Jesus vs. 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?

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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you need to listen to the Alan Watts lecture on christianity and buddhism.

I'll see if i can find it.
 
evince said:
He was a king of hippies
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He brought Zen to the West. While there were a handful of Asian Zen masters who did the same, such as D. T. Suzuki, Watts stripped a lot of the religion away*. This not only made it more palatable to those raised in a Christian-dominated nation, but fed a generation of "hippies" who were seeking spirituality without religious trappings.

I'm a big fan of Alan Watts and learned a lot from his lectures even if I didn't always agree with him.


*an example is medition. In traditional Zen it's strictly Zazen, sitting meditation. Watts taught that it could be down walking or other activities. For me, it was jogging...without an MP3 player, of course. Just monitoring my breathing, listening to the sounds around me. Being "in the moment".
 
Doc Dutch said:
He brought Zen to the West. While there were a handful of Asian Zen masters who did the same, such as D. T. Suzuki, Watts stripped a lot of the religion away*. This not only made it more palatable to those raised in a Christian-dominated nation, but fed a generation of "hippies" who were seeking spirituality without religious trappings.

I'm a big fan of Alan Watts and learned a lot from his lectures even if I didn't always agree with him.


*an example is medition. In traditional Zen it's strictly Zazen, sitting meditation. Watts taught that it could be down walking or other activities. For me, it was jogging...without an MP3 player, of course. Just monitoring my breathing, listening to the sounds around me. Being "in the moment".
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I suspect Zen owes a lot of it's origins to the more ancient Daoist thought.

If I had to sum up Daoism in one sentence, it would be to purposefully allow yourself go with the flow.
 
Cypress said:
I suspect Zen owes a lot of it's origins to the more ancient Daoist thought.

If I had to sum up Daoism in one sentence, it would be to purposefully allow yourself go with the flow.
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Like languages and culture, it seems that thoughts about spirituality can evolve.
 
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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Jesus was YHWH incarnated,Budda wasn't!
 
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.
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Only Jesus gives a path for the Angel of Death AKA the Passover Angel to Passover you!R (12).jpgR (7).jpg
 
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