"The mystery concealed from the Æons and from their offspring."
From this two things are patent:—
1. Johannine Christianity is Gnosticism.
2. Gnosticism is Buddhism.
In chapter ii. I said that Buddha, like the Gnostic Christ, ruled the Pleroma or Pravritti. In the "Lalita Vistara" many pages are devoted to show that he is Purusha, the God-man of the Hindoos. Purusha is always contrasted with Pracriti, the Buthos of the Gnostics, that part of the Kosmos which is un-fashioned and non-luminous. Purusha is like the divine man of the Kabbalah, the Christ of St. Paul, humanity, ideal humanity. Valentinus proclaimed that from Sophia the Mother, proceeded Ecclesia the Church. Jesus called his flock the sons of Sophia, and said that his mother, the Holy Spirit, had carried him up to the top of Mount Tabor.
As early as the Asoka inscriptions the triad of Buddhism was:—
1. Buddha or Swayambhu, the Self-Existent.
2. Dharma or Prajñâ (Sophia).
3. Sangha (literally Union). Sangha "created the worlds," says the Pûja Kanda. (For this triad, see Hodgson, "Lit. Nepal," p. 88.) This triad with the vulgar is now Buddha, his Law, and the Church.