Christian Buddhist?

Originally Posted by Tirisilex

While I know that I am capable of being both.. I'm wondering if Christians are capable of acccepting that I am both.

Well, I am fine with it, but then I am not sure the scribes and Pharisees would say that I am a Christian or a Buddhist, or anything else for that matter. It is an inherent quality of any religion and isms of all kinds. If we want to say we are X but they are not X, then we must define what it means to be an X. If we don’t have a definition of what is X, then what does it mean to say I am an X. With religion, we often say X’s believe A, B, and C, but not D, E, and F, and if you want to call yourself an X, you must follow the dogma. Of course, X is just a variable and they have no copyright on it so you can define X for yourself.. which to one extent or another, all X’s do (hence the term cafeteria Catholics). Religions (formal ones anyway) seek to define a subset of humanity that shares a common set of beliefs. All subsets require a boundary, else they are not subsets. The risk one takes by accepting those boundaries is that they must forgo what is outside of them, which could be some really cool and enlightening stuff. Fortunately, there are many definitions of what it means to be a Christian (and this despite 2000 years of trying to stomp out us heretics), so if you shop around a bit, you can probably find one that can fit you in, or just roll you own. Of course many will say you are not really a Christian, but there is no way to avoid that no matter what dogma you call home. Personally, when I consider the totality of who Jesus was, I find his teachings (in both word and deed) fit much better into a Buddhist paradigm then into the one the Roman’s eventually declared to be orthodoxy, but then I am a heretic so there is that to consider.

If you have not read the book (best-highly recommend) or seen the movie (still good) I would recommend “The Life of Pi”. Not so much for finding the answers, but for appreciating the freedom to ask the questions, and making peace with and learning to appreciate and live with the mystery.

Also, do some YouTube surfing on whether Jesus was a Buddhist monk. Lots of interesting and through provoking stuff. However, surf at your own risk, I don’t want to be responsible for condemning your eternal soul to damnation, or New Jersey, or anything like that.

In any case, Namaste and god bless you brother Tirisilex.

Originally Posted by sky123

Jesus did not say that one has to accept him to be saved.... , that is what the Churches want you to believe by their interpretation of the different bibles....

Jesus did say ' The kingdom of God is within you '

He did say that. Which dove tails quite nicely with this one.

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.[d] 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

not to mention this one.

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

And he also said this.
" The more things change, the more they stay the same" ....... or maybe that was some other prophet?