Mani o' Nayze

[Sojourner]

Manichaeism


In the third century AD, Mani, a Gnostic prophet
living in Babylonia, inaugurated the first world religion. 
Manichaeism contains elements of Judaeo-Christianity,
Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, and had followers from the Atlantic
to the Pacific before the emergence of Islam. It survived in South China 
until the time of Marco Polo. 

 from http://www.ancient.mq.edu.au/ahist/DocCtr/manics/Corpus.html

and

MANICHAEISM

     World religion founded by Mani. Spread out over most of the known
world of the 1st millennium AD,
     from Spain to China. Manichaeism disappeared from the West in 10th
century, and from China in the
     14th century. During the Roman Empire, Manichaeism got a strong
position in North Africa,- St
     Augustine was a Manichaean for nine years before his conversion to
Christianity. For 80 years, from
     762, Manichaeism was the state religion of a Turkic people (Uighurs).
                                      TEACHING
         Manichaeism is the largest and most important example of
Gnosticism. Central in the
     Manichaean teaching was dualism, that the world itself, and all
creatures, was part in a battle between
     the good, represented by God, and the bad, the darkness, represented
by a power driven by envy
     and lust. These two powers were independent from each other. Most of
human beings were material
     from the bad powers, but in everyone there was a divine light, which
needed to be released from the
     dark material of the body. Manichaeism regards creation, even of man,
as a cosmic catastrophe.
     What happened was that the good forces had to create the world, as a
wall to the divine realms. The
     bad powers, after discovering that there was a world of light, could
not resist the opposite. When the
     world and all creatures were created, the advancing darkness was mixed
with a little bit of the divine
     light.
         While the battle between light and darkness had been fought in
cosmos until creation, creation
     made the world of man the new battleground. Everything that gives
light in this world belongs to the
     divine realms, while everything that absorbs light, belongs to the
darkness. In this world, small pieces
     of light is constantly disentangled from the darkness, and the sun and
the moon are to chariots bringing
     these pieces from the world and back to the divine world. The meaning
of life, the meaning of the
     world, is to participate on the divine side of this battle. Every man
carries inside him a seed of light,
     and by gnosis,- insight in the process of the cosmic battle and
insight in how to fight envy and lust,-
     this piece of light can by death leave the human body, and be brought
back to the divine world.
         This gnosis can be discovered by man's intellectual capacities,
but is at the same time something
     that is revealed, through messengers like Buddha, Jesus and Mani.
Buddha and Jesus are depicted
     quite differently from what is the case in Buddhism, Christianity, and
Islam. 
                            ORGANISATION AND PRACTICE
         There were two groups of Manichaeans, the class of elected, and
the laymen. The class of
     elected, all men, were the group that were deemed to disentangle their
seed of light from their
     bodies,- and they did not marry, did not eat meat, drink wine, work,-
all they did was preaching.
         The laymen lived fairly normal lives. The married, but it was
considered a good act to not have
     many children, as an increasing number of humans would mean that the
light was spread in more
     bodies. They had only limited access to the teachings, and left much
of the religious matters to the
     class of elected, who acted as their representatives. The laymen
attended weekly fasts, but little is
     known of both theirs and the elected's religious services. Central to
what Mani appears to have
     picked up in India, is the teaching on transmigration of souls, and
the laymen lived for being reborn as
     elected.
         By which means the Manichaeans decided who where elected, and who
were not, is not all too
     evident from the sources. Schooling or family are two possible
decisive factors. 
                                       SOURCES
         There are few texts left after the Manichaeans, but Mani himself
wrote many books. As much is
     lost of these since the religion disappeared, only fragments can be
found, in North-western China and
     Egypt. 


from http://i-cias.com/e.o/manichae.htm