Jesus Buddhist Link? (Lost Years & Last Years)

talk_cock SG

Extracted from a BBC documentary shown some time back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji4J54_rGwM

An Eternal Now SG

Interesting Smile I for one am a believer that Jesus did indeed go to India. Jesus is a highly enlightened being and a practising Bodhisattva, and he taught expediently according to the conditions of the people in middle east. My master, as well as many other masters share this view. There are lots of teachings of Jesus in the New Testament that are very similar to Buddhism's teachings. We find even more similarities when we look into the supposed higher teachings of Jesus in the mystical teachings and traditions. Of course though, lots of teachings of Jesus has been distorted for political purposes etc... and has lost its essence. Highly enlightened people who have seen the truth themselves will be able to see what are the distortions and what are untainted message beneath the layers of distortions.

http://www.inner-growth.info/power_of_now_tolle/eckhart_tolle_interview_parker.htm

Yes. The texts I came in contact withfirst I picked up a copy of the New Testament almost by accident, maybe half a year, a year after it happened, and reading the words of Jesus and feeling the essence and power behind those words. And I immediately understood at a deeper level the meaning of those words. I knew intuitively with absolute certainty that certain statements attributed to Jesus were added later, because they did not "emanate" from that place, that state of consciousness, because I knew that place, I know that place. But when a statement emanates from that place, there is recognition. And when it does not, no matter how clever or intelligent it may sound it lacks that essence and it does not have that power. In other words, it does not emanate from the stillness. So that was an incredible realization, just reading and understanding "beyond mind" the deeper meaning of those words... ~ Eckhart Tolle

Here's an interview with Dalai Lama about Jesus Christ:

I reminded him of his belief that Jesus is "a fully enlightened being" and asked, "If Jesus is fully enlightened, wouldn't he be teaching the truth about himself? Therefore, if he is teaching the truth, then he is the Son of God, and there is a God, and Jesus is the Savior. If he is fully enlightened, he should teach the truth. If he is not teaching the truth, he is not that enlightened.";

As the Dalai Lama felt the momentum of the question, he laughed more than at any other time in the interview. He obviously understood the argument, borrowed from C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity.

"This is a very good question," he said. "This is very, very important, very important." Even in Buddha's case, he said, a distinction must always be made between teachings that "always remain valid" and others that "we have the liberty to reject."

He argued that the Buddha knew people were not always ready for the higher truth because it "wouldn't suit, wouldn't help." Therefore, lesser truths are sometimes taught because of the person's ignorance or condition. This is known in Buddhist dharma as the doctrine of uppayah, or skillful means. The Dalai Lama then applied this to the question about Jesus.

"Jesus Christ also lived previous lives," he said. "So, you see, he reached a high state, either as a Bodhisattva, or an enlightened person, through Buddhist practice or something like that. Then, at a certain period, certain era, he appeared as a new master, and then because of circumstances, he taught certain views different from Buddhism, but he also taught the same religious values as I mentioned earlier: Be patient, tolerant, compassionate. This is, you see, the real message in order to become a better human being." He said that there was absolutely no lying involved since Jesus' motivation was to help people.

Original link: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/008/15.64.html

However I disagree with the video if this is somehow proven to be true, Christianity will just die. Rather, Christianity will change into a more contemplative and mystical path... rather than one that is "mind-dominated", institutionalised, fixated on many of the distortions and dogmas that has been added to Christianity over the years.

An Eternal Now SG

Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Exerpt from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, page 13 to 19

[b]THE ARISING NEW CONSCIOUSNESS

Most ancient religions and spiritual traditions share the same common insight that our normal state of mind is marred by a fundamental defect. However, out of this insight into the nature of the human condition we may call it the bad news arise a second insight: the good news of the possibility of a radical transformation of human consciousness. In Hindu teachings (and sometimes in Buddhism also), this transformation is called enlightenment. In the teachings of Jesus, it is salvation, and in Buddhism, it is the end of sufferings. Liberation and awakening are other terms used to describe this transformation.

The greatest achievement of humanity is not the works of art, science, or technology, but the recognition of its own dysfunction, its own madness. In the distant past, this recognition already came to a few individuals. A man called Gautama Siddhartha, who lived 2,600 years ago in India, was perhaps the first who saw it with absolute clarity. Later, the title Buddha was conferred upon him. Buddha means the awakened one. At about the same time, another of humanitys early awakened teachers emerged in China. His name was Lao Tzu. He left a record of his teaching in the form of one of the most profound spiritual books ever written, the Tao Te Ching.

To recognise ones own insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence. A new dimension of consciousness had begun to emerge on the planet, a first tentative flowering. Those rare individuals then spoke to their contemporaries. They spoke of sin, of suffering, of delusion. They said, Look how you live. See what you are doing, the suffering you create. They then pointed to the possibility of awakening from the collective nightmare of normal human existence. They showed the way.

The world was not yet ready for them, and yet they were a vital and necessary part of human awakening. Inevitably they were mostly misunderstood by their contemporaries as well as by subsequent generations. Their teachings, though both simple and powerful, became distorted and misinterpreted, in some cases even as they were recorded in writing by their disciples. Over the centuries, many things were added that had nothing to do with the original teachings, but were reflections of a fundamental misunderstanding. Some of the teachers were ridiculed, reviled, or killed; others came to be worshiped as gods. Teachings that pointed the way beyond the dysfunction of the human mind, the way out of the collective insanity, were distorted and became themselves part of the insanity.

And so religions, to a large extent, became divisive rather than unifying forces. Instead of bringing about an end of violence and hatred through a realisation of the fundamental oneness of all life, they brought more violence and hatred, more divisions between people as well as between different religions and even within the same religion. They became ideologies; belief systems people could identify with and so use them to enhance their false sense of self. Through them, they could make themselves right and others wrong and thus define their identity through their enemies, the others, the nonbelievers or wrong believers who not infrequently they saw themselves justified in killing. Man made God in his own image. The eternal, the infinite, and unnameable was reduced to a mental idol that you had to believe in and worship as my god or our god.

And yet. And yet in spite of all the insane deeds perpetrated in the name of religion, the Truth to which they point still shines at their core. It still shines, however dimly, through layers upon layers of distortion and misinterpretation. It is unlikely; however, that you will be able to perceive it there unless you have at least already had glimpses of that Truth within yourself. Throughout history, there have always been rare individuals who experienced a shift in consciousness and so realised within themselves that toward which all religions point. To describe that nonconceptual Truth, they then used the conceptual framework of their own religions.

Through some of those men and women, schools or movements developed within all major religions that represented not only a rediscovery, but in some cases an intensification of the light of the original teaching. This is how Gnosticism and mysticism came into existence in early and medieval Christianity, Sufism in the Islamic religion, Hasidism and Kabala in Judaism, Advaita Vedanta in Hinduism, Zen and Dzogchen in Buddhism. Most of these schools were iconoclastic. They did away with layers upon layers of deadening conceptualisation and mental belief structures, and for this reason most of them were viewed with suspicion and often hostility by the established religious hierarchies. Unlike mainstream religion, their teachings emphasised realisation and inner transformation. It is through these esoteric schools or movements that the major religions regained the transformative power of the original teachings, although in most cases, only a small minority of people had access to them. Their numbers were never large enough to have any significant impact on the deep collective unconsciousness of the majority. Over time, some of those schools themselves became too rigidly formal or conceptualised to remain effective.[/b]

An Eternal Now SG

Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
[b]SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION

What is the role of the established religions in the arising of the new consciousness? Many people are already aware of the difference between spirituality and religion. They realise that having a belief system a set of thoughts that you regard as the absolute truth does not make you spiritual no matter what the nature of those beliefs is. In fact, the more you make your thoughts (beliefs) into your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself. Many religious people are stuck at that level. They equate truth with thought, and as they are completely identified with thought (their mind), they claim to be in sole possession of the truth in an unconscious attempt to protect their identity. They dont realise the limitations of thought. Unless you believe (think)( exactly as they do, you are wrong in their eyes, and in the not-too-distant past, they would have justified in killing you for that. And some still do, even now.

The new spirituality, the transformation of consciousness, is arising to a large extent outside the structures of the existing institutionalised religions. They were always pockets of spirituality even in mind-dominated religions, although the institutionalised hierarchies felt threatened by them and often tried to suppress them. A large-scale opening of spirituality outside of religious structures is an entirely new development. In the past, this would have been inconceivable, especially in the West, the most mind-dominated of all cultures, where the Christian church had a virtual franchise on spirituality. You couldnt just stand up and give a spiritual talk or publish a book unless you were sanctioned by the church, and if you were not, they would quickly silence you. But now, even within certain churches and religions, there are signs of change. It is heartwarming, and one is grateful for even the slightest signs of openness, such as Pope John Paul II visiting a mosque as well as a synagogue.

Partly as a result of the spiritual teachings that have arisen outside the established religions, but also due to an influx of the ancient Eastern wisdom teachings, a growing number of followers of traditional religions are able to let go of identification with form, dogma, and rigid belief systems and discover the original depth that is hidden within their own spiritual tradition at the same ime as they discover the depth within themselves. They realise that how spiritual you are has nothing to do with what you believe but everything to do with your state of consciousness. This in turn, determines how you act in the world and interact with others.

Those unable to look beyond form become even more deeply entrenched in their beliefs, that is to say, in their mind. We are witnessing not only an unprecedented influx of consciousness at this time but also an entrenchment and intensification of the ego. Some religious institutions will be open to the new consciousness; others will harden their doctrinal positions and become part of all the other man-made structures through which the collective ego will defend itself and fight back. Some churches, sects, cults, or religious movements are basically collective egoic entities, as rigidly identified with their mental positions as the followers of any political ideology that is closed to any alternative interpretation of reality.

But the ego is destined to dissolve, and all its ossified structures,, whether they be religious or other institutions, corporations, or governments, will disintegrate from within, no matter how deeply entrenched they appear to be. The most rigid structures, the most impervious to change, will collapse first. This has already happened in the case of Soviet Communism. How deeply entrenched, how solid and monolithic it appeared, and yet within a few years, it disintegrated from within. No one foresaw this. All were taken by surprise. There are many more such surprises in store for us.[/b]

This represents personal view and I hope no one is offended by it neither do I suggest that others should have the same viewpoint as me.

bohiruci SG

i believe in the book "Jesus live in India "
records of Jesus final resting place in kashmir pakistan Smile

more to follow on Smile

marcteng SG

I have heard it before though that Jesus once lived in India.

I even have a book called Jesus lived in India, bought in the 90s and still with me. He have a different name in the book and even have a grave with his name on it with pictures in the book., written by a german author.

someone told me Jesus learnt Buddhism while in India and practised for about 3 years and have acquired some psychic powers like floating on water etc.

talk_cock SG

"That Jesus died to atone for the Sins of Man and through his blood all who believe will be saved!" pretty much sums up the Christian stand.
Now what happens if he did not die in the way Christians expected? How much can be salvaged? Interestingly, there had been signs that Christianity will be troubled in the coming age.

By now, much historical evidence had been gathered to pierce together a different perspective to suggest a much unknown side to Jesus. Add to that Saint Malachy's Prophecy of the Popes (concidence or convergence? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes)

I can only say we live in an interesting age.

talk_cock SG

Here's the full version of the documentary for those interested:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1669658378154953060&q=did+jesus+die

It was produced some years back.
Arabic subtitles --- obviously Muslims were interested as Islam's stand is that Jesus did not die on the Cross.

talk_cock SG

I think it may be this?
http://www.reluctant-messenger.com/issa.htm

Quite a nice site, take a look at the host site too.

popmynutsy SG

Jesus went to india? and is a buddhist? Shocked Shocked Shocked

Herzog_Zwei SG

You want the Eternally Hopeless forumnites to pop in and comment? Mr. Green

An Eternal Now SG

The other day I saw this DVD on sale... "Did Jesus Die?" Today I just watched it... turns out to be the DVD which the youtube video originated from Smile It's really a good documentary... would highly recommend people to get it. It also explains why Jesus would escape to Kashmir, and how he had survived resurrection.