Do you think that Jesus, Muhammad, and others were a misunderstood bunch?

Question

If, yes............
In what ways do you feel they are / were misunderstood?
If no,.......
What are your perceptions on these men?

Do you think our present knowledge of them is accurate, or misleading ?

Thanks Everyone.

What do you suppose was the important message they were trying to send out to the world?

Answer 1

1.Muhammead;
I think he was the least misunderstood for the fact that he was consistently (and sometimes violently) clear about his message and laid it down in writing, unlike the other religious founders. If he was misunderstood thn it was in the idea of the Ummah (Muslim community). The Ummah was to be a Muslim nation which was pure in its Islamic faith but accepting and not merely tolerant but respectful of other faiths within its borders. Saladin was the great example of this in his respect of the Jews and Christians under his charge in The Holy Land. If only we all held to this principle there would be less fear and prejudice.
2. Jesus;
Oh incredibly misunderstood by his followers (i was brought up under 22 years of Irish Catholicism so i've a rough idea). He preached a message of unconditional love and respect for ALL life regardless of faith and a love of life itself. What that has been transformed into is a religion which preaches suffering in life, condemnation of inpure other religions and liberation in the afterlife. The "religion of suffering" as Nietzsche called it tries to make its followers cower under the power of the Church to deliver the flock from sin. It removes love of life as a life of pleasure and condemns the other religions as wrong. I'm with Gandhi on this one; "I like your Christ but i do not like your Christians, your Christians are so unlike your Christ".
3. Buddha;
Budhism is my second chronological religion but my first in the heart. However, i am incredibly critical-i believe all healthy respect ,must possess a constructive criticism. Buddha preached liberation through the mediation of moderation and non moderation (the Middle Path). However, i have some bones to pick. Although it is a way which preaches release from the bodily dependence on the illusion that is life it preaches that the only way to do this is to untie the negative knots of karma in our soul. I see many monks doing this in temples chanting mantras and doing countless prostrations to "LORD" Buddha. However, i truly believe he would disdain this (and the other religious founders in their respective believers). If you want to remove a karma knot or reach closer to Jesus' heaven or revel in Allah's passion then i suggest that you be kind. The removal of a child's tear is worth a thousand prostrations to Buddha, the blanketing of the homeless in a warm garment is worth a hundred pilgrimages to Mecca, the feeding of one hungry person for a day is worth a million prayers to Jesus' Father. And we must do this good for the good in itself, doing it to score karma points, or appeasing The Koran's message or for the love of God hollows out the meaning of the gesture and makes it worthless. Go to the suffering and suffer with them and lift up their souls to appreciate and love the world and life, to see hardship as challenge, to view beauty as appeciation and meaning. Do this independent of worship and your watchful deities will worship you and adore you. Do this for the great glory of its inherent kindness and you follow the path of the holy founders, you walk the way they walked. Isn't this a greater form of worship, not to abase oneself as a slave to God, or Buddha or whatever, but to do as they did as the children of God or the followers of Buddha.
I believe that when each Holy Founder said "You are my follower" they never meant that we follow in worship but walk the same path behind them. If this means being a better person then lets start practically. During Ramadan, still buy the days food fully and cook it in the morning and serve it to those hungry in the street in the evening. On Sunday morning instead of going to mass go to your local orphange and place the money offering into the hands of the children there or break bread with the lonenly of an old folks home.
Instead of prostrating to Buddha that extra thousand times to show adoration, give your strength to a local community effort for the kindness and love of it, not for any payment. Show your love for your Holy Inspirations in love and kindness to one another and we will create a heaven on Earth. Do this and do it in memory of them but not in worship. They want Saints in us, not slaves.
Many thanks-good question.

Answer 2

Yes .. hmm .. too much to answer here .. but I will enter a few things ...

Like Bhuddha .. an inward event put a flame in the oil of their lamp that many humans do not even know can exist ...

I suspect they both integrated this well .. The failure of an improper integration is becoming a zealot or deviant .. Like St Paul(Saul), John of Patmos, or the Russian Rasputin .. empowerment with a grossly "inflated spiritual ego" yet still wreaping a bit of the charismatic reward ...

Each had "tallaj" .. a divine synchronicity working to exalt and witness their lives .. when the summer prophet warrior Muhammed said that the Elohim would be in his fighting men .. There was something to this, I am certain that the participants sensed ...
But the codifying of books always clouds the message and causes strife .. I do not like the teaching of "Muhammed being the last messenger" .. I do not think that can be a positive interpretation .. There will always be a small successful ratio of mystics who illumine and properly trim their lamps .. and these are "messengers" .. Rhumi, and Ghazali were messengers .. there will be others .. Jesus taught fasting and meditating .. but this was sublimated to a doctrine of making him God's representative "Son" incarnate ... Not something that he meant to teach in my opinion ...

re zephyrescent .. the Bhuddhism you elaborate on is not in the question .. but yours is very Pali Sutra based .. Bhuddhism has many streams ... Twenty plus years ago when I first took up the Noble Eightfold(and my practice was more Mahayana than Theravedan).. I divested myself of all I owned .. This included a considerable financial sum to a Feed Starving Children fund .. in a post Jungian world it has become possible to be all and no faiths .. I am now no more of a Bhuddhist, than a dhervish, or shaman, or voudon ... Loading trucks for earthquake victims.. Giving an unneeded car to a needy person .. Diverting extra funds to get a needy friend with family a computer system better than my own...citing a list of selfserving merits is not my habit (for we do serve ourselves in so doing... all matter of charity is selfserving- there need not be a conflict or shame there.. "feel good" if you have opportunities to be charitable .. don't make an intellectual game of suppressing this feeling good.. why be dishonest with oneself?) .. but I see you point out perceived shortcomings of other's charity(or lack thereof) ... but the ultimate question in that regard will be , "What did you do?" .. words of instruct to others are nice .. but truly your own "actions" are what you control .. but I'm glad you have removed the mote from orthodox Bhuddhism's eye here today .. :D .. you say regarding yourself, "I am incredibly critical" announcing proudly that "you have some bones to pick".. take that "first to your heart Bhuddhism" to your inside some day- within .. and perhaps that constant "I" will diminish a bit ...

Answer 3

Hey Lola, great question. and so many great answers already. Not too much 2 add but these guys were misunderstood by a relatively few back then and now they are misunderstood by billions now.
All respect to people's beliefs n religions but jesus wasn't a christian, buddha wasn't buddhist, etc. These guys simply stopped identifying with the mind as who they are. They saw the true nature of things and while it seems complex, this truth closer to us than our own breath. They woke up. We've all had glimpses of the divine. They lived in it.
Unfortunately these beautiful enlightened souls died....
that's when the trouble began.......

People took what they said and interpreted as humans do and a religion was formed. The words of these guys were only meant to point us back to ourselves. They weren't meant to be worshiped. People are worshiping the finger instead of where it is pointing to.

When the buddha was dying he stated "Be a lamp unto yourself."

My perception of these men is that they woke up to their true natue and tried to point the way. They are the popular ones but there were thousand people like this throughout time and there are many here now who are awake. We just have to stop worrying about that finger! look within....look to where they were pointing.

I think the knowledge of them could be very misleading. their lives were written down by men---sometimes years later. Did you ever play whisper down the lane as a kid? The teacher would give you an exact sentence to say and you would whisper it to the next kid and so on.....you kept doing that until finally the teacher would stop it and say ok tell me whatt the sentence was. By the time it went thru all that, the answer would be pretty different than the original sentence that was spoken. Historic events that were recorded and the "facts" of these figures is very much the same.


But i love all of them..........beautiful souls(just like you! :))

Answer 4

Yes, all of them, great men and very much misunderstood...

My respects for "Zephyrescent" who has said everything I could ever say or think about this matter, but with great eloquence, and proficiency; Truly inspiring.

The only thing I could mention is that it is sad that, in different degrees, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism, carry many of this misinterpretations.

AV

Answer 5

i'm in ordinary words going to respond to on the portion of Jesus as I do jnot have sufficient perception into the Muhammad following. So what do i imagine about Jesus. certain he became misunderstood, yet not as you'll say that a looney is misunderstood. Jesus represents the single actual God in mortal type the following on earth. he lived in Roman occupied Israel which had formely been less than the administration of the Jewish human beings. the objective for which Jesus got here to Earth became to provide the atoning sacrifice and conquer lack of existence for us so as that lets be set freed from our sins and got here into the presence of our holy God when we leave existence as all of us understand it the following on earth. God is 100% holy so can not have a sinful being in his presence. The Jewish human beings for a lengthy time period were waiting for the visual charm of the prophesied saviour despatched rom God. even as Jesus all started his artwork on earth some Jews understood what he became the following to do. maximum folk did not, they misunderstood him and envisioned him to be a extra militant chief come to overthrow the Roman administration in Israel. this is the great way Jesus became misunderstood.

Answer 6

Both of then must be standing with their heads handing in shame, looking at the monstrosities and conglomerates that have been erected using their names, where religions have become weapons of mass destruction instead of tools of bring people together and closer.

But then we can’t really blame them for it, can we? As these guys never started these religions in the first place, they just came, said and did their thing and went away, and hoped their followers will follow, some did, and some got lost and formed religions instead.

Answer 7

Jesus is not a prophet, that's one difference; Muhammed and others were.

Islam is one of the most seriously misunderstood religions in the world today, most likely due to terrorists (radical), giving it a bad name. It really is a religion of peace.

Our present knowledge of them is not accurate unless one decides to educate themselves in world religions, in order to remove the stigma and make an effort to understand these religions.

Your welcome.

Answer 8

I don't know about the others for I have not a book on them nor had study classes on them. I was raised on God and his son. Jesus came to make things clear and save our souls.

You know the old saying, "You can't see the forest for the trees?. Well the leaders of the day couldn't see clearly because of the rhetoric of their time. Jesus same to clear things up.

Answer 9

I think they were misunderstood and no our present knowledge of them is misleading.

Answer 10

I constantly say that! I don't think we know much about them and the past in general. I think they were powerful people with good interests at heart for humanity. But we still don't know who writes history books and holy books right?

Answer 11

They all seem to be the same person because they all preach the same basic philosophy. Trust, love, compassion for your fellow man.