The Lost Sutras of Jesus: Unlocking the Ancient Wisdom of the Xian Monks

by Ray Riegert

Book Overview

The Lost Sutras of Jesus is a fascinating historical journey and spiritual quest into the heart of Jesus's teachings and the essence of Eastern religion. Around A.D. 640, Christian missionaries entered China from the west and had their message translated with a Taoist and Buddhist overlay. These sutras were eventually sealed in a cave, where they remained hidden for 900 years. The Lost Sutras of Jesus combines the amazing story of the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569755221
• ISBN13: 9781569755228
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Bookpack Inc
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Introducing its readers to the often intricate and highly enlightened practices of Eastern religions

Deftly co-authored by established Christian authors Ray Riegert and Thomas Moore, The Lost Sutras Of Jesus: Unlocking The Ancient Wisdom Of The Xian Monks is an expansive introduction to the fascinating and insightful discoveries and explorations of the aged and invaluable understandings of the Xian Monks. Introducing its readers to the often intricate and highly enlightened practices of Eastern religions and their peculiar relationship with Christ, The Lost Sutras Of Jesus follows the tale of a Christian band of missionaries around 640 A.D. and their documentation and transcripts of Christ's doings, and the texts discovery over nine-hundred years later. The Lost Sutras Of Jesus is very highly recommended reading, especially for dedicated students of the Christian religion, Eastern philosophy, and apocryphal the path of Christ and his "missing years" prior to his ministry and death in Israel, granting its readers and invaluable translation of inspirational and engaging, near two-thousand year-old scripture.

History at its best

The history part of the Lost Sutras is well written and interesting. However I wish all of the available Sutras were published. What is here makes the journeys of the early apostles and Jesus himself more real.

Rich Spiritual Blend of Christian, Tao & Confucian Thoughts

Fascinating religious scrolls were discovered in caves in Xian, China at the turn of the century. They were disseminated to museums in France, Britain (UK) and into private collections and not translated for many years. The political upheavals in China left the remaining texts safe ... until 1998 when the monastery where they were stored was discovered. This small volume is a gem that includes translations of the scrolls, although high-priced for only 138 pages, the information contained within is well worth reading. Part I describes the historical background of how Christian monks from Persia in 635 C.E. traveled 3,000 miles over the Silk Road to China. They were honored by the enlightened Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, who recognized the wisdom of the Christian teachings which he called "The Luminous Religion". He had the monks write down their teaching and included it in the Imperial library that contained 200,000 volumes of scrolls, one of the most substantial places of knowledge in the world. Close to a 1,000 years later the Chinese found the scrolls and built a monument, which at the top had a cross rising from the center of a lotus blossum. On the stele was carved the teachings of Christianity, Taoism, and Confucianism. In the early 1900s, a Taoist priest/monk discovered the caves where the original manuscripts were laid ... he devoted his life to preserving the caves and their contents. Amazingly it was a Hungarian Jew, Sir Aurel Stein, who grew up in Britain, obtained his Ph.D. at age 21, was raised as a Christian, who brought these texts to the world's attention. Later he received a knighthood and honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. A French archeologist, Paul Pelliot, also deserves credit for his outstanding translations of the numerous scrolls that he took back to the Bilbiotheque Nationale in France and for which he received honors later in life. The book does indeed fall short in providing enough of the translated scrolls themselves, there are only just over 40 pages devoted to this alone, but the overall research and information contained within had my undivided and full attention. This is a most highly recommended book. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

Fascinating look at an ancient Christian-Buddhist Encounter

This is a wonderful book! It is well written and consists of different sections. One section documents how these remarkable scrolls were created and how they were lost to history and then rediscovered.Another section presents the translations of the scrolls with insightful commentary by Thomas Moore. Another section presents Prayers from the scrolls. The teachings and Prayers in the scrolls are remarkable for their blending of Eastern and Western religious ideas and for their gentle and wise portrait of Jesus.At 140 pages it is a rich little book and well worth it but it left me wanting more.