Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Feel free to go start a thread in the religious debate area, if you'd like.It'd be great if you posted this outside DIR so people could actually debate on this.(If of course such topic already didn't exist)
how many of you thank they came from the same place. how similar are their teachings?
It'd be great if you posted this outside DIR so people could actually debate on this.(If of course such topic already didn't exist)
By all means, go start a thread there!I was thinking the same thing. Since it has been posted in the Buddhist DIR, Christians (for one) cannot really contribute to the discussion. I see it, really, as more of a comparative religion topic.
Some of Jesus's parables are more easily understood from a Buddhist lens--such as the passage paraphrased as, if your eye causes you to sin, toss it away so your whole being is not subjected to hellfire. This makes much more sense if you have read/heard Buddha's Fire Sermon, where sensory objects can cause you to suffer by being set ablaze with passion, and the solution to this is to become disenchanted with sensory objects (toss them away.)
how many of you thank they came from the same place. how similar are their teachings?
I am not sure if I can post this here since I am not a Buddhist but....
Sorry my bad, deleted sir? Did you think I was implying your post was offensive? I wasn't, so I am not sure what you are getting at.
Sorry my bad, deleted sir![]()
I think there were Buddhists in Alexandria, as King Ashoka (304 BC-232 BC) mentions sending monks out there to teach after his conversion to Buddhism. Alexandria also had a large Jewish population, and this would be the most likely place Jesus's family would have gone to when they went to spend time in Egypt. If Jesus did learn any Buddhadharma, this is the most likely place, imo.It is interesting to consider Jesus speaking about it being better to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye than to be tossed into hell with both, in light of the Fire Sermon. I don't think I have ever considered it in that light. Still, I remain unconvinced about Jesus having any substantial knowledge of Buddhism. There are interesting parallels, but the most overlap seems to concern their respective teachings on morality. Jesus being a radical pacifist does not require him to have knowledge of the Buddhadhamma.
I think there were Buddhists in Alexandria, as King Ashoka (304 BC-232 BC) mentions sending monks out there to teach after his conversion to Buddhism. Alexandria also had a large Jewish population, and this would be the most likely place Jesus's family would have gone to when they went to spend time in Egypt. If Jesus did learn any Buddhadharma, this is the most likely place, imo.
Thich Nhat Hanh also wrote "Living Buddha, Living Christ," where he equated being filled with the Holy Spirit with being filled with mindfulness. It took me a few years for me to grasp the implications of this and understand it, but when I finally did, it was one of those *doh!* moments.No worries, it's all good.
To address your first post on the subject, to be fair, I think most of the people who try to make the connection between the Buddha and Jesus are non-Christians, mostly New Agers, from what I have seen. Those Christians who do think there my be a connection, are not trying to diminish the Buddha or insult him, they are honestly grappling with the Gospels and attempting to find explanations for currents in the texts that may appear puzzling within a 1st century Jewish milieu.
Sorry my bad, deleted sir![]()