Mani's mystical teachings have profoundly enriched the Nazorean Way. His name means the "Vessel of Life" and he came to be regarded by his Christian disciples as the Paraclete, by his Persian followers as the Zoroastrian redeemer Saoshyant, and by his Buddhist adherents as the Avatar Maitreya. He was also known as a reincarnation of both Lao Tzu and Buddha. He was a gifted writer, teacher, artist, physician, astrologer, musician and a miracle-worker. He personally illuminated and illustrated many of his original scriptures, and could draw a fine line on silk and then erase it by removing one thin thread.

Like Christ and Buddha before him, Mani was coincidentally and unimportantly of royal descent. His father Pattik, while worshipping in a Ctesiphon temple (near Bagdad), heard a voice urging him to abstain from meat, wine, and worldly marriage. Pattek was then led southward to Dastumisan to join the Mughtasilah Sect, or Elkasites, who had several gnostic settlements along the lower Tigris river below Ctesiphon (near al-'Amarah, Iraq).  By age four Mani was being initiated into this gnostic tradition. Patak eventually became Abbot of the vegetarian monastery that Mani grew up in. Mani was blessed to receive an advanced spiritual education within this blessed lineage of Light. This spiritual upbringing helped prepare Mani for a spiritual experience at age 12 when an Angel called Taum ("The Twin"), appeared and told him to continue under the Rule of Elxai for 12 more years before leaving and proclaiming his Apostleship.

Mani spent 20 years meekly and quietly reading and scribing the vast Gnostic library preserved by the Nazorean followers of Elxai which included works by John the Baptist, Yeshu (Jesus), Bardaisan, Basilides, Valentinius and others. He also underwent arduous training as a Gnostic Priest. Under the careful guidance of "The Twin", Mani began to prepare for his life mission as an Apostle of Light and Herald of that Good Realm,  fulfilling the prophecy of the Elchasaites which said:"A certain young man will rise up from our midst and a new teacher will come forth to overturn all our teaching in the way our forefathers spoke concerning the Rest of the Garment."

In his 24th year Mani's "Twin" appeared and announced: "Hail, Mani, from me and the Lord, who has sent me to thee and chosen thee for his mission. But he commands thee to invite men to thy doctrine and to proclaim the glad tidings of truth that comes from him, and to bestow thereon all thy zeal." Mani first proclaimed his message to a synod of his fellow monastics, most of which rejected his dietary, ritualistic, and other reforms and responded by beating him severely.  They did not appreciate his view that it was okay to eat wheat, drink wine, and eat certain fruits and vegetables that they eschewed. Nor did they appreciate his views on reforming ritual washing. Two of his fellow Elchasaites left with him, as did his father Pattek. Mani eventually divided his followers into Listeners (Shama) and Elect (Tzadika), and Patek became the first Elect in Mani's new Order. Mani then began to teach his new message to the other Elchasaite villages in the area.  Mani went on to proclaim his gospel in the royal city of Gundesapor, on the coronation day of Sapor I (April 12, 240 A.D.), proclaiming: "As once Buddha came to  India, Zoroaster to Persia, and Jesus to the lands of the West, so came in the present time, this prophecy  through me, the Mani, to the land of Babylonia".

Mani then sailed to Beluchistan in the Indus valley, where he converted the Turan Shah of India. In the Kephalia it says "that he moved the whole land of India". Mani soon returned to spend a year (c242 A.D.) in a spring fed cave on the Silk Road (Bukhara, Uzbekistan) making paintings on its walls, writing his Living Gospel and illustrating his Ardahang. Afterwards he was invited by King Shapur to his court (c243 A.D.) where Mani was well received and given royal sanction for his missionary activities. With this royal support Mani was able to spend the next ten years spreading his teachings throughout the empire, establishing churches and monasteries and sending out disciples. Mani personally founded Manichæan communities in Turkestan, India and elsewhere. While traveling, he spread and strengthened his doctrine by 76 Epistles, a few of which have survived the ravages of time.

After the death of King Shapur and his successor Hormisdas, the  head Zoroasterian priest Kartir began a general persecution of all non Zoroasterian sects in the Sassanian empire. Kartir succeeded in having the 57 year old Mani imprisoned at Gundesapor where he had began his mission 34 years before. In his trial Mani said: "Ask all men about me; I have no master and no teacher, from whom I have learnt this wisdom or from whom I have these things. But, when I received them, I received them from God through His angel. God sent me a message that I was to preach in your kingdom. For the whole world hath fallen into error and gone astray; it had wickedly fallen away from the wisdom of God, the Lord of all. But I have received from Him and revealed the way of Truth in the midst of the All, so that the souls of the many may be saved and escape from punishment. For the witness for everything that I offer is clear; all that I preach has existed in previous generations. But it is customary for the way of truth to be revealed for a time and then to be hidden ..."

Mani died in chains 26 days later on 4th day of the 12th Babylonian month of Adaru (March 2) 274 A.D. at age 57. As the three angels met his spirit rising to heaven, so three earthly women tended to his remains on earth. Fearing his revival, his body was later beheaded and stuffed with straw, then nailed to the city gates. Manichaeans ever afterward celebrated this event each spring by a period of Lent like fasting followed by a Bema festival that took the place of Easter among the Manichaeans.

A general persecution of Manichaeans soon followed Mani's "crucifixion", yet the faith continued to flourish. Manichaeans were soon found in Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, Asia Minor, Armenia, Dalmatia, Rome, Spain, Southern Gaul, Trans-Oxiana, Turkestan, India, China and Tibet. Mani's disciples Adda and Pateg caused his teachings to flourish in the western Roman empire. Its great success there threated the very survival of the developing Catholic church which responded ruthlessly. From the year 382 onward adherence to Manichaeism became punishable by death in the Roman Catholic empire.

The great Apostle Amo and others also had great sucess in eastern lands. By the 8th century Manichaeism was  the state religion of Uigur Kingdom and was flourishing in China and other eastern lands, where it survived until the 14th century or later.

Mani encoded his visions, insight and enlightenment in sacred scrolls. The 8 sacred texts personally authored and claimed by Him in his Kephalaia, are: Great Gospel; Treasure of the Life; The Treatise; The One of the Mysteries; The Writing; Epistles; Psalms; and Prayers.