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The only religion that has even come close to fulfilling that philosophy of peace, love, and fulfilment has been Buddhism...in 2604 years they have never had a religious war, an inquisition, or exhibited any other violent action as a religion.
In the words of Marco Polo about his travels to the East " I came in my travels to hear of a man named Buda, so good and pure was this man and his life that had he been Christian I am sure that he would have been a great saint of our Lord Jesus."
I am not a Buddhist but I can honestly say they make better christians than christians!
Epictetus " It is impossible to get a man to even begin to understand that which he thinks he already knows...the first path to true understanding is to get rid of thinking that you know, from there you can learn."
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I never saw buddism as a "religion" in the context as Christians or Jew, Hindus and Muslims. It's not like that. In a sense, there is no diety. But once the shift from a diety beleif system is made, the people who follow it consider it a "religion" but in a sense that a common "bond" is made between all humans. Budists are both confusing and exciting.
//EDIT some of Jesus' teachings do echo the wisdom of Budah. There are parralels in the desire to end suffering and ... how do I say "mitigate" lifes dealings that are undesirable.
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Hi, RoadClosed !
Alot of people are not aware that there are two buddhist texts...the first which is called southern buddhism printed in ancient Pali ( which is the older of the two and does not contain later additions or dogma) and the northern buddhist text written in ancient Sanskrit ( which has several items not found in the Pali version : like a virgin birth written before the gospels but not found in the Pali). Most of what we get in north america is from the sanskrit ( china, japan, e.g. zen buddhism ) but in the original Pali text Siddhattha Gotama ( Siddhartha Guatuma : northern ) never denied the existence of god, in fact agreed that there was, when he was asked by a pupil...original buddhists are not athiests, they were taught that they must seek enlightenment and aspire towards it on thier own , god does not interfere in man's direction.
And you're absolutely right...the Pali text is incredibly similiar to the Christ's teaching.
And buddhists ( primarily, southern ) don't believe in reincarnation like the hindu's ...the buddha taught re-birth...similiar to Jesus' reference to John being the re-birth of Elijah. Basically it was taught that man was re-born until one of two possible conclusions: he achieved enlightenment ( and would not return )...or...the involution or evolution of the world ( the end and the new begining essentially). :)
Chanting had nothing to do with meditation...it was the method monks used to remember and memorize the texts and hand them down from one generation to the next...they would spend hours every day memorizing their section of the texts, before it was written down in 80BC.
And like Christianity, prior to the Bishop's Council of 300AD, there were no statues of Christ or Buddha. Both traditions began with "footprints". The Bishop's at the Council were the first to commission artists to portray images of Jesus and finalize the modern day bible. Revelation almost didn't make the cut...it was voted against twice...and the book of St. Clement was in until they debated the reference to the Egyptian pheonix. :)
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Damn, that is alot of info! Looks like I am familiar with the Pali text then. it makes sense that early followers would believe in God. That was the only way to ascertain their existence based on world knowledge? I would imagine anyway.
It amazed me how these world religions and doctrines are always intertwined with VAST similarities at the acient world.
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I agree...every culture seems to modify the original texts and interpretations to suit their own special circumstances...whenever possible the earliest texts available are the ones to read. :)
