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The Whore chased by the crowd- How did an Indian story enter the gospel?

The story of the Adulteress chased by a crowd is one that has captivated imaginations and stimulated ethical ruminations for centuries. It is, however, found only in a Johannine pericope (John 7:53-8:11). Called the Pericope Adulterae . And most scholars now agree, based on its literary and contextual peculiarities as welll as comparisons of early manuscripts, that it is a late interpolation into the fourth gospel-that is, the Gospel of John, when originally written, did not have this story . The oldest surviving Johannine manuscripts do not seem to have it. Nevertheless, it still continues to be printed in all versions of the bible. Somebody in the third century was still busy reading Buddhist sources! And he saw it necessary to force fit yet another Indian story into a Jewish context. The result is highly dramatic! The interpolator of this passage has made full use of the space yielded by the stage shift. O “ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in ad...
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The Woman at the well- How did an Indian story enter the Gospel?

Sometime around 305 BCE, Seleucus Nicator, the general of Alexander, tried to wrest back control of North West India. He came into contention with the young Chandragupta Maurya. The same Maurya whose grandson Asoka would play the second most critical role in Buddhism after the Tathagata himself. His Indian ambitions thwarted, Seleucus had to settle for a peace treaty with loss of the eastern Satrapies. Turning his attention back to the Mediterranean, Seleucus went on to fight many wars and built many new cities. Including Antioch in Anatolia, Edessa and Seluicia in Mesopotamia. Also, around 300 BCE, he built the city of Dura Europos in present day Syria, on what would later be a hotbed of imperial contentions and hotpot of cultural hybridization. On the ephemeral borderlands of the Seleucid, Roman, Parthian and Persian empires. A city that was lost to the sands in 257 CE until excavated in the 20th century. It has revealed, among many things, substantial syncretism. A synagogue,...

The most Radical thinkers produced by India

    The most Radical thinkers produced by India. First principle thinking- Why did we lose this amazing superpower? Each of these thinkers opened a new branch of learning or caused paradigm shifts in prevalent thinking of society-or sometimes- the whole species. Clarity on chronology-even if imperfect-helps you appreciate the evolution of the Indic intellect 1. "Whence came this creation? Did he create it, or did he not? He who surveys in the highest heaven knows. Or perhaps he may not know...." -Parame ṣṭ hi Prajāpati~2000 BCE Rig Veda 10.129 History's first Skeptic 2. "There is only one supreme god. Ahura Mazdā" -Atharvan Zaratuštra~1900 BCE (North west frontier province-Rangha/Bactria) The first monotheist Influenced Judaism Contributive to Indo-Iranian civil war & permanent schism Destinies of the last two IE tribes diverged forever 3. "The self is gradually revealed in creatures. Among animals, man is most endowe...

German Idealism and Indian Idealism

  The Dark prince of German Idealism showers high praise on Indian Idealism. Most people don't realize this- German Idealism was one of the most critical ingredients in the emergence of modern science and Humanities. It directly poured inspiration into a variety of new schools- Evolutionary Biology, Psychology, Economics, Sociology, Ethics, legal systems etc. The fathers of modern psychology-Carl Jung, Freud etc were ardent students of German Philosophers. The pioneering founders of modern physics- Einstein, Poincare, Wolfgang Pauli, Schrodinger, Heisenberg etc were all fanboys of German Idealism. For Einstein, Schopenhauer's thoughts were “continual consolation“ and he called Scoppy a genius. Even Karl Marx was a student of a German idealist. Now, dear cittamātravādin's, think and answer- Why did Indian Idealism FAIL to fertilize the sciences like its German descendant did? Why did it not inspire free thinking and diversification of fields of inquiry? Why did we sink int...

A prediction for the Future

  Something is coming... Maybe Evolutionary Biology, Neuroscience, Genomics, Physics, Psychology and Game Theory. The sciences are converging. I will say this- Don't think you can ressurect Indian philosophy simply by dogmatically reading an old book and coming up with a fancy new interpretation. The job of a philosopher is going to be exponentially harder in this millennium.

The Final Meme of Indian philosophy

 Are you too lazy to Read 4000 years of Indian philosophy? Ive got you covered. Wont get easier than this lol. 

A prediction of Nalanda philosophers

  Another prediction of Indian philosophers that actually came true: "No matter how minutely & continuously you analyse the finest particles, you will not be able to predict the World of Forms [Rupaloka] from that" -Nalanda philosophers "Imagine a vertical axis of time (ūrdhvatālakṣaṇa) and a horizontal axis of space (tiryaglakṣaṇa). In this system a REAL Thing, particle or Quality can exist/persist/extend only in ONE point of time & space." -Dharmakīrti of Nalanda (650 CE)- [Baudha Nominalist argument against universals] Now what does experimental results of modern science say? "Below the Planck length [=1.616255×10−35 m], classical laws of science break down" -Modern Physicist All the laws our world operates under simply cease to exist at that level. Everything we hold to be true- from the simplest to the most complex classical equations and Natural truths- dissolve. However, we don't need...