Question about the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu

[anand]

[quote=Kiran65

And, just as Jesus is supposed to have been a historical figure, The Buddha, Lord Krishna and Rama were all supposed to have lived human lives, but also have been incarnations of God. I don't find that at all confusing. If God could have come to Earth once, why not many, many times? Many more than we know of, even?

And, yes, there is a multitude of Hindu texts; I actually find that a great asset in Hinduism. You don't have to follow all of them, and most Hindus don't. You can find the one that you most closely adhere to, and follow that one. I prefer the Upanishads, myself, my son, The Gita. We are both Hindu, we both have the same basic beliefs, we can have great philosophical and religious discussions, and enjoy each others opinions without having to try to change them, because we both have the same overall feelings of our religion. And there is always a multitude of other texts for us to study, as you noted, something we both greatly enjoy :)[/QUOTE]

Agreed that you consider upanishads to be prime source of your belief and you believe in the concept of Avatara then why dont you worship varaha avatar,vaman being an avatara of vishnu they should be placed on same pedestial as Rama,Krishna ?.

[anand]

And regarding Christianity, few people followed Christ while he was alive.Ignorant people seem to worship the dead and burry the alive.Jesus was as innocent and godly but in his own light.
Yes this is Christian mythology when people believe he was born of a virgin mother.

[kralaro]

Originally Posted by Kiran65

Um, wow. Not quite sure how to respond to this last post.

I'll assume it was done kindly...

I'm new to this forum, and forums in general, so thank you, I had no idea there was an edit button--I've seen other people post corrections, so I guess I'm not the only one who didn't know.

As far as wikipedia as a source of knowledge, again, raised Hindu, looking for knowledge for my Hindu son, wikipedia is not the place I usually run to... And the Bhagavata Purana? Not the text I would consult for information about The Buddha; Krishna, yes, Buddha, no. One small mention of him would not answer my question, by any means, and certainly not that answer.

I'm looking for something meaningful, not dismissive, that I can pass on to my son; thinking of the other incarnations of Vishnu, looking at their lives, and what they contributed to Hinduism, to our belief system, how they shaped it, etc, I was hoping to find something substantial, something that would correlate to the same sort of relationship with the religion and its history. We have been trying to reconcile the idea of The Buddha as incarnation of one of the major gods with what we have seen of him, what we believe of him. And while I so appreciated the correction on his not preaching atheism (I was not aware of that), Buddhism is still an atheistic religion (at least with the Indian Hindu Buddha, since there is no deity; yes, I know in some other countries there are certain "gods", but not in our religion).

Sorry, not looking for an argument, was just looking for some help with this. Thanks for your input.

Let's approach it different way. Why do you and your son think that Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu? Have you both reached this conclusion in same way? What proofs do you have of him being an avatar of Vishnu?

Would your son like to join Spiritual-Forums and be part of this thread (if he's still looking for solution)?

[peteyzen]

Originally Posted by Kiran65

My son and I have long had this discussion, and I need some other points of view.

I love the Buddha, and love Mahayana Buddhism. My son, sadly, does not--nor did my husband. My husband was raised by Christians (he was Punjabi, adopted by Americans, did not know he was Indian until after he was 18 and could research his birth parents). When I met him, he considered himself an atheist, but, over time, moved towards Hinduism, with much respect for Sikhism--but, even as a self proclaimed atheist, he said he found Buddhism terrifying--the whole, "life is suffering and then non existence" thing, in a simplified version.

Well, my son, who never heard this from his dad, as he passed away when my son was four, has basically told me the same exact thing, verbatim. And he does not understand why, as an incarnation of Vishnu, he would have preached atheism. And, frankly, neither do I? And that the ultimate goal is non-existence, vs Moksha?

And so you know, I am well aware of the theory of how the Buddha was incorporated, historically, into Hinduism; I'm speaking specifically from a Hindu point of view. How do you reconcile an incarnation of Vishnu preaching atheism, and this ultimate goal?

Hi, contrary to popular belief in hinduism, the buddha was not an incarnation of vishnu. I say this not as a buddhist, but when you examine the story of buddha, it is one of spiritual growth to reach enlightenment. such a journey is not necessary for an avatar of vishnu.
Buddha himself didnt preach atheism, he simply didnt speak about god. He dealt with the basics of getting control of the mind and non attachement, he knew that when people had mastered this, they would be ready fro the divine teachings.

[peteyzen]

Originally Posted by Vinayaka

Namaste Kiran: I'm not a Vaishnavite, but I have read some about it, and I do empathise with the inability to give a satisfactory explanation to your son.

From the little I know, it seems that there is much variance on avatar lists. In fact, many more modern Gurus like both Sai Babas, Sankara, and others have had their status lifted to 'avatar' by their followers. It seems that there has been a historical pattern going on here, and it could well be that the addition of 'Buddha' was nothing more than that, but much longer back.

HI Vinayaka
Sai Babas status was not lifted to that of an avatar by his followers, Sai Baba openly declared himself an avatar all the way through his time on earth. As did mother meera. My experience of both is that declaration is true...mind you no one believes me on here lol. The idea of a living Avatar (or recently living in Baba`s case) scares the bejesus out of people.

[Vinayaka]

Peteyzen, people are free to believe whatever they want, including having no desire or 'belief' to convince others of whatever their personal viewpoint is.

I just hope some of the answers for the OP have been helpful in some way.

Originally Posted by kralaro

Let's approach it different way. Why do you and your son think that Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu? Have you both reached this conclusion in same way? What proofs do you have of him being an avatar of Vishnu?

Would your son like to join Spiritual-Forums and be part of this thread (if he's still looking for solution)?

As I said in my original post, I am speaking from a strictly Hindu point of view. My son is Vaishnavite--he worships Lord Krishna as his main god. My family, for many generations, has accepted The Buddha as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu, and he is having problems with it. I'm not looking for any reason to change this tradition; I'm not looking for alternative incarnations, I'm not looking for other paths, I was looking for a way to reconcile the Buddhist viewpoint with the Hindu viewpoint, nothing else.

The proof we have is hundreds of years of Hindus (our branch, anyway) accepting The Buddha as the ninth incarnation--not something I'm willing to debate. Of course, there are many who don't accept this--that is their prerogative--just as is their choice of religion. This is our religious choice, we have made it, and were just looking for some assistance in our understanding of it :). I used to have a problem with reincarnation, but, as a Hindu, I accepted it--again, something I struggled with for a while, but still knew to be true.

As for joining the forum, while I am thoroughly enjoying it, my 16 yo son is not so into it lol. He is quite into studying Hinduism right now, and chatting with his friends--not quite into the spiritual forums... yet . Hopefully soon!

Originally Posted by Vinayaka

Peteyzen, people are free to believe whatever they want, including having no desire or 'belief' to convince others of whatever their personal viewpoint is.

I just hope some of the answers for the OP have been helpful in some way.

Vinayaka:

I agree completely with what you said.

And yes, some of these answers have been quite helpful

[Vinayaka]

Kiran, I did not realize his age was only 16. From my parenting experience, his doubts ll make more sense now. At that age, and indeed for a time there, the kids will doubt almost everything. We raised 5 of them, and the youngest is now 24. All that stuff is easier now, as they've satisfactorily answered most of their doubts, one way or another. Non of them are actively Hindu the way we are. All are still vegetarian, and net contributers to society.

Actually, Vinayaka, He is quite adamantly Hindu, with no doubts at all, except this one. We are, without any question or doubt, Hindu, and very strict vegetarian, have been all our lives, our only differences are the sects and main gods we worship. My son is 16, but finished high school at 13, and is quite advanced and intelligent, and very scholarly, so exceptional :) At least, in my (completely unbiased, of course) opinion lol