Hi everyone,
I was just thinking to myself: Off the top of my head what are the
top ten issues that Buddhist groups on the web always get in a tizzy
about? And so I generated the following list along with my
definitive answers to settle each of them once and for all:
1. Jesus was/was not a Buddha
- Of course he wasn't
2. Jesus did/did not go to India to study Buddhism in his youth
- Of course he did not.
3. Buddhism and Hinduism are really the same thing
- Of course they are not.
4. Islam is out to destroy Buddhism
- Of course it is.
5. You do/don't have to be vegetarian to be Buddhist
- Of course you don't but it helps.
6. You do/don't have to believe in rebirth to be a Buddhist
- You don't, or at least not literally you don't.
7. You do/don't need precepts to be a Buddhist
- You do, or at least you need to make good causes and refrain from
bad causes and purify the mind, but while morality is integral at
some point it is not sufficient.
8. My sect is better than yours
- This should go without saying
9. My practice is better than yours
- It also encompasses the benefits of all other practices even if I
don't personally engage in them
10. The Buddha did/did not claim to be a Buddha, teach the Dharma,
and institute the Sangha
- Of course he did and would the people saying otherwise please
vacate all the Buddhist groups right now? Please?
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
How about whether or not Buddhists have the right to petition their sangha for redress of grievances?
Next time you do a top-ten list, Michael, you have to count backwards with #1 coming last, like they do on late nite TV. Best, Byrd in LA
Posted by: Byrd in LA at August 13, 2005 07:57 AMPerfect top ten list, agree with all of them... especially that part about my sect and practice being better than yours.
;-)
Jim
Posted by: James Foster at August 14, 2005 08:33 AMVery good list. I agree with all of them, but for number two. There is too much evidence supporting that he did go to India. Still I accept it is a personal choice to believe/not believe it.
Peter K (Tokyo)
Posted by: Peter Kearney at August 22, 2005 05:02 PMMore likely Afghanistan since it was closer and had some major relics.
Posted by: Mark Porter at August 26, 2005 10:25 PMThanks for you comment Mark,
I believe from what I have seen and read it was most likely Kashmir
I have to confess to being amused that you guys are trying to reconstruct the itinerary of someone who died 2000 years ago and didn't leave any reliable objective regards regarding his very existence except some off-hand mentions by some Roman historicans that amounted to no more than footnotes. There are even scholars who have seriously questioned whether Jesus existed (I do, by the way believe he existed). I think it is pretty far fetched to claim to know anything about his life at all let alone whether he travelled outside Israel. I have read the claims of records supposedly in some monasteries but I read a thorough debunking of that several years ago - it was all a fraud concocted by some Russian. I will have to see if I can hunt up what I read so long ago about this. But as for tombs are markers referring to someone named Yeheshua or Joshua or whatever - the name was very common and I have no doubt that people with that name were travelling the Silk Route and so on.
As for Jesus teachings, he taught nothing that does not have precedents in the Hebrew Bible and among Jewish thought at that time. In fact, his teachings have sometimes been compared with those of his contemporary Hillel, and no one has ever accused Hillel of having to go to India to be a kind-hearted and liberal rabbi.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Here is a link to an article debunking the Jesus went to Tibet myth that a Russian fraud named Notovitch made up:
http://www.westarinstitute.org/Periodicals/4R_Articles/Tibet/tibet.html
BTW, I also think it would be cool if Jesus had been to India, but I find it unlikely in the extreme and also incredibly unecessary. Bishop Spong, particularly his book "Liberating the Gospels," shows that almost every single verse of the Gospels is derivative of something in the Hebrew scriptures and Dominic Crossan's works like "Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography" show that Jesus was by all accounts a Mediterranean peasant whose teachings and actions, as attributed to him, are fully understandable within that cultural milieu.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Ryuei
Thanks for your comments and the pointer to the site. I have read it and it still does not change my opinion that Jesus did visit that part of the world. Here is an interesting site for you to look through, http://www.tombofjesus.com/home.htm.
For me, all I am trying to do is find the parrallels between Buddhism and Christianity to see if there is a common source. Any other URLs you have would be appriciated.
Regards
Peter Kearney