When we talking about Jesus as scripture yesterday in class in reiterated many similarities I see between the life of Jesus and stories of Tibetan Buddhist yogis we have been looking at in Buddhism. I am really interested in ideas of interfaith and find very interesting that Jesus holds true to ideals sought in other religions.
Wandering in the desert for forty days and forty nights is very similar to a yogi's retreat. Jesus had many visions during this time of things that transcended reality. This is very common in the meditation of yogis. Jesus also had the ability to perform miracles and transcend reality. There are many stories about yogis who left behind footprints or body impressions during their meditations, as well as yogis who were able to perform other miracles.
Jesus also becomes the prime moral example like many yogis. His value on compassion and turning the other cheek ring very true for Buddhists.
The exception is that yogis take disciples and teach their advanced practices to younger generations. Looking at that as an example, I wonder did the historical Jesus want us to worship him as the exemplary or did he intend to create a new tradition of Christian yogis?
3 comments:
It is very interesting that you compared Tibetan Buddhist yogis to Jesus.
I do not know anything about Buddhist yogis, but I know one thing for sure that Jesus did not come here either to be worshipped as the exemplary or to create a new tradition of Chrstian yogis.
I think Jesus came here only to die and suffer for our sins (Matthew 1:21) as the only son of God.
Those similarities are really interesting...I wonder if there is any sort of historical proof for the influence of one tradition on the other..?
Seriously, a required (but fun!) reading for this class has got to be Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. His book deals with your observation, Jessie, of the parallels between Christianity and Buddhism.
Basically the story addresses what Jesus (maybe) did during the 30ish years of Christ's life the NT or Gospels never said. That Jesus spent those "missing years" by going East to learn from the three wise men who brought him gifts as a child how to be the Messiah, and in his travels learned from Buddhist monks, and teachings of Lao-tzu, Confucius, and Hindu. Fictional and a lot of it implausible (Example Moore give the origins of why Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas)? Of course. However, the book does address other possible influences on the development of Christian practices/theology, besides Judaism, by noting historically plausible options (given dates and timelines) that the earlier mentioned practices may have had on Jesus' teachings.
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