What do other Christians think of the Buddha?

Question

If one reads Buddhist scripture, The Buddha bears in mind DEFINITE similarities to Jesus, with execption that he accepts reincarnation, and a few others.

Is it possible that Buddha was a sort of 'Messiah of the East'?

Answer 1

Jesus was a great guy and carried a great message and all, but he was no Buddha.

The Buddha is much more inner, Jesus was focusing much more on the heavens and that which is completely outside oneself.

It would be more apt to say Jesus was a "sort of" Buddha of the Middle East.

Answer 2

Very possible. I think Christianity has promoted some unique and important values not emphsized by Buddhism (a sense of the ultimate worth of the human person, the importance of social justice, etc.), but the reverse may be true also... Perhaps from a Buddhist perspective, Christ is a Buddha of the west?

Answer 3

Yea I always thought that all religions bore some striking similarities to Christianity. For example, Krishna (Hinduism) once supposedly got sent to earth as the supposed "savior" of humankind. He singlehandedly did many miracles which I cant name of the top of my head. Also, just look at the names. Christ, Krishna; see any similarities? Maybe all religions are a different way of expressing the same thing. Buddha preached many of the same things as jesus but he came at least a few centuries before. If you look closely, all the world's four largest religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism) are all very similar, but they all have different rituals and practices.

Answer 4

I've started learning a little about Buddhism, and I think it's a beautiful religion.

BTW, there used to be references in the Bible to reincarnation, but they were removed at the Council of Nycea, because it was seen as taking power away from the Church. So early Christians and Jews both accepted reincarnation as fact.

Isn't it annoying how our Scriptures got changed over the centuries for purely political/earthly reasons??? That really bothers me.

Answer 5

see my question last night about the 16 other crucified saviors of man,

as for the specific answer to your question, the CHristians (KJV) who take the Bible word for word should only need look no farther than 1 John 2:22, which clearly states in English that those who deny that Jesus is the son of God are liars and anti-Christs.

So the specific answer to your question is they see Buddha as an anti_christ. If they don't they aren't real Christians (KJV) and are in deed real human persons capable of independent thought and probably think him a wise teacher.

Answer 6

Yeah the stories of the original buddha, and how he turned from a Hindu ascetic to his new teachings, to me is very similar of how Jesus preached a new kind of Good News beyond the current mosaic law and judaism of the time.

Answer 7

well Buddha's real name is Sidarta Gautama...he was a prince...and was not allowed to go out of the palce because a fortuneteller told his parents that if he sees a dead man, a monk, and a poor man he will want to become a monk himself and want to find out why everyone around him was miserable....and so he did....he went to many monks and priests of different religions and i think he also went to a christian priest...but no one had the answer to his question..but found hindu maditation useful...so i think he got the similar ideas from there....besides all religions have similarities..all of them are alike in many ways actually..so Buddha can be a sort of 'Messiah of the East'...well not for me..i'm christian!!

Answer 8

Well, most 'fundamentalist' Christians that I've encountered regard Buddha as satanic... just as they regard most things that they don't know anything about, or don't understand. There are a lot of moderate Christians, though, who don't necessarily think that Buddha was Satan, or an emissary of Satan... they just think all of Buddha's followers are doomed to eternal damnation.

Answer 9

I've heard that he never claimed to be a prophet or Messiah. He just claimed to be a person to try and help people find true enlightenment. That's what I've heard. I did a little reading about him a long time ago. I think he was just a good man.

Answer 10

Exactly, it's like he's their version of Jesus, both have one God but different forms of Messiah. I think that Buddhism is interesting and worth learning about.

Ok Darwin, like the ones you criticize, then why do you rely on the Bible to tell who's a "true" Christian or not. Only God knows who is and who isn't.