Il fior di loto e la croce

Il fior di loto e la croce

I primi contatti tra cristiani e buddisti sono documentati gia' al tempo di Clemente alessandrino (cfr. Stromata I,15). Si suppongono influssi sui monaci del deserto e sulla formazione della teologia negativa, anche se non possediamo documenti. Un vasto campo ancora inesplorato riguarda i parallelismi e le similarita' con certi vangeli apocrifi (e.g. Tommaso). Una delle cose piu' curiose e' il fatto che  un racconto della vita del Budda nella leggenda dei santi Barlaam (il Sublime, un titolo del Budda) e Giosafat (verosimilmente derivato da "bodhisattva") sia entrato a far parte del Martyrologium Romanum, e per lungo tempo quindi, del calendario ufficiale dei santi della
Chiesa.
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"Apud Indos, Persis finitimos, sanctorum Barlaam et Josaphat, quorum actus mirandos sanctus Joannes Danascenus conscripsit". Cosi' recita  per il 27 novembre il "Vetus Martyrologium Romanum A.D. MDCCCCLVI" fruibile in rete http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/1856-
1856,_Absens,_Vetus_Martyrologium_Romanum,_LT.pdf [17 aprile 2018]. Si pensi che la leggenda e' raffigurata gia' in una lunetta del Battistero di Parma opera dell'Antelami (circa 1150- circa 1230).
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Sicuramente vi furono dei contatti tra i buddisti e i cristiani di origine siriaca, attivi in Cina dalla prima meta' del settimo secolo fino al quattordicesimo. Si continua a discutere in quale misura tale incontro abbia influenzato il buddismo cinese fino alla sua continuazione in quello giapponese. Il "kanjou", a tuttoggi uno dei riti piu' comuni della setta Shingon, che si suppone risalire al viaggio di studio che il fondatore ha fatto  in questo periodo, consiste nel versare acqua sulla testa dell'adepto mentre il bonzo recita un "mantra" che, si dice, potrebbe essere stata in  origine la versione cinese della invocazione trinitaria dei cristiani siriaci.
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Nel cimitero monumentale del monte Koya, montagna sacra della setta Shingon, e' possibile vedere una replica a dimensioni naturali della cosidetta "Stele Nestoriana", dono di Elizabeth Anna Gordon (1851–1925), una studiosa inglese che era convinta che buddismo e cristianesimo avessero una comune radice.
 Gordon, E. A., The Lotus gospel: or, Mahayana Buddhism and its symbolic teachings compared historically and geographically with those of Catholic Christianity / (Tokyo : Waseda University Library, 1911; Idem, Messiah, the ancestral hope of the ages, "the desire of all nations," as proved from the records on the sun-dried bricks of Babylonia, the papyri and pyramids of Egypt, the frescoes of the Roman catacombs, and on the Chinese incised memorial stone at Choʾang, (Tokyo, Keiseisha, [c1909]); Idem, Symbols of 'The Way' : Far East and West / (Tokyo : Maruzen, 1916); Idem, "World-Healers", or The Lotus gospel and its Bodhisattvas ... (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Shanghai ..., London :
E.L. Morice, [1912]). Si veda anche Abe, Ryuichi, "The Weaving of Mantra: Kukai and the construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse". Columbia University Press, 1999.


Per una introduzione alla letteratura cristiana cinese di epoca Tang, si veda: M. Nicolini-Zani, La via radiosa per l'Oriente. I testi e la storia del primo incontro del cristianesimo con il mondo culturale e religioso cinese (secoli VII-IX), Qiqajon, Magnano 2006. 


Matsunaga A., The Buddhist Philosophy of Assimilation. The Historical Development of the Honji-Suijaku Theory. Tokyo 1969.
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Le terme honji suijaku ou honchi suijaku (本地垂迹?) dans la terminologie religieuse japonaise renvoie à une théorie largement acceptée
jusqu'à l'ère Meiji selon laquelle des divinités bouddhistes indiennes ont choisi d'apparaître au Japon comme des kami natifs afin de plus
facilement convertir et sauver les Japonais1,2. Cette théorie affirme que certains kami (mais pas tous) ne sont en fait que des
manifestations locales (le suijaku (垂迹?), littéralement, une « trace ») de divinités bouddhistes, (le honji (本地?), littéralement, «
terre d'origine »)1,3. Les deux entités forment un tout indivisible appelé gongen et, en théorie, devraient avoir un statut égal, mais dans
l'histoire cela n'a pas toujours été le cas4. Au début de l'époque de Nara par exemple, le honji est jugé plus important, et ce n'est que
plus tard que les deux en viennent à être considérés comme égaux4. Au cours de la fin de l'époque de Kamakura il est même proposé que les
kami sont les divinités d'origine et les bouddhas leurs manifestations (voir la section honji suijaku inversé ci-dessous)4.
La théorie n'a jamais été systématisée, mais n'en est pas moins très répandue et très influente1. Elle est considérée comme la clé de voûte
de l'édifice du shinbutsu shūgō (harmonisation des divinités bouddhistes et des kami japonais)5.
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灌頂（かんじょう, 梵: abhiṣeka, abhiṣecana[1]）とは、菩薩が仏になる時、その頭に諸仏が水を注ぎ、仏の位（くらい）に達したことを証明すること[1]
。密教においては、頭頂に水を灌いで諸仏や曼荼羅と縁を結び、正しくは種々の戒律や資格を授けて正統な継承者とするための儀式のことをいう。本項で
は密教における潅頂について述べる。
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The first documentation of Christianity entering China was written on an 8th-century stone tablet known as the Nestorian Stele. It records that Christians reached the Tang dynasty capital Xi'an in 635 and were allowed to establish places of worship and to propagate their faith. The leader of the Christian travelers was Alopen.[12]

Some modern scholars question whether Nestorianism is the proper term for the Christianity that was practiced in China, since it did not adhere to what was preached by Nestorius. They instead prefer to refer to it as "Church of the East", a term which encompasses the various forms of early Christianity in Asia.[13]

The Dunhuang manuscripts are a cache of important religious and secular documents discovered in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, in the early 20th century. Dating from the 5th to early 11th centuries, the manuscripts include works ranging from history and mathematics to folk songs and dance. There are also a large number of religious documents, most of which are Buddhist, but other religions including Daoism, Nestorian Christianity and Manichaeism are also represented.

In 782, the Indian Buddhist missionary Prajna arrived in Chang'an, bearing rich treasures of sutras and other scriptures. Unfortunately, these were written in Indian languages. He consulted the local Nestorian bishop, Adam, who had already translated parts of the Bible into Chinese. Together, Buddhist and Christian scholars worked amiably together for some years to translate seven copious volumes of Buddhist wisdom. Probably, Adam did this as much from intellectual curiosity as from ecumenical good will, and we can only guess about the conversations that would have ensued:

In Japan, these works became the founding texts of the great Buddhist schools of the Middle Ages. All the famous movements of later Japanese history, including Zen, can be traced to one of those ancient schools and, ultimately - incredibly - to the work of a Christian bishop.

By the 12th century, flourishing churches in China and southern India were using the lotus-cross. The lotus is a superbly beautiful flower that grows out of muck and slime. No symbol could better represent the rise of the soul from the material, the victory of enlightenment over ignorance, desire, and attachment. For 2,000 years, Buddhist artists have used the lotus to convey these messages in countless paintings and sculptures. The Christian cross, meanwhile, teaches a comparable lesson, of divine victory over sin and injustice, of the defeat of the world. Somewhere in Asia, Yeshua's forgotten followers made the daring decision to integrate the two emblems, which still today forces us to think about the parallels between the kinds of liberation and redemption offered by each faith.

When modern scholars like Peter Phan try to place Christianity in an Asian and Buddhist context, they are resuming a task begun at least 1,500 years ago.

Philip Jenkins

Jacobs First things

We can easily see that the image depicts a cross, but it takes a moment to realize that the base of the picture"the root from which the cross is growing"is a lotus flower, the symbol of Buddhist ­enlightenment."

This is indeed a remarkable image, but does it mean what Jenkins assumes it means? I wonder if he is aware of the common ancient tradition in Orthodox Christianity that depicts the Cross atop a skull, which is clearly meant to say that death is conquered by the Cross, not that it is the root or the soil from which Christian faith grows.

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