The Buddha From Babylon Read online

  Praise for The Buddha from Babylon

  “Harvey Kraft’s ambitious and groundbreaking book, The Buddha from Babylon, challenges conventional beliefs about who the Buddha actually was and shows how Buddhism began just as the military might of the Persian Empire arises. The author has made a compelling case for a socially-engaged Buddha who will take the reader on a mind-expanding journey in search of life’s deepest meaning and purpose. Harvey Kraft has written a well-crafted historical thriller based on years of research that will entertain, engage, and raise consciousness.“

  —David Rasch, PhD, Psychologist/Ombuds at Stanford University and author of The Blocked Writer’s Book of the Dead

  “The history of the Buddha is compelling. To know the truth of where and how Buddhism all began still holds mystery...The Buddha from Babylon could be the answer to many questions...This is a fascinating and hugely informative read.”

  —Mariel Hemingway, actor and producer, starred in films Manhattan, Star 80, Lipstick, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. She is host of “Spiritual Cinema,” a monthly television show dedicated to spiritual films. She is co-author of Running with Nature: Stepping into the Life You Were Meant to Live.

  “Harvey Kraft’s perspective as a ‘spiritual archaeologist’ allows him to merge his keen understanding of Buddhism and ancient religions into a unique perspective that is at once insightful and revolutionary.”

  —Dan Shafer, author of The Power of I AM, and the international best-seller, HyperTalk Programming

  “The Buddha from Babylon is wonderful. It is really a seminal research work that at the same time I couldn’t put down. Highly interesting. For all the wisdom it gently delivers, I will have to re-read it many times.

  The Buddha from Babylon appears at a critical time. Answering our most burning questions about existence and purpose, the book provides extensive and profound insight through the weaving in of numerous stories that simultaneously keeps one craving to learn more. Fully aware of the crossroads of destruction and evolution at which humanity currently stands and the difficulty for humanity to change course, Harvey Kraft offers yet clear and simple transformational strategies through the teachings and example of Siddhartha Gautama. Turning common understanding of who Buddha is on its head, I believe, this is the most comprehensively written and researched piece intertwining cosmic, religious and political history. As essentially a theory of everything, this seminal work offers interfaith scholars and spiritual activists a new understanding of Buddha’s role, our origin, our interconnectedness and thus the transformational strategies we need to truly shape our shared future.”

  —Wanda Krause, PhD, former assistant professor at Qatar Foundation and Qatar University, is the author of Spiritual Activism: Keys to Personal and Political Success and Civil Society, and Women Activists in the Middle East: Islamic and Secular Organizations in Egypt

  “Mr. Kraft will take you on a roller coaster of historical information; describing the cycle of religions in ancient times that were based on power and greed. Then in the second half of the book, our “Hero” appears and begins to make sense of it all. The Buddha from Babylon is a creative combination of fact and imagination. Buddha challenges everyone, including the reader, to re-evaluate themselves. As Mr. Kraft so apply writes, ’It would require of them an awakening to the possibility of awakening.’”

  —Robyn Lebron, author of Searching for Spiritual Unity, a guide to forty of the world’s religions

  “The Buddha from Babylon offers an excellent depiction of Axial Age visionary knowledge, rationality, and aphoristic thinking, as it applied to the journey of the Buddha.”

  —William Bauser, Professor of Philosophy (retired) Dean College, Maine

  Copyright © 2014 by Harvey Kraft

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

  This edition published by SelectBooks, Inc.

  For information address SelectBooks, Inc., New York, New York.

  First Edition

  ISBN 978-1-59079-143-1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kraft, Harvey, 1950-

  The Buddha from Babylon : the lost history and cosmic vision of Siddhartha Gautama / Harvey Kraft.

  pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Summary: “Presents an alternative biography to the traditional recounting of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, and shows Babylonian influences on his cosmology. Author proposes that before his Enlightenment in the Indus forests, Buddha was a renowned visionary and philosopher in ancient Babylon, becoming briefly the Emperor of the Persian Empire before a coup by Darius the Great”-- Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-1-59079-143-1 (pbk. book : alk. paper) 1. Gautama Buddha. 2.

  Cosmology, Ancient. I. Title.

  BQ894.K73 2014

  294.3’63--dc23

  2013041868

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  To the voices of light

  in my Universe

  Andrew, Lani, Jaime, and Desiree

  SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT

  The author wishes to thank history researcher and ancient linguistic analyst Dr. Ranajit Pal for inspiration and his breakthrough in connecting Siddhartha Gautama’s origin with Northern India and Persia.

  CONTENTS

  PREFACE

  The Buddha from Babylon

  Spiritual Archeology: About the Author’s Method of Research and Analysis

  About the Lotus Sutra

  A Note to the Reader

  INTRODUCTION

  In Search of the Buddha’s Biography

  The Origins of the Buddha

  Finding Babil

  Siddhartha in Babylon

  Emperor of Persia

  The Purge

  Destination Indus

  Universal Truth

  Being of Three Minds

  The Grand Perch

  Super Cosmic System

  Chapter One

  THE DUAL COSMOLOGY

  The Big Breakthrough

  Unseen Spirits

  Shamans

  Mondial Cosmology

  Divine Power

  Accountability

  The First Settlements

  Religious Institutions and Royal Bloodlines

  Living Gods

  Organized Religion

  Supreme Power

  The Epic Drought

  Monotheism

  The Rig Veda

  Future Streams

  Chapter Two

  FROM DOMINATION TO IMMORTALITY

  Creation of the Gods

  The Next Generation

  The Celestial Road

  Readings

  The Soul of Egypt

  A Race to the Top

  The Sun Outshines All

  In Search of Immortality

  Babylon’s God

  Mountain Lions

  Cosmic Movements

  The Observatory

  Chapter Three

  CROSSROADS

  Arrival of the Magi

  Brutality

  Babylon Resurrected

  The Emperor’s Dream

  The Root

  Ascetics

  Cyrus

  The Reluctant Emperor

  Chapter Four

  LEAVING BABYLON

  The Insult

  The Cover-Up

  A Convenient Suicide

  Behind the Scenes


  Zoroaster Speaks

  Vultures

  The Great Fall

  Sin and Soul

  Indra

  Skepticism

  The Arrival

  Chapter Five

  STARGAZER

  Victory

  Distant Goals

  The New Nobility

  Liberation

  Fields of Existence

  Star Worlds

  Essence

  Change

  Enlightening Beings

  Lotus Treasury

  The Climb

  Chapter Six

  THE STATES OF SUFFERING

  Kuru Kingdom

  Samsara

  Karma

  Debate

  Redesigning Heaven

  Chase

  Chapter Seven

  RELATIVITY

  The Circle

  Bonds

  Enchanted Creatures

  Cosmic Time

  In the Middle

  Eyes and Lands

  The Three Vehicles

  The Peak

  Training

  Threefold Body

  Compassion

  Paradox of Attainment

  Chapter Eight

  PERFECTLY ENDOWED

  New Direction

  The Missing Link

  First Assembly

  Quickness

  Once Upon a Time

  Trap

  One Vehicle

  Predictions

  Precious Seven

  Real Nirvana

  Chapter Nine

  LOTUS COSMOLOGY

  Forgiveness

  Extinction

  Treasure Tower

  The Ascensions

  Resurrection

  Ultimate Buddha

  Everlasting Omnipresence

  The Antidote

  Never Resting

  AFTERWORD

  Babylon After the Buddha

  True Self

  Instant Enlightenment

  Wicked Babylon

  Xerxes

  Alexander in Babylon

  Surviving

  Modern Eye

  The Conversation

  GLOSSARIES

  Doctrines

  Key Terms

  Sacred Figures

  Key Historical Figures

  INDEXES

  Index of Deities

  Index of Sacred Literature

  Index of Buddhism

  Index of Ancient History

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Preface

  THE BUDDHA FROM BABYLON

  Scholars have estimated that the historical Buddha lived in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. Traditionally his date of birth is given as 563 BCE and his date of death as 483 BCE. There has been a general consensus that he lived and taught exclusively in an area known today as India, which during this era was composed of sixteen independent kingdoms.

  At the same time, however, a vast empire dominated the region west of India. The militant Achaemenid Persian dynasty, after overtaking the former Babylonian and Median Empires, had expanded its sovereignty from Egypt to the Indus. Central to their territory was Babylon, the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan city of that period and the energetic hub of spiritual and intellectual explorations. By the lifetime of the Buddha, Babylon had been exposed to a wide assortment of religious views from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus Valley.

  This book will offer the view that Siddhartha Gautama, the name of the person who became the Buddha, had been born outside of India, and had become an important leader in Babylon prior to the event known as his enlightenment. This book further explores how this background and experience was instrumental in shaping his cosmic visions.

  The legendary biography of Siddhartha Gautama written 2,000 years ago recounts that before becoming the Buddha he was born a prince of the Sakya clan and was raised in his father’s cloistered royal estate. According to the story of his younger years, he was married and had a son before venturing out into the world. Once outside of his sheltered paradise he was shocked to learn that people suffered from birth until death. His deep compassion for others set him on a quest to solve the cause of suffering.

  Choosing to depart his princely domain, he entered the mendicant lifestyle to learn the skills of trance meditation. After some ten years of spiritual searching he finally found a path to salvation. One day while sitting under a tree in a forest, the Buddha attained Perfect Enlightenment. Immediately he embarked on a journey followed by growing numbers of disciples. Through oral sermons and cosmic visions he set forth his enlightened views about the scope, nature, and essence of life. These teachings became known as Buddhism.

  According to the Buddhist scriptures recorded after his passing, the Buddha taught primarily in India from one end of the Ganges River to the other. One source of the literature appeared in northwestern India, and thereafter traveled south to the island of Sri Lanka and then to other south Asian countries. Another collection was assembled in the northeast India, in an area claimed to be the ancient kingdom of Magadha, today’s state of Bihar in India. In due course these scriptures spread north into China and from there to Korea and Japan.

  In the late 19th century a surveyor and trader in artifacts said that he discovered the Buddha’s birthplace in Nepal, which he declared to have been the homeland of the long-since extinct tribe of the Sakyas. Nepal, located south of China, and north of Bihar, has had a history of Buddhist culture, but archeological evidence concerning the time of the Buddha in this location has remained unconfirmed to the present. For more than one hundred years since this claim was made archeologists have tried to find some trace of the Buddha or the Sakya tribe in this region. Academics still support a Nepalese or Indian birthplace, although a host of serious and respected scholars have deemed the claim to be either suspect or utterly fraudulent.

  The story of the Indian Buddha dates back to about two hundred years after Siddhartha Gautama’s lifetime. At that time, coinciding with arrival of Alexander the Great in that area, India’s kingdoms were unified into one nation under the Emperor Asoka, a converted Buddhist. His reign appears to coincide with the effort to localize Buddhism inside India.

  The religious literature of this period cloaked the Buddha in supernatural powers. They developed a picture of him as a divine being who possessed supernatural spiritual powers and in death watched over believers from Parinirvana. As Buddhism competed with other local religions, its proponents felt obliged to convince the local population that it was an indigenous Indian religion, but ultimately to no avail. Brahmanism prevailed and evolved into the dominant religion in India.

  Several hundred years later, encompassing Brahmanism and its forerunner, Vedism, the new religion of Hinduism emerged with the writings of a brilliant new testament, the Mahabharata. It lifted the nation of India to a divine status.

  The result was that Hinduism delivered a decidedly homegrown Indian cosmology and belief system. Led by the socially influential religious caste of Brahmins, Hinduism prevailed as the local religion of choice, and eventually forced the stranger, Buddhism, to move on. Buddhism only survived due to its timely arrival in other Asian countries, and its willingness to adapt to local beliefs and customs in China, Sri Lanka, the countries of Southeast Asia, and, centuries later, in Tibet, Korea, and Japan.

  The Buddha from Babylon presents an alternative biography of the Buddha based on reliable analyses of more recent archeological findings and insightful interpretations of mythological literature. This narrative, based on alternative research that unveils the lost history of the Buddha, provides evidence of his origin to the west of India. He was, it appears, born an Arya-Scythian, and a royal personage of the Saka clan, a people of Eurasian origin.

  Recently several historians have determined that the legendary Sakya people were actually the Saka, whose descendants are well known to a region that stretches today from southeastern Iran through Afghanistan and Pakistan, up to the Indus River Valley where India
begins. The location of the Saka suggests that the man known as Siddhartha Gautama must have been born to the west of India, far from Nepal or northeastern India.

  This is the first biography of Siddhartha Gautama to reveal that prior to becoming the Buddha, he had an important career in Babylon. It paints the story of a young prodigy who grew up in the Arya tradition of the Lion-Sun shaman. In due course, he headed for Babylon where his wisdom, princely demeanor, and divination skills earned him the position of Chief Magus of the Magi Order headquartered at the Esagila Ziggurat Temple complex.

  Evidence of his presence in Babylon shapes this speculative biography. During his time in Babylon he acquired a reputation as a beloved figure, a popular leader in charge of the general welfare of the population. He possessed a remarkable depth of knowledge, was well versed in philosophy and astronomy, and became a visionary, stargazer, metaphysicist, and philosopher. He was educated to hold a wide range of spiritual concepts, including ancient shamanism, the Sumerian/Akkad, and the Egyptian, Vedic, Judean, Assyrian, Greek, Zoroastrian, and Babylonian religions.

  He had become a master of the mythic language used from the earliest civilization to convey the cosmic visions of seers. Later, once he became the Buddha, he used this “visualization“ language to paint his remarkable cosmological visions. His talents described the scope of his brilliance and the depth of his compassion prior to his accomplishment of Perfect Enlightenment.

  Although Babylon was under Persian rule at the time, the Magi Council decided to replace the sitting emperor who was away on a military venture. They placed Gautama on the throne. After the Persian Emperor died under mysterious circumstances, Siddhartha Gautama would hold the role of the King of Babylon and presumptive Emperor of Persia for several months. However, his time in Babylon came to an abrupt end when Persian nobles conspired against Gautama. Their political coup and purge forced him to abdicate and flee for the Indus Valley forest. In his place a Persian military general, Darius the Great, with the guidance of his religious mentor Zoroaster, took power and became the new emperor.

  ***

  The cosmic visions of Siddhartha Gautama are described in The Buddha from Babylon within the context of four progressive cosmologies that he conveyed using mythic language. The reader is taken into the Buddha’s mind to reveal a comprehensive and in-depth system of existence. As he unveils his teaching course, the Buddha shows that he is a highly educated man, well aware of religious ideas, mythologies, wars, and the quest of conquerors for personal immortality and domination. If so, we might imagine that his sophisticated, worldly knowledge would have had a profound impact on his Teachings—connecting individuals, society, and the boundless cosmos to the evolution of humanity.