Jesus vs. Buddha

C

Cypress

"Cypress you motherfucking whore!"
Book looks at parallel sayings of Jesus, Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama - better known as Buddha - once said, "The faults of others are easier to see than one's own."

500 years later, Jesus uttered these words: "Why do you see the splinter in someone else's eye and never notice the log in your own?"

- Buddha: "The avaricious do not go to heaven, the foolish to not extol charity. The wise one, however, rejoicing in charity, becomes thereby happy in the beyond." (Dhammapada 13.11)
- 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." (Matthew 19.21)

- Buddha: "Consider others as yourself." (Dhammapada 10.1)
- Jesus: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6.31)

- Buddha: "Let us live most happily, possessing nothing; let us feed on joy, like radiant gods." (Dhammapada 15.4)
- Jesus: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." (Luke 6.20)
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The book raises the fascinating question: How could Jesus, living 500 years after Buddha and 3,000 miles away, embody teachings so similar in nature to his predecessor?

Some historians believe that Buddhist principles had filtered through the Roman Empire by the time of Jesus.

Still others suggest that Jesus may have visited India during "the missing years" - a period in his teens and early 20s when there was little documentation about his life.

A more likely explanation, Borg said, is that the similarity in their sayings mirrors the similarities in their experiences. The Buddha, after a six-year religious quest, had an enlightenment experience under the Bo tree; Jesus' quest led him to the wilderness and his spiritual mentor, John the Baptist. Both began renewal movements within their respective, inherited religious traditions - Hinduism and Judaism.

"The similarities of their wisdom teaching may flow out of the similarity of their religious experience," Borg said.


https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/1998/mar/new-book-looks-parallel-sayings-jesus-buddha
 
Tinkerpeach said:
Maybe because it’s the same God telling people how to live?
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More likely, the Sanskrit speaking people of Northern India and the Greek-Hellenized civilizations of the Mediterranean Levant share a common origin with Neolithic tribes of the central Asian steppes, and are bound by a remotely similar cosmological and social mileu
 
Cypress said:
More likely, the Sanskrit speaking people of Northern India and the Greek-Hellenized civilizations of the Mediterranean Levant share a common origin with Neolithic tribes of the central Asian steppes, and are bound by a remotely similar cosmological and social mileu
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Well they are both options
 
I'm a reincarnation guy. In my belief system, we live around 150-200 lives, until we "get it."

I believe both Christ & Buddha completed their cycles on earth (along w/ a few others), and came back a last time just to teach. What they teach is what we'll all learn eventually, but it's kind of a shortcut to listen to what they said and live our own lives w/ those principles in mind.

Just my POV. Since you asked.
 
Cypress said:
The book raises the fascinating question: How could Jesus, living 500 years after Buddha and 3,000 miles away, embody teachings so similar in nature to his predecessor?

Some historians believe that Buddhist principles had filtered through the Roman Empire by the time of Jesus.

Still others suggest that Jesus may have visited India during "the missing years" - a period in his teens and early 20s when there was little documentation about his life.

A more likely explanation, Borg said, is that the similarity in their sayings mirrors the similarities in their experiences. The Buddha, after a six-year religious quest, had an enlightenment experience under the Bo tree; Jesus' quest led him to the wilderness and his spiritual mentor, John the Baptist. Both began renewal movements within their respective, inherited religious traditions - Hinduism and Judaism.

"The similarities of their wisdom teaching may flow out of the similarity of their religious experience," Borg said.


https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/1998/mar/new-book-looks-parallel-sayings-jesus-buddha
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Sounds reasonable to me. The Silk Road had been open for well over a century before Jesus came along. Although it would have added to his learning to travel along it, all he really had to do is have long talks with foreign traders to learn ideas from the East.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/silk-road/
The Silk Road is neither an actual road nor a single route. The term instead refers to a network of routes used by traders for more than 1,500 years, from when the Han dynasty of China opened trade in 130 B.C.E. until 1453 C.E., when the Ottoman Empire closed off trade with the West.
 
Tinkerpeach said:
Maybe because it’s the same God telling people how to live?
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Same God or same "truth". The natural universe is vast, but limited by set laws. Therefore, there's a finite set of permutations within our Universe. Understanding and defining these limitations is the main purpose of scientific research.
 
Doc Dutch said:
Sounds reasonable to me. The Silk Road had been open for well over a century before Jesus came along. Although it would have added to his learning to travel along it, all he really had to do is have long talks with foreign traders to learn ideas from the East.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/silk-road/
The Silk Road is neither an actual road nor a single route. The term instead refers to a network of routes used by traders for more than 1,500 years, from when the Han dynasty of China opened trade in 130 B.C.E. until 1453 C.E., when the Ottoman Empire closed off trade with the West.
Click to expand...

It's fun to speculate, but we still don't have an iron clad explanation why religions of the Axial Age around the world landed on approximately the same ethical and cosmological framework.
 
BidenPresident said:
Jesus emphasized subjectivity. Buddha emphasized the absence of subjectivity. Hard to see any similarity.
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As different as the two religious traditions are, I was struck in reading The Dhammapada how recognizable some of the aphorisms are.

"Some people are born again; evil-doers go to hell; righteous people go to heaven; those who are free from all worldly desires attain Nirvana"

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, The Dhammapada
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Cypress said:
It's fun to speculate, but we still don't have an iron clad explanation why religions of the Axial Age around the world landed on approximately the same ethical and cosmological framework.
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IMO, religions are a product of philosophy, psychology and spirituality. As mankind evolved in those three areas, it fits that the religions would follow suit.

The Bronze Age finally collapsed around 1200 BCE. This was followed by the end of the bicameral mind which, since it would take time, would slide nicely into the Axial Age.

Even as late as Julius Caesar's time, 100-44 BCE, people who had epilepsy were thought to be touched by the gods. If the Bicameral mind theory is true, there would still be people who hadn't made the transition. They'd be the ones running around the desert listening to the gods/God then preaching about their visions in the temples.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1878875015007895
Julius Caesar (100–44 BC) was one of the most charismatic political figures in history. Best remembered for his military achievements, he was also a writer, historian, and statesman. Through his constitutional reforms, he played an important role in the events that led to the end of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire. Historical sources reveal that Julius Caesar suffered from headaches, seizures, and personality changes. In this essay, we highlight the life of Julius Caesar, with emphasis on the potential origin of his sickness. Although a definitive diagnosis obviously cannot be made, as new published studies showed a possible cerebrovascular etiology, a new hypothetical diagnosis is presented.
Click to expand...
 
Cypress said:
As different as the two religious traditions are, I was struck in reading The Dhammapada how recognizable some of the aphorisms are.
Click to expand...

While the religions are, indeed, different, that's not what BP said. She referenced Jesus and Buddha directly, not the religions that evolved in their wake.

Despite how the respective religions evolved, the message of both is very similar; becoming one with the Universe. In Jerusalem of the time, that's "one with God", but the meaning is the same.

https://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/library/verses/id/4420/one-with-god-verses.htm
John 17:20-23
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
 
Doc Dutch said:
While the religions are, indeed, different, that's not what BP said. She referenced Jesus and Buddha directly, not the religions that evolved in their wake.

Despite how the respective religions evolved, the message of both is very similar; becoming one with the Universe. In Jerusalem of the time, that's "one with God", but the meaning is the same.

https://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/library/verses/id/4420/one-with-god-verses.htm
John 17:20-23
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
Click to expand...

The quote I provided is attributed directly to Siddhartha the Buddha himself, as recorded in the Dhammapada. Not from later religious tradition.

I agree that the traditions and the evolution of Buddhism and Christianity are very different. The point the author in the OP makes is that there is something recognizable in the words and sayings of The Buddha for anyone from the Christian tradition
 
Cypress said:
The quote I provided is attributed directly to Siddhartha the Buddha himself, as recorded in the Dhammapada. Not from later religious tradition.

I agree that the traditions and the evolution of Buddhism and Christianity are very different. The point the author in the OP makes is that there is something recognizable in the words and sayings of The Buddha for anyone from the Christian tradition
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I agree with this. BP didn't but she refuses to say why even though I asked.
 
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