Jesus and buddha both went through the same enlightenment?

Originally Posted by celest

I love the Gospels of Thomas. Why did you say the first Buddha Shamot and not just Buddha ? just curious.

Hi Celest,

Depending on the tradition, it is generally believed there were 27 Buddhas before Gautama Buddha. It is also believed there will be another who will come to teach the path to a misguided civilisation. I would suggest that Jesus may have been this very Buddha

Originally Posted by Shamot

Hi Celest,

Depending on the tradition, it is generally believed there were 27 Buddhas before Gautama Buddha. It is also believed there will be another who will come to teach the path to a misguided civilisation. I would suggest that Jesus may have been this very Buddha

Hi Shamot, what do you think about the next (Maitreya) Buddha being Jesus ?
the second coming, just a thought.

Originally Posted by celest

Hi Shamot, what do you think about the next (Maitreya) Buddha being Jesus ?
the second coming, just a thought.

Hi Celest - I think it might be reasonable to say Buddha was referring to Jesus. After all, he existed 500yrs before Jesus. Gospel of Thomas doesn't make any reference to a second coming and infers that Jesus will never return to this realm. This makes sense when we see how hard Gautama Buddha worked to free himself from this cycle and illusion. I like their thinking

Originally Posted by Shamot

Hi Celest - I think it might be reasonable to say Buddha was referring to Jesus. After all, he existed 500yrs before Jesus. Gospel of Thomas doesn't make any reference to a second coming and infers that Jesus will never return to this realm. This makes sense when we see how hard Gautama Buddha worked to free himself from this cycle and illusion. I like their thinking

Gosh I wish they would both return and sort this mess of a world out.
Buddhist do believe Maitraya will return as a Bodisattva in the future, he needs to hurry though

Hey guys, does anyone know, in the part where the earth bore witness for buddha against mara, what exactly happened then? One source i read (though its supposedly the authors own version) says that it opened up and said some thing along the lines of "this is the son of man, through him something something.." I cant remember what the line was, but it was remarkably similar to what god said about jesus in the bible.

At the time of reading it i just passed it off as the story being bible inspired. Only later on i realised i have no clue how the earth actually bore witness for buddha, and that the line mentioned above may be true. I havent been able to find anything else about it though..

Originally Posted by wanderlusterer

Hey guys, does anyone know, in the part where the earth bore witness for buddha against mara, what exactly happened then? One source i read (though its supposedly the authors own version) says that it opened up and said some thing along the lines of "this is the son of man, through him something something.." I cant remember what the line was, but it was remarkably similar to what god said about jesus in the bible.

At the time of reading it i just passed it off as the story being bible inspired. Only later on i realised i have no clue how the earth actually bore witness for buddha, and that the line mentioned above may be true. I havent been able to find anything else about it though..

Hi wander,

It's really hard to know what is actually truth in terms of events that did or did not happen - just like in the bible. So much is either myth or legend (that gets blown-up & exaggerated).

I can't remember if I read it or saw a doco where Buddha was meditating & was about to reach enlightenment when Mara stepped in with his demons who shot arrows at him. The Buddha 'turned' the arrows into flowers - so that he was showered in flowers, not arrows (the arrows & flowers are physical manifestations, of the earth). I believe this was a metaphor similar to what you are referring to. Since everything is a part of us & we a part of the other, we can change how it effects us.

There is also an implication that Mara was a part of Buddha, which he was battling to overcome. Very much like 'Satan' who is manifest as earthly power & riches to Jesus (40 days in the desert). Interesting

[ajay00]

Originally Posted by wanderlusterer

I've made posts before linking buddhism and christianity, but this would probably be one of my bolder statements, though I doubt this would surprise many of you, if at all.

Both of them went into deep prayer/meditation and fasting for a period of time (for jesus it was 40 days, for siddhartha the time ranges from 1 day, to 3, or up to 45 days depending on the source). Both also confronted a devil archtype at the end right before enlightenment, for jesus it was the christian satan, for siddhartha it was mara. The temptations were similar as well, with promises of riches and glory to jesus, and women for siddhartha. After all has happened, they go on to begin preaching and teaching.

From this, it would not be too unreasonable to say that jesus was also a buddha? Albeit the term was not available in the middle east areas. The differences in their teachings could also have been due to cultural differences and jesus having to use terms and speak in a fashion to make the community more easily grasp his teachings.

Here it talks about siddhartha's enlightenment:
http://buddhism.about.com/od/buddha/...the-Buddha.htm

Enlightenment is the same for each and every human being , and not just Jesus and Buddha.

Jesus and Buddha just happened to be figures who attained it and became famous teachers. Many don't attain it even though the same potential is there within everyone due to lack of knowledge about the process or lack of proper application.

[jonesboy]

There are levels of attainment.

If every enlightened dude had super powers the world would be a truly amazing place.

Not all gurus can heal others , send energy etc ...

[Amilius777]

NO
I don't think so.

Its a popular opinion and I used to believe it but I don't anymore. The reason is because Jesus didn't have an enlightenment moment, but Sidhartha did.

Siddhartha lived a life of luxury, pleasure, and extreme carnality. A spiritual movement began inside of him. I call it the Holy Spirit. (Sorry it's my Catholic/mystical flavor). Through his life experiences and Enlightenment at 29, he found a way for people to free themselves from the ego and karma. He became an enlightened being and taught and had a following and a community grew around him. He died in his 80s (probably younger than that due to life expectancy in those days) due to an illness. He died and an awareness of his life and teachings lived on to create a world religion. I see Buddha as one of the many great Saints who attained enlightenment and when he passed on reunited with the Divine.

We all choose our birth and parents btw- Jesus chose to be born among peasants. His family was poor but they were dedicated and spiritually advanced; especially the Blessed Mother. From the time he was a babe, the Divine manifested through his human body. Later gospels called this event "the Logos made flesh". It's when the Cosmic Christ (the cosmic material manifestation of God), manifested through a human body for the world to fall in love with and get back on track. Unfortunately our problems in history have not been about the soul; they have been about the body. Just look at all the wars, bloodshed, hatred, rape, torture- all because people hate their own humanity, their bodies, and confuse the body with the ego. Through the body of Jesus from babe to resurrection, the Divine Force manifested in materiality. Christianity called this manifestation "the Son of God" or "God the Son". Jesus was very psychic and realized his purpose in the Earth, but he had to live a life of purity and alignment with the Divine to allow this Spirit-flesh/Heaven-earth/Divine-human union to last and maintained in himself. We learn from Jesus that his purity came from embracing his humanity entirely. He was fully human which allowed him to be seen as fully Divine as well.

We need to stop trying to "attain" something, or "rising up to something" and stop "transcending" and instead FALL in Love with ourselves and our neighbor. ACCEPT our humanity and others humanity. Embrace those lower than us and those higher than us. To give and receive. To live in the now of this material Schoolroom. Our time in the earth is the great teacher and doorway to the Divine. It is not just about your personal enlightenment. It's about sharing in the love with others even if it's forfeiting your own personal enlightenment goals. Mother Teresa has many miracles surrounding her and that isn't a coincidence. She lived a life for others. We can't expect to be like her but she said "It is not great things that we do, it is with Great Love that we do things". Meaning we have to do whatever it is, big or small with great love, divine love for the other person. We are in this together.
What you bind in earth, you bind in heaven. What you loose in heaven, you loosen in the Earth. Forgive us our trespasses, AS we forgive THOSE who trespass against us.

There is no enlightenment or perfect love until we see all ourselves in it together and part of the cosmic Christ.

[ianalexanderr]

You couldn't be more off.
Since we are all descendants of Adam and inherit his fallen status (born in Sin) you can call us Adamic humans. Now Jesus, because he was born due to a miracle, the Holy Spirit acting upon Mary - you can say the Spiritual father of Jesus was God and therefore he was a non-Adamic human, a descendant of God not Adam and thus born without sin.

When Jesus was Baptized, the Holy Spirit as a Dove descended upon Jesus. It was after he was Baptized that he started his ministry in power.

Now who descended upon Jesus? Well the Old Testament refers to what is called "The angel of the Lord" The angel of the Lord spoke on behalf of God and equated himself with God. Therefore, the angel was given rights to be God, on behalf of God for his people.

It was this Angel that descended upon Jesus. Since this angel had rights to equate himself with God and act on God's behalf you can say it was God that descended upon Jesus. Therefore, not only was Jesus a different class of human. But during his ministry he was inhabited/empowered by God.

So here are two monumental differences between Buddha and Jesus.

1.Jesus was a different class of human without Sin - Buddha was a normal Adamic human under Sin.
2.Jesus was inhabited/empowered by an Angel/God. Buddha reached Enlightenment through meditation.