Chapter VI.— The Relation of Manichæism to Buddhism. The extent of Mani’s dependence on Buddhism is a matter that has been much disputed.  The attention of scholars was first directed to this possible source of Manichæism by the discovery of important features that are radically opposed to Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity, and by the traditional historical connection of Mani with India and Turkestan.  The antagonism of spirit and matter, of light and darkness, the mixture of spirit and light with matter and darkness in the formation of the world, the final catastrophe in which complete simplicity shall be re-established, only inert matter and darkness remaining to represent the Kingdom of Darkness, abstinence from bloody sacrifices, from marriage, from killing or eating animals—points in which Manichæism differs widely from the other systems with which it stands historically related—find their counterpart in Buddhism.  It is certain, moreover, that they were fully developed in Buddhism centuries before the time of Mani.  Baur,11 though not the first to suggest a connection of the two systems, was the first to show by a somewhat detailed comparison the close parallelism that exists between Manichæism and Buddhism.  Baur’s reasonings were still further elaborated and confirmed by Neander.12  External grounds in favor of Mani’s dependence on Buddhism are the traditions of Mani’s journey to India and China, and of his prolonged stay in Turkestan, where Buddhism flourished at that time.  But it is on internal grounds that we chiefly rely. If space permitted we could illustrate the close parallelism that undoubtedly exists between Manichæism and Buddhism, from Buddhist documents which have been made accessible through Professor Max Müller and his collaborators in The Sacred Book of the East, far more completely than was possible to Baur and Neander.  It is certain that parallels can be found in Buddhism for almost every feature of Manichæism that is sharply antagon- istic to Zoroastrianism.  The Buddhist view of matter as antagonistic to spirit is fundamental.  It is the world of matter that deludes.  It is the body and its passions that prevent the longed- for Nirvana.  Buddhist asceticism is the direct outgrowth of the doctrine of the evil and de- lusive nature of matter.  The Buddhist doctrine of metempsychosis has its precise counterpart in Manichæism, but it should be said that this doctrine was widely diffused in the West, through Pythagoreanism, before the time of Mani.  The Buddhist tenderness for animal and 23 plant life is paralleled by the Manichæan.  But there is considerable difference between the views on which this tenderness is based.  The Buddhist feeling was based, in part at least, upon the doctrine of metempsychosis, animals and plants being regarded as the abodes of human spirits awaiting their release into Nirvana.  The Manichæan looked upon the elements of light (life) contained in animals and plants as particles of God, and any injury done to them as a hindrance to the escape of these elements, to be conveyed away into the Kingdom 11 Das Manichäische Religionssystem, p. 433 sq. 12 Church Hist. vol. I. The Relation of Manichæism to Buddhism. 32 The Relation of Manichæism to Buddhism.