What do buddhist think of Jesus?
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I am really curious.
Who do Buddhist think Jesus is?
A good man? A buddha? One of many gods out there in the world?
Not sure whether this is the right forum to post, but will appreciate a devoted Buddhist's answer. -
There are many views among Buddhists. Some think he is a man, some think he is a Bodhisattva, I'm sure there are other views.
Personally I think Jesus had some realisation but his teachings are very distorted by those who misunderstood him or wanted to use bible as a political tool.
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Gospels like the Gospel of Thomas shows realization of a deep contemplative/mystical nature... however this gospel, even though written not long after Jesus's passing, was not in the official canon accepted by the early churchfathers. Probably because it was too deep for most to understand or grasp.
Other gospels also contains excerpts here and there that shows Jesus's realisation.
http://users.misericordia.edu//davies/thomas/Trans.htm
15 Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father."
This reminded me of my own koan - 'Before birth, Who am I?' or 'Before my parents were born, who am I/what is it?' - this triggered my own awakening.
There are some very clear quotations from that gospel. In fact... not just 'some'... all verses show very clear non-dual realisation.
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HE SHD WEAR PROPER CLOTHES
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Buddhists would think of Jesus as nothing but an iconic emptiness whereas Christians would think of Buddha as person that needs to be filled with greater love
in combination, all should empty all loves for all
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Jesus is one of many gods out there in the world. Buddha said there were thirty-three heavens, I believe he stays in one of the 33 heavens which is still within the 6 reincarnation path.
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Both Jesus and Buddha are the manifestation of the omnipresent true mind of ours. They are the embodiment of intrinsical peace that we all shared together. Their basic teachings is - there is no grievance over the past, for it is gone. Never has a worry that exist of the future, for it has yet to come. As long as it is called present moment, live this moment as if it was your last,and u will find each day worth living for!
The saying of buddhist master - You are right but incorrect :DDD
May you have a harmonious life!
Sadhu and Amitayus!
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i read somewhere buddha said we shouldnt be concerned about the thing call god as it is beyond us.
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Originally posted by dragg:
i read somewhere buddha said we shouldnt be concerned about the thing call god as it is beyond us.
Actually, the Buddha did not believe in a personal creator.
However it is accepted that 'gods', or rather, celestial beings from heaven do exist, and by virtue of our karma we can reborn there (but this is not our goal - our goal is to get out of the karmic cycle of birth and death and reach nirvana)
I don't recall him saying god/gods is 'beyond us'.
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A Buddha consisted of 3 bodies, Dharmakaya, the dharma body which represent the Ultimate truth to which he was enlightened; Sambhogakaya, the reward body rewarded through the religious practice; and the Nirmanakaya, the manifested body of buddha who appears to save the unenlightened in this world. We believe as per Chapter 16 of Lotus Sutra, Eternal Shayamuni Buddha is equipped with the 3 bodies. He is the awaken one whom is free from ignorance and delusion. He able to see things as they really are.
Hence, when we look at Jesus Christ, we saw a man of compassion who came to remind the people to manifest the God’s love in our live by loving one another. Last time during a discussion, one of our priests mentioned that perhaps Jesus Christ is a manifested body of the Buddha. Because Lotus Sutra claimed that Buddha and Bodhisattvas is able to manifest themselves in any form to teach the Dharma.
Lotus Sutra Chapter 25:
“…. he appears in every such form and preaches to them the law”
“ In the lands of the universe there is no place where he does not manifest himself.”
Hence, we should give due respect to Jesus when we walk into a church. By placing our hand together to make a bow and chant daimoku 3 times “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo” as a form of respect.
At the same time, we need to note that Jesus is a Nirmanakaya in Nichiren Buddhist context. He is like a moon reflection on the surface of the lake. It manifested itself when the sky is clear and the water is calm. However, we need to look at the source which is the moon in the sky and that is the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Actually, the Buddha did not believe in a personal creator.
However it is accepted that 'gods', or rather, celestial beings from heaven do exist, and by virtue of our karma we can reborn there (but this is not our goal - our goal is to get out of the karmic cycle of birth and death and reach nirvana)
I don't recall him saying god/gods is 'beyond us'.
i think the chinese text is something like �是我们所能�解的.
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Originally posted by dragg:
i think the chinese text is something like �是我们所能�解的.
There are only four inponderables in Buddhism -
§ 22. "These four imponderables are not to be speculated about. Whoever speculates about them would go mad & experience vexation. Which four? The Buddha-range of the Buddhas [i.e., the range of powers a Buddha develops as a result of becoming a Buddha]... The jhana-range of one absorbed in jhana [i.e., the range of powers that one may obtain while absorbed in jhana]... The results of kamma... Speculation about [the first moment, purpose, etc., of] the cosmos is an imponderable that is not to be speculated about. Whoever speculates about these things would go mad & experience vexation."
— AN 4.77
"God" is not part of it. First of all in Buddhism there is no Creator God... secondly, the lives of 'god' or celestial beings are plenty and common and thus isn't something 'inponderable' or out of reach.
Being a god is not the goal of a Buddhist... Nirvana is a far higher goal.
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Just like a normal god.
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Originally posted by FireIce:
HE SHD WEAR PROPER CLOTHES
Sometime, inappropriate comment do bring a lighther touch to the whole issue.
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Originally posted by dragg:
i think the chinese text is something like �是我们所能�解的.
Human sees a design, but their imagination cannot picture the maker of that design. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive the intrinsical Buddhahood that is within ourselves.
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According to Shakyamuni buddha, the purpose of tathagatas to appear in this world were to guide people out of suffering and towards enlightenment.
Tathagatas taught people according to their capacity of understanding....
So I think Jesus was also a manifestation of tathagata. His "heaven" concept was similar to the many Buddhas' Heavens....
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There are of cos other view points.
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God - in Buddhism is one of the many Gods. He is the lord of the Heaven of thirty-three - also known as Lord Shakra.
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Thank you for sharing your viewpoints. This is very refreshing to me.
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jesus was an ancient alien form the star Sirius
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Jesus is not even his real name.....its Yeshua, i think....So what happens when Christians pray with the sala name? Anyway, I still think Jesus was a manifestation of Tathagata. His purpose was to give people hope and led them out of misery and into happiness.
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Originally posted by Demon Bane:
Jesus is not even his real name.....its Yeshua, i think....So what happens when Christians pray with the sala name? Anyway, I still think Jesus was a manifestation of Tathagata. His purpose was to give people hope and led them out of misery and into happiness.
Yes, Jesus' actual name is Yeshua. But I think Yeshua understands that people somehow got a misconception of his name, and therefore He will answer the prayers of misguided christian.He is afterall, all about forgiveness. So He will forgive people when they get His name all wrong.
Thanks again for your information about how buddhists think of Jesus. This is something I had always been curious about.
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Originally posted by S.gal83:
Yes, Jesus' actual name is Yeshua. But I think Yeshua understands that people somehow got a misconception of his name, and therefore He will answer the prayers of misguided christian.He is afterall, all about forgiveness. So He will forgive people when they get His name all wrong.
Thanks again for your information about how buddhists think of Jesus. This is something I had always been curious about.
You are most welcomed. But I dun represent the entire buddhist community. It's just from my point of view, thats all.
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Originally posted by Demon Bane:
You are most welcomed. But I dun represent the entire buddhist community. It's just from my point of view, thats all.
Still, you are a buddhist and your opinion matters. As are the opinioins of all the buddhists here.God bless.
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New post from a blog I frequent:
Robert Wolfe: The Gospel of Thomas
Scholars have said this about the discovery of The Gospel of Thomas:- “The single most important non-canonical book yet to be uncovered.”
- “A very important discovery —probably doing more as a single text to advance our understanding of the historical Jesus (and of the transmission of his teachings) than all the Dead Sea Scrolls put together.”
- “One of the most important archaeological finds in the history of New Testament scholarship —every bit as revolutionary for the study of the New Testament as the Dead Sea Scrolls are for the study of the Hebrew bible.”
- “A gospel that understands ‘salvation’ to come from some other means than a ‘risen’ Jesus.”
There are no miracles; no crowds of followers; no temple confrontations.
No crucifixion or resurrection tales; no theology of sin, judgment, hell or redemption.
No misogyny (Salome and Mary are two of the five disciples named); no discussion of founding a church; no talk of a Second Coming; and no pious rephrasing of Old Testament commandments.
For reasons that become clear, there is no talk of a post-crucifixion bodily resurrection, nor any miracle sagas which one could accept only on faith.
The Gospel of Thomas is truly a heretical scripture.
The Gospel of Thomas: The Enlightenment Teachings of Jesus, explores this “heresy”; how the message of Jesus in Thomas differs from the message in the New Testament. The claim: the self-references of Jesus, here, are not to the fleshly person but to the embodied Presence of an enlightened sage or master. And there are striking verses said to have been spoken by Jesus —not found in the Bible —that make sense only within the context of nonduality. Does The Gospel of Thomas record the nondual enlightenment teachings of Jesus —and were they left out of the New Testament for that reason? Do conventional understandings of Thomas miss its real significance? How does the message of Jesus in The Gospel of Thomas exemplify the ancient teachings of nonduality?
We hope you enjoy this adaptation of selections from the book, for this exclusive Nonduality America article:
“Was Jesus influenced by the East?”
While there is no historical evidence that Jesus was influenced by nondual teachings (even from so far away as the East), it is not inconceivable that he was. In fact, there is a possibility that at least some of its principles may have been known to him. Let’s look at how these teachings may have been present in his time and place.
The writer Holger Kersten provided some research to buttress his points (which otherwise are tenuous) in the Penguin book Jesus Lived In India. He attributes “the worldwide spread of Buddhism, even before the pre-Christian era” to the Indian ruler Ashoka, who lived circa 273–232 B.C., and who sent Buddhist missionaries along the Silk Route to as far away as Egypt, Syria, and Greece. The Buddha himself was said to have instructed, “Go, O monks, and travel afar, for the benefit and welfare of many, out of compassion for the world…”
Buddha, like Jesus, had kept on the move, traversing “the entire length of the mid-Ganges basin,” says Kersten.
At various times during the history of Buddhism, “the Indies basin, the upper Ganges basin and the Deccan” were invaded by “Hellenic Bactrians of the 2nd Century B.C., and the Scythians and Parthians in the 1st Century B.C. … The Scythian rulers of the Kushan dynasty themselves encouraged the spread of Buddhism after their own conversion.”
Kersten’s tracing of cross-fertilization between cultures of the East and Near East, centuries before Jesus’ birth, is reflected in the book of Acts (2:9): Parthians (and “residents of Asia”) were among those “staying in Jerusalem,” even after the crucifixion, this New Testament book says.
Similarly, the Quaker Albert Edmunds, a translator who worked with both Greek and Pali texts, reported on research that was available when he wrote Buddhist and Christian Gospels, in 1908.
He noted that a German New Testament scholar had initiated such comparisons before him, in 1867, because “These parallels [between Buddhist and Christian scriptures] have aroused the interest of New Testament scholars…[since they] belong to a world of [spiritual] thought which the whole East had in common.”
Edmunds says that Ashoka (or Asoka) sent Buddhist “missionaries” to five Greek emperors,
including Antiochus, Ptolemy and Alexander, between 262–258 B.C.; thus
they would have entered Athens, Antioch, and Alexandria. Ptolemy had
funded a Greek translation of the Jewish Pentateuch, and reportedly was
interested in a similar project about Hindu scriptures.Cross-culturally, Edmunds said that Greek forces inhabited the Punjab, of the Brahmins, around 110 B.C.
In the 2nd Century B.C., there were “Hindu mahouts on the elephants of the Syrian Army.”
In the 1st Century B.C., the Roman poet Horace mentions an Indian embassy to the first Roman emperor, Augustus, in 17 B.C.—only a short time before the birth of Jesus.
The Greek geographer Strabo noted, according to Edmunds: “at the time of Christ, the intercourse [East/Near East] was at its height.”
And later, Clement of Alexandria, toward the end of the 2nd Century C.E., knew of Hindu “philosophers…who obey the precepts of Buddha.”
In any event, it is noteworthy that the author of the Gospel of Matthew did not suppose that his readers would have any difficulty in accepting the arrival, in Judea, of “wise men” (Magi) from the East, from far enough away to need to navigate by the stars (2:1-12) at the time of Jesus’ birth.
It is interesting, in this natal tale, that the first of those to recognize the true nature of Jesus were from the East.
How unlikely is it that Jesus might have been influenced by teachings that preceded him by centuries? Consider this comparison:
Said to be a contemporary of Jesus, Apollonius of Tyana, an “itinerant sage,” is known to have been an exponent of the teachings of Pythagoras, who was born circa 521 B.C. (about 40 years before Buddha).
After receiving an education in the Greek city of Tarsus, Apollonius then traveled to Babylon, an account says, to
study with the Magi. Then he went to India to learn first-hand the teachings of the Brahmans.
Returning to the coast of northern Syria, Anatolia and Greece, he lead
a circle of disciples as a holy man. He also traveled to Rome, Sicily,
Spain and visited the “naked sages” of Upper Egypt. Then he lived for
the rest of his life in Asia Minor, and died in 96 C.E. ¹However, whether Jesus was influenced by the nondual winds of the East, one needs to consider that there have been the spontaneous awakenings of self-realized sages chronicled in widespread places and times throughout written history —from Buddha, as an example in ancient times, to Ramana Maharshi, as a paragon in modern times.
What later became known as gnosis would have been known in Buddha’s times as jnana (ya-na); both mean “knowledge,” in the sense of “wisdom,” and are evidently related words from the same root.
The meaning of jnana, summarized in an encyclopedia, is the “eradication of the ignorance that sees the illusory multiplicity of the world as real, by attainment of knowledge of the Self [Absolute],” which is regarded as “a single fundamental reality,” by the presence of which “there is no real distinction between the soul [or self] and God.”
As has been said by Ramana Maharshi: “It is due to illusion—caused by the ego, the ‘I am the body’ idea—that the kingdom of God is conceived to be elsewhere.”
And the late Jiddu Krishnamurti ,
a “spiritual philosopher” who reported a spontaneous enlightenment
experience, once made this statement—apparently independently, although
it could fit easily into The Gospel of Thomas: “Under every stone and leaf, that which is eternal exists. But we do not know how to look for it. Our minds and hearts are filled with other things than the understanding of ‘what is’.”
And this is from The Gospel of Thomas:
Jesus said, “Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”
Where ‘me’ is the eternal All…
¹ Like Jesus, he practiced exorcism and reportedly revived the dead; and, like Jesus, an account of his life didn’t appear until well after his death. His followers and those of Jesus knew each other, and debated their leader’s merits.
§
What led to writing “The Fifth Gospel” material?
Over the years, I have casually collected material from a myriad of sources that elucidated what can be known of what is called the “historical Jesus”. My interest in the facts of Jesus’ life (and the authenticity of his pronouncements) long predated my introduction to the non-Christian scriptures of the East, such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Advaita. After all, I was raised (and baptized at 13) as a Baptist.
When I first came across a translation of The Gospel of Thomas, I wanted to determine how that testament of Jesus’ “unknown” sayings contributed to the overall picture of who Jesus was, and what he had taught.
A friend, a (now deceased) professor who retired to Australia, asked me to write for him–from that unorganized file I had collected —what to me appeared to be the answer to the question of how The Gospel of Thomas informed our understanding of the historical Jesus and his message.
Originally I wrote only the section “Commentary on Verses” which gives my annotation on each aphorism in Thomas.
The next question followed though: If these are authentic sayings of Jesus, why were they not in public circulation until 1945? And another significant question needed to be answered: Why would anyone conclude that they are authentic scriptures?
These questions led to writing “The Fifth Gospel” material.
The value of my compilation, I feel, is that it may be of service in drawing attention to the importance of not relegating the “gnostic” Jesus to a dismissive category. There’s something of invaluable significance that’s been overlooked, so far, in the academic and scholarly biblical discussion. That’s why this manuscript was composed.
During
Robert’s travels he has labored as an auto assembly line worker in
Detroit, as a carnival worker, a journalist in New York City, on a farm
of a Zen community in California, as a landscaper, a financial
consultant, a janitor. After living in the Mendocino area for about
twenty years he bought a camper van and moved to a property in a redwood
forest where he studied the inner life intensely.Something fell into place there after a number of years, and out of that period of solitude, Robert began writing and sharing his observations on the reality that surrounds and includes us. Shortly afterwards, Robert moved to Ojai, California where he continues to live and write.
A longer memoir that recounts Robert’s nondual journey is available here: “Awakening to Living in the Present Moment”.
You might also like to visit Robert’s website here: Living Nonduality or email Robert: [email protected]
