to me jesus' teachings are not those of the christian faith. his teachings are more along the lines of buddhism and hinduism to me. this is my own personal opinion so please do not judge me for that. i feel the whole story of jesus is misconstrued and i dont think anyone really knows who or what he was... where he came from.. or what faith he believed in... all i know is what i believe in my own opinions.

christianity has many flaws.. as do other religions. no one has it completely right. if anyone did... well then we would know all of lifes mysteries and secrets and where is the fun in that?

[edit on 31-8-2009 by calihan_12]

Originally posted by make.changes
you are ridiculous nichiren i thought you couldnt give such short responses, but any ways jesus is gods son not god, but anyways is divine lets hear about how buddists could perform all of the miracles the apostles could, wait they couldnt disciples of budda cant do nearly as much as disciples of jesus, but yes they can set themselves on fire and they can heat blankets that helps save the world. NOT!!!! : )

Oh boy ... I only gave you rope, but you did the rest to yourself.

Jesus if he existed probably never traveled outside of Israel during his adult life. I don't believe he was a Buddhist.

Originally posted by antontherapper
Jesus if he existed probably never traveled outside of Israel during his adult life. I don't believe he was a Buddhist.

Jesus never left Israel, because it didn't exist at that time. He lived in a place called Palestine. Israel was founded on May 14, 1948.

Hi Nichiren--

I can hardly think that R. Yehoshua bar Yosef the Galilean Nazir, executed for armed sedition against Rome (in breach of Lex Maiestatis) by arming his disciples with swords on the hill (Lukre 22:40-50) and who preached End of Days Apocalyptic Panic ('The Times of the Amorites are fulfilled-repent now and believe the good news of the (coming) Kingdom of [David, ordained by Heaven]' had anything whatsoever to do with Gautama Buddha who never in his whole life armed his disciples with swords and told them 'fear not man who can merely destroy your bodies [in Battle], but cannot destroy your 'Nephesh' (something like 'breath-of-life-essence' cf: Nophesh, meaning 'esophagus' or 'breathing apparatus' etc.) ) : only fear Him who CAN destroy both your body and your Nephesh in the Eternal Fires of Hinnom !'

I don't pick up any Apocalyptic 'Hate the filthy gentile dogs' (see Matt Chapter 15:12-22 where Syrophonecian gentiles are called DOGS) rhetoric coming out of Gautama Buddha (or at least from any words placed into his mouth according to the later traditions...), but there is plenty of this vomit coming out of the (alleged) mouth of R. Yehoshua in the 4 Greek gospels in the socalled New Testament -- and those were the ones that were APPROVED !!!! (can you imagine the vitriol of the original oral Aramaic preaching ?! Must have been worse than the racist-zionism of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments !)

Maybe you need to take a Greek and Aramaic class sometime to brush up on your Yehusan sayings a little? You might be not a little shocked by what you discover if you only dig a little deeper !!!!!!!

After 6 years of studying, meditating, and having direct experiences of God and spiritual realities including the same kind that Jesus had ....as an outcom of following in Jesus' footsteps ...

....I can say yes, definitely.

The big secret revealed to me is that the Gospel of Thomas is factually the words of Jesus. Everything there didn't mak sense to me until I experienced what is being said. Basically Jesus says that what's in Thomas is secret teachings..... then goes on to say things in non-dual forms and self inquiry, such as "Know thyself, and you will know God"

Also, in Buddhism there is a Baptismal ceremony to cleanse one of past Karma.

Imagine a guy truing to explain Buddhist concepts to a bunch of Hard headed pagan Jews who were hell bent on sacrificing innocent animals for their own wrong doings and anything that went wrong was God's punishment.

So in turn he had to use 'parables" to talk about ego death and spiritual awakening.

Jesus probably never traveled outside of Israel so no.

Jesus was humble. So I do not believe Jesus spoke for or against any one certain people. Jesus would of taught his parables in many places if it was possible, for he loved everyone, even asked forgiveness for the ones that took his Earthly life.

There are too many stories of a wise teacher baring a name similar to Jesus in other lands. The word Israel is a word that is Spiritual and needs understanding. Its not about a special land or people. It was the 'thoughts' that were in twined with Israel that Jesus called them out on many times...which is why many didnt follow his way, for it was not the way they believed in.

He probably spent more time learning in the other lands and then brought the light to the land that needed it most.

So many just dont seem to care that the Holy Word of God in the Bible leaves out much about Jesus and his growing up. But yet we were passed on the thought that he was teaching at such a young age in other texts.

I believe with all my heart Jesus was against the blood sacrifices. I believe with all my heart that this is what angered Jesus at the Temple, for the people were selling life (animals) so the animals could be killed (sacrificed).

If you realize you are a part of Spirit and that Spirit needs nothing of Earthly value, like blood, the taking of life, the taking of Spirit.....then it is the worst thing against the Divine to take life and shed blood.

Hi LeoVirgo--

You claim that R. Yehoshua bar Yosef the Galilean Nazir was 'humble' but 'humble' people don't generally get themselves crucified for armed sedition against Rome during 100-year anniversaries of Roman Invasions (BC 63 to 36 CE)

e.g. 'Do you dare to come out against the Son of Man (Aram, Bar-Enasha) with your clubs and your swords and torches, as if apprehending a common thief in night?'

Doesn't sound too 'humble' to me, especially in the Koine 1st Century Greek placed into his mouth in the 'nicene council' approved canonical Greek gospels...

Jesus was not his name originally. It was Emmanuel. And for the record he and his followers were Communists... as in commune

What name exactly was in the record Calihan? Jesus? Yeshua?

Somewhere in the Book of Revelation it mentions something about "the Seven Lanterns of the East" which are accepted by Christ. Upon reading it myself, my first impression was that these "seven lanterns" actually refer to eastern religions which are carried or supported by the same moral pillars that Christianity is.

I was raised as member of the neo-Christian Unitarian Universalist Church. Although I don't attend it anymore, I never had any problem with the teachings of liberal Christianity as long as no person of flesh and blood attempted to cram their detailed version into my throat. Even while attending the UU church I had a deeply personal interest in eastern religions and philosophy. Oddly, many of my friends in young adulthood were Catholics with rather serious personal problems. After moving from my parents house and settling into my own independent existence (going back about 16 years now) my interest in eastern religions only grew. I began to visit Buddhist monasteries. I even had a number of strange impromtu meetings with Buddhist monks: Once I was appointed to do soil tests for a Buddhist monastery by the engineering company I worked for. Of all the people they could have sent, somehow it worked out that I was the one. So I conducted my tests with a group of monks and a wise old Lama squatting with me in the snow. I felt SO comfortable with them. I wanted to hang out with them but also part of me did not want to become labeled by "belonging" to any particular church or religious group. Still, I loved these people and gave them my blessings and graciously accepted theirs in return. They seemed hardly any different than many of the Universalists I knew as a kid attending the UU church. I also grew to have an interest in Hinduism and Sufism. I found that Sufi's were often behind some of the most beautiful haunting and mystic music I ever heard (I my self am an amateur composer and musician, having played for 25 years).

The truth is, I tend to dance between these different schools of thought. I have found that they all offer very similar lessons albeit in different packages and sometimes they have unique things to teach as well.

In the case of Buddhism and Christianity, these are two religions which share something very similar: The idea of an enlightened being of love and compassion that dwells within all things which we can only find and become by releasing our sinful natures and even our identities. Yes, Christ and Buddha could have theoretically been brothers, maybe one and the same. I like to envision the same soul incarnating in different places and times to represent these two guys. Thes is not neccessarily my exact , but somehow it entertains my belief in flesh incarnation, and that maybe something higher is always trying to incarnate to meet us wherever we are. We have the power to accept it or nail it to cross as we wish...or to forget it altogther...but either way we reap what we sow.

Hi Brof--

The Apocalypse of Yohanon the Levite (aka 'Book of Revelation' 2:1) says nothing about 7 Lamps of the East, in any of the (few, paltry) Greek MSS but the text does mention

'Thus speaks He who walks between the Seven Menoroth' ('lamps') which is a reference to the Messiah as the source of Light behind the planetary 'wanderers' including the SUN, which is the main symbol for the Messiah in Malachi 4 ('In that Day shall Rise the SUN of Righteousness with Healing in his Wings') - it was used as a symbol for the Messiah, since after all the sun rises and dies every day, and every year at the Solstices), i.e. the Seven Lamps being the SUN, MOON, MERCURY, VENUS, MARS, JUPITER & SATURN, the socalled 7-eyes of YHWH 'which roam upon the faces of the whole earth' because they 'wander' (Gk; planetoi) accross the face of the heavens...

The striking parallels with Mithras (cf: the mark of the 'Beast' i.e. the right hand/forehead branding etc.) as the 'mediator-saviour sun-god (who like the figure in the Book of Revelation dwells between the stars and the earth) is no mere co-incidence--there are many anti-Mithraic statements found throughout the book, and the Mithraic Mysteries were the largest single competitor to Christianity during the 1st Failed Jewish War against Rome (AD 66-72) when the Book of Revelation was thrown together from earlier Jewish Apocalyptic material in the Hebrew and Aramaic traditions (and the War Scroll of the Dead Sea Cave 1 and others found scattered sealed up in their timecapsule caves 1-11 until AD 217 (when some were found) and AD 780 (when more were found) and finally in Nov of 1946 (when the big group was found by Bedouin).

The 7-Lamps imagery of course is taken from the Menorah with 7 lamps found in the 2nd Temple at Jerusalem (see also the 7-Lamps - Angel Imagery found in the Scroll of the Book of the Prophet Zechariah 4:2-4) which was destroyed by Rome in AD 70 during the failed Jewish revolt when the Temple ws ground to powder...

But there is no '7-lamps-from-the-East' phrase at all in the Greek text of the Apocalypse itself in the canonical collection we possess today, just like there is no phrase that occurs as 'antiChrist' to be found in the book either (despite what many persons may think !) -- where did you come across that phrase, exactly?

Originally posted by calihan_12
heres an interesting fact to ponder. .

my boyfriend lived in india for a year, and met a lot of people, including religious figures.

he went to a temple in the mountains in india where they have records of a man by the name of jesus (obviously this was back when he would have been alive) who came through with a few people and said he was on a conquest and wanted to learn about the buddhist ways from a buddhist monk.

They have a recordbook of it, dating all the way back to the time jesus was supposedly alive.

if this is true... which i honestly believe it makes a lot of sense... then theres the answers to all your questions. Was he the son of god? No. Did he bring about new views of life and religion to a place that never heard them before? Yes. Therefor, he was seen in a different light.

Jesus was not buddist he was jewish, you could not have been born in what is now israel at that time without being raised jewish

it could have been another jesus, just as there are many tom's in the modern world, If somebody's name is alex rodriguez you didnot necessarily meet the yankee 3rd baseman, alex is a common name as im sure jesus may have been back in the B.C.'s