| Nov 7 @ 9:24 AM |
Jesus and the Buddha
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yashaenka
Posts: 8,235
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JESUS: "A foolish man, which built his house on sand."
BUDDHA: "Perishable is a city built on sand." (30)
JESUS: "Therefore confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed."
BUDDHA: "Confess before the world the sins you have committed." (31)
JESUS: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the foregiveness of sins."
BUDDHA: "Let all sins that were committed in this world fall on me, that the world may be delivered." (32)
JESUS: "Do to others as you would have them do to you."
BUDDHA: "Consider others as yourself." (33)
JESUS: "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also."
BUDDHA: "If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon all desires and utter no evil words." (34)
JESUS: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you."
BUDDHA: "Hatreds do not cease in this world by hating, but by love: this is an eternal truth. Overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good." (35)
JESUS: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
BUDDHA: "Let your thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world." (36)
JESUS: "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her."
BUDDHA: "Do not look at the faults of others or what others have done or not done; observe what you yourself have done and have not done." (37)
JESUS: "You father in heaven makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous."
BUDDHA: "The light of the sun and the moon illuminates the whole world, both him who does well and him who does ill, both him who stands high and him who stands low." (38)
JESUS: "If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."
BUDDHA: "The avaricious do not go to heaven, the foolish do not extol charity. The wise one, however, rejoicing in charity, becomes thereby happy in the beyond." (39) For Jesus not to have been exposed to Buddhism at least in his lost years where the bible is silent may suggest that he found a certain likeness between Buddhism and his own living philosophy. What do you think?
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| Nov 7 @ 9:32 AM |
Jesus and the Buddha |
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Deborah551
Posts: 1,010
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It sounds as if Jesus and Buddha may have been brothers. I've just read Bushbys Bible Fraud and he claims Jesus had a twin. I've also read this in Karen Armstrongs books so I think there's validity to it.
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| Nov 7 @ 9:34 AM |
Jesus and the Buddha
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yashaenka
Posts: 8,235
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THE UNIVERSALIST EXPLANATION
The most accepted explanation for the textual similarities is the universalist, ecumenical, or humanist argument that the spiritual condition of humankind is basically the same. To wit, whether we follow Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, or Zarathustra, we all have the same three-pound brain, body and senses, the same emotions and needs and the same basic experiences of suffering, caring for others, fearing death, and looking to a higher being. The psychoreligious sameness is manifest in Sigmund Freud's discontents of civilizations, Carl Jung's archetypes, Joseph Campbell's hero legend, and William James's varieties of religious experience, to name but a few of many such sources.
Therefore, moralists of the standing of Jesus and Buddha are simply expressing the same human conditions and eternal truths. Borg acknowledges: "The correlations of these ancient texts are almost eerie.... Jesus' and Buddha's later teachings are as alike as their early biographies. Whether speaking of love, material wealth, temptation or salvation, they were two masters with one message." (47) Borg dismisses cultural borrowing or Jesus learning from Buddha: "The similarities are not of the kind to suggest cultural borrowing. They are not at the level of specific images or language. They are structural." (48) Christians and Buddhists have been anxious to find common ground. From the Christian side, Thomas Merton is most notable, with works such as Mystics and Zen Masters. The Buddhist side has been led by the Dalai Lama, The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus, and Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ.
There are two alternative treatments for these extraordinary textual parallels. The first is to deny that the parallelisms exist and/or claim they are coincidental. This is hard to maintain against the existence of so many parallel quotations and circumstances. The second explanation is the universalist argument that the ethics and laws of the human situation are the same; thus Jesus knew nothing of Buddhism but, like Buddha, understood the same universal truths and morals that are evident to all enlightened human beings. This can be secular or sacred. The secular version holds that human biological survival and/or psychological well-being depends on certain obvious laws and ethics regarding human rights and obligations. The sacred version is that both Buddha and Jesus were hearing the same God, either as sons of God or as unusually enlightened "students" of God.
Drawing on Jung's cultural archetypes, Serrano states, "All of these stories seem part of a universal myth, and the legends of Osiris and Akhenaton, and those of the Christian Father and Son, and of Krishna and Adonis, have much in common.... The myth is always the same and revolves timelessly down through the ages." (49)
The problem with the universalist argument is that ethics and laws vary widely among cultures, at different times within given cultures, and by different spokespersons or subcultures within given cultures. Ethics and laws differ even within given Christian churches or denominations. Other than the belief that Jesus was the son of God, beliefs vary widely even within Christian churches and denominations, arguably more widely than between certain Christian denominations and Buddhism.
The parallelisms between the teachings of Jesus and Buddha are unique, not universalist. There are no such parallelisms between what Jesus taught and what was taught by Zoroaster, Tao, Confucius, or Plato and the ancient Greek philosophers. 
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| Nov 7 @ 9:48 AM |
Jesus and the Buddha |
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ColdinWisconsin
Posts: 9,987
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Isn't it wonderful how may of the worlds largest religions are based upon the same principals? 
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| Nov 7 @ 10:49 AM |
Jesus and the Buddha
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BandTMom
Posts: 38,039
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I have said for a long time that the teachings of Jesus and The Buddha are basically the same.
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| Nov 7 @ 12:55 PM |
Jesus and the Buddha |
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eastham
Posts: 7,907
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I am currently reading Zen Spirit/Christian Spirit, which is written by Robert E. Kennedy. Father Kennedy is a Jesuit, a professor of theology and Japanese at St. Peter's College in Jersey City and a Zen Master at the Zen Center here is New York. Another good author on this topic is, of course, Thoms Merton.
Here's a link to Father Kennedy's webpage. Click here. Father Kennedy's history is unique -- he was a conservative, cultural Catholic, whose world was thrown upside down by Vatican II. What regrounded him was his time in Japan.
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| Nov 7 @ 1:19 PM |
Jesus and the Buddha
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,642
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good thread....
and great post CIW....
http://muslim-canada.org/islam_christianity.html
..... 
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| Nov 7 @ 1:22 PM |
Jesus and the Buddha |
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BandTMom
Posts: 38,039
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Another book you might be interested in, East, is Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh. It is an awesome comparative book. I need to read it agian myself.
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| Nov 7 @ 2:11 PM |
Jesus and the Buddha
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beckyiv42000
Posts: 14,576
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I have thought since I was a child that the Creator would not have only sent ONE messenger to his people with a message of harm none... I have always believed in many messengers each sent to a people in their likeness and culture to bring the message in a manner they would accept, understand and be able to live by... I mean really ..do you think the creator would forsake his other creations without giving them a chance?? The whole "my religion is the ONLY one and the ONLY way to be with the creator" is a man made thing...if there is only ONE God as long as one beleives in a creator or supreme being its the same one right?? and all the perks would be the same Thanks Yash for posting those Jesus/Buddha parralells love it
[Edited on 11/7/2009 2:32 PM]
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| Nov 7 @ 2:23 PM |
Jesus and the Buddha |
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BandTMom
Posts: 38,039
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Many paths...one destination.
We all have to find what works best for us.
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