[A few relevant texts from the extensive available literature are included here.]
Conze, Edward. "Buddhism and Gnosis," Further Buddhist Studies ( l975).
Milinda, The Debates of King . Trans. and Ed., Bhikkhu Pesala (1991).
Murti, T. R. V. The Central Philosophy of Buddhism (1955).
Smart, Ninian. Doctrine and Argument in Indian Philosophy (2nd Ed.,1992).
Stryk, Lucien. World of the Buddha (1968); Buddhist Thought in India (Ann Arbor Paperback, 1967).
Suzuki, D.T. On Indian Mahayana Buddhism (1968).
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Development of the Middle Way
Murti, 4-33.["Mental continuum," 32.]
Mahayana Perfection of Wisdom
Suzuki, 31.
Conze on similarities between Mahayana Buddhism and Gnosticism
Conze, 15-32 ("Buddhism and Gnosis"); 207 ff.
("Prajna and Sophia.")
Prajna as Intuition
Murti, 126.
Bringing the Lie from India
Samuel Lieu, Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East (1994) 38 (From Ephraim's hymn Again Heresies).
Greco-Roman influence on artifacts of Kushan empire
Coins: W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India (1951).
Sculpture
Old view
A. C. Fouchet, The Beginnings of Buddhist Art ( 1917) 127-8;
Paul Masson-Oursel, Ancient India and Indian Civilization , ( Eng. trans. London, 1931), 360, 365-6, 375-8;
Tarn, 393-408.
More recent view
A.C. Soper, "The Roman Style in Gandhara," American Journal of Archaeology , 55 (1951) 301-19;
Mortimer Wheeler, Rome beyond the Imperial Frontiers (London, l954) 165-71 [p. 170, "the dominance of Alexandria is scarcely in doubt."]
Clement of Alexandria on Buddhism
Stromateis (Miscellanies) Book 1.71; Book 3. 60; Trans. John Ferguson ( 1991) 76;293-4.
Hindu doctrine on reincarnation
Sarendranath Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy (1932) vol. 2, 302-14.
Five meditation Buddhas associated with five skandhas
Bhattacharyya, Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism , 130;
Samuel N. C. Lieu, Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire (l985) 208-9.
"The Oriental mirage . . ."
L. P. Festugiere, La Revelation d'Hermes Trismgiste (1941) vol. 1, 20.
Book of Thomas the Contender
Nag Hammadi Library , (3d Ed., 1988), 199-207.
Fire Sermon of the Buddha
Stryk, 53-5.
Sethian stages of soul's ascent; thirteen levels of being
Birger A. Pearson, Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity . (1990, 149-61.
"Jesus said, Let those who seek. . ."
This is a composite of several translations (by Bentley Layton, Thomas O. Lambdin, Jacques Menard, Elaine Pagels, and John D. Turner).
Clement of Alexandria, Les Stromates
Trans. C. Mondesert (1954) II, 9,45.5
"For the place where there is envy and strife . . ."
Gospel of Truth , Nag Hammadi Library, 43.
W. B. Henning, Sogdica 1940), 3: deals with fragment of Sogdian translation of Manichean ms. on five fruits of the trees--the 'parts of the soul' that are the "five gifts"; Samuel N. C. Lieu, 208 [5 great Buddhas of Light, later 5 Dyani Buddhas].
Nagasena, "From the moment . . . ."
Milinda , 10.
Sethians and thirteen levels of being
Birger A. Pearson, Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity . (1990) 150-58T.
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