Jesus vs. Buddha

Doc Dutch said:
I agree with this. BP didn't but she refuses to say why even though I asked.
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Obviously, their conceptions of salvation and liberation are radically different.

But it's recognizable that they both taught a kind of critical self reevaluation, not a perfunctory morality, and they both advocated a kind of detachment from material possession, wealth, desire.
 
BartenderElite said:
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.
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Interesting perspective
 
Cypress said:
Obviously, their conceptions of salvation and liberation are radically different.

But it's recognizable that they both taught a kind of critical self reevaluation, not a perfunctory morality, and they both advocated a kind of detachment from material possession, wealth, desire.
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True, but that's different cultures too. Similar idea, but two different cultures. Christianity has a Hebrew background. Like Islam, it's based upon Abrahamic culture. Buddhism has a Hindi background. Although Hinduism emerged about the same time as Buddhism in 500 BCE, it's roots go back to 1700 BCE.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanit...-apah/a/hinduism-and-buddhism-an-introduction
Hindus adhere to the principles of the Vedas, which are a body of Sanskritic texts that date as early as 1700 B.C.E. However, unlike the Christian or Islamic traditions, which have the Bible and the Koran, Hinduism does not adhere to a single text. The lack of a single text, among other things, also makes Hinduism a difficult religion to define.
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FWIW, the fact the same ideas spring up about the same time is due to the level of civilization at the time. Remember the debate about who invented calculus? Or Tesla and Edison? Ideas are an expression of the times and technology.
 
Tinkerpeach said:
It is important to understand that unlike Christianity, Buddhism isn’t a religion, it is a way to live your life
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You have obviously never been to the Far East. It's a religion with several variants but three main forms: Theravada, Tibetan and Zen.

Zen can be a way of life without religious aspects. The others, not so much.
 
Tinkerpeach said:
It is important to understand that unlike Christianity, Buddhism isn’t a religion, it is a way to live your life
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A common misconception promoted by American Hollywood stars and urban metrosexuals who desire the urban chic of dabbling in Eastern mysticism, while being able to claim it is functionally agnostic or atheistic.

Any faith tradition which has monks, temples, monasteries (which Buddhism does), whose foundational scripture speaks of gods, spirits, and Hell, and which has a metaphysical vision of spiritual liberation meets any realistic definition of a world religion
 
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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Or, maybe it's all bullshit emanating from the same source?
 
Jesus vs. Buddha

I thought this thread was going to be about a movie similar to Batman vs Superman. or maybe a wrestling match between two guys calling themselves Jesus and Buddha.
 
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?
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God (who in fact is Jesus) answered that question before Buddha was born.....

Jeremiah 31
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts."
 
PostmodernProphet said:
God (who in fact is Jesus) answered that question before Buddha was born.....

Jeremiah 31
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts."
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Pmp, you and I both know you don't walk in the path of Jesus. Why do you keep hinting you do?

7gne0p.gif
 
Doc Dutch said:
You have obviously never been to the Far East. It's a religion with several variants but three main forms: Theravada, Tibetan and Zen.

Zen can be a way of life without religious aspects. The others, not so much.
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I think there are irreligious Hollywood metrosexuals who are attracted to the story that they are just doing Zen meditation with no linkages to any religious tradition.

But any Buddhist tradition that has monks, priests, temples, and spiritual rituals strikes me as a clear example of a world religious tradition.

Zen no more: Japan shuns its Buddhist traditions as temples close
More than one in three temples are expected to close over the next 25 years as religion faces an ‘existential crisis’

Perched on a hilltop and surrounded by mountain forests ablaze in autumn reds and yellows, Kaigenji is a picture postcard image of old Japan. The stone steps leading to the entrance of the 300-year-old Zen Buddhist temple take visitors past a lovingly tended landscape of rocks, trees and pale gravel raked into swirls to symbolise water.

Inside, the head priest, Bunkei Shibata, is in a contemplative mood. But it is not the path to enlightenment that occupies his thoughts. Instead, he is pondering the future of his, and tens of thousands of other Buddhist temples across Japan.

Over the next 25 years, 27,000 of the country’s 77,000 temples are expected to close, in one of the biggest existential crises facing Japanese Buddhism since it was introduced from Korea in the sixth century.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...huns-its-buddhist-traditions-as-temples-close
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I never met either of the esteemed gentlemen, Jesus or Buddah,
but the latter looked like he enjoyed a good meal,
so I at least had something in common with him.

Jesus got himself executed by my Roman ancestors, so he probably has no use for me.
I've got nothing against him, however. In the 1960s, I dated several Jewish girls while in college.
 
Cypress said:
I think there are irreligious Hollywood metrosexuals who are attracted to the story that they are just doing Zen meditation with no linkages to any religious tradition.

But any Buddhist tradition that has monks, priests, temples, and spiritual rituals strikes me as a clear example of a world religious tradition.
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No doubt. Remember how Tibetan Buddhism became a fad after Richard Gere? Same with Scientology.*

That said, Zen can be non-religious, just like meditation can be. Zen is simply living in the moment. Focusing up the present. Not living in the past or focusing too much about the future, especially on want.

FWIW, prayer, especially repetitious prayer such as saying ten Hail Marys is a form of meditation.




*BTW, all the South Park fans remember the funny end of Chef after Isaac Hayes became upset about making fun of Tom Cruise hiding in the closet and Scientology.
 
NiftyNiblick said:
I never met either of the esteemed gentlemen, Jesus or Buddah,
but the latter looked like he enjoyed a good meal,
so I at least had something in common with him.

Jesus got himself executed by my Roman ancestors, so he probably has no use for me.
I've got nothing against him, however. In the 1960s, I dated several Jewish girls while in college.
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I would probably rather party with Lao Tzu, the patriarch of Daoism.

Buddha was obsessed with the suffering of this life, and Jesus seemed to think the present world was coming to an end.

That's a conversation stopper at any party.

Lao Tzu seemed to think one could lead an effortless, flourishing, even enjoyable life by cultivating the Dao.
 
Doc Dutch said:
No doubt. Remember how Tibetan Buddhism became a fad after Richard Gere? Same with Scientology.*

That said, Zen can be non-religious, just like meditation can be. Zen is simply living in the moment. Focusing up the present. Not living in the past or focusing too much about the future, especially on want.

FWIW, prayer, especially repetitious prayer such as saying ten Hail Marys is a form of meditation.




*BTW, all the South Park fans remember the funny end of Chef after Isaac Hayes became upset about making fun of Tom Cruise hiding in the closet and Scientology.
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It's the urban chic factor sought by Hollywood stars who want to dabble in eastern mysticism without associating themselves with the religious dimension.

That's fine if they just want to learn meditation techniques. But if they want to co-opt the label and call themselves Buddhists, I am going to ask why a Buddhist disavows the words and sayings of The Buddha. LoL
 
Cypress said:
It's the urban chic factor sought by Hollywood stars who want to dabble in eastern mysticism without associating themselves with the religious dimension.

That's fine if they just want to learn meditation techniques. But if they want to co-opt the label and call themselves Buddhists, I am going to ask why a Buddhist disavows the words and sayings of The Buddha. LoL
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The First Amendment says they can claim whatever they like. :D

FWIW, I'm Master Dutch of the Panentheist Gnostic Christian Zen (PGCZ) monastic order. We're taking applications now.
No dues required, donations welcome. :thup:

Example of comparing panentheism to Buddhism and Christianity.
https://academic.oup.com/book/38937/chapter/338123258
it suggests that Zen’s conception of the Unborn Buddha-mind is most nearly compatible with a panentheism that sees “all in God” rather than God as a transcendent being outside the world. Like the Gospel of Thomas and the Vimalakirti Sutra, Zen masters have understood the Kingdom of God and the Pure Land to be here and now for those who are awakened.
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Cypress said:
I would probably rather party with Lao Tzu, the patriarch of Daoism.

Buddha was obsessed with the suffering of this life, and Jesus seemed to think the present world was coming to an end.

That's a conversation stopper at any party.

Lao Tzu seemed to think one could lead an effortless, flourishing, even enjoyable life by cultivating the Dao.
Click to expand...

You're going to make me wear out my Google Machine, Cypress.

I thought that Lao Tzu was a featherweight contender in the mid-eighties.

Once again, an example of why there's no such thing as enough education.
 
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