Buddhism & Christianity; are they the same?

[ringtail]

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen045.html

Now, read through this website, and tell me what you think. I find it strange that both books of both religions are so alike, and that Buddha and Christ were so alike as well.

It gives you a lot to think about.

 

[Ellie]

And what about the differences?

You can prove anything like that.

Me and Lenny Henry are the same person.

1. Both are from Wolverhampton
2. Both were born last century
3. Both are male

Right?

But obviously we are not, as he is older than me, I'm not black, I'm not a professional comedian, etc; but unless you go into differences (which that article doesn't) then for all you know we are.

 

[ringtail]

I think there is a website that shows differences, I saw it before, but I only skimmed over it. It mostly talked about the differences in the religions, not so much the people themselves. You're right, but that doesn't hide the fact that they were both somehow born from virgins. That's a big similarity if I do say so myself. But there's always an argument for that, which is why I posted up this board, because I wanted to see other people's opinions and reactions.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/buddhism4.htm

This is all I could really find for differences, although, like I said, its about the religions mostly.

 

[mawk]

Early Christianity and Buddhism shared many ideals, and I actually consider Jesus a Buddhist in many ways -- that may seem a little sacreligious, but I've never considered Buddhism as a religion but a life philosophy, meaning that to me it's possible to be, say, Buddhist and Christian at the same time without any conflict. There are supposedly records of a man named Isa (Eastern name for Jesus) staying and studying in a Buddhist monastery for some time. Whether or not the accounts are factual, it would certainly account for the similarities in the teachings of Jesus and Gautama Buddha.

 

[ringtail]

Very nice Chimmy. I agree with you. Even Gautama himself (I believe it was him) said not to pray to him, not to worship him, but people today turned Buddhism into a religion and pray to him, which it shouldn't be and which they shouldn't do. Gautama was listening to "voices in heaven" so that meant he believed there was a higher being speaking to him, hence why he didn't want people praying to him.

 

[mawk]

I think you're confusing Gautama Buddha and Jesus. People do not worship the Buddhas, at least not in common practice. While there are acts of devotion to the Buddhas, they are not for the purpose of worship but instead to aid the devotee to realize the truth. The Buddhas have not achieved godlike status. The point of Buddhism is to follow the Buddhas' example and the Middle Way to achieve enlightenment and benefit all sentient beings. It is Jesus to whom people now pray against his early teachings.

SiddhÄ

 

[arbiter]

;D

 

[mawk]

Praise be to the Peach.

 

[AnsatsuMan]

I eat peaches.

On topic, now, That is really interesting, the similarities, but I'm sure there are quite a few differences.  I also would agree with Jesus being Buddhist, as no one knows what Jesus did in a certain portion of his life, who's to say he did not travel and learn from other cultures and philosophies or religions, hm?

 

[Sic Semper Tyranosaurus]

Then Christianity and Khemetic orthodoxism must also be the same thing. Wait, no.

Common themes in religion and mythology are not uncommon. It's also not unlikely that newer religions would have mythology inspired by the verbal and cultural traditions of faiths that came before them. Hell, numerous cultures the world over have at least one variation on the dragon myth. Does this mean that there really are giant, scaly lizards rampaging about and stealing our livestock? No, it doesn't. What it does mean is that, in many instances, is that human nature compels us to include certain common elements in our mythology.

I'm going to hold off on the anthropology undergrad rant and end my post by saying: If Yeshua had been aware of Buddhism, he probably would have thought it was pretty sweet.  :wooper:

 

[ringtail]

Thanks for all of your opinions, that helped clear up my head a little on the subject. Especially you Chimmy, you seem to know a lot, and thank you.

I'm not too sure Jesus was Buddhist, I doubt he labeled himself as such, but I wouldn't be surprised if he learned their ways, and turned it around. Hence, Christianity... Right?

 

[Charlie Fleed]

As we speak about similarities, it has always been interesting to me that so many religions/cultures have a myth of a Flood. Recently i've read that there was a catastrophic flood in the ancient Mesopotamia that could have spread this tale in many regions of the ancient world.

I've just searched and it seems that theories about Jesus travelling in the Indian region of Asia say that he was not killed and escaped. But in that case, what he learned from Buddhism is not certainly in his teachings. However the whole theory doesn't seem credible to most, even if the existence of this man Isa is real.

no one knows what Jesus did in a certain portion of his life

That seems too extreme to me. There are hundreds of studies, i guess you wouldn't say that after reading a couple of books or three about it.

 

[Ellie]

That seems too extreme to me. There are hundreds of studies, i guess you wouldn't say that after reading a couple of books or three about it.

It's still impossible to know what any person in history did or didn't do. Even history books can't be trusted, hell look at Bede (or whatever his name was), that history-book-writing-monk who always made stuff up.

 

[Venetia]

lots of people deemed spiritual figures went through "jesus-like" trials.

hell, ghandi started out as a lawyer who got angry that his fellow indians weren't being treated fairly by the british. so he shaved off his hair and went on many pilgrimages and fasted and went on hunger strikes and is now seen as a great spiritual leader. Had that happened hundreds of years before widespread media, who knows, maybe he would have inspired a religion on his own, since people like to aggrandize stories through word of mouth.

 

[mawk]

I've just searched and it seems that theories about Jesus travelling in the Indian region of Asia say that he was not killed and escaped.

That's interesting. I believe that the accounts I heard of had taken place before his crucifixion, back when he was still just beginning to spread his teachings, but I'm not sure. It's certainly not so credible in my eyes if the assertion is that he stuck around Earth for a while to hang out with monks.

But, yes, similarity between two things does not necessarily betray a correlation between them. If you're teaching a doctrine of peace and compassion, you're going to begin with basics such as nonviolence and unprovoked kindness, regardless of where you live.

Ven: Does that mean the Devil'd be British? :0

 

[ringtail]

Its true though, you can't always trust history books or what people tell you. For example...

Remember that Golden Compass book/movie? There was nothing 'evil' and 'anti-christian' and 'pro-atheism' about it, like some people said it was. But that was just the spreading word of someone ignorant. I read that it was just some Catholic church trying to make money and get their name our there for lying and exploiting someone's work to be bad when it isn't, because we know people out there will believe it. Who's to say that hasn't happened with a lot of things that we 100% believe in?

So, its hard to trust and believe everything an individual says, you never know a lie when you see it or hear it. You just have to go with what you think is right, even if you think its wrong.

The world is a little scary sometimes.

It would be nice to know the truth in everything, but where's the fun in that? :P

Or should I say; go with what you think is right, even if it may be wrong.

Please don't double post just to append your previous post with a single line. Rules on the matter are looser if each post is a separate entity, but for things such as this, please use the 'Modify" button.

 

[mawk]

That's exactly why you shouldn't be reading internet religious sources. Using the internet, someone can make a crazy claim, back it up with inference, and phrase it as an absolute fact. This is especially prevalent on religious topics, because countless people have crazy ideas about religion. I found a website once saying that Jesus was a space alien sent to earth to fight people who live in the earth's core and pump negative emotions into our brains and air paid for their efforts with oxygen. Does that mean that I should believe it?

Saying that Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha are the same person is a little less markedly crazy than that, but it's still one man using the internet as an improvised pulpit.

Hell, how do we know the world is round!? What if the Nazis were the good guys and Churchill was the antisemite!? We can't trust any written words, everything we know is wrong...

The fact is that at the center of it all you can't trust anything, so it's best to take with common sense salt instead of instantly believing anyone who doesn't seem like a corruptible official source.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Odin and Jesus are the same dude
They both were technically crucified, died, and came back.  They all know what is, what was, and what will be.  Hell, they're both bearded and have long hair.  Both believed in something greater - even Jesus prayed to God - and they both talked of trivial philosophical things, and guess what?  They are both symbolized by birds.

The common ideas for a religion around the world - I mean let's face it, we are not a creative bunch.  You say something, so I like it - I'm going to tell others.  Additionally we're all going to seek out the same virtues, because we all want the same thing.  No one in their right mind truly wants confusion and chaos - notice I said right mind, so I'm totally excluding myself from this because personally I think confusion and chaos is where we should steer for a bit, but that's besides the point.

Give any two religions (and for the sake of the argument I'll even include scientology if we can get away with metaphors) and actually look and you'll find thousands of similarities - some a lot closer to that.  You take what you have, a tree and fire and water and sand and earth and thunder, and you have miracles and signs, all the stories have the elements very prominently explored.  Stars, and seasons, and all of these things, disasters and treachery and -here's the most common trend among saviors and wizened old men- knowledge beyond/inspiteof/from suffering.

Four crystals to save the world is our common joke involving the originality of games.  It's only just so much less original than our conveyance of religion.

 

[Charlie Fleed]

This is a little OT but...

We are talking about something that has been at the center of the attention of thousands of historians, anthropologists, and so on for only the last two millennia, it's not the "Golden Compass" anything...
The era of telecommunications has made an incredible amount of texts available with little to no effort and subjects like the life and actions of (the historical, as opposed to the religious figure) Jesus of Nazareth have been examined thoroughly by comparing writings from coeval authors and historians from the first A.C. centuries. There are controversial points but nothing like a joyful trip in India. Of course you don't have day-by-day records of such distant events, but i'm pretty sure there isn't any relevant info we, in 2008, don't know about.

 

[Ellie]

Just because there are thousands of documents about doesn't mean a single one of them is right or wrong...

Just because more research has been done, doesn't mean info wont have been missed. It's inevitable. Is what you did last week documented anywhere, at all? If in the future people researched what you did last week, would they know about every single detail? Even if thousands of people wrote papers on it?