by Harvey Kraft
174 In mythic/cosmic numerology the age 30 was used by three religious founders according to their own scriptures: Gautama attained Enlightenment; Zoroaster had his first vision of God; Jesus received his public baptism.
175 The first house of Leo in relation to the Sun’s ecliptic may be cited as the celestial configuration of the Lion-Sun heritage.
176 In Greek mythology, the Kentauros (aka Centaurs) were depicted as horse bodies with human heads, the reverse of the male Kimnara.
177 The accuracy of this ratio has less than a 1% variance with modern measuring instruments.
178 Berossos, a Chaldean priest of the 3rd century BCE, copied the list of 10 kings and their life span from ancient Sumerian documents held at the Temple of Marduk in Babylon, and translated them into Greek.
179 Punarbhava (Sanskrit) or Punabbhava (Pali) – literally, “renewal,” “becoming again,” or “re-emergence” is a Buddhist view based on the cyclical continuity of Karma in the field of Form. The “winds of renewal” refer to the pre-conditions of rebirth. Herein Buddhist renewal differed from Vedic, Brahmin and Jain concepts of reincarnation, which were based either on the rebirth and physical reconstitution of an Eternal Soul, or on the edict of the Creator God, Brahma.
180 Record of the Three Thousand Buddhas of the Three Kalpas Sutra.
181 Nirvana Sutra, also Diamond Sutra.
182 Four Cosmologies: Infinite Wisdom, Golden Mountain, Relativity, and Lotus.
183 Flower Garland Sutra.
184 In Buddhist literature Vulture Peak, also named Rajagriha (Gridhrakuta), is said to be located in the area of Rajgir (Pali Rajagaha) the capital of the mythical kingdom of Magadha, claimed to be located in today’s Bihar region of northeastern India. However, dating the archeology of this city places it too late to be related to the time of Gautama Buddha. The name Rajagriha could have been a mythic place named after the Magi Order’s original center in Rhagae, in Medes. Rajagriha, Magadha may be an echo of Rhagae, Medes.
185 Paraphrase of the scene and circumstances of the Sermon from The Large Sutra on Perfecting Wisdom, Chapter 1, Introduction, Part A: Preface (Skt. Pan-chavimshati-sahasrika-prajnaparamita Sutra).
186 The Large Sutra on Perfecting Wisdom, Chapter 1, sec. VII, translation by Edward Conze.
187 The Large Sutra on Perfecting Wisdom, Chapter 2.
188 The Large Sutra on Perfecting Wisdom, Chapter 2.
189 “Perfection of Giving” is the first of Six Perfect Virtues (aka, Six Paramitas), the means for acquiring the purity of a virtuous existence. The six are: generous giving, graceful compassion, patient forbearance, fearless dedication, focused refection, and profound wisdom.
190 The Diamond Cutter Sutra.
191 Vimalakirti Sutra.
192 Vimalakirti Sutra, chapters 5–9.
193 Isigili Sutta in the second of the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Majjhima Nikaya) gives a list of former sages with names that bear no relationship to India, but with lineage links to the Esagila of Babylon (per Dr. R. Pal). The “Black Rock of Isigili” may refer to a black diorite stele, a black stone carving of a lion, and various black stones installed at the Esagila Temple in 600 BCE or so during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Among the structures few remains were a black diorite stele and a black stone carving of a lion.
194 The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, Chapter 2, Preaching.
195 The ‘Eight Worldly Winds’ of Buddhism refect four pairs of desired-undesirable outcomes that cause human beings to be buffeted between needs and outcomes: (1-2) praise or blame, (3-4) success or failure, (5-6) pleasure or pain, and, (7-8) fame/good reputation or disrepute. The number echoes the mythical eight winds in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the pairs evoke the Egyptian Ogdoad, four pairings of frog-snake gods.
196 Mahayanist Buddhist literature written several centuries after Sakamuni’s time placed Vulture Peak just outside of Rajagriha, Northwest India, the legendary capital city of Magadha in northwest India. However, Vulture Peak may have been a mythic name for a cosmic space, and/or a symbolic high ground designating multiple locations—possibly covering a wide area from the Silk Road to the Punjab, the Indus to the Ganges, places where the Buddha may have taught, or related to the Magi Order’s original center in Rhagae, Medes.
197 A perfect number in sacred geometry was equal to the sum of its divisible sequence: 6 = 3+2+1. A six-sided shape, either as a hexagon or cube, symbolized the basic building block of perfect harmony throughout the Universe.
198 The underlying meaning of the sutra title encompassed its full scope and power.
199 The Vedic inspiration for Maitreya was the God of harmony, Mitra, and for Man-jusri, the heaven-sent first man, Manu.
200 The Ten Sense Organs and Corresponding Sensations are: the eye and visible objects; ears and sounds; nose and odors; tongue and tastes; skin and touch sensations; mind and thought objects of thought.
201 The harmonic ratios of 12 pitches define the chromatic musical tuning scale attributed to Pythagoras (582–496 BCE).
202 The Ten Practices of the Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas (Flower Garland Sutra, Chapter 21) were the application of: (1) happiness; (2) beneficence; (3) harmonizing; (4) perseverance; (5) clarity; (6) wholesomeness; (7) freedom from relativity; (8) advancing through challenges; (9) embracing the full scope of the Dharma; and (10) living the Truth.
203 The iconography of “four chariots” appeared in the Bible as the Judean prophet Zechariah (after the return of some of the Jews to Jerusalem from Babylon, and sometime soon after 520 BCE). He spoke of Four Chariot Riding Spirits (6:1–8) who scattered to the four winds (i.e., cardinal points) the wickedness of Babylon (depicted as a woman in a basket). This image was also depicted as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Christian Bible’s Book of Revelation.
204 During the Persian Empire’s rule in Babylon, the Bhagapa, an official title, was the Lord viceroy of the Eber Nari region that included the city of Babylon. The role of the Bhagapa could have been an extension of the Chief Magus duties, as its purpose included activities such as overseeing the dispensation of welfare throughout Babylon. According to Dr. Ranajit Pal, Siddhartha Gautama may have held this post.
205 Meaning of the Buddhist name Bhagava: Bhaga in Sanskrit was the name of one of the Vedic Gods (Skt Adityas) who provided a “share of bounty and good fortune.” In Persian, Bhag meant “Sacred Gift.” In Sanskrit ava meant “Mystic.” The Buddhist Bhagava literally meant Mystic Lord, Sharer of Sacred Gifts, Bringer of Good Fortune. From Babylon’s beloved Lord Dispenser (Bhagapa) of goods for public welfare, Gautama evolved into the Bhagava, Lord Buddha, Dispenser of Sacred Goods (Wisdom).
206 This passage from the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, Chapter 1, Virtues, uses a method of negation, “neither this nor that” (Skt neti-neti) that was also used in the Rig Veda to show the limits of perception.
207 Sutra ot Innumerable Meanings, Chapter 2,Preaching the Dharma.
208 Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, Chapter 3, Ten Merits.
209 Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, Chapter 2, Preaching.
210 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2 – Skillful Methods.
211 Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, Chapter 3, Ten Blessings.
212 This enhanced excerpt from the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings revealed that all Buddhas unanimously shared in one universal Dharma of the Threefold-body.
213 Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, Chapter 3, Ten Blessings.
214 Sutra of Innumerable Meanings.
215 Sutra of Innumerable Meanings.
216 Sutra of Innumerable Meanings.
217 Sentient beings live in 18,000 world-systems. The number is derivative of the numeric code for Sentience 18 (composed of the 6 sense faculties + 6 sensations + 6 cognitions = 18) x 1,000 world-systems, which represents the threefold Universe (aka trichiliocosm) = 10x10x10= 1,000).
218 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 1 – Introduction.
219 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 15, fifty eons passed, but it seemed like a half a day; in
Chapter 16, all of eternity was compressed into the here and now.
220 Bharadvaja, one of seven Saptarishis, the great sages who composed the original Vedas, was the first of the Bharadvaja family lineage credited with composing the 75 hymns of the Rig Veda's Sixth Mandala over a period of centuries.
221 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2 – Skillful Methods.
222 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2 – Skillful Methods.
223 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2 – Skillful Methods.
224 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – Simile and Parable (Deliverance).
225 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2 – Skillful Methods and, Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – Simile and Parable (Deliverance).
226 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – Simile and Parable (Deliverance).
227 Through prophecies of Buddhahood for his disciples, made in chapters 3, 6, 8, 9, 12 and 13 of the Lotus Sutra, Sakamuni corroborated that the Sravaka were actually Bodhisattva, destined to become Buddha-Teachers in other worlds and future times, although in the present lifetime they had forgotten the progress they made through Transmigration.
228 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2 – Skillful Methods.
229 This theme of a wayward son may be related to the Judean Old Testament version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Bible, Kings) written after the Judeans returned from Babylonian Exile. It was also re-rendered in the New Testament (Gospel of Luke). However, unlike its other editions, the personality of the missing son in this Buddhist Parable was neither sinful nor rebellious. Although he was lowly and fearful, he had redeeming qualities.
230 Supreme Awakening (anuttara-samyak-satnbodhi) – anuttara means "unsurpassed or supreme," samyak means "perfect, complete, eternally true," and sambodhi means "Buddha-enlightenment or awakening."
231 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith and Understanding.
232 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 5 – Parable of the Raincloud and the Plants.
233 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 5 – Parable of the Raincloud and the Plants.
234 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 5 – Parable of the Raincloud and the Plants.
235 The most prolific ancient source for the mining of lapis lazuli was a mountain range east and southeast of Medes named Lapis Lazuli Mountain (the Assyrians called it Patusarra), well known to Babylonian and Arya nations.
236 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 1, Introduction.
237 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3, Simile and Parable (Deliverance).
238 Jewel-bearing trees first appeared in the mythological Land of Celestial Lights that Gilgamesh came upon during his climb for immortality in the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh.
239 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 6 – Assurances of Buddhahood.
240 Innana (Sumer), Ishtar (Akkad) and Venus in Greek mythology.
241 Pythagoras, in Harmony of the Spheres, proposed that the planets moved according to musical ratios, along paths that corresponded to strings of various measurable lengths, producing a symphony of frequencies.
242 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 7 – Parable of the Phantom City.
243 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 8 – 500 Disciples Receive a Prediction Regarding Their Destiny.
244 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 7 – The Parable of the Magic City.
245 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 8 – 500 Disciples Receive the Prediction of Their Destiny.
246 Today Karpan is an area in southeastern Iran near the mouth of the Persian Gulf, along the Arabian Sea coast, corresponding with the former homeland of the Saka. This area from ancient Makara or Swat Valley (between Iran and Indus) may be Siddhartha Gautama's birthplace. Zoroaster associated his Karpan rival with occultism and trickery.
247 The Hymns of Zoroaster: Text and Translation, Vocabulary and Criticism, quote from Yasna 32, edited by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie (1914).
248 Zoroaster regarded cattle and horses to be sacred animals. Eating them was forbidden. They were food only to sinful demons. He grew up on a farm and his main constituents were Persian farmers.
249 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 12, Redemption of Devadatta.
250 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2, Skillful Methods.
251 Archeology at Cemetery H of the Harrapan culture included evidence of cremation practices from 1900 BCE.
252 The practice of cremation in Anatolia coincided with Hittite expansion in the early Second Millennium BCE.
253 Tumuli of various kinds (i.e., kurgan, barrow, cairn, or damb) could be either marked with a monument, roofed with mausoleum built over it, or contained an underground chamber. Its treasures may have included goods, offerings, or relics.
254 Examples of raised memorials-temples started with step-pyramids (mastaba) in Egypt—King Djoser's tomb (200 ft high) by Imhotep, 2650 BCE; in Mesopotamia, the Stairway to Heaven (ziggurat) was raised from 3900 to 600 BCE (Anu Ziggurat to Etemenanki); and, in Europe at Mycenae on the Aegean, they built beehive chambers (tholoi)—i.e., Treasury of Atreus (45 ft high), 14th century BCE.
255 Nature (magazine), Vol. 45, edited by Sir Norman Lockyer.
256 The angular shape of this temple is somewhat emulated by the Great Awakening Tower (Mahabodi) in Bodh Gaya, India, said to have been initiated by Emperor Asoka (250 BCE) on the spot where the Buddha attained enlightenment. The brick tower was built in the fifth or sixth centuries CE and restored in the 1880s CE.
257 The Lotus Sutra equated the Great Three-Thousand-fold Universe with a metaphysical map of 3,000 potential states-of-being. A combination of these variables defined a person's condition in a particular moment of Existence.
258 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 14 – Springing Up Out of the Earth.
259 The Ten Directions are composed of eight outward directions: four cardinal, North, East, West, South; four ordinal, Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, Southeast, plus up and down, Zenith and Nadir. These ten represent all directions.
260 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 11 - Beholding the Treasure Tower.
261 In Buddhist symbolism, a flat smooth surface reflected a balanced Mind, and when it is paved with lapis lazuli marble, it means "cosmic stability." Mountains indicate an important "arising" and quakes are indicative o£ "earthshaking" events. The ground o£ an impermanent mortal world filled with base desires would be represented by uneven muddy brown earth. In the Zoroastrian mythic language, mountains and hills were the result o£ the counter-creation by the supreme divine opponent, the Devil God, Angra Mainyu, and flatness or life below ground was the work of Assura Mazda.
262 The Ishtar Gate stood more than 40 ft (12 m) high. Monumental towers and enclosure walls flanked its double gate.
263 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 11 – Beholding the Treasure Tower.
264 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 13 – Affirmation to Hold Firm.
265 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 13 – Affirmation to Hold Firm – lists the ways one could enter the Lotus Cosmology.
266 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 14 – Springing Up Out of the Earth.
267 This pattern of super symmetry in the Lotus Sutra was designed to illustrate a boundlessly interactive cosmic scale. This concept is reflected in Pascal's Triangle formula expressed as {a + b)n where (n) is of infinite scale.
268 In modern computational mathematics this tile structure is identified as an "infinite cellular automaton." Andrew llachinski, Cellular Automata, (2001) has observed that many scholars wonder if the Universe is an ever-evolving cellular automaton at its most fundamental level.
269 Fractal patterns are typically self-similar patterns fundamentally the same from core to scaled and dimensional expansion, and yet providing unique variations and possibilities.
270 The four-pointed Sun Disc "compass" symbol originated in the Lion-Sun Fellowship's Black Sea homeland appearing in Anatolian and Hittite hieroglyphs of the Sun (Luwian SOL SUUS), as well as the Sumer/Akkad symbol of the Sun God Shamash. The Egyptian version of the Sun Disc replaced the four points with wings. Later, the Assyrians adopted the Egyptian version and added to it an image of their God Assur. The Zoroastrians and Achaemenid Persian Empire adapted it further into a winged Sun Disc, but changed the figurehead to their divine guardian spirit, a symbol of divinely granted
royal power (Pars Faravahar). The four-pointed star symbol returned to its original form in Christianity to mark the natal star of Jesus and was then adapted by the church into the cross symbol.
271 The world sphere, representing a 3D version of the Mondial Cosmology, was defined by a vertical Z-axis and a horizontal plane defined by an X- and Y-axis.
272 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 – Revelation o£ the Tathagata o£ Life Everlasting.
273 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 - Revelation o£ the Tathagata of Life Everlasting.
274 Sutra o£ Innumerable Meanings, Chapter 2, Preaching.
275 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 22 – The Final Commission.
276 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 – Revelation o£ the Tathagata o£ Life Everlasting.
277 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 - Revelation o£ the Tathagata of Life Everlasting.
278 Six senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, and mind. Six Sensations: vision, hearing, olfactory, taste, touch, and thoughts.
279 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 - Revelation o£ the Tathagata of Life Everlasting.
280 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 – Revelation o£ the Tathagata o£ Life Everlasting.
281 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16– Revelation of the Tathagata of Life Everlasting.
282 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 – Revelation of the Tathagata o£ Life Everlasting.
283 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 17– Discrimination of Merits.
284 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 21 – Power o£ the Tathagata.
285 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 f Revelation o£ the Tathagata of Life Everlasting.
286 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 – Revelation o£ the Tathagata of Life Everlasting.
287 Lotus Sutra, Chapter 12, Redemption of Devadatta.
288 A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire by M. A. Dandamaev, Brill Academic Publishers (1997).
289 The names of the rebel leaders echo Chaldean believers in Marduk. Samas-eriba (Brother of the Sun) took the north side of Babylon. Then he took control of another rebellion led by Bêl-simânni (God of the Stars) south of the city.
290 According to Arrian of Nicomedia, a Roman historian (c. 86-160 CE)
