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Samanaeans

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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in Chinese mythology, are an order of saints who are given to self- contemplation. Fo, or Fohi, teaches that the essence of all things consists in the nothing and the vacuum, and that men return into the nothing, there first to attain to blessedness. The Samanaeans occupy the last stage in the progress towards this nihilistic blessedness. He who has advanced to this stage need no longer worship the gods; he is delivered from his passions, lives in a state of constant self-contemplation, and dies only that he may be incorporated with the great soul of the world.