Compare Siddhartha To Jesus! (priests, rituals, moral, rejecting, Moses)

[Sunstone]

How would you compare Siddhartha (The Buddha) to Jesus (The Christ)? In what way(s) were their teachings similar? In what way(s) were their teachings different?

Is it possible for someone to learn from both? Or, are their messages so different that this is precluded?

In what way(s), if any, does Jesus's Kingdom of Heaven resemble the Buddha's nirvana? In what ways, if any, might the two concepts be different?

How is Jesus's message of love (agape) similar/dissimilar from the Buddha's message of detached compassion?

Is there a similarity/dissimilarity between Jesus's concept of sin and the Buddha's concept of attachment (trishna)?

In what other ways might the two be compared/contrasted?

[d.]

an important difference : jesus (allegedly)claimed he was divine, god's son even, siddharta didn't.

[ΩRôghênΩ]

they both started their teachings and died around the same times. they both talked about giving up worldly posessions. they both talked about transcendance of this reality and the undesire for worldly goals

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by ~Lord Roghen~

they both started their teachings and died around the same times.

This is true enough from our perspective today, but to be a stickler, I'd like to note that the Buddha lived about 500 years before Christ.

Also, this might or might not be relevant, but the Buddha lived for 80 years, while Christ lived for about 36 years, if my memory serves me. The ministry of the Buddha lasted decades, that of Christ about 3 years.

they both talked about giving up worldly posessions.

The Buddha, however, rejected acetism and complete denial of the world, as well as rejected embracing luxury, and instead taught the middle way between extremes.

they both talked about transcendance of this reality and the undesire for worldly goals

In what way(s) were their concepts of transcendence similar? In what way(s) were they different?

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by divine

an important difference : jesus (allegedly)claimed he was divine, god's son even, siddharta didn't.

I sometimes wonder whether Jesus actually did claim to be divine, or at least, claimed to be more divine than anyone else?

I agree that the Buddha never claimed to be divine. In fact, doing so would have negated his entire message, for it is of no importance if a deity can realize enlightenment: It is only important if a mere man can realize enlightenment.

[michel]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

How would you compare Siddhartha (The Buddha) to Jesus (The Christ)? In what way(s) were their teachings similar? In what way(s) were their teachings different?

Is it possible for someone to learn from both? Or, are their messages so different that this is precluded?

In what way(s), if any, does Jesus's Kingdom of Heaven resemble the Buddha's nirvana? In what ways, if any, might the two concepts be different?

How is Jesus's message of love (agape) similar/dissimilar from the Buddha's message of detached compassion?

Is there a similarity/dissimilarity between Jesus's concept of sin and the Buddha's concept of attachment (trishna)?

In what other ways might the two be compared/contrasted?

http://www.chaliceuu.org/sermons/Archive/zen.htm

This sermon, by a U.U tried to tackle that question...............


“The Zen Wisdom of Jesus and Buddha”

................. Jesus is a wonderful model of what humans can be. And so is Buddha. I was raised on Jesus. I had to search for Buddha. And what I found was they were two masters with one message. I believe the teachings of Buddha and Jesus offer a way to end human suffering. But I believe Jesus and Buddha were trying to heal human pain in this life, not just the next life. Jesus’ remedy was called the Kingdom of Heaven and Buddha’s tonic was called Nirvana. Of course we Unitarian Universalists are not much interested in getting people into heaven, but we are interested in getting heaven into people. I think that is the message of Jesus and Buddha. Both Jesus and Buddha taught the inner person is more important than outer image or ritual. Both proclaimed that love and compassion for others were the highest ideals. And not just to love your friends. That what every society expects. Good Zen masters have to think outside the box.

Jesus said. “You have heard it said, love your neighbor. But I tell you, love your enemies, be good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who hurt you.” “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Buddha said, ”See yourself in others, who then can you hurt.” “Hate never overcomes hate. Only love overcomes hate. Cultivate boundless love toward all beings.”
There is evidence that the teachings of Buddha, who probably was born around 560 BC influenced Jesus’ teachings. By 30 AD Buddhism had already gone east, met the Taoism of China and become Zen. Buddhist monks seemed to have wandered as far west as Alexandria Egypt by the time of Jesus. These mendicants may have influenced a whole wave of wandering philosophers including the the Cynics, the Stoics, as well as that little band around Jesus that later split into the Gnostics and the orthodox church.
Of course Christianity as we know it is strongly influenced by Paul who was steeped in ancient mystery religions and Greek philosophy. Some people even think Jesus never lived but was a vision of Paul’s as a kind of western Buddha ; it was later orthodox Christians who twisted the original teaching about Jesus into a powerful way to maintain control over the Roman Empire. I do think the original followers of Jesus were probable the Gnostics, for they taught that Jesus’s resurrection was not literal but symbolized enlightenment. Buddha was actually canonized in the early church as Saint Barlaam. So Zen wisdom can be attributed to both Jesus and Buddha. Zen is everyday spirituality; It is living in the moment. It is being mindful, awake to Reality. Zen is religion stripped of false ritual and pretense. Enlightenment is seeing that the natural order of things is often just the opposite of what we normally think. Thus Zen wisdom is often called“crazy wisdom.” Conventional wisdom is if we follow the rules and obey laws and conventions the world will treat us fairly.
Conventional wisdom says you can bargain with God or society. But Jesus and Buddha will have none of that. Jesus always insisted that the “first shall be last.” He was a good Zen Master. Jesus subversively taught that who would save his life (by being proper and moral) will lose it. If you are nice in order to get into heaven then you don’t deserve to get into heaven. And Buddha agrees. He said, “The fool who knows he is a fool is that much wiser.” ”The enlightened one is liberated by not clinging.” In other words you can’t be enlightened by trying to be enlightened. So Jesus and Buddha are my teachers, my Zen masters. That is why I often label myself a Zen Baptist.
I recognize the need to be born again --to be transformed, to have a direct experience of ultimate reality, that was taught by the original Baptists, Quakers Gnostics, even Universalists. Whether independently or interdependently both Jesus and Buddha preached the perennial philosophy which Aldous Huxley said may be found among all religions. He said, “There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.” The term “Perennial Philosophy” was coined by German philosopher Gottfried Leibnitz to described the ancient wisdom that the appearance of the world of separate things is an illusion-–Instead there is really only one all encompassing Reality.
The perennial philosophy does not insist that there is a God out there or here or anyplace. Rather there is unity underlying everything, similar I believe to what physicist David Bohm called quantum interconnectedness and Emerson called, “The Over-Soul.” The Zen Buddhist Huang Po said, “All Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing else exists.”
The medieval Christian monk Meister Eckhart taught, “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.” This teaching of course got him excommunicated.
Both Jesus and Buddha say what all mystics say––and I have felt it too––we are connected to something greater than ourselves and to each other, and we must treat each other accordingly. Despite this message of Jesus and Buddha, they seem like the yin and yang of religious prophets. Jesus is said to be born a peasant, Buddha a prince. Jesus evidently did not know who his father was, claiming the infinite was his “father.” Buddha rejected his father, and proclaimed the infinite a void.
Jesus of Nazareth is portrayed as an intuitive, emotional, loving, healing man; Siddhartha, the Buddha, a rational, thinking solver of the most perplexing of human problems. It has been said that Jesus healed the body, Buddha healed the mind. Jesus was crucified on a tree at the age of 33 for criticizing the ruling elites. Buddha died peacefully at the age of 80 while resting under a tree.

[michel]

Pt2
Yet they both taught a way of inner transformation so radical that eventually they were both seen as more than human. For centuries they have served as symbols of the sacred who offered a way of salvation and liberation. For many they are mythic figures who transcend death. The peasant Jesus became the Christ, the Anointed. The prince Siddhartha became the Buddha, the Awakened.
The religions that later sprang up around them offered escape from this world. But that is to totally misunderstand their message. And neither was interested in being glorified. Buddha said, “A fool wants recognition and a place over other people.” Jesus said, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” To actually worship Jesus and Buddha is to make a mockery of that message. Instead these two sages called on all to live according to what each called “The Way.” Both taught inner change and inner peace comes from that inner awareness of unity— which means all dualisms disappear: Male, female, good and evil, God and self. No wonder Jesus said, “The Father and I are one. and “you are all Gods” No wonder Buddha said, “More than all the joys of heaven is entering into the One Stream.”
Those who have been baptized in such waters are said to be enlightened, to be awake, to be reborn, to be in heaven. And that creates a different outlook from our conventional wisdom. Of this new way of seeing— Buddha said to his followers, “You are the lamp to lighten the way.“ Jesus told his disciples, “You are the light of the world.”
Yet in spite of the light they preached, both Jesus and Buddha lived in dark times. The Graeco-Roman world had overpowered the peasant society of Jesus. The Romans ruthlessly ruled Judea, Samaria and Galilee. Siddhartha was born into a society in which his people, the Indo-Aryans had conquered the dark-skinned natives of the Indian subcontinent and imposed a caste system. With the inequities of such cultures there arises the recognition that something is broken in the unity of the world. Jesus and Buddha were looking for a way to mend that broken condition. Jesus challenged the priestly caste of Judea which had attached itself to Roman might. Those priest had become that era’s religious and political fundamentalists. Of course Jesus satirized them in Zen-like parables. Instead of “What is the sound of one hand clapping” he said—”The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Jesus expanded on the ideas of the Hebrew prophets who came before him—the Amoses and Isaiahs, who challenged the complacent, saying God demanded justice not sacrifice—that empty ritual was no substitute for inner change. “Unless you humble yourself and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
Siddhartha also criticized the ritualized Brahmanism of his day. With cool logic he proclaimed sacrifice and the caste system worthless. For they did nothing to alleviate human suffering. All still face disease, decay and death. And no amount of fiery rites could stop that. Once Siddhartha saw this problem, his mind would not let go of it until he solved it. Leaving his father