Plainly here the Essenes are pronounced of the same faith as the Gymnosophists of India, who abstain from the bloody sacrifice, that is the Buddhists.
I will now jot hastily down the points of contact between one of these monasteries described by Philo and a Buddhist monastery. In the centre is the sanctuary. Round it, in an enclosure "four square," are ranged the cells of the monks. The monks in Thibet, according to the Abbé Huc, may be divided into three categories.
1. Those who live in monasteries and perform the religious services, and also, like the Essenes described by Josephus, farm the convent land.
2. Hermits, in caves, like Banos dreaming holy dreams.
3. Wandering missionaries (Parivrajakas) who, like the "Apostles" described in the recently discovered "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," are not allowed to remain more than a day in the same place.
In the Buddhist Lent the community goes into a hastily built group of mud huts in the jungle. Each of these is tenanted by a monk and two novices. Each has a "guest chamber" for a sick man, or a wandering beggar. This throws light on much. Let us continue our parallelism.
Enforced vegetarianism, community of goods, rigid abstinence from sexual indulgence, also a high standard of purity, were common to both the Buddhists and the Therapeuts.
Neither community allowed the use of wine.
Long fastings were common to both.
With both, silence was a special spiritual discipline.