본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

A Study of the Interrelation between Gnosticism and Buddhism

  • PHILOSOPHY·THOUGHT·CULTURE
  • 2014, (17), pp.132~153
  • Publisher : Research Institute for East-West Thought
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities

Yoo Seung-jong 1

1대진대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the similarities between Gnosticism and Buddhism. Gnosticism is sometimes called 'the perennial philosophy' because it has been found in all cultures and all times. Of course, it is not the case that all the Gnostics say exactly the same thing. The Gnostic’s view of Christianity differs from the Literalist Christians who eventually become the Roman Catholic Church. Literalists were rigid authoritarians. Their teachings are like fingers pointing from different perspectives to the same experience of gnosis. Unfortunately, most people focus on the finger and miss the point. Gnostics viewed Jesus as the mythical hero of a symbolic teaching story, which represents the spiritual journey leading to the experience of awakening called 'gnosis', or 'knowing'. Such teachings of awakening are not exclusively Christian. Both Gnostics and Buddhism maintain a completely mystical, transcendent understanding of the human. In this way Gnostics and Buddhism understand that life itself is a process of awakening. Gnostics and Buddhist proclaim that the highest level of understanding is the knowledge through which the mind becomes unified with the object of knowledge.

Statistics

  • 563 Viewed
  • 133 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

Basic Search Advanced Search