Roots of Buddhism
The religion/philosophy of Buddhism focuses on human suffering and how to liberate from pain into a state of enlightenment to achieve nirvana. The origins of the Buddha dates to a real person in India over 2,600 years ago. The lay person may associate Buddhism with meditation but there are many other methods used in the attempt to move away from suffering. Individuals use practices to include various methods in addition to meditation such as chanting, bowing, prayer, and recitation of mantras. The central practice of meditation is believed to teach freedom from pain by developing the mind, focus, and alertness. However, Buddhism also has roots that extend into other religions and there is evidence that this practice was used by the Jewish and Christians before and after the birth and death of Jesus.
Buddha lived in the time of 500 B.C., making Buddhism one of the world’s oldest reli-gious traditions (Andras, 2017). Buddhists strive to remove their ego to free themselves to be compassionate towards others in their quest for enlightenment. The basis of Buddhism appears to be fundamental in adopting and following traits to live a life rich in helping others and trying to develop a society free from strife, dishonesty, and animosity. This sounds a lot like other reli-gious beliefs on a fundamental level. Remove the rhetoric and doctrines of organized religions and this is at the foundation of beliefs. It seems logical and practical for Buddhist practices to mi-grate into newly developing religions.
Christianity is the predominant religious practice in the Western world and although it is a newer religion as compared to others, Christians in the United States have long turned a blind eye to the possibility of other practices. Individuals and organizations practicing Christianity promote love and kindness, but often are accused of being arrogant, rude, and boastful (Matton, 2019). There are many examples of Christian communities that use their status to their advantage, while we see other Christians who follow the teachings of Jesus with the same message of love and compassion that we see in the Buddha’s teachings.
Some individuals believe Jesus followed the teachings of Buddha and historical evidence indicates the connection between India and Judea through shipping center trading and the fact that land and sea trade routes passed through Jerusalem for centuries (Hanson, 2005), allowing the flow of ideas and collaboration between the countries. The influence of Buddha on Jesus is a topic of scholarly research with many theories and interesting coincidences. Professors at Ore-gon State University (2009) had the opportunity to edit a book comparing the similarities in phrases by both Buddha and Jesus entitled “Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings.” According to this group, one example is the phrase by Buddha “The faults of others are easier to see than one’s own” and 500 years later Jesus said, “Why do you see the splinter in someone else’s eye and never notice the log in your own?”
The teachings of Buddha and Jesus are very similar, and the question has been asked if Jesus was the reincarnation of Buddha (Abhishek, 2016). Buddhists believe in reincarnation, but Christians do not. According to Laughlin (2014) Buddhism is associated with mysticism in the eyes of Christians, the Buddhists regard Jesus as a reincarnation of Buddha. Many Eastern cul-tures follow the concept of reincarnation and embrace the cycle of rebirth from one life to the next. What is not common knowledge is that reincarnation was taught in Christianity during the first 500 years. According to Ebah (2021) in 553 A.D. “The Roman Emperor Justinian I, ban-ished the teachings of reincarnation from Christian doctrines because he was of the view that be-lief in reincarnation, posed a severe socio-political threat to the Roman Empire.” He believed that if reincarnation were true, the existence of a soul existing in a spiritual realm indicated the soul was aware of itself and did not need salvation but rather was a divine entity naturally. He pre-ferred to keep the concept that a soul was created during conception and not from a spiritual ha-ven. Furthermore, the only divine soul was Jesus who was sent for a heavenly purpose.
One of the origins of reincarnation in Christianity came from the influence of Plato who did believe in this phenomenon. Plato is often termed as the father of Western Philosophy and had a huge impact on Christian thinkers, even to the present day (Creation, 2016, n.d.). Plato be-lieved that the individual could not reach the attainment of knowledge to go to heaven in only one lifetime, so they are given a new life to continue the journey to enlightenment. Due to their con-flict with soul’s having Divinity, the early church fathers agreed to remove reincarnation from their teachings. “The belief in reincarnation is central to Plato’s philosophy, and, as I shall argue here, reincarnation is the primary tool that the gods have to ensure the perfection of the cosmos” (Campbell, 2022, p 643).
There is a close resemblance between Buddhism and Christianity with both Jesus and Buddha teaching that charity is the best way to gain peace and to follow the path of truth to attain ultimate happiness in our lives (Abhishek, 2016). Problems and debates come up when individu-als look at doctrines and laws that are meant to be followed by specific religious organizations. These doctrines have endured throughout history with man-made changes by individuals in high-level positions within the religious organization. Through time the authenticity of the changes may come into question.
A near-death experience was documented by Mellen Thomas Benedict in 1982 where he claims to have had a deep spiritual awakening. He was declared dead for one and a half hours during this time he claims Buddha and Jesus are the same and when you die you move to a ‘higher shelve’ and reincarnate into a higher-functioning human to work towards enlightenment (Ab-hishek, 2016). With the subjectivity of different religious beliefs, it is difficult to prove the different theories. But it is obvious as one researches that religions do have a common objective to teach love, honesty, and humility, just as Buddha and Jesus are known to have practiced. It is easy to see the influence of the teachings of Buddha in Christianity as well as other religious sec-tors. It is up to each of us to grow in our understanding of our own hearts and what we believe to be our own particular religious roots.
References:
Abhishek, R. (2016) Was Jesus the Reincarnation of Gautama Buddha? Retrieved from https://www.metaphysics-knowledge.com/beliefs/was-jesus-the-reincarnation-of-gautama-buddha/
Andras, T. (2017) Buddhism’s Influence on Other Religions. Retrieved from https://classroom.synonym.com/buddhisms-influences-on-other-religions-12087147.html
Campbell, D.R. (2022). Pato’s Theory of Reincarnation: Eschatology and Natural Philosophy. Retrieved from: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://philarchive.org/archive/CAMPTO
Creation.com (2016). Plato and Christianity. Retrieved from: https://creation.com/plato-and-christianity
Ebah, E. (2021). Reincarnation was Removed from the Christian Scriptures by a Roman Emperor Named Justinian I. Crystal-Clear Publications. Purchased through Amazon for Kindle
Hanson, J.M. (2005). Was Jesus a Buddhist? Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/188153#:~:text=Just%20as%20Jews%20recognized%20the,of%20the%20Messiah%2FMaitreya%20prophecy.
Laughlin, V.A. (2014). The Buddha and the Christ: Looking at Jesus through Buddhist Eyes. Re-trieved from: chrome-exten-si-on://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1253&context=jams
Matton, S. (2019). American Christianity has a Hypocrisy Problem. Retrieved from https://christiansforsocialaction.org/resource/american-christianity-hypocrisy-problem/
Oregon State University (2009). New Book Looks at Parallel Sayings of Jesus, Buddha. Re-trieved from https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/1998/mar/new-book-looks-parallel-sayings-jesus-buddha#:~:text=CORVALLIS%2C%20Ore.,Coincidence%3F