Was Jesus a Buddhist?

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Based upon a WP member's recommendation, I recently watched The Man from Earth

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug4uEsfxq5s[/youtube]

As you can see, the script comes out as being similar to a Wrong Planet PPR debate (minus, thankfully, the angry Fox News talking points). Anyway, the protagonist of the movie claims not only to have grown up a caveman, but to have known the Buddha, and also to have been Jesus:

http://vimeo.com/6674005

Buddhist missionaries did go to the Roman empire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_a ... oman_world

If you strip away Judaism and the paganistic nonsense from Christianity, do you end up with Buddhism?

Here are some documentaries that place Jesus in Kashmir

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YbUEZfJJaQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNRLKDLJnX0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Ecm4gMhiM[/youtube]

Have you read Nicolas Notovitch's book ' Jesus in India?It is available thru Dover publications.It doesn't really prove it but raises some interesting ideas on the subject.I occasionally go to the local retreat center which is Tibetan and the Rinpoche there says that he does have stories of Jesus but they call him Issa(I hope I spelled it right).

umm... what part of Jesus's doctrine was "pagan"?

I've heard that Jesus went to India and studied with some Hindu priests, but got in big trouble for suggesting that Idols are not important and the "untouchable" castes deserved human dignity and had a falling out.

Personally I don't buy it. Seems more likely to me buddhists and hinduists tried to assimilate the teachings Thomas brought to India into their own by claiming Jesus was one of them to keep people from converting after having Thomas murdered. Buddhism may seem similar to Christianity at first, but there are some huge differences, off the top of my head, their are huge differences in their ideas about afterlife for example.

Most writers who allege that Jesus went to India say that He died there, not that He lived in India during His youth.

I'll have to look it up but the Christian church did have believers in rebirth.And the early Christians had based their monastical system on the Buddhists.If you ever attend a Buddhist ceremony there are a lot of similarities to those preformed by the Catholic Church.And the Buddhist system was in place long before Jesus was born.Most of this info was from a Berkley televised lecture called "Buddhism in a global age",sorry I don't remember the professors name.I've read the Bible,Koran,Bhagavad-Gita and lots of Buddhist text,Celtic lore and Native American beliefs.There are more things in common in all these texts than you would believe but I suggest everyone read for themselves ,you have nothing to lose and wisdom to gain.

Perhaps Christianity does have a connection with Buddhism.

I'm talking about the pagan aspects of Christian doctrine (his mom was a virgin; his dad was a god; he is going to return at any moment to judge the quick and the dead; people who believe in him are going to be wafted away to Heaven; etc.).

Remove this rubbish, and what's left?

I saw the emphasis on the word "allege".


There is no valid empirical evidence to support the claim that the Biblical accounts of Jesus actually occurred as stated, making any alleged connection merely an assumption, and not a fact.

Let's not make up any more myths, shall we?

Jesus as a Joo -Boo. A very amusing idea.

ruveyn

And a Christian to boot!

Jesus was a Jew from the time he was circumcised to the time he died. He was never a Christian. Jesus insisted that the Law (Torah) be observed.

ruveyn

Jesus wasn't a Christian because Christianity didn't exist until he died.

Moses and the Shepard

Once Moses heard a Shepard talking.It sounded as if the sheperd were talking to an uncle or friend,but he was talking to God." I would like to help you,wherever you are,wash your clothes,pick lice from you,kiss your hands and feet at bed time.All I can say,recalling you,is ahhhhhhhhhhh and ayyyyyyyyy!"Moses was very upset."Are you talking in such a way to the very creator of heaven and earth?Don't you have more respect?."The sheperd hung his head and wandered off,saddened.But God came to rebuke Moses saying:What's wrong for one person is right for another,You poison can be someone else's honey.I don't care about purity or diligence in worship.Or impurity and sloth.They mean nothing to me.I am above all that.One way of worshipping is as good as another.Hindus do Hindu things.Muslims in India do what they do.It is all praise,and it is all right.I don't listen to the words the worshippers say.I look inside for humility.That's reality.Mere language,phraseology,isn't reality.I want burning,burning!Be friends all of you,with your burning.Burn your thinking in humility.Burn your phrases.
Jelaladin Rumi


source:The Oxford Companion to World Mythology

Yes,you are both correct about Jesus..I'm thinking of what he means to Christians now.I would consider him to be the founder of the faith and therefore the first Christian.

Paul is generally regarded as the founder of Christianity.

and the teachings of Jesus according to Paul seem way different to me (and some other people too) than what Jesus taught in the Gospels.

That movie The Man From Earth is one of my favorite movies. It is awesome that it can hold my interest for more than an hour when the whole movie is basically a conversation between intelligent adults in the living room of a cabin out in the woods. No special effects, no spectacular scenery, just awesome ideas well-discussed.

The caveman in the movie talks about how the followers of Christ twisted and distorted and misunderstood his message. The 20th century philosopher Alan Watts also discussed this in "Jesus, His Religion" (an episode in his audio series Myth and Religion). There is another talk by Alan Watts (I forget which now) where he discusses reading the Bible from a Hindu viewpoint, and how, when read that way, the teachings are compatible with Hinduism / Buddhism.