Apollonius of Tyana the Nazarene
by Dr. R. W. Bernard (1964)
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

Part 8: Visit to the Gymnosophists

We now come to Apollonius's visit to the "Gymnosophists" of upper Egygt, whom Damis calls the "naked Egyptian philosophers," though according to Mead,* the word "naked" probably meant "lightly clad." That they might have been originally Buddhist missionaries who traveled westward is indicated by a statement by one of the younger members of the community who left it to follow Apollonius. He related that he came to join the community from the enthusiastic account of his father who told him that these "Ethiopians" were from India; and so he had joined them instead of making the long and perilous trip to the Indus in search of wisdom. If this is true, these Gymnosophists must have originally been Buddhist missionaries who traveled westward and settled in Egypt, recruiting members from the Egyptians, Arabs, and Ethiopians, and so in the course of time forgot their origin. This explains the great similarity of Gymnosophical, Essenian and Therapeut doctrines to Buddhist ones, aside from the direct importation of Buddhist teachings by Pythagoras and Apollonius.*
(*According to Mead, the Gymnosophists, were really a sect of advanced Essenes, or Therapeuts, as described by Philo in his "On the Contemplative Life," the description that Philo gives of the Therapeut community he visited on the shore of Lake Mareoris near Alexandria corresponding almost exactly with Damis's description of the Gymnosophist community in Upper Egypt. Both show the following unmistakable signs of Buddhist influence and origin.
(1) In both cases the members gave away all their worldly possessions before joining the community.

(2) There was a novitiate period and an initiation into the order,

(3) Abstinence from meats and wines was compulsory,

(4) Both practiced the healing art,

(5) Both made community of property the rule,

(6) Both took oaths of chastity and poverty;

(7) Both adopted and raised the children of strangers and orphans.

Indeed, the Gymnosophical community that Apollonius visited could very well have been one of the Therapeut communities described by Philo and which he visited at about the same period.* [*See the books by Arthur Lillie ("Buddhism in Christianity" and "India in Primitive Christianity") for details on the contribution of travelling Buddhist monks to Palestine, Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor, to the formation of the early Essene/Therapeut/Nazarite communities in these areas, which later became the base upon which Christianity was raised. A large number of the volumes in the Library of Alexandria were likewise of Buddhist origin.

According to Mead, this Gymnosophical community was originally of Buddhist origin, having been established by Buddhist monks. The origin of the Essene and Therapeut doctrines has been traced by some of the Buddhist missionaries sent out in the middle of the third century B.C. by ASHOKA, Buddhist Emperor of India, who traveled to Syria, Egypt, Macedonia and those parts of Asia Minor where the Essene communities were later known to exist. While it is possible that these communities may have existed previously and have been of Orphic and Pythagorean origin, it is probable that these Buddhist missionaries found in them a responsive audience.

Mead writes, "Just as some would ascribe the constitution of the Essene and Therapeut communities to Pythagorean influence, so others would ascribe their origin to Buddhist propaganda; and not only would they trace this influence to the Essene tenets and practices, but they even refer to the general teachings of the Christ to a Buddhist source in a Jewish monotheistic setting. Not only so but some would have it that two centuries before the direct general contact of Greece with India, brought about by the conquests of Alexander - INDIA, through Pythagoras, strongly and lastingly influenced all subsequent Greek thought.")

On the borderland between Egypt and Ethiopia, Apollonius praised an Egyptian youth, Timasio, for his continence, regarding him as of more merit than Hippolytis, because, while living chastely, he nevertheless does not speak or think of the divinity of Aphrodite [reproductive energies] otherwise than with respect.

Asked by the Gymnosophical philosophers to explain his Wisdom, Apollonius humbly replied that Pythagoras was the inventor of it, though he derived it from the Brahmans. This Wisdom, he added, had spoken to him in his youth, and had said:

"For sense, young sir, I have no charms; my cup is filled with toils unto the brim. Would anyone embrace my way of life, he must resolve to banish from his board all food that once bore life, to lose the memory of wine, and thus no more to wisdom's cup befoul -- the cup that doth consist of wine -- untainted souls. Nor shall wool warm him, nor aught that's made from an beast. I give my servants shoes of bast; and they sleep as they can. And if I find them overcome with love's delights, [lust] I've ready to pits down into which that justice which doth follow hard on wisdom's foot doth drag and thrust them; indeed, so stern am I to those who choose my way, that e'en upon their tongues I bind a chain.

"An innate sense a fitness and of right, and ne'er to feel that anyone's lot is better than thine own; tyrants to strike with fear instead of being a fearsome slave to tyranny; to have the Gods more greatly bless their scanty gifts than those who pour before them blood of bulls. If thou are pure, I'll give thee how to know what things will be as well, and fill thy eyes so full of Light, that thou may'st recognize the Gods the heroes know, and prove and try the shadowy forms that feign the shapes of men."

In thus addressing the Gymnosophists, Apollonius spoke to philosophers who lived just as he did, for these Egyptian sages ate no foods of animal origin, and were strict vegetarians as were the Brahman sages of the Himalayas, the wise men of the east, whom he had formerly visited.

A very interesting Socratic dialogue took place between Thespesion, the abbot of the Gymnosophist community and Apollonius on the comparative merits of the Greek and Egyptian ways of representing the gods. Inquiring of Apollonius whether Phidias and Praxiteles went up to heaven and took impression of the forms of the gods and then reproduced them in matter, Apollonius replied that imagination is the vision of higher realities or divine archetypes of things, and that each man has his higher Self - his angel of god-like beauty, which, like the gods, inhabits a heavenly world.

The Greek sculptors, he concluded, succeeded in reproducing these higher realities, which Pythagoras and Plato considered to be the true beings of things. Said Apollonius, "Imagination is a workman wiser far than imitation; for imitation only makes what it has seen, whereas imagination makes what it has never seen, conceiving it with reference to the thing it really is. Imagination is one of the most potent faculties, for it enables us to reach nearer to realities."

Thereupon, Thespesion stated that the Egyptians on the other hand, dare not give any precise form to the gods; and so they represent them only in symbols to which an occult meaning is attached. Thus arose the representation of the gods by different animal forms.

To this Apollonius replied that the danger is that the common people might worship these symbols and get unbeautiful ideas of the gods. The best thing would be to have the worshipper conform and fashion for himself an image of the object of his worship WITHOUT an external representation or idol.*

(*Concerning this dialogue, Mead comments as follows: "Apollonius, a priest of a universal religion, might have pointed out the good side and the bad side of both Greek and Egyptian religious art, and certainly taught the higher way of symbol-less worship, but he would not champion one popular cult against another." (Mead: "Apollonius of Tyana)

On his return from Egypt, Apollonius signified his approval of the conduct of Titus after he had taken Jerusalem, in refusing to accept a crown from the neighboring nations. Titus, who was then associated with his father in the government, invited Apollonius to Argos, and consulted him as to his future behavior as a ruler. Apollonius said that he would send him to his companion, Demetrius the Cynic, as a counsellor, which Titus, though the name, Cynic, was at first disagreeable to him, assented to with good grace. At another time he consulted with Apollonius privately on his destiny.

Though they had the best intellect of the Roman Empire from which to choose, the Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus preferred to consult Apollonius for advice concerning the management of their empire. In his last letter to Titus, Vespasian confesses that they were what they were solely owing to the good advice of Apollonius.*

(*Apollonius was wiser than most men because he derived his wisdom from a higher source, from the gods; this was expressed in one word by Apollonius in his answer to the Consul Telesinus, who asked him, "And what is your wisdom?" "An inspiration," replied the sage.)

On one occasion, Vespasian traveled from Rome to Egypt to ask Apollonius's advice on political matters. He found the sage seated in a temple. Approaching him, and apologizing for his intrusion, the emperor, an ardent admirer of the philosopher, said, "You have the amplest insight into the will of the gods and l do not wish to trouble the gods against their will."

On this occasion, Apollonius gave his august visitor a fine example of his prophetic and clairvoyant powers. He said, "O Zeus, this man who stands before thee is destined to raise afresh unto thee the temple which the hands of malefactors have set on fire." At that moment the temple in Rome was in flames, a fact which was verified by Vespasian later.

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