Buddha and Christ identical Beings

[loverofhumanity]

But the question is not whether the contents of the Sermon on the Mount etc. are good teachings - the question is why do we need to invoke a supernatural source for teachings that could just as easily have been the product of human thought. Is it really such a great surprise that two different cultures separated by centuries and a half a globe converged on such principles as "the Golden Rule" and "turning the other cheek:" as a way to maintain peaceful human relations? I think not. I think the similarities in the teachings of the different religious traditions betray their common human origins - not divine revelation - just as the obvious differences betray the diversity of human culture rather than time/geographic-specific divine responses to the needs of human society.

The Baha'i faith is correct in one sense I think - in that the modern world is close (but maybe not that close) to being ready for a global culture - but the question I have is whether that needs/should be a culture of the religious variety or is humanity (at long last) finally ready for something completely different?

You make some good points. Diversity is part of our makeup so any type of global culture must reflect that diversity. So we already have our common humanity in common and which can unite us regardless of race, religion or nationality if we are free from prejudice, but we don’t want unity in uniformity but unity in diversity.

So in a global culture each race, religion and nationality can keep its identity while out the same time eliminating prejudice. Prejudice is the threat. It’s ok to have different ideas and views as long as it doesn’t leads to prejudice and hate. Prejudices of all kinds need to be educated out of our chikdren so future generations only see fellow human beings.

The over riding principle I believe needs to be that all are equal, none are superior. No religion, race or nationality can claim or teach superiority over any other. When people can see all as part of one human family then we can have peace.

 

[Vinayaka]

Words are shallow unless they transfer to practice. If a religion truly respected all faiths, all cultures, there would be no need to proselytize.

 

[wandering peacefully]

Words are shallow unless they transfer to practice. If a religion truly respected all faiths, all cultures, there would be no need to proselytize.

Or "share". There is only one reason for any faith sharing their particular beliefs.

 

[ManSinha]

Or "share". There is only one reason for any faith sharing their particular beliefs.

Is that it? - this is a debate forum

How does sharing to back up my views translate to proselytizing?

 

[vija1218]

Buddha refused to comply the miracles whereas Jesus asked the people to atleast believe him looking at his miracles. Buddha was an enlightened being who himself tried to find God.

 

[wandering peacefully]

Is that it? - this is a debate forum

How does sharing to back up my views translate to proselytizing?

It doesn't necessarily but with some religious sects, it is obvious as the noon day sun. If I heard that phrase again.....

And I knew I would get flack from non-proselytizers. It was not really meant as a universal statement .

 

[Vinayaka]

Is that it? - this is a debate forum

How does sharing to back up my views translate to proselytizing?

It doesn't. In proselytizing faiths, some people say, 'we're just sharing' as a way to somehow legitimize their proselytizing. It boils down to whether of not someone has asked a question about your faith or not.

 

[ManSinha]

It doesn't necessarily but with some religious sects, it is obvious as the noon day sun. If I heard that phrase again.....

And I knew I would get flack from non-proselytizers. It was not really meant as a universal statement .

Fair enough

It doesn't. In proselytizing faiths, some people say, 'we're just sharing' as a way to somehow legitimize their proselytizing. It boils down to whether of not someone has asked a question about your faith or not

But ....but ...but sometimes it is show solidarity or an alignment of views - other times it is to emphasize the diametrically opposite nature of the belief

The first example was an exchange I had with @shunyadragon about humans being like fish in a vast body of water - now there is a direct quote in SGGS that says the exact same thing

The second was the nature of death with a poster that subscribes to a different belief - and where I was coming at it was from the dharmic perspective of being parts of the light that would eventually merge with it

Well - I guess I have been a little too free about my quotes - I shall stick to human points of view as much as possible

 

[wandering peacefully]

Fair enough



But ....but ...but sometimes it is show solidarity or an alignment of views - other times it is to emphasize the diametrically opposite nature of the belief

The first example was an exchange I had with @shunyadragon about humans being like fish in a vast body of water - now there is a direct quote in SGGS that says the exact same thing

The second was the nature of death with a poster that subscribes to a different belief - and where I was coming at it was from the dharmic perspective of being parts of the light that would eventually merge with it

Well - I guess I have been a little too free about my quotes - I shall stick to human points of view as much as possible

It's all about intent. Some religious sects have directives from their prophets that the most important thing they could ever possibly do in this temporary life is to spread the words of said prophet. So they are only doing what they believe is following God and his prophet's directives.

So in that sense they believe they are doing their particular god's work and the right thing. Otoh, it is the path they have freely chosen for themselves and should not expect every one else to believe the same way.

 

[dfnj]

Look at the statement of Buddha about Himself:

"I am chief of the world,
Eldest am I in the world,
Foremost am I in the world.
This is the last birth.
There is now no more coming to be."
Miracles of Gautama Buddha - Wikipedia

In Buddhism there is more an emphasis on every person has access to achieve Buddha-hood. Otherwise, you will continue the endless cycle of birth, suffering, and death living in New Jersey.

The eight Buddhist practices in the Noble Eightfold Path are:[27][note 2]

1. Right View: our actions have consequences, death is not the end, and our actions and beliefs have consequences after death. The Buddha followed and taught a successful path out of this world and the other world (heaven and underworld/hell).[28][29][30][31][note 3] Later on, right view came to explicitly include karma and rebirth, and the importance of the Four Noble Truths, when "insight" became central to Buddhist soteriology.[32][33]
2. Right Resolve or Intention: the giving up home and adopting the life of a religious mendicant in order to follow the path; this concept aims at peaceful renunciation, into an environment of non-sensuality, non-ill-will (to loving kindness), away from cruelty (to compassion).[34] Such an environment aids contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and non-Self.[34]
3. Right Speech: no lying, no rude speech, no telling one person what another says about him.[27]
4. Right Conduct or Action: no killing or injuring, no taking what is not given, no sexual acts, no material desires.[27]
5. Right Livelihood: beg to feed, only possessing what is essential to sustain life;[27]
6. Right Effort: preventing the arising of unwholesome states, and generating wholesome states, the bojjhagā (seven factors of awakening). This includes indriya-samvara, "guarding the sense-doors," restraint of the sense faculties.[35][34]
7. Right Mindfulness (sati; Satipatthana; Sampajañña): "retention," being mindful of the dhammas ("teachings," "elements") that are beneficial to the Buddhist path.[36][note 4] In the vipassana movement, sati is interpreted as "bare attention": never be absent minded, being conscious of what one is doing;[38] this encourages the awareness of the impermanence of body, feeling and mind, as well as to experience the five aggregates (skandhas), the five hindrances, the four True Realities and seven factors of awakening.[34]
8. Right samadhi (Passaddhi; Ekaggata; sampasadana): practicing four stages of dhyāna ("meditation"), which includes samadhi proper in the second stage, and reinforces the development of the bojjhagā, culminating into upekkha (equanimity) and mindfulness.[39][8]. In the Theravada tradition and the Vipassana movement, this is interpreted as ekaggata, concentration or one-pointedness of the mind, and supplemented with Vipassana-meditation, which aims at insight.

(...) Just this noble eightfold path: right view, right aspiration, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. That is the ancient path, the ancient road, traveled by the Rightly Self-awakened Ones of former times. I followed that path. Following it, I came to direct knowledge of aging & death, direct knowledge of the origination of aging & death, direct knowledge of the cessation of aging & death, direct knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of aging & death. I followed that path. Following it, I came to direct knowledge of birth... becoming... clinging... craving... feeling... contact... the six sense media... name-&-form... consciousness, direct knowledge of the origination of consciousness, direct knowledge of the cessation of consciousness, direct knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of consciousness. I followed that path.

— The Buddha, Nagara Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya ii.124, Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu[42][43]


Noble Eightfold Path - Wikipedia

 

[dfnj]

Also in Buddism there is no God in a sense
where in the Bible there is one God and we are not him but can be adopted
and in a close redeemed relation

I'm not sure I totally agree with this interpretation. I think what Jesus has shown is was able to become God so by following him you can in the end achieve unity with God through redemption just as Jesus did. So in this sense, everyone eventually becomes part of God. I'm just not sure saying magic words will get you there. Most people are fans of religion and are not really religious. I'm not sure there is salvation or redemption through religious fandom.

At least with Buddhism you are living the dream!

 

[ManSinha]

I'm not sure I totally agree with this interpretation. I think what Jesus has shown is was able to become God so by following him you can in the end achieve unity with God through redemption just as Jesus did. So in this sense, everyone eventually becomes part of God. I'm just not sure saying magic words will get you there. Most people are fans of religion and are not really religious. I'm not sure there is salvation or redemption through religious fandom.

At least with Buddhism you are living the dream!

Even dharmic religions have similar teachings - I would quote but @wandering peacefully and @Vinayaka might say I am proselytizing

 

[dfnj]

Even dharmic religions have similar teachings - I would quote but @wandering peacefully and @Vinayaka might say I am proselytizing

I will receive it as an enlightened observation and not proselytizing.

 

[ManSinha]

I will receive it as an enlightened observation and not proselytizing.

Ask and ye shall ....

 

[InvestigateTruth]

Me - I am the first and last me - and you are the first and last you. Perhaps recognizing that is a sign of enlightenment? Or maybe its one of those things that's so obvious that nobody, except, reportedly, the occasional sagacious would-be religion-founder, bothers to say it - and when they do (reportedly say it), everyone goes "wow!" like they just learned something new and profound - but really every single one of them has known it since the day they were born - even of they are inclined to forget it in the "hurly-burly" of everyday life. And maybe that's what Buddha meant - he was born knowing (in a sense) the uniqueness of his own 'self' and spent a good proportion of life figuring out how to 'un-self' his consciousness. Now that makes sense to me. Not only is the genuinely enlightened one not "the same" as some other person - he is not even "the same" as himself!

Not that you just say it now 'i am the first and last'. But you actually 'claim' and 'proclaim' it to mankind.

 

[Vinayaka]

Fair enough



But ....but ...but sometimes it is show solidarity or an alignment of views - other times it is to emphasize the diametrically opposite nature of the belief

The first example was an exchange I had with @shunyadragon about humans being like fish in a vast body of water - now there is a direct quote in SGGS that says the exact same thing

The second was the nature of death with a poster that subscribes to a different belief - and where I was coming at it was from the dharmic perspective of being parts of the light that would eventually merge with it

Well - I guess I have been a little too free about my quotes - I shall stick to human points of view as much as possible

What's SGGS?

 

[Vinayaka]

Even dharmic religions have similar teachings - I would quote but @wandering peacefully and @Vinayaka might say I am proselytizing

You're not proselytizing.

 

[ManSinha]

What's SGGS?

Sri Guru Granth Sahib

 

[Vinayaka]

Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Thanks for the memory jog. We've had very few active Sikhs on this. It's nice to have you here.

 

[CG Didymus]

But here’s the thing. Regardless of how we view Buddha’s station the important thing is we believe in Him and revere Him just as Buddhists do. He is after all the Enlightened One, the Buddha. More importantly we don’t see Baha’u’llah as being superior to Buddha but see Them both as One.

Being born an ordinary human and getting himself to an enlightened state is different than being born special, a manifestation of God. And, apparently you do believe the new born Buddha could walk and talk and say profound things?