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Jesus the Buddha and the rest :)

Madhuri

RF Goddess
Staff member
Premium Member
Yes they were! They were teaching different aspects of Truth to different people.
Same with all the great persons from different societies and religions.
 

the13th1

New Member
Were they saying the same thing to different audiences?
Not at all!
Jesus taught keeping the God as the central figure.
While Buddha had distanced himself from the concept of God & essentially taught ways to understand & improve human condition.

And if you happen to read the lives & teachings of these two people, you will find very little common ground. With respect, I'd even say that the Buddha was a million miles ahead of Jesus.
 
The end result is similar, yes. The jesus mythology had a healthy dose of eastern mysticism injected into it over the first few centuries, as can be seen in the obvious parallels to the krishna mythology.

The original Jewish rabbinic figure that 'jesus' was probably based on would have shared very little philosophical ground with Buddhism
 

Metempsychosis

Reincarnation of 'Anti-religion'
Did you perhaps mean to quote me instead?

No,I am refering stephenw's title.Sorry,if it was confusing.
Jesus was a thiest and Buddha was a non-theist.It would be helpful to know who those "rest" are to make a better comparison.
 

MysticSang'ha

Big Squishy Hugger
Premium Member
Some things the two said are indeed similar (such as selfless service and loving kindness), but there are other teachings that are irreconcilable (others have mentioned the theistic vs. non-theistic approach).

I don't lose sleep over it. :)
 

Guitar's Cry

Disciple of Pan
...but there are other teachings that are irreconcilable (others have mentioned the theistic vs. non-theistic approach).

Unless we consider the "truth" to be something holistic to the human experience. Then one could say they were simply teaching different parts of the whole. :)
 

LooseEnd

Member
Yes they were! They were teaching different aspects of Truth to different people.
Same with all the great persons from different societies and religions.

How can it be that they were saying the same thing when jesus was talking about creationism and buddha wast not? Buddha rejected creationism.

Isnt creationism a fundamental concept in jesus's teachings??

So if buddha rejected that fundamental concept, how can it be that they were talking about the same thing?
 

Metempsychosis

Reincarnation of 'Anti-religion'
How can it be that they were saying the same thing when jesus was talking about creationism and buddha wast not? Buddha rejected creationism.

Isnt creationism a fundamental concept in jesus's teachings??

So if buddha rejected that fundamental concept, how can it be that they were talking about the same thing?

Not that it is impossible to have both of them...Like in Hinduism there is both creationism and non-creationism.
 

Madhuri

RF Goddess
Staff member
Premium Member
How can it be that they were saying the same thing when jesus was talking about creationism and buddha wast not? Buddha rejected creationism.

Isnt creationism a fundamental concept in jesus's teachings??

So if buddha rejected that fundamental concept, how can it be that they were talking about the same thing?

Because my perspective is Hindu and according to Hinduism, both what Jesus taught and Buddha taught hold truth. They present those truths in different ways. It seems to me that some of their basic principles are similar.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Were they saying the same thing to different audiences?

Sometimes, but not always. That's my guess.

For them to be saying the same thing, they would need to have the same experiences and the same insights into those experiences, and the same interpretations of those experiences.

It's possible that some mystical experiences, such as satori, are everywhere the same. That is, everyone's experience of, say, satori is the same as everyone else's experience of satori -- at least in a very general or fundamental way.

Now, there is some evidence for the notion that some mystical experiences are everywhere the same. Aldous Huxley talks about such things in various books, especially his book, The Perennial Philosophy. There are cases where something said by a Chinese sage who lived circa 500 BC is remarkably similar to something said by a Spainish monk who lived circa 1250 AD. And such cases seem to imply that maybe those people were talking about the same thing.

But the evidence for the notion that mystical experiences are everywhere the same is not conclusive. Especially given such disagreements between sages such that one might be a theist and another a non theist. Or, if both are theists, one might be a pantheist while the other is not. So I don't think you can conclude that sages or holy people or whatever you want to call them are everywhere saying the same thing except to different audiences.
 
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