[Buddha-l] Mithraism and the arising of Mahayana Buddhism

[Vicente Gonzalez]

curt wrote:

c> The very word "Neoplatonism" is itself a later (Christian) invention
c> intended to pry Plotinus away from Plato - something that Plotinus 
c> himself would never have stood for. I think it's safe to say that from
c> Plotinus to Damascius the later Platonists didn't see anything "neo"
c> about what they were up to.

retaking the topic by another side, in the arising of mahayana
("Thirty years of Buddhist Studies") Edward Conze points how several
mahayana arrangements were similar of some of Palmyra Priests.
In example, the origin of the Boddhisatva ideal and similarities
between Maitreya and Mithra. With several examples, he concludes about
an influence of Iranian origin in Mahayana Buddhism.

In another chapter ("Prajna and Sophia"), he cites some of his
contemporaries works about gnosticism, and he suggest the possibility
of an inheritance of Prajna notion in the gnostic Sophia. However, he
warns about making easy conclusions (he mentions the possibility of
some type of Jungian sincronicity , etc..) 

Unfortunately, there is not bibliography in this book. While I'm
awaiting that book about neoplatonics, I will be grateful to know if
you or any other person knows some good bibliography about parallelism
and influences of Mithraism in the arising of Mahayana Buddhism and
Prajanaparamita.


best regards,