St. Thomas trained many devotees in the Yoga of Jesus in India, and prepared a large number for ordination.  The earliest accounts of rites of initiation and ordination are recorded in Church of the East annals and Scripture.

As a young man Jesus studied and taught in Persia (Afghanistan) and India, and His message of The Way was easily acculturated in the East.  In the East, The Saviour applied the ancient teaching of that culture to His teaching (as He did in the West with the Hebrew Scriptures) drawing from the traditions of Melchizedek, the Tao Teh Ching and Bhagavad Gita. 

The Scriptures, Mystical Saying of Yesu, and Acts of Yesu initially served the early Church and by the 3rd century the body of so-called Thomist Scriptures were also completed.  By the end of the 4th century the Eastern Bible and the Traditions of The Way of Jesus was commonplace in North India and NE Afghanistan.

By the 4th century when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire and the Emperor called for councils to determine a canon for a Western Bible, a Creed for Christianity and standardisation of the rites and liturgical formulae, Church of the East was well established in its own right in the East and had no share in what transpired in the West.  Christianity decided on a Creed defining God as three male persons in one, and their Bible consisted most 90% of Hebrew and Pauline books.  This gave cause for Church of the East and Christianity to never meet again on 'common ground'.

During the 6th century Christianity in the West resolved to stop preaching the inherited doctrines of Reincarnation, Dharma and Karma and again thousands of books and brilliant scholars were burned--breaking final ties West and East could hold at the time.  The Yoga of Jesus henceforth continued only in the East.

Church of the East was not structured as a large religious body but rather as a lifestyle common in many communities spread throughout the area.  At times, in the 6th century for instance, records estimate the collective Nestorian and Church of the East membership to be in the region of eighty million.  Church of the East was among those communities that were declared anathema by Papal and Imperial decree in Constantinople and Rome.  When the Persian rulers of the time suddenly turned against Christians (their reaction against Rome), that wrath unfortunately extended to every other movement which professed Yesu the Saviour.  Church of the East members were denied a safe haven on Roman territory unless they accepted the Christian Creed.  They were persecuted as Christians--slaughtered, perhaps the better word.  By the 8th century, Islam came to the regions of Persia and India bearing the sword, and again Church of the East devotees had no where to run but deeper into the mountains of Kashmir and beyond into Tibet. 

Between the 9th and 17th century waves of persecution continued at the hand and sword of Islamic and Christian forces.  Church of the East almost went underground, to the point where it eventually existed more or less as a Hindu/Buddhist cult.   It entrenched itself in the prevailing culture and became, for most, an acetic Nazorean lifestyle bearing witness to Jesus' Yoga. Icons and devotionals from the 2nd century that survived through the years were mainly those depicting the Saviour, St. Magadhalene, St. Thomas and other leaders; and these probably survived because they were confused with Buddhist or Hindu figures.  The Saviour, as Maitreya Buddha, became a popular aspect of the ascetic Church. 

Almost final blows were struck by 13th century and 16th century Christian (Jesuit) delegates who burned, edited and destroyed thousands of books and devotional artefacts, and generally made the idea of being a Jesus-devotee unpopular since the missionaries' cruel, brutish and disrespectful behaviour in India.

Today the elders of the community are scattered here and there but the Awakening to the Yoga of Jesus is happening all over the world and beyond. Fresh talent is streaming in as theologians and scholars join, and more and more devotees are reaching out to serve the awakened interest.  At present rate it will probably not be long before the records may again estimate an fellowship numbers to be in the millions.  May it be that we continue to live in Humility, Simplicity and Compassion --growing in the Yoga of Jesus.

The Light be with you

[Other publications dealing with church history in more depth become available from time to time.  We are working on an e-book series]

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