Just a couple of points.
First, the authors of the so-called New Testament had no idea that their letters to each other and to various congregations were going to be pulled together years later and made into some holy writ for the guidance of Christians for hundreds or thousands of centuries. All this was done, essentially, by the Catholic church.
There are many opinions expressed by the so-called "bible writers" that really have no business being used for the guidance of anyone. For instance, Paul's blithe dismissal of women. I personally think that the entire Christian movement of the last two thousand years has been crippled by the exclusion of women from the priesthood, and from any meaningful teaching positions in the churches. I think that Paul was raised in a particular sect of the Pharisees that held a lower than usual opinion of women. Thus, the church has suffered from a lack of input from women who, IMHO, are more compassionate as a rule than men, more intuitive (or at least who listen to their intuition more than most men), more ready to negotiate than men, and a host of other desireable characteristics.
Much blood has been spilled over the centuries by the church that might have not been spilled if women's thoughts, attitudes, viewpoints, and outlook had been included in the overall thinking of the church. We might never have had anyone say, "Lord, protect me from your followers," if women had been more centrally involved.
And I think that Jesus included women in the teaching and missionary work and that these facts were simply left out of the writings of the apostles wholesale. They were, after all, humans first, and men second, and trained in their attitudes by an ancient culture which subjected and marginalized women third. The apostles obviously did not understand Jesus when he was standing before them. How much less did they understand him after he had been gone from them for fifty years and more when the letters and gospels were written?
Second, The Way has been known since ancient times before even Abraham - from time immemorial. The Way being a method and manner of acting, reacting, interacting, honoring, respecting and following the leading of the indwelling spirit of God. There is indeed a way of aligning one's self with the vast tapestry of spiritual truth and life that has existed as a consequence of the existance of God himself. Jesus came here, not to pronounce NEW TRUTH, but to better illuminate the path to The Way. He said so himself. He called himself The Way (the truth and the light), as indeed he was the ideal practitioner of it). The Way has always existed. Buddha knew about it, realizing (making real) his understanding of it while sitting under the Bo tree. Lao Tzu knew of it, and wrote about it in his droll, laconic style in the Tao Te Ching, many verses of which contain the same spiritual ideas and ideals of the Sermon on the Mount. Lao Tzu wrote about these ideas and ideals of The Way six hundred years before Christ.
Did Jesus go to India and there become influenced by Buddha? I don't think so. I don't really pretend to know. I don't think it matters. I think any and all similiarities between the teachings of Jesus and Buddha, Lao Tzu, Chang Tzu, the Hindus, the Sikhs, and even the Sufi Masters is due to the oneness of The Way. It's the same everywhere. It's the same throughout all time, and anywhere in space. It's the same no matter what you name your God. And to me, the highest thing we can know about God is that He is Love. And no matter if you call it The Way, the Ka, Hessed, the Diamond Center, Samhadi, Ahimsa, The Source, The Force or any of a thousand names, it all means the same. Thus Jehovah is Baal is Allah, is Buddha, is Vishnu, is even the fire god Ahura Mazda of the Persians. But the real God that lives and who created everything we call real has no name. We have given names to our concepts of God, and they all fall short of the actual wonder of the great existential absolute who created all, and who is in all.
So, sure, there is a large similiarity between all these teachings. But on that basis, Jesus could well have been in Japan. I just don't believe it.
Damn, I didn't start out intending to get up on a soap box like this, or podium. Sorry. Just got carried away there for a minute. But I guess I'm allowed?
Francois
Edited by - Francois on 15 June 2002 11:18:49
