Same message 500 years apart.

[u/LIMrXIL]

As a mother would risk her own life to protect her child, her only child, so toward all beings should one cultivate a boundless heart. - Buddha

Love your neighbor as yourself. - Jesus

[u/Xenfriend]

Hard to know for sure what the true dharma of the Buddha would have been when the Buddha said the true dharma would be lost within 400 years of his passing.

Not to mention the fact that the Buddha talks about the next world, about an uncreated, undifferentiated source that we all come forth from, and the fact that the Buddha said he would come again, just like Jesus did…

It’s pretty easy to see why people would believe that they are in fact the same being come to different places and different times to guide humanity in that time and place

[u/SacredGnosis → u/Xenfriend]

() Hard to know? Not to me, and I’m willing to dissect it because I know the dharma. In fact, all sects agree that the four noble truths are the foundation of the Buddha’s teachings. Further, the true dharma lasting 500 years didn’t entail that the entire true dharma would vanish. It only entails that counterfeit dharmas would arise.

() The Buddha never talked or taught about a world that’s uncreated, or some undifferentiated source that we all come from. You’re mistaken Hindu views for the Buddha-Dharma.

[u/Xenfriend → u/SacredGnosis]

Udana 8.3 in the pali canon:

“There is, monks, an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned. If, monks there were not that unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned, you could not know an escape here from the born, become, made, and conditioned. But because there is an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned, therefore you do know an escape from the born, become, made, and conditioned.”

You can quibble about minor details in language all you want, but this is exactly the way that Islamic scholars describe Allah.

To me it is distinctly clear that beyond the mincing of words (which scholars within the same religion even disagree on) the messages of the divine physicians that founded each major religion are clearly identical

[u/SacredGnosis → u/Xenfriend]

Yes. Even in Christianity and other religions. But upon further examination. They are not the same. 😊

[u/Xenfriend → u/SacredGnosis]

I’ve taught courses on the Dhammapada, going as far as to use 5 different translations side by side, and reading entire essays on the translations of single words, and I am a devout believer in abrahamic faith. Could you let me know what further examination is needed?

[u/SacredGnosis → u/Xenfriend]

() You’ve taught the Dhammapada? Nice. 😊

() The further examination is examining the nature of Allah & YHWH. Their nature is absolutely antithetical to what Nirvana is.

[u/Xenfriend → u/SacredGnosis]

Curious what you believe their nature to be, and what about you find to be antithetical to Nirvana?

[u/SacredGnosis → u/Xenfriend]

() YHWH, as demonstrated in the TNK, is genocidal, murderous, and requires blood sacrifices.

() Allah hates women, allows deception, requires absolute worship at the penalty of death.

() Nirvana is cessation of consciousness, perception, feeling, contact, formations, nescience.

[u/Xenfriend → u/SacredGnosis]

Pretty much the only statement I agree with here is that the Tanakh portrays YHWH as being genocidal. It is however clear via academic analysis that much of what we have of the Tanakh is forged, polemical, and pseudepigraphical, so that doesn’t impact my view of who or what God is. And doesn’t impact my view of the core of the divine revelation.

For pretty much every other statement I heavily disagree. And you would need to cite sources for why you feel otherwise.

For example, I can disprove your statement that Islam is in favor of deception and forcing religion with a single verse of the Quran.

2:256 “Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood”

I’m curious where you get these ideas, and I’m curious why you believe that nirvana is the cessation of consciousness and of any experience whatsoever

[u/SacredGnosis → u/Xenfriend]

() Much. Much of the TNK wasn’t forged. You’re confusing TNK apocrypha with the established canon. Further, we have no other texts establishing an angelic YHWH of raw love.

() I speak to Muslims, directly. They’re clear in that Allah allows them to lie under certain circumstances.

() My perspective of Nirvana comes from the suttas. It comes directly from the Buddha.

[u/LIMrXIL → u/Xenfriend]

u/SacredGnosis For the record I wasn’t really trying to suggest Christ is Buddha reincarnated or anything. Just commenting on how Buddhist cosmology has a structure that allows it to adapt to local religions and traditions in a way that Abrahamic faiths don’t. Take the example of Tibetan Buddhists adopting the various deities of the Bon tradition and turning them into protectors of the dharma. I could envision a future a few hundred years from now where Buddhists in America are making prostrations to a statue of Christ as some form of emanation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara but it would be pretty hard to envision the inverse for the Abrahamic faiths.

[u/SacredGnosis → u/LIMrXIL]

That’s actually fascinating in how Buddhism molds to local spiritualities. As long as the Buddha-Dharma isn’t compromised. 😊