanskrit: var.s

-yahyah.yah dvaitadvaita-dvaitat ca apidvaitat ca apidvaita buddhih.

English: (is) older than all natures.Greek: presbutera paso-n to-n logikon logiko-n logikonSanskrit var.s

-yahyah.yah sarvadharmabhyahsarvadharmabhyah.sarvadharmabhyah

3. IV.68

Greek fragment from Hr-nfg 231: OOOkou men eikona to so-kou men eikona to so-kou men eikona to soma to tema to tema to t-s psuche-s, hai de aisthe-seis thurido-seis thurido-seis thuridon epechousi logon, di ho-n epechousi logon, di ho-n epechousi logon, di hon parakupto-n parakupto-n parakupton ho nous blepei ta aisthe-ta.

English translation: This body of the soul is the sign of the house, and the sense organs are the sign of the windows, through which the mind looks out and sees sensory things.

Retroversion:English: This body of the soul (is) the image of the houseGreek: to so-ma to te-s psuches psuche-s psuches eikona okouSanskrit: tat sar-tat sar-tat sarra dehinas ru-pahrupahrupah.pah grgr.grhasya

English: and the sense organs correspond to the functionGreek: hai de aistheaisthe-aistheseis epechousi logonSanskrit: ca eva indriyaindriya-indriyahindriyahindriya . grgr.grhn. a

-tiatia laks.anam

English: of the windows out of which the mind looks outGreek: thuridothurido-thuridon di ho di ho- di hon ho nous parakuptoparakupto-parakuptonSanskrit jaja-jalasyajalasyaja yena buddhih. pasyapasya

-pasyanpasyanpasya

English: and sees objects of the senses.Greek: kai blepei ta aistheta aisthe-ta aistheta.Sanskrit: api pasyati indriyaindriya-indriyarthartha-rthanrthanrtha . i.

VII: Conclusions

It is obvious that this article is meant to raise more questions than it re-solves. Since there are no known Greek texts that make any claim to be direct translations of an Indic original (with the precious exception of the Khandahar inscription of Ashoka), it is particularly diffi cult to establish a line of transmission for philosophical ideas from northwest India to the

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centers of Hellenistic learning. However, it is possible to establish lines of communication going the other way at various periods. We know that trade certainly went both ways. An Indian ivory fi gurine at Pompeii is matched by numerous examples of Roman wares dispersed in the archeological remains identifi ed across India. There was an entire Roman trading town south of what is now Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu. Examples of Greco-Roman infl u-ence on Gandharan sculpture are numerous, and not irrelevant to our study of Abhidharma transmission to the West (in fact, so numerous that they merit Abhidharma transmission to the West (in fact, so numerous that they merit Abhidharmaa more careful chronology, since many of the pieces date from the third and fourth centuries C.E.the period most relevant to our study, and not from the post-Ashokan period, three centuries before the birth of Christ).

All the more valuable, therefore, is it to fi nd a text like the Kephalaia Gnostika of Evagrius containing remarkable passages that lend themselves to Gnostika of Evagrius containing remarkable passages that lend themselves to Gnostikaretroversion into Buddhist Sanskrit. Such passagesand those that contain typical early Christian and Stoic themes, but which are brought into full relief only in the light of yogic and Buddhist terminology and practicesuggest a much stronger exchange of ideas than has heretofore been demonstrable. We have heard of the parable of the prodigal son in the Lotus Sutra or the entry Lotus Sutra or the entry Lotus Sutraof the child Buddha into the temple and the astonishment of the elders in the Lalitavistara (comparable to Luke 3, the child Jesus in the temple), but these Lalitavistara (comparable to Luke 3, the child Jesus in the temple), but these Lalitavistara

tales have many characteristics in common with orally transmitted folklore.55 With the Sogdian Christian man-uscript C2, we have a late example of a Greco-Aramaic text translated into an Indic-related language (Sogdian). Only in texts from the pen of Evagrius at Wadi Natrun and Sketis in Egypt do we have anything that looks even remotely like an author of Hellenistic culture fully mak-

ing use of teachings that have strong affi nities with specifi c Buddhist and yogic teachings (as distinguished from oral folk tales, proverbial material and the like). Even where Clement of Alexandria mentions Buda in the Stromateis, we are not given an extensive account of any distinctly Buddhist teachings. And in the Manichean Kephalaia that have come down to us,Kephalaia that have come down to us,Kephalaia 56 the extent of Buddhist content is reduced to an extreme minimum.

How then do we fi nd teachings on the mind, on the operation of the senses, on cosmology and so many other topics in a Christian scholar who was a disciple of the Cappadocian Fathers? We are tempted to imagine palm leaf manuscripts in the Library of Alexandria57 read by a disciple to Didimus the Blind and handed on to Macarius and Evagrius! Did Melania and Rufi -nus have Buddhist texts translated into Greek in their Origenistic collection in Jerusalem? We have certainly stumbled upon one of the most intriguing mysteries of ancient Christianity, one that has implications for our present-

We are tempted to imagine

palm-leaf manuscripts in

the library at Alexandria.

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day dialogue with and study of Buddhism. In fact, this research embraces the entire drama of religious relations in virtually all of Eurasia.

The very topics that interest us were among those condemned in 543 and 553 at Constantinople. One can only wonder if a proper understand-ing of the yogic basis of these teachings might have rescued them from the condemnation. Were these teachings about a cosmic vision of the human person, or were they about the spiritual processes of interior transforma-tion? Were they ontological/cosmological, or mystical/psychological? The same question bewilders students of Nagarjunas negations in the MuMu-Mulamalama-lama-dhyamikakarika: are these a description of the ontological openness of being itself, or are they instructions for meditators to remain in the freshness of the stream of mental processes so as to be free from impurities and attach-ments? In the Kephalaia Gnostika, there are many teachings that do not fall under the condemnation of Constantinople II, but which have strong affi ni-ties with Abhidharma, such as the teachings on perception and the senses. Again, these are too close in their Indic affi nities to be easily explainable as typical Hellenistic descriptions of psychological phenomena.

We need to revisit the history of the evolution of Buddhist systemat-ics58 for the chronology and character of the Buddhist works which predate Evagrius and which therefore might have been the literary sources for the topics that Evagrius worked into his system of mental training for advanced anchorites. Certainly the Abhidharmahr.daya would be a prime candidate. daya would be a prime candidate. dayaUnfortunately, it seems to exist only in a Chinese translation, a precious witness to the abundant writings of the Vaibhashikas and Sarvastivadins of Kashmir in the fi rst three centuries of the C.E.

Further research will want to investigate the key moments in our chro-nology from Ashoka to the Sogdian manuscript C2 to establish the likely paths of transmission for intellectual properties across the trade routes of south and southwest Asia.

We will also want to accomplish more precise translation from Greek back into Sanskrit, and to evaluate carefully the vocabulary and the met-rics of the possible retroversions. This will require a careful examination of the existing Evagrian Greek fragments. Evagrian studies have become something of a cottage industry, and we can hope that scholars will answer our questions sooner or later. In the meantime, I hope this essay will spur them on their task, and that it will be a ray of hope to those of us who are committed to perseverance in interreligious dialogue, considering that what we are doing today was done with extraordinary fecundity in the remote past. We are picking up the scattered threads of ancient sutras, allowing them to question us after so many centuries on the life and death concerns that are at the heart of the unicum necessarium.

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Notes

1. Robert T. Meyer, trans., Palladius: The Lausiac History (Westminster, MD: The Palladius: The Lausiac History (Westminster, MD: The Palladius: The Lausiac HistoryNewman Press; London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1965), Evagrius #38, 1104; Melania the Elder #46, 1235.

2. Jeremy Driscoll, O.S.B., and Mark Sheridan, O.S.B., eds., Spiritual Progress: Studies in the Spirituality of Late Antiquity and Early Monasticism (Roma: Studia Anselmiana the Spirituality of Late Antiquity and Early Monasticism (Roma: Studia Anselmiana the Spirituality of Late Antiquity and Early Monasticism115, 1994), 63.

3. Evagrius Ponticus, The Praktikos: Chapters on Prayer, trans. John Eudes Bamberger, The Praktikos: Chapters on Prayer, trans. John Eudes Bamberger, The Praktikos: Chapters on PrayerO.C.S.O. (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1978).

4. vagre le Pontique, Le Gnostique ou Celui qui est Devenu Digne de la Science, trans. Antoine Guillaumont and Claire Guillaumont, Sources Chrtiennes no. 356 (Paris: Les ditions du Cerf, 1989).

5. Les Six Centuries des Kephalaia Gnostica Dvagre le Pontique, trans. Antoine Guillaumont, Patrologia Orientalis XXVIII, Fasc. 1 (Paris: Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1958).

6. This is the term used by Evagriuss disciple John Cassian. See Bruno Barnhart and Joseph Wong, eds., Purity of Heart and Contemplation: A Monastic Dialogue Between Christian and Asian Traditions (New York: Continuum, 2001), 46.Christian and Asian Traditions (New York: Continuum, 2001), 46.Christian and Asian Traditions

7. Evagrius, Praktikos, 14, which sums up the sevenfold scheme of the spiritual life according to Evagrius.

8. See Augustine Casiday, Gabriel Bunge and the Study of Evagrius Ponticus, St. Vladimirs Theological Quarterly 48, nos. 23 (2004): 24998, for a recent detailed discussion of the much-debated topic of Evagriuss condemnation at the Second Council of Constantinople (553).

9. Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (11651240?), Journey to the Lord of Power: A Sufi Manual on Retreat, trans. Rabia Terri Harris (New York: Inner Traditions International Ltd., 1981).

10. Jos Pereira and Francis Tiso, The History of Buddhist Systematics from Buddha to Vasubandhu, Philosophy East and West 38, no. 2 (April 1988): 17286.Philosophy East and West 38, no. 2 (April 1988): 17286.Philosophy East and West

11. M. Parmentier, Evagrius of Pontus Letter to Melania I, 272310, in Everett Ferguson, ed., Forms of Devotion: Conversion, Worship, Spirituality, and Asceticism(New York and London: Garland, 1999), is the best original source for Evagriuss system. See also Columba Stewart, Imageless Prayer and the Theological Vision of Evagrius Ponticus, Journal of Early Christian Studies 9, 2 (2001): 173204.

12. This was given in the Letter to Melania where the speculative framework is accompanied by due warnings of caution about divulging it to those who have not practiced the ascetic disciplines that are the indispensable transformative preparation for such knowledge.

13. Stewart, Imageless Prayer, 1845.14. Jeremy Driscoll, O.S.B., The Ad Monachos of Evagrius Ponticus: Its Structure and

A Select Commentary (Roma: Studia Anselmiana 104, 1991), 33845A Select Commentary (Roma: Studia Anselmiana 104, 1991), 33845A Select Commentary15. See Driscoll, Spiritual Progress, 77, for an attempt to see areas of focus in the six

chapters of the Kephalaia Gnostika.16. See Driscoll, Ad Monachos, 31222.17. vagre le Pontique, Sur les Penses [Greek title: Sur les Penses [Greek title: Sur les Penses Peri Logismon (see 129)], trans. Paul

Ghin, Claire Guillaumont and Antoine Guillaumont (Paris: Les ditions du Cerf, 1998), Sources Chrtiennes No. 438, 246. This treatise may be closely linked to the Praktikos because both works discuss topics related to the threefold stage of Praktikos because both works discuss topics related to the threefold stage of Praktikos praktike.

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18. See Stewart, Imageless Prayer, 18691.19. Le Pontique, Penses, 236 n. 2.20. Cf. Kephalaia Gnostika I.76; II.19, 63. The citation is from Penses, 23739;

all translations from the French are my own. Compare Points of Controversy(Kathavatthu) (Pali Text Society, 1993), Applications of mindfulness, 1048, and The Path of Discrimination (Patisambhidamagga) (Pali Text Society, 1991), On breathing, Treatise III.

21. See the Abhidharmakosa I, 2b, for the defi nition of Dharma and Dharma and Dharma Abhidharma.22. Abhidharmakosa on dravya: I, 16-19; II, 147, 260; III, 142.dravya: I, 16-19; II, 147, 260; III, 142.dravya:23. Le Pontique, Penses, 239.24. The literature of Buddhist Abhidharma is vast. Vasubandhu calls Abhidharma is vast. Vasubandhu calls Abhidharma Abhidharma

envisioning that nature which is the object of supreme cognition, ultimately, nirvana. Dharma is that which bears distinctive and/or collective characteristics. Dharma is that which bears distinctive and/or collective characteristics. Dharma(ADK I, 2b). The Pali Canon includes seven works in the Abhidhamma Pitaka: Dhammasangani, VibhaDhammasangani, Vibha-Dhammasangani, Vibhanga, Kathavatthu, Puggalapaatti, Dhanga, Kathavatthu, Puggalapaatti, Dha-nga, Kathavatthu, Puggalapaatti, Dhatukatha, Yamaka, and Pattana. However, later commentaries and original compendia are important to our work, since any of the works (especially those taught in NW India) might have migrated west to the Hellenistic libraries. See Hajime Nakamura, Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989), 10429.Survey with Bibliographical Notes (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989), 10429.Survey with Bibliographical Notes

25. For example, in the Letter to Melania the senses are listed in the same order as that given below in our discussion of indriyas, with specifi c signifi cance, in the Abhidharmakosa.

26. A Bilingual Graeco-Aramaic Edict by Asoka: The First Greek Inscription Discovered in Afghanistan, trans. G. Pugliese Carratelli and G. Garbini (Roma: IsMEO , 1964). See also Romila Thapar, Ashoka and the Decline of the Mauryas (Oxford and New Delhi: Ashoka and the Decline of the Mauryas (Oxford and New Delhi: Ashoka and the Decline of the MauryasOxford University Press, 1997), especially the afterword, 271321, which discusses the Greek-Aramaic inscription, archeological evidence and textual evidence for contact between India and the Hellenistic world. Naresh Prasad Rastogi, Inscriptions of Ashoka (Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Offi ce, 1990), gives a Prakrit rendering of Greek and Aramaic originals, 33344, demonstrating the method of retroversion.

27. Nicolas Sims-Williams, The Christian Sogdian Manuscript C2 (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1985).

28. See Guillaumont, Les Six Centuries des Kephalaia Gnostica, 713, for a discussion of manuscript sources.

29. Ir. Hausherr, Nouveaux fragments grecs dvagre le Pontique, Orientalia Christiana Periodica V (Rome, 1939), and J. Muyldermans, Periodica V (Rome, 1939), and J. Muyldermans, Periodica Evagriana, Extrait de la revue Le Muson 44, augment de: Nouveaux fragments grecs indits (Paris: Paul Geuthner, Muson 44, augment de: Nouveaux fragments grecs indits (Paris: Paul Geuthner, Muson 44, augment de: Nouveaux fragments grecs indits1931).

30. The condemnations of this synod were appended to the decrees of the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553, as reported in Grillmeiers work, Christ in Christian Tradition (vol. II, pt. 2, ch. 3, 385410), but are not included among the decrees of the ecumenical councils in recent editions. See Norman P. Tanner, S.J., ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, Volume I Nicaea I to Lateran V. (London: Sheed & Ward; of the Ecumenical Councils, Volume I Nicaea I to Lateran V. (London: Sheed & Ward; of the Ecumenical Councils, Volume I Nicaea I to Lateran VGeorgetown: Georgetown University Press, 1990), 10522, taking particular note of 1056, which explains that the condemnations of Origen cannot be attributed to this Council.

31. I.e., the unusual teaching on the Fall, the notion of creation as a providential

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catchment for falling rational beings, and the ambiguity between this mythic structure as the overall pattern of creation, over against the insight that the pattern is relived by the contemplative in the daily battle with thoughts.

32. See Parmentier, Letter to Melania, 278, 281, in which Evagrius expresses his unwillingness to put everything into written form because there are secrets which should not be learnt by everyone (I.4).

33. Origen, On First Principles (Gloucester: Peter Smith Publishers, 1973), book 2, ch. On First Principles (Gloucester: Peter Smith Publishers, 1973), book 2, ch. On First Principles3, no. 1, 88f.

34. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya, ed. Maurice Walshe (Boston: Wisdom Publications,1995), 27: 40715.

35. Driscoll, Ad Monachos, 348, 350.36. Origen, On First Principles, book 1, ch. 4. The cause of the Fall was negligence.

Compare any of the satti-patthana (mindfulness) treatises of Buddhism.satti-patthana (mindfulness) treatises of Buddhism.satti-patthana37. Origen, On First Principles, book 3, ch. 6, no. 9, and book 1, ch. 6, cf. lviii and 25 n.

10.38. The text is my own translation from the Tibetan text found in the gDams ngag

mdzod, comp. Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, vol. 5, 667 and 1201.39. The term logikoi describes the plurality of logikoi describes the plurality of logikoi noes (nous) before the Fall; nous is the nous is the nous

core reality of rational beings that has been sheathed in the psyche. See Origen, On First Principles, book 1, ch. 4 and 5. One can compare the use of the terms cittam, manas, and vijavija-vijana in the na in the na Dhamma samgani, sections 6, 63, and 65, taking note of the fact that there is no permanent substratum in the Abhidharma analysis of mental phenomena, an insight that does not appear in Evagrius or Origen.

40. Jos Pereira and Francis Tiso, op. cit.41. Two of which, by the way, are not noble; rya refers to those who know the truths, rya refers to those who know the truths, rya

the noble ones, the saints who have attained realizationin other words, the gnostics of Evagriuss second volume.

42. This action of the senses extending themselves toward their objects is also referred to as the contact theory of perception. See Dhamma samgani, section 597f. Discussion of this topic by Caroline A. F. Rhys Davids is quite in line with our research; see lixlxiii (theory of perception) lxv, lxxii, lxix, etc.

43. Similarly II.29 and V.15 also III.46, ailments of the soul.44. Caroline Walker Bynum, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-

1336 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), 8694.1336 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), 8694.133645. P. Pradhan. Abhidharmakosabhasyam of Vasubandhu (Patna: K. P. J

tiso, francis, evagrius of pontus and buddhist abidhamma

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