Jesus was Buddhist

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?

A Woman's Religion

Is it possible that women have escaped mention in the Torah because they could have had a religion seperate from the men? I wonder if women did, in the time the Bible was written, have a religion of oral traditions passed down from mother to daughter that remained apart from the God of fathers and men. Usually in the Bible, as God is listing his references, he calls himself the God of Jacob or Isaac or Abraham and every once in a while will mention a matriarch like Rebecca. I wonder if this is at possible because the god we now know as God, YHWH, was perhaps a god of men. At a time when women's work and men's work was very seperate, it seems that it could be possible that there could have been seperate gods for the very different functions needed by each gender. Maybe women worshipped a goddess of fertility, pregnancy, childbirth or menstruation. I would also assume that men were more likely to write down their myths because they were the ones with access to an education, while I would assume practically all women were illiterate.

I know that it is true that the Judaism were understand as eventually written down as the Torah evolved slowly from a polytheistic religion indigenous to the area surrounding Isreal. I just wonder if perhaps this polytheism or at least the worship of a female deity could have lasted longer among female populations since their work was so often seperate from men's.

If this is true, I wonder how impossible it would be to add some of these traditions back into Judaism...in the time of early Christianity, all those who did attempt to add the feminine priniciple back into the idea of a divine failed...

Contradictions

I know I already mentioned this in a comment to Jackie's post but I wanted to elaborate on it again here. As I'm reading the laws, and even the 10 commandments, I keep finding places that contradict previously stated laws, similar to JBK's comment about marriage. At times, stories contradict the laws in place and other times God's own actions are the opposite of what he tells the Jews to do. The 10 commandments say "Do not commit murder" (exodus 20:14). Later God commands a genocide of all peoples living in Canaan with specific instructions of who to kill and how in Deut. 7. How does a God that commands not to kill also commands the Jews "not to spare" all "Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites." The 10 commandments also protest jealousy but in Deut. 6:15, God admits to himself being a "jealous God."
This is also remniscent of what were talking about in class concerning tattoos. Many Jews do not follow the strict dietary rules in place by the Bible yet still will not bury someone in a Jewish cemetary that has a tattoo. There are chapters and chapters about rules that Jews do not follow anymore yet stay strict about a rule that makes up only one line. I could go on and on with more examples of contradictions or cases like the tattoo rule (a ban on homosexuality vs. the story of Jonathan and David, etc.) but I guess what I am getting at is, how do modern day practitioners choose? How do we decide today which laws are applicable and which side of the contradictions to choose?