Mani
Mani is the first of these incarnations for which we have an established biography. He was born in Babylonia, near the present city of Baghdad, April 25th, 216 CE. He was apparently raised in an obscure monastic community, possibly the Elchesaites, strict ascetics preoccupied with cleanliness who viewed the world from which they wilfully exiled themselves as very Hell. It was not a happy childhood.
At the age of 12, Mani had a vision of an angel he called El Tawam that began to teach him about his origin, his task on this earth, and the message he was to deliver. He was increasingly at odds with the ascetics where he found himself and in his early twenties left the community and began to teach. He quickly acquired a following, but when he came to the attention of the Zoroastrian priests he was declared a heretic and forced to leave the country.
Mani is reported to have wandered around for eighteen years, through central Asia, Afghanistan, Tibet and northern India. These travels broadened his understanding of religion and his teachings became increasingly a mixture of many streams of thought, particularly Buddhism. He felt that he was one of a series of prophets who had come to humanity bringing the same message to different peoples.
His wandering complete, Mani returned to Persia when nearly sixty years of age. He was initially protected by the emperor, largely through the patronage of the empress. But the Zoroastrian Magi once again plotted against him and in 277 CE persuaded the emperor to order his execution. After being tortured for several weeks, he was impaled, beheaded and his head displayed on a pole near the city gate. His flayed body was then stuffed with straw and used as a warning against other heretics.
Manichaeism grew after the prophet's death and became a major world religion. In the west, Augustine of Hippo, later to become the Catholic Saint Augustine, was an adherent for several years. In the east, the Uighurs Turks of Mongolia converted to Manichaeism, and from there it was introduced into China where it was an official religion until the middle of ninth century. The Bogomils of Bulgaria and the Cathars of southern France were probably Manichaeans and both were the subject of persecution by the Catholic Church. The religion was declining by the 15th century, though some monasteries were built as late as the mid-eighteenth century. There are rumors that a Manichaean tradition still exists in parts of China and India.
The doctrines of Manichaeism are not always easy to understand. Basically, it teaches that the worlds of light and darkness were originally separate but became mixed through a confusion. The goal is to separate them once again and this can only be done through living in the proper way. One of the ways this could be aided was by refraining from killing any living thing. The Manichaean community was divided into two groups, the Elect and the Hearers. The Elect were celibate and vegetarian, living lives of great austerity. They could not even harvest their own food, but depended on the Hearers doing it for them. It was partly by caring for the Elect that the Hearers could hope to eventually become one of the Elect.
A most interesting doctrine of Manichaeism has to do with the Christ:
Of the content of his revelation, the doctrine concerning "his own self cast into all things" requires comment. It expresses the other aspect of this divine figure: in addition to being the source of all revelatory activity in the history of mankind, he is the personification of all the Light mixed into matter; that is, he is the suffering Primal Man. This original and profound interpretation of the figure of Christ was an important article of the Manichaean creed and is known as the doctrine of the Jesus patibilis, the [suffering or] "passible Jesus" who "hangs from every tree," is served up bound in every dish," "every day is born, suffers and dies." He is dispersed in all creation, but his most genuine realm and embodiment seems to be the vegetable world, that is, the most passive and the only innocent form of life. Yet at the same time with the active aspect of his nature he is transmundane Nous who, coming from above, liberates this captive substance and continually until the end of the world collects it, i.e., himself, out of the physical dispersal.
In other words, the Christ essence is in all things, not just in the figure of Jesus. The prohibition against killing any living thing was undoubtedly related to this doctrine, since killing anything would repeat the killing of Christ. This, of course, was extreme heresy to the Christian church and threatened its authority. But it does show a further development in the goal to make the Christ an archetype for the complete spiritual human.