Spinoza the Buddhist?

When I started researching and writing the section of my book on Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise and Hobbes’s Leviathan, I was within minutes struck by the apparent Buddhism of Spinoza’s thought. I emailed Steven Nadler, the author of several bios on Spinoza about this and he replied that Spinoza was a Stoic. Indeed, Nadler states as much in his books:

‘Spinoza’s ethical theory is, to a certain degree, Stoic.’ ~ Spinoza: A Life

‘Parts Three and Four clearly owe a debt to Spinoza’s study of Hobbes and of ancient Stoic thinkers. The Stoic element is, as we shall see, in even greater evidence in Part Five, wherein Spinoza finally provides some instruction as to how to move toward the life of reason.’ ~Spinoza’s ‘Ethics’: An Introduction

The inconsistencies in the cosmologies alone are enough to make one question Nadler’s premise of Stoic influences. Jonathan Israel has an entire section titled ‘Spinozism: A Reworking Of Greek Stoicism?’ and writes in Enlightenment Contested: ‘Just as the immanence of the Stoic God in nature differs from Spinoza’s single substance, so the relation of body and soul (pneuma) in Stoicism, despite Stoic monism, and acceptance of the mortality of the soul, diverges widely from Spinoza’s.’ Nadler didn’t get the memo, as Israel also states: ‘…others continued to see in Stoicism the ancient school most proximate to Spinozism.’

My research led me to the Epicureans and its descent from Buddhism, through Pyrrho. Recently, a prof suggested I create a genealogy to show the links, which I present below, and how Stoic links were initially presented and ultimately rejected by Bayle but continue to lead some to think Spinoza was a Stoic.