CynthiaCypher
Well-Known Member
I don't believe that they are so much as influential on each other, but rather just similar paths taken by many other spiritual leaders, possibly influenced by a collective Unconscious? (Carl Jung). In addition to the lives of Jesus and Buddha, there are other religious figures that have undergone strikingly similar journeys:
Francesco Bernadone (St. Francis) was also born into a very affluent and wealthy family, with a very spiritual, non-materialistic mother (yin to his father's yang). Similar to the Buddha's four passing sights, Francis underwent stages of desperate revelry, becoming a knight, becoming a fervent defender of the faith, and then figuratively and literally stripping down before his God and renouncing his wealth and family ties (asceticism). Before this final renouncement, Francis descends into the "occulta fovea" or pit inside the San Damiano Church, where he stayed for 40 days, undergoing what Russian Orthodox Christians call a "Poustinia" translating to "Desert". Francis then goes on to live a life characterized by Poverty, Simplicity, and Humility. Similar to both Christ's and Buddha's teachings. So similar, that Francis received the Stigmata during the final years of his life. IMO, Francis is who Catholics, or Christians, or anybody really, should try to emulate in their lives.
Similarities can also be found by studying the lives of Muhammad (going to the desert, Angel Gabriel), Guru Nanak (vision during albutions, disappears for three days), Moses (leaves Egypt for the desert, Burning Bush, returns with message from God and deliverance). The list goes on. The fact of the matter is, regardless of ones creed, there are many similarities among the lives of the spiritual greats, some more striking than others. But they are all essential to the spiritual development of themselves, and later their followers.
Yeah, I can see many similarities between St. Francis and the Buddha. More so than I would between Jesus and the Buddha