The greatest Teachers ever.....

[djhwoodwerks]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

lol, FAIL!

 

[DavidFirth]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

Jesus.

 

[crossfire]

And here I was thinking the greatest teacher was the one who taught on how to use fire.

1 vote for Prometheus!

 

[crossfire]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

People were deliberately misrepresenting Buddha's teachings during Buddha's own lifetime.

(see the Water-Snake Simile for just one example.)

 

[metis]

Gandhi.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history: ...

Leaving aside the fact that you managed to omit the likes of Confucius, Plato, and Aristotle, why would you equate 'greatest' with 'most influential'?

 

[Kemosloby]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

Not sure how you can group those 3 together. Two out of 3 must be teaching falsely.

 

[SabahTheLoner]

You left out Marx and he gets my vote.

Marx had some very intelligent ideas about how society functions but I think he fell short in the attempt at fixing societies’ problems. I think he goes under the category of “Great Thinkers”. His ideas are influential but they were often taught through mediums that were not his own. (Hence Socialism vs Communism)

 

[sun rise]

All the Avatars, Prophets and perfected ones: Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Rama, Krishna, Baal Shem Tov, St. Francis of Assisi, Kabir, Milarepa, Tukaram and many more.

 

[Quintessence]

I wonder who decides that these people are somehow the greatest teachers. None of those would remotely make my list. The inspirational power and influence of people we actually know - our parents, friends, and contemporaneous teachers from school days - are far greater than any of these alleged famous ones, IMHO.

 

[George-ananda]

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

I would say 'Jesus'. He did not leave as much directly recording followers as the other two. And western religious and secular authorities were able to have their way with his teachings.

 

[Tmac]

Marx had some very intelligent ideas about how society functions but I think he fell short in the attempt at fixing societies’ problems. I think he goes under the category of “Great Thinkers”. His ideas are influential but they were often taught through mediums that were not his own. (Hence Socialism vs Communism)

And just how is that any difference from the others on the list. Look you don't want him on the list, don't put him on yours but I live in a society that can't get it right so he's number 1 on mine.

 

[Ponder This]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

I'm going to include three who have been the most influential throughout history:

Leonardo Da Vinci, Newton, and Einstein.

Now my question is: of these, which one do you think has had his findings more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Well, this thread has gone downhill. People are just rattling off people they personally like.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

People were deliberately misrepresenting Buddha's teachings during Buddha's own lifetime.

(see the Water-Snake Simile for just one example.)

Who does that not really ever apply to? It happens all the time with science, and we have plenty examples of political motives to administer an authoritative interpretation, from pretty much any group that has turned dogmatic. And because one step tends to follow another, dogmatic groups have a tendency to fester into much worse manifestations later on.

 

[Sanzbir]

I'm going to include three, who seem to have been the most influential throughout history:
--Jesus,
--Buddha,
--Muhammad.
(If anyone here thinks another should be added, please feel free.)

Now, my question is, Of these, which one do you think has had his teachings (as we know them) more misconstrued and twisted, more so than the other two?

Anyone venture a guess?

Peace to all.

Well trying to be unbiased here, so what I'd think is:

Tough question. There are huge splits between the Buddhist sects, which makes it seem like Buddha has a lot of misconceptions about his self (I mean, if there are that many different opinions on who exactly he was...)

Plus add in your new-age misconceptions about Buddha and the general western misconception confusing Gautama with Hotei and well... that's a lot of misconception.

But then there's Muhammad. Frankly, there's even more misconception about Muhammad than Buddha. This is even without taking sides on who's right and who's wrong.

Just in the West there are two prevailing views on who Muhammad was and they're almost opposites. So at least one side (and, frankly, likely both) have a massive amount of misconceptions and misconstruedness about him.

But then there's Jesus. And I think he definitively wins this, despite the massive amount of misconceptions and misconstrued knowledge about the other two.

Because there's only one misconception I feel I even need to talk about with Jesus. In the early church, opinion was split on whether Jesus was literally God or a messenger of God. And even if the Arians are gone, the Muslims, Baha'is, and a handful of latter-day Christian movements, now maintain the Arian viewpoint of Jesus's divine status.

So basically, regardless of who's right, there's one heck of a massive, enormous misconception about Jesus. And I really think it wins Jesus the title of most misconstrued. Because regardless of who's right, roughly half of all people who have believed in Jesus since his execution have been wrong in holding a massive misconception about a fairly large aspect of his existence!!

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Not sure how you can group those 3 together. Two out of 3 must be teaching falsely.

Or their tenets haven't been interpreted correctly. I mean, take Jesus, for instance: he said to "love your enemies." (Matthew 5:44) That's been twisted to mean, 'only when it's convenient.'
So, really, just while they are acting friendly? Is that what he meant? -- Matthew 5:46.

 

[Kemosloby]

Or their tenets haven't been interpreted correctly. I mean, take Jesus, for instance: he said to "love your enemies." (Matthew 5:44) That's been twisted to mean, 'only when it's convenient.'
So, really, just while they are acting friendly? Is that what he meant? -- Matthew 5:46.

Who twisted them?

 

[Hockeycowboy]

But then there's Jesus. And I think he definitively wins this, despite the massive amount of misconceptions and misconstrued knowledge about the other two.

Thanks for your honest opinion, i appreciate that.

I have a reason for raising this question. I feel the same way, that Jesus' words have been twisted a lot more than the others. I mean, how many different sects in Islam? 60-70? Or Judaism? About the same, maybe?
But in Christendom, there's -what? - over 42,000 different Christian sects?!!

Why so huge?
I'll give my opinion later.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Who twisted them?

Matthew 7:21-23; Acts of the Apostles 20:30; 2 Peter 2:1-3

It even was going on back then: 2 Timothy 2:16-18