We have followed those links but we have not found any evidence that would
substantiate the view that the roots of Buddhism "(were) hardly Aryan".
Originally "Vedic Aryanism was resolutely rooted in ritual, sacrifice, and
hierarchy", yet it decayed :
"(...) the germs of decadence, which were already showing
themselves in the post-Vedic period and which were to become quite
evident in the Buddha's day (sixth century b.c.), are as follows:
above all, a stereotyped ritualism; then the demon of speculation,
whose effect was that what ought to have remained "secret
doctrine," upanisad, rahasya, became partly rationalized, with the
result that there eventually appeared a tumultuous crowd of
divergent theories, sects, and schools, which the Buddhist texts
often vividly describe. In the third place, we find a "religious"
transformation of many divinities who, in the Vedic period were, as
we have said, simply cosmically transfigured states of
consciousness; these have now become objects of popular cults. (1)
We have already spoken of the pantheistic danger. In addition to
these points we have yet to consider the effect of foreign,
non-Aryan influences, to which we believe are attributable in no
small degree the formation and diffusion of the theory of
reincarnation."
The Vedas consist of four books : the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Sama-Veda, and
the Atharva-Veda. "'(truths)' of non-Aryan races that are tellurically and
matriarchally adjusted in outlook" can already be found in the third book of the
Rigveda, which is organised in ten books. "(...) the character of the first
Vedic period was
becoming overgrown with a tropical and chaotic vegetation of myths
and popular religious images, even of semidevotional practices
seeking the attainment of this, that, or the other divine 'rebirth'
on the basis of views on reincarnation and transmigration that, as
we have said, had already infiltrated into the less illuminated
Indo-Aryan mentalities;"
Just as with Vedism, the Aryan nucleus of early Buddhist teachings ended up
being overgrown with a tropical and chaotic vegetation of autochtonous myths and
popular religious images, which, in turn, gave rise to the pre-Christian
"doctrine of universal compassion encouraging humanitarianism and democratic
equality" to which you allude ; asceticism, when practised by individuals whose
centre of gravity lies in the animal instincts with their labyrinthical
moralistic ramifications, comes down to a mere mortification of the flesh along
sentimental and intropective lines. The short-circuit which fatally ends up
being caused by a vague ascetic attempt in individuals who are not qualified for
the kind of action early Buddhist teachings are about eventually leads to a
pathological condition which can be clearly seen in early Christian ascetics,
which, as a matter of fact, would turn, for some of them, into mob leaders in
their 'spare time', especially in ancient Egypt.
Prince Siddhattha "was never concerned with upsetting the caste system on the
ethnic, political, or social plane; on the contrary, it is laid down that a man
should not omit any of the obligations inherent in his station in life, and it
is never said that a servant -- sudda (Skt.: sudra) -- or a vessa (Skt.: vaisya)
should not obey higher Aryan castes. The problem only concerns the spiritual
apex of the Aryan hierarchy, where historical conditions required discrimination
and revision of the matter: it was necessary that the "lists" should be reviewed
and reconstructed, with the traditional dignities being considered real only on
"the merits of the individual cases. (...) there is no question here of
equalitarian
subversion under spiritual pretexts, but of rectification and
epuration of the existing hierarchy. Prince Siddhattha has so
little sympathy for the masses that in one of the oldest texts he
speaks of the 'common crowd' as a 'heap of rubbish,' where there
takes place the miraculous flowering of the Awakened One."
"The only point we must take with a grain of salt in the texts is
the affirmation that in individuals of all castes all possible
potentialities, both positive and negative, exist in equal measure.
But the Buddhist theory of sankhara, that is, of prenatal
predispositions, is enough to rectify this point. The exclusiveness
of caste, race, and tradition in a hierarchical system results in
the individual possessing hereditary predispositions for his
development in a particular direction; this ensures an organic and
harmonious character in his development, as opposed to the cases in
which an attempt is made to reach the same point with a kind of
violence, by starting from a naturally unfavorable base."
All quotes are taken from 'The Historical Context of the Doctrine of Awakening',
by J. Evola.
--- In
evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "Asdfasdsfdas" <andreforcordelia@...>
wrote:
>
> Researching Indo-Greek Bactria and its various Aryan-migration predecessors I
was, inspired by Doctrine of Awakening, led to believe that a great European
Buddhism could have taken root were it not for the roaming hordes of Islam which
eventually cut asunder the connection between the two civilizations. It seemed
that Buddhism could have been a proper Northern renewal, with Aryan roots going
at least as far back as Androvnovo culture.
>
> My pessimism came about not by the reception that the Indo-Skythians and
Indo-Greeks took to Buddhism (see the following links,) but the fact that the
roots of Buddhism now strike me as hardly Aryan.
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila_copper_plate
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menander_I#Buddhism
>
> Vedic Aryanism was resolutely rooted in ritual, sacrifice, and hierarchy, and
despite the physical characteristics of the Shakyamuni (including blue eyes) he
was and remained a child of the wondering ascetics (shramanas) who forever stood
in an almost egalitarian revolt against the Brahmins.
>
> Buddha's ksatriya tribe existed outside of Vedic centers of learning. The
founders of Jainism all claimed ksatriya lineage, as well.
>
> It was during the end of Buddha's austerities that he reached enlightenment,
and it was during this time he gathered his immense terminology for the Buddhist
weltanschuuang such as "samsara," Nibbana" "dukkha" etc.
> All of which come from Pre-Aryan India:
>
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=bRQ5fpTmwoAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Heinrich+\
Zimmer&lr=&cd=4#v=onepage&q=this%20is%20the%20view%20that%20jainism%20shares%20w\
ith&f=false
>
> Not to mention the egalitarian premises of the Shramana paths such as
non-caste society, vegetarianism, non-violence (to the point of not harming
insects, etc.
> This is a far cry from the warrior ethos of the Bhagavad-Gita and the Rig
Veda.
>
> It seems that Buddhism should be classified as a "child of the South," through
and through which in turn influenced Christian asceticism, not as an echo of
ancient Northern Aryan path but as an indigenous Dravidian sect which migrated
north through contact with various conquering races (Persians, Greeks, etc).
>
> Already in the 1 century CE we find a distinct connection between the Indian
shramanas and European sources, Strabo the Roman historian records an event of a
shramana in Greece performing suicide by self-immolation.
>
> Porphyry, the successor of Plotinus regarded asceticism as "the olympics of
the soul," and was quoted as being impressed by the shramanas several times:
>
>
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27204597/Asceticism-in-the-Graeco-Roman-World
>
> He wrote extensively on the shramanas in his treatise on vegetarianism, "On
abstinence from animal food, Book IV."
>
> The shramana practices eventually came to morph into Christian monasticism at
least as far back as Clement of Alexandria, another vegetarian mystic inspired
by the shramanas.
>
> "Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity
among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it
came to Greece. First in its ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians; and the
Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the Druids among the Gauls; and the Sramanas
among the Bactrians
("Σαρμαναίοι
Βάκτρων"); and the philosophers of the Celts;
and the Magi of the Persians, who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into
the land of Judaea guided by a star. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the
number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two
classes, some of them called Sramanas
("Σαρμάναι"), and others Brahmins
("Βραφμαναι")." Clement of
Alexandria "The Stromata, or Miscellanies" Book I, Chapter XV
>
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/clement-stromata-book1.html
>
> Therefore, it seems that with roots in Pre-Vedic India, Buddhism stands in
stark contrast to the Solar deities of the Vedas, Eddas, and other IE
mythologies, and although the Buddha used the word "Ariya" (noble) to describe
the truths of Buddhism, the past itself is in itself a Southern phenomena.
>