What is the Order of Nazorean Essenes?
An Order that seeks to resurrect an ancient system of gnosis based on the hidden teachings of Yeshu (Jesus), Miryai (Mary), and Mani.

How does this Order seek to resurrect such teachings?
By carefully collecting, purifying and implementing the ageless teachings found in the priceless scrolls of the Order.

What are these "priceless scrolls"?
The Canon of O:N:E: consists of three levels of texts. The first and foremost is composed on ancient Nazorean writings translated out of Aramaic, Gnostic texts from the Nag Hammadhi discovery, and Manichaean texts.

What are the practices of this Order?
The foundational pillars are five - a vegan diet and lifestyle, daily prayer, weekly fasting, participation in the School of the Prophets, and support of monastic institutions.

What is a vegan lifestyle?
A life of compassion and concern which seeks to limit the amount of consumption and harm resulting from living ones life on this earth.

How can how we live cause harm?
Our food, clothing and shelter choices have repercussions felt around the globe. When we choose a non-compassionate meat diet, it affects starving people in other countries where this meat is produced at their expense.

How does the raising of meat contribute to their hunger?
Some say it takes 16 times more land to produce the same amount of meat food as vegan food. If we eat an all plant diet, then we open the way for 15 other people to have sufficient nourishment. There are always starving children somewhere on the earth and the Order seeks to be conscious of this.

Do the Order's ancient scrolls teach to do this?
Yes, the Manichaeans were ardent vegans who promoted a simple and compassionate lifestyle that did minimum damage to the ecosystem.

How important is the vegan lifestyle to the Order?
It is the basic requirement and principle that binds all members of the Order together. New members must forever leave behind a non-compassionate diet and lifestyle before they may become full members.

How is membership obtained?
Honorary membership is available for the asking. This opens the door for participation in the study courses of the Order. Full membership ensues upon Mystical Immersion by authorized agents of O:N:E:.

What are the benefits of membership?
Exposure to the ancient enlightening teachings of Yeshu, Miryai and Mani; opportunity to receive Nazorean Empowerments, and opportunity to be of loving service to others.

Are there different levels to the Order?
The Order is threefold: the Manichaean Orthodox Church, the Monastic level of Elect, and a third level of the Elect of the Elect.

What is the difference between these?
Membership in the Church is prerequisited upon being a vegan and having at least a mild interest in the teachings and programs. Monastics are fully focused on implementing and studying all facets of the program. The Elect of the Elect concentrate on guiding the Order and insuring its purity and survival.

Is the Order Christian?
The Order considers itself a creation of Yeshu and Miryai, the Nazorean Messiahs, and sees itself as a restoration of original Christianity before its corruption.

What do you mean corruption?
We teach that original vegan Christianity was called Nazoreanism and that it flourished in rural Palestine until 135 AD when the Roman supported form of Pauline Christianity officially replaced it.

What is Pauline Christianity?
A departure from the original thrust of Nazorean Christianity, a mixture of  original gnostic teachings with prevalent Roman religions of the time.

Is all modern Christianity Pauline?
Inasmuch as it is an evolution of the original tampering of a once perfect system, yes!

If the system was so perfect, why was it tampered with?
Ingenious man is always figuring out a way to alter and make easier that which requires great effort and discipline. The original teachings were simply too difficult and too spiritual for the many new converts of Paul who sought to hold onto their Roman lifestyles and habits. Rather than adapt to their religion, they chose to adapte the religion itself.

What Paul then evil?
We see Paul as having a function in the overall scheme of things, but his school is not our school, nor are his teachings our teachings.

What do you mean?
Modern Christianity, based as it is primarily on Paul, teaches salvation via trust in the blood of Jesus. Nazoreans hope for full godhead achieved by becoming godlike. Godliness, in our teachings, can come only through much hard work, discipline and help from on high. Simple confession and belief is not enough to cause true character change.

Does the Order then address the evolution of character?
Most definitely, for its various levels of initiation, vows and disciplines are all designed to slowly evolve the lower nature and wed it to the higher nature.

What is the higher nature?
It is the Pearl of Great Price, the Nishimta soul, which lies dormant in the heart of all true sons and daughters of the Living Ones above.

How is it awakened?
Gradually, through constant exposure to enlightened writings, sanctifying rituals, and deep meditation and prayer.

Are these things fostered in the Order?
The Order exists to promote all practices and procedures which heighten understanding and lend themselves to the growth of Wisdom and Compassion. As in Buddhism, enlightenment is the goal, not blind faith.

Is the Order then Buddhist in orientation?
Our Apostle Mani fully embraced Buddhist teachings and successfully harmonized them with traditional Nazorean Christian teachings. We seek to do the same.

Aren't the methods of Buddhism different than those of the Christian model?
Buddhism's emphasis on personal responsibility and enlightenment is only opposed to false Pauline Christianity which promises so much for so little.  Gnostic Christianity is easily merged with the teachings of all enlightened ones, including Buddha.

What place, then, does Buddha hold in the Order's teachings?
The Parclete is the third member of the Nazorean  Trinity, corresponding to the Holy Spirit in Pauline Christianity. Anciently, our Order taught that this Parclete incarnated as both Buddha and as our Apostle Mani.

Incarnated twice?
Yes, for multiple incarnations are not only possible, but are required of those charged with guiding the spiritual destiny of humankind.

Can Christ incarnate again?
If and when He or She so chooses. Our scrolls mention multiple incarnations of both Christ and Mani. As the spiritual guardians of our Order, these teachers have the responsibility to return to help us whenever the need is great and the time is ripe.

Does the Order have any specific teaching on this?
The tone of the Order is ever expectant of incarnating Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Not specifically Christ, but anyone who comes in His and Her Name. No such claimant can rest on past laurels, however, but must spiritually prove themselves afresh in this new incarnation, for by their fruits they shall be known.

What do you mean by "anyone in Their name"?
Christ is composed of both a  male and female element - Yeshu-Ziwa and Miryai-Noohra. Sometimes these incarnate together, as they did 2000 years ago, as Jesus the Nazorean and Mary Magdalene, and sometimes she incarnates separately or They send others in Their name, such as Mani. The Nazorean pantheon has 32 gods and goddesses, most of which incarnate on earth when needed.

Does the Order teach the appearance of the anti-Christ and the end of the world?
Unlike mainstream Christianity, the Order focuses on internal rather than external happenings. Political figures and governmental upheavals are considered relatively unimportant since this earth is not considered the "footstool of God".

Doesn't the Bible teach these things?
The Christian Bible contains many preserved teachings of original Nazorean Christianity, but it also contains many falsehoods and many false interpretations exist of true passages therein. The Order looks to its own Canon of Scrolls for  formulation of its world view. These Scrolls speak of a great falling away and restoration, but not in the standard Christian sense.

So the Order rejects all global  end of the world scenarios?
Our Pistis Sophia, and other Manichaean  scrolls, speak of an eventual end to the world as we know it, but only after eons of time when all the elect have accomplished all they can accomplish here, and all the gatherable light is extracted. The "Last Days" idea is not supported.

What is to be accomplished specifically?
This material universe is seen as a school house for developing Pearls who have opportunity to use its darkness to refine their own light. By maturing in this world through service and spiritual practices, these developing pearls seek to advance ever closer to true deity hood.

And the ingathering of light?
This is done through unification of the mind which is helped along through certain practices which affect the physical as well as psychological makeup of humanity. Amongst these are alms offerings of wholesome food and the binding together of separate souls through ceremonial initiations and vows taken at holy altars.

How do alms offerings gather in light?
The Order teaches that the light essence of Yeshu and Miryai is diffused throughout all material creation but is concentrated in certain places such as fresh produce. By ritually consuming these reservoirs of light, one can consolidate them within ones own spiritual being, taking them back up to heaven when one dies.

Would not people and animals have more of this light concentrated in them than plants would?
Yes, but the light in animals is unharvestable, being too tightly locked into their individual souls. Their light goes with their escaping soul when they die, as it does in humans. The light in plants does not escape, however, but attaches itself to the souls of whoever eats them.

So it is then impossible to collect the light locked in souls?
The light associated  with spiritual souls is in every way collectable, but this ingathering must come through eternally uniting these souls through perfect love and compassion. Through eternal vows that bind male and female together, their light may be jointly shared and returned on high.

But do we not die alone and thus need to regain heaven without a partner?
The more eternal aspects of reality are mind based. If you are one with another within the deeper stratas of your own soul-mind complex, then death cannot separate you. Likewise, if you abide alone and single in your own soul, then simultaneous death and ascension with a partner will accomplish very little. The unification of opposites, such as male and female, is an important key to understanding how light is transferred from this world to the next.

What Envoy and Maiden?
The ultimate source of love and attraction between male and female has traditionally been explained by our Order as a good thing implanted into humanity by wise Gods and Goddesses from the highest heavens. This was done by implanting subconscious archetypes in the subconscious mind of original humanity. This event occurred when Yeshu the Envoy, and Miriam as the Maiden, unveiled their beautiful form to the archons who first evolved humankind.

What is meant by the Archons that evolved humanity?
In the image filled understandings of our Order, the physical bodies of humanity were not created by a Good God, but rather, by more sinister forces working through the natural laws of evolution. The Good God subtly affected this process by implanting certain divine desires and archetypes into evolving humanity, thus paving the way for the souls eventual liberation from material confinement.

So the Order teaches that the body comes from dark forces, but archetypes from good ones?
There are both good and bad aspects to the body, and both good and evil archetypes to be wrestled with within. Through implementing the Orders' various programs the physical body can be purified somewhat and used a a tool for good, but ultimately must dissolve again into its material origins. The subconscious mind may also be used for much good, but must be purged of dark archetypes and drives typified by the demons in the Order's mythos.

Is the sex drive evil then, or good?
Depending on how it is used, for the qualifier is always the mind and heart. When used as a means to a good end, such as loving service and unification of sincere souls, the desire to unite is a healthy and good one originating on high. When the motivation is selfish and solely for sense gratification, then the sex drive becomes perverted and leads to division, not unification.

How does one tell if it is being used in a good or bad way?
If used in a loving and responsible way, the desire to unite is always a good thing. The goodness of how that desire is expressed depends on a variety of factors - the proper time and place, the proper person, and for the proper reason.  Intimacies inaugurated by holy vows at holy altars have the best chance of fulfilling this criteria. Improper unions, such as adulterous unions behind another's back, or of adults with children, can never be appropriate and always lead to greater selfishness and imprisonment in the material universe.

What of other material pleasures, such as a good meal or hot bath?
While in the body it is considered wise to tend to the needs of the body so that it can be a healthy vibrant tool useful in all spiritual work. Mortification of the flesh has its uses in training and tempering the expression of its desires, and so the Order promotes periods of fasting, celibacy, silence and other disciplines which help the pearl-spirit maintain its ascendancy over the flesh and the lower drives. These periods of abstinence are balanced with periods of regulated indulgence, such as feasts, marriage union, and other practices such as song and dance. The Order promotes the middle way, neither too much indulgence nor too much denial. The promise of transcendence comes through the subtle psychological  tension created by the balancing of certain opposites.

So the Order does not advocate severe asceticism?
The Order encourages periods of abstinence balanced with periods of regulated indulgence according to spiritual principles and the liturgical calendar. All matters are meant to be regulated by an evolved sense of  internal morals and ethics ultimately based on altruistic service to others.

What is the ultimate goal?
Full enlightenment and deification.

And what is the means to obtain such?
A careful adherence to all the laws and principles which pertain to the level one presently finds themselves on.

What are the laws and levels for the beginner?
Basic membership is founded upon an unwavering commitment  to a vegan diet and a relatively compassionate lifestyle with strong encouragement to keep all five pillars of the order - Alms offering, prostrational prayer, weekly fasting, initiations and support of the Order's monastic program. Through these five foundational principles a pure ethical life in Yeshu and Miryai may be erected.