Where Jesus and Buddha Spiritual Twins?
Wisdom Teachers Preached Parallel Sayings and Lived Parallel Lives
Nov 14, 2009 John A. Marinchek
The lives and ideas of Jesus and Buddha are almost identical as portrayed by Marcus Borg in his book, Jesus and Buddha, The Parallel Sayings. Borg asks the question, "How could Jesus, living three thousand miles away and five centuries later, espouse the same teachings as Buddha?"
The Births of Jesus and the Buddha Reflected Strong Similarities
The announcements of their births were similar. Borg points out, that the correspondence in their life stories begin even before they are born. In the Gospel of Luke, the Angel Gabriel acts as God's messenger, proclaiming that Mary will bear a child "who will be called the Son of the Most High."
Buddha's birth, according to the second -century B.C. Digha Nikaya, is attended by devas who say to Queen Maya, "Rejoice, a mighty son has been born to you."
Additionally, Borg states, that both subjects are born while the mother is on a journey, and neither birth occurs in a house. Supposedly both individuals' future were predicted to be great by the witnesses who were present.
Similar Experiences During Buddha's and Jesus' Adult Years
According to Borg, an examination of Jesus' and Buddha's adult life will reveal many parallels, including:
- Both began their spiritual journey when they were about thirty-years-old;
- They socialized with undesirables and outcasts.
Both Jesus and Buddha were men of action, as these parallels illustrate:
- Gautama helped reform Brahmanical rituals harmful to people and animals;
- Jesus attacked many temple traditions;
- Both created religions that minimized class distinctions and eliminated animal sacrifice.
Jesus and Buddha were responsible for a Great Cultural Schism
As Rudyard Kipling explained, "East is East and West is West. And never the twain shall meet."
Buddha created a religion that had no God. Jesus was the very son of God. "To Christians, Buddhism was a pagan religion; and for Buddhists, Christianity was a web of false hopes and dangerous myths."
Two of the world's celebrated Buddhists recently resurrected the parallels. In 1995, the Buddhist author and monk Thick Nhat Hanh published Living Buddha, Living Christ, where he states, "I touch both of them as my spiritual ancestors."
In 1996, the Dali Lama wrote, The Good Heart: A Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus. Borg demonstrates, "To this great Buddhist leader, the parallels are more vital today then ever before because, as he points out, we live in a world in which cultures are moving ever closer, drawn together not only by economic necessity, but by spiritual realizations as well."
How Could Jesus Offer the Same Teachings as the Buddha?
Borg found many similarities between the teachings of the Buddha and Jesus, despite the fact that they lived in two different eras, divided by five centuries.
- Jesus: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6.31
- Buddha: "Consider others as yourself." Dhammapada 10.1
- Jesus: "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also." Luke 6.29
- Buddha: "If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon any desires and utter no evil words." Majjhima Nikaya 21.6
Borg suggests, "We should go back to Kipling's famous poem and continue reading past the passage in which he proclaims that 'East is East, and West is West,' past the line where he predicts that the two will never meet, to a stanza that the twentieth century seems to have forgotten, 'There is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from ends of the earth.'"
Source:
Jesus and Buddha, The Parallel Sayings, by Marcus Borg and Jack Kornfield.
One Buddha and Jesus
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