The tradition of the inner journey of the Scythians has often had a fertilizing effect on our world throughout history. In the Scythian Belt, stretching from the Carpathian Basin to the Pacific Ocean, enlightened masters who appeared since ancient times repeatedly revitalized essential teachings, which flowed in repeated waves across our Earth, rejuvenating the spiritual path.
Eurasia has been crisscrossed by bustling trade routes since ancient times, along which not only goods flowed but also spiritual teachings spread. In the heart of Asia, highly developed cultures and vast empires thrived with cities, irrigated agriculture, immense herds, vibrant trade, lively intellectual life, and grand monasteries, which served as centers of spiritual life. Desertification only assumed significant proportions in recent millennia, as evidenced by the many cities, monasteries, burial sites, fortifications, and other findings unearthed during excavations in recent decades.
The Buddhist tradition acknowledges that prior to the Scythian Sage Buddha (6th century BC), numerous enlightened masters – Buddhas – lived and taught. The tradition mentions four major Buddhas who have been active on our Earth since the formation of our world: Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kashyapa – who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago – and Shakyamuni, the Scythian Sage, the Buddha of our era. Besides them, countless enlightened masters existed. The disciples of all these enlightened beings spread across the world, disseminating the teachings of the inner journey, whose traces are still found at various points on our Earth.
The teachings of the inner journey emanating from Inner Asia also spread to the ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient Greeks mentioned several Scythian masters, whom they held in great esteem. A highly influential legendary Scythian master was Abaris (the Avar), the teacher of Pythagoras, who was noted to have acquired his knowledge in Scythia, at his home. He was a wise healer of body and soul, a seer of the future, and a priest of Apollo (the god of light, magic, and the Sun). Through his simplicity and honesty, he earned the respect and high regard of the Greeks.[1]
The Scythian philosopher and miraculous healer, Toxaris (the Tokharian), was revered among the Athenians as a deity. Among his disciples was Anacharsis (the Onogur?), a Scythian royal descendant, who arrived from Scythia to Athens in the 6th century BC, making a significant impression on the Greeks as a straightforward and outspoken “barbarian”. He was the first foreigner to be granted Athenian citizenship and earned his place among the “Seven Sages of Greece”.
The Scythian Sage Buddha lived in the 6th century BC. He himself traveled extensively across present-day India and Central Asia for more than four decades after his enlightenment, encouraging his disciples to travel, heal, and teach as well.
Ashoka, the great Buddhist king of India in the 3rd century BC, sent learned masters to several rulers in the Mediterranean region to introduce them to Buddha’s teachings. These teachings profoundly influenced the Greek philosophers of the centuries following Buddha’s era. Buddhist doctrines flourished in the Central Asian Greek colonies and were known throughout the Hellenistic world.[2]
The teachings of the wide path (mahayana) as taught by Buddha – emphasizing love, salvation, and forgiveness – played a significant role in the teachings of Jesus. These teachings began to spread widely in India and Central Asia just before the time of Jesus, not far from the Mediterranean region. At that time, there were close cultural and trade connections between Central Asia, India, and the Mediterranean region. Indian and other written sources tell us that Jesus studied Buddhism in India for sixteen years, during a time when India was a Buddhist country. Upon his return, he taught the wide path (mahayana) and the diamond path (vajrayana) in his homeland. It is a testament to a highly advanced practitioner of the inner journey that he realized the rainbow body, evidenced by the disappearance of his body at the time of his death. This lineage of practice remains unbroken in Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, and examples of its realization still occur today.[3] Not only in Jesus’ teachings but also in the later teachings and practices of Christianity, the spirit of Buddhism is recognizable: the practice of brotherly love, universal compassion, and forgiveness.
From the first centuries AD, peoples arriving from Asia to Europe in successive waves brought the non-dogmatic inner path to Europe. The Scythian Alans and Jazigs (Jász), Huns, Avars, and Hungarians spread the sublime ideal of the sacred warrior who protects the weak, embraces the fallen, upholds justice, and the spirituality, spiritual practices, and culture of the “knight,” defining the spirit of European chivalry for a thousand years, which forms the basis of our culture to this day. They were the first knights who were not only warriors but also spiritual practitioners, dedicated seekers of the Holy Grail, and practitioners of inner alchemy. Through their example, the ideal of the sacred warrior spread not only in Europe but also in Iran, India, China, Southeast Asia, and Japan.
In Europe, the teachings of the inner journey later spread under the name of alchemy. The inner teachings and practices of alchemy encompass profound spiritual teachings and practices (tummo, kundalini yoga) related to the subtle energies flowing within the body, which should fundamentally be distinguished from the commonly known concept of alchemy involving the production of gold. One of its most significant waves brought light, a “rebirth” (renaissance), into the spiritually ailing Europe of the “dark Middle Ages.” Numerous prominent figures of this era (artists, poets, scholars) showed that they were secret practitioners of the inner journey.
In the Western world, various traditions of the inner path are still preserved by so-called secret societies, and with little investigation, we can discover that the guiding personalities who shaped the spirit, history, art, and science of the West over the centuries were almost without exception practitioners of these teachings. This holds true for our present time as well.
Today, the Inner Path, nourished from a pure source, is spreading vigorously throughout the world, bringing about visible changes in spirituality, sciences, and arts, initiating a long-awaited “rebirth” on the brink of a spiritual crisis in our world. Its influence powerfully shapes the sciences, philosophy, and arts of our present days.
In a narrower sense within our Hungarian tradition, after the masters and „táltos” who maintained the spiritual teachings were forced into “inner emigration” by oppressive powers, the spiritual teachings mainly remained with us in our tales and the symbols of our so-called “folk art.“[4] Our wise teachers had numerous other means to express their knowledge of the world, including the five-level (pentatonic) music, dances, art, medicine, martial arts, ways of preparing food, the arrangement of settlements, the organization of society, and the array of customs and rituals encompassing every aspect of life. All of these express the sacredness and deeper meaning of life.
The knowledge manifest in life was created by the teachers of the Inner Path as an act of benevolence to bestow enlightened order upon the entire people’s life, allowing everyone to experience the sacredness of the world even through everyday actions.
[1] See: Peter Kingsley: A Story Waiting to Pierce You – The Story of Abaris, the Enlightened Avar Master who Launched the Spirituality of the West in the Ancient Greek World – Hungarian translation: BMK, Budapest
[2] See: Thomas McEvilley’s research: The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies – Allworth Press, New York; Georgios T. Halkias: When the Greeks Converted the Buddha: Asymmetrical Transfers of Knowledge in Indo-Greek Cultures – Brill Publishers
[3] See: Lama Csöpel: The Resurrection of Jesus and the Rainbow Body (Hungarian) – Buddhist Meditation Center, Budapest–Tar
[4] See: Lama Csöpel, Kovács I.: Secret Teachings in Hungarian Folk Tales – Inner Path, Budapest; Lama Csöpel: Truth-Telling Mirror; Lama Csöpel: The Hidden Face; Lama Csöpel: Scythians and Huns on the Ancient Path of the Buddhas – Buddhist Meditation Center, Budapest–Tar