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| 2 June 1999 This is my picture of the situation at the time of Jesus, gained from the literature I reviewed in my RILKO lecture. In the time of Jesus there were three important teaching centres in western Eurasia and north Africa. These were: Balkh; Egypt and the Druid area. There may have been another centre in India, but I have no information, and India probably got its philosophy from Balkh (seat of the Buddhist Parmak priests who later became the 'advisers' to the Khalifate in Baghdad - Viziers to Haroun al Rashid). There may well have been other areas, including the Essenes who seem to have been derivative of the others - or possibly the local branch. Balkh was finally destroyed by the Mongols but reports say that its ruins cover a vast area. It is often referred to as the 'Mother of Cities' and is exceedingly ancient. It is by no means impossible that it is the real origin of the later civilisations of Egypt and the Indus as well as the later influences of Zoroastrianism, a component of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is the most likely source of the Magi, reported in the Gospels and a delegation said to visit Mohammed in the early days of Islam. Important scientific activity continued in the Central Asian area long after this period (note Al Khwarizmi from whom we get Algorithm and much western mathematics). I would therefore expect that if he behaved like a modern teacher of this kind he would have spent time in all three. For a recent example see: Tahir Shah - The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Weidenfield & Nicholson 1998). Various hints in the literature I reviewed in my RILKO lecture indicate that Jesus had (at least) two separate teaching periods in his life; the first in the west, allegedly described in the New Testament; the other further east, ending in Kashmir at Yuz Asaf. The eastern branch is still represented by the group in Herat, described by Omar M. Burke who met them, probably in the 1950s. They were very critical of the New Testament, saying that it was a distorted version of the teaching and, like Thomas Jefferson, said that bits had been added by unauthorised people. Events like the life of Jesus tend to occur when the teaching is in general running down and needs a new boost, and when major changes are occurring in the general human condition. One representative travels to the various centres, learns what they have and then re-synthesises it and reissues it in a form appropriate to changing times. The older centres may then decline. In Europe Druidism seems to have ceased after the Roman conquest, though some of it probably continued in Ireland, outside the Roman area - later to re-emerge in the Celtic Church. By the Roman period Egypt was clearly not what it once was, though some activity probably continued into the Coptic period and the Islamic period. Another resynthesis occurred in the early Islamic period, when the classic Sufi literature expressed it through Arabic and Persian. Robert Graves notes the Arab script cross found in Ireland with a Bismillah on it. Part was then passed on to the Europeans in the form of modern science, through the translation school in Toledo, Islamic Spain, and by Arab travellers. Most likely the cathedral builders were a practical expression, possibly traceable back to Dhu'l Nun in Egypt, founder of the Al Banna (Builders) and the Yassawiya group, linguistically represented by the Masons, and their financial arm the Templars. Unfortunately, all these activities become surrounded by various types of misunderstandings which often take the form of religion. In the west these became entrenched in the form of a powerful political cult which tried to suppress the core of the knowledge by denying scientific activity and mysticism. This power was broken in the Reformation, allowing science to emerge into the public light. In our time we are getting a new boost, which is transforming scientific and cultural activity in many different ways, and emphasising again the need for comprehensive thinking for the solution of complex problems, the theme of a recent series of lectures in London. Interestingly, it has no 'religious' content at all, or none that is visible to me. But the numerous themes being mentioned include: new work on the functioning of the brain and its infinite programmability; complex problem solving; the role of story in personal and human development; the usefulness of exploring the traditional medical ideas found in the colonised peoples. Whether Jesus intended the religious organisations that attached themselves to his name I don't know, but I suspect they were an unfortunate but unavoidable outgrowth. |
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