I started investigating this issue a few months back after seeing a documentary that intrigued me. Some of you may disagree with my findings and that is ok, but hopefully we can have a constructive discussion and hear both sides of the arguments. I personally was deeply impressed, to say the least, by the apparent cogency and deep correlations of evidentiary materials that survived to this day, which supports this thesis.
There is so much more that can be or should be said here but I will try to keep this text as short as possible so as to keep people interested enough to read it.
Buddhism appeared some 500 years before Jesus’ arrival. After Alexander the Great conquered India, local ruler Ashoka sent Buddhist monks all across this newly created world and they reached all the way to Egypt and Greece. That was around 300 BC. Philo for instance recorded presence of Buddhism in Alexandra (Egypt)
Not only that they spread Buddhism but they prompted creation of local Gnostic communities particularly in Judea who apparently mixed this new ideology with their old traditional texts. One of the most prominent was Essenes, who according to Josephus existed at least 150 before Jesus’ arrival. In fact the very name Essene is likely to have been derived from Indian word ‘Eeshani’ (a Hindu god). Apart from Josephus both Philo and Pliny mention their existence.
By the time of Jesus Essenes were already very strong movements that promoted ascetic lifestyle and whose beliefs were millenarian and about the god who is beyond comprehension of human intelligence, which all bore remarkable similarity with views later expressed by John the Baptist. In fact by the time of Jesus’ arrival such worldviews were not uncommon among the many Jews. The question is was Jesus influenced by all of that in any way?
The remarkable admission is actually in the bible itself in both what it says about Jesus as a person and what it avoids. What we know is that by the age of 12 he was already well versed in religious ideas of his time as recorded in Luke (2:47).[is it unreasonable to conclude that such Essenic ideas have impressed young mind?]
What is furthermore remarkable is that bible remains silent what happened to him from the age of 12 till he was 29, i.e. most of his life is missing. When he finally emerges to be baptized by John the Baptist he is already accomplished teacher. So what happened to Jesus in meantime? Could carpeting profession equip him with extraordinary insight and wisdom he displayed in later years?
Since bible is silent are there any other sources we can consult to get to the bottom of it? Surprisingly yes!
A Chinese text preserved in Tibetan "Glass Mirror" talks about Yesu, who was "a teacher and founder of the religion who was born miraculously, proclaimed himself the Savior of the World," and who was incidentally following Buddhist principles
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The Persian Kamal u-Din by Said-us-Saddiq also talk about Jesus
The Kashmiri Hindu text "Bhavishya Maha Purana" speaks about king Shalivahana meeting a foreigner calling himself Ishvara Putaram (Son of God)
Then in 1894 a Russian journalist Nicholas Notovitch travel India and Kashmir then wrote a book about coming across the Tibetan documents that spoke of the child called Issa who came to India at the age of 14 and returned back to Judea at the age of 29. While in India he was taught the ways of Buddha. When Notovich wrote his book it sparked immediate controversy and denunciation by leading scholars of that time. However, new research into his findings reveal that dismissal was largely based on fear of what such revelation would to do established order of that time. [ref]
But the most remarkable evidence is in the bible itself. Here are just some and you judge for yourself
JESUS: "A foolish man, which built his house on sand."
BUDDHA: "Perishable is a city built on sand."
JESUS: "Therefore confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed."
BUDDHA: "Confess before the world the sins you have committed."
JESUS: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the foregiveness of sins."
BUDDHA: "Let all sins that were committed in this world fall on me, that the world may be delivered."
JESUS: "Do to others as you would have them do to you."
BUDDHA: "Consider others as yourself."
JESUS: "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also."
BUDDHA: "If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon all desires and utter no evil words."
JESUS: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you."
BUDDHA: "Hatreds do not cease in this world by hating, but by love: this is an eternal truth. Overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good."
JESUS: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
BUDDHA: "Let your thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world."
JESUS: "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her."
BUDDHA: "Do not look at the faults of others or what others have done or not done; observe what you yourself have done and have not done."
JESUS: "You father in heaven makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous."
BUDDHA: "The light of the sun and the moon illuminates the whole world, both him who does well and him who does ill, both him who stands high and him who stands low."
JESUS: "If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."
BUDDHA: "The avaricious do not go to heaven, the foolish do not extol charity. The wise one, however, rejoicing in charity, becomes thereby happy in the beyond."
Need I mention that there are also striking similarities in their lives as described through survived document.
*Born as an incarnate god.
* Born from a virgin mother.
* Birth claimed as a divine event and prophesied as the same.
* Birth attended by singing angels.
* Birth attended by wise men bearing gifts.
* Prodigious childhood.
* As a child astounded teachers with knowledge.
* Fasted in the wilderness for forty days.
* Tempted while alone by the devil.
* Resisted the devil successfully.
* After the devil left, supernatural events occurred.
* Were vegetarians (fish excepted).
* Began ministry at thirty years of age.
* Attract large following mostly from lower classes.
* Attracted disciples who traveled with him.
* Attracted one disciple who was treacherous.
* Changed disciples' names.
* Encouraged celibacy for their disciples.
* Consecrated in a holy river.
* Itinerant ministry instead of at a fixed place.
* Performed miracles such as curing blindness.
* Renounced worldly riches and required the same of their disciples.
* Ministered to outcasts.
* Advocated universal love and peace.
[ref]
One may ask now, if that were the case why there wasn't any mention of possible infulence directly in the bible. Actually, there were at last in a number of so called Apocryphal books that were violently opposed by the estublished church who in my humble oppinion sought to extinguish any possible connection with this religion from the east.
In fact when Catholic missionaries came to India in early 1660 they were so astonished by the similarities between christianity and Buddism that they thought it must be an imitation devil himself divised in order to spoil pure teachings of Christ.
Some of you may dismiss this as a pure coincidence and that both Jesus and Buddha were teaching values that were universal. The nagging question however is why don’t we find such a remarkable correlations between Jesus and Zarathustra , Jesus and Lao Tzu, Jesus and Confucius, Jesus and Mohammad. Could all of that be just a coincidence?
I will leave each reader of this to decide for themselves. And I do not expect everyone to just accept this out of hand. After all as German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer puts it “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident