Was Jesus a Buddhist?

Post Reply New Topic

Thomas Jefferson put together a book which he called The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, now commonly called The Jefferson Bible, available here:

http://www.beliefnet.com/resourcelib/do ... eth_1.html

Mr. Jefferson excluded Gospel sections containing supernatural aspects and perceived misinterpretations added by the original writers of the Gospels.

Where Gospels contradict each other, he seems to pick one or the other, to keep the narration flowing.

He ends with Jesus being placed in the tomb: no resurrection.

There was a really great show on one of the alternative t.v. channels(maybe link or free speech)called Every Church a Peace Church and a man recited the Lord's prayer in the language Jesus would have spoken and the strength of the language pulled up a very different visual picture in my mind than the blond,effeminate looking Western Jesus.I could see that Jesus kicking the money changer's a&&@s.
One of my favorite verses about Jesus:
Matt.11:18-19For John came neither eating or drinking,and they say,he hath a devil.
The Son of man came eating and drinking,and they say,Behold a man
gluttonous and a wine bibber,a friend of publicans and sinners.

I like to think he hung out with regular people.This also confirms the fact that there is no way to please everyone.

If the Biblical Jesus did actually exist, I'd say that he wasn't a Buddhist. Jesus was a Panentheist and Buddhism is a Transtheistic religion. Transtheists believe in the existence of spirits, but believe that the concept of God and the highest forces that govern the universe are beyond our paradigm of understanding and can never be fully explained, thus you cannot have a personal relationship with a God. In the Bible, Jesus had a personal relationship with a God and constantly did miraculous things through him. If a Buddhist were to see someone doing these miraculous things, they would probably believe it to be the work of spirits or the person's own psychokinetic abilities, and not the work of a God. Buddhists don't believe in a sadistic God that's amused by violence and torture, that would have someone tortured for all of eternity simply for not believing in him. They don't believe that you can better yourself simply by becoming part of a religious group. They believe that in order to better yourself, you have to gain wisdom through experience and do good deeds. Buddhism and Taoism are far superior to the religions of the west. It wouldn't make sense if a hypocritical, degenerate religion like Christianity were to originate from Buddhism.

Very close to the truth. Paulianity is the boiled down version of the Fundamentalist perversion of Christianity. Christianity would be a pretty good religion if it could be purged of two things:

1. Paul's preachments about faith being superior to doings (works)

2. The notion that Jesus was God Incarnate.

ruveyn

I practice Buddhism, but I have a bit of affection for Jesus, if not Christianity.

I don't think you get Buddhism when your strip away Paul's stuff and Judaism, you get an interesting ethical code and a way of life. Buddhism has beliefs about the cosmos that contradict Christianity. I think Jesus had wisdom like Buddha did, but that's it.

Some Christians take this to its logical conclusion: it really doesn't matter what you do. If you don't believe in Jesus, then it doesn't matter what you do: you're guilty of Adam's sin, and are doomed to eternal suffering in Hell. If you do believe in Jesus, then it doesn't matter what you do: Jesus got punished for all of your sins, so it is off to Heaven you go.

Um... in what pagan religion is there a prophesied final judgment of humanity? I know no such judgment exists In greco-roman paganism, in all the mythology books I've read (and I've read a lot) I've never heard of this in celtic, egyptian, or mesopotamian paganism, and that is not what ragnarok is supposed to be about, it that's what you were implying.

From my research, final judgment is unique to monotheism.

Zoroasterism has a final judgement and it is monotheistic and closely parallels Christianity.I can't think of any others besides these two