Differences between Buddha and Jesus Christ?

Question

I need to do an compare and contrast essay on the teachings of Buddha and Jesus Christ. Can anyone point me in the right direction to find what they have in comine?

Answer 1

Try Buddhanet.net and wikipedia.org.

Buddha did not believe in a God and he did not believe he was holy.

Jesus was the opposite.

Answer 2

the way I see it is that they were both men who came to realise that we were on the wrong path. The Buddha sat under a tree for ages and got what is known as enlightenment and wanted to share that with all of us. He also said that he wasn't anything particularly special and that we could all achieve the same state because we all have "Buddha Nature" within our Spirits. To get to this "Buddha Nature", he said if you follow the same path as he did - by living a life of peace, compassion, respect, love and understanding -you'd get there.

Jesus was saying much the same thing! He was preaching to a very different population group and at a very different time, but essentially his teachings are pretty much the same.

The main difference is that a bunch of men grabbed what Jesus said and wrote a pretty interesting book called the Bible. Worst luck, these days it's been interpreted as a way of absolving us of the responsibility for our own happiness which The Buddha was on about.

get a hold of the Thich Nan Hahn book mentioned above. It's a fascinating read from a man who has a lot of very visible Buddha Nature about him. If you need to know more about Buddhism I'd strongly recommend you check out His Holiness The Dalai Lama's site - he's another who has a bucketload of Buddha Nature about him!

Love and Light,

Jarrah.
btw - it will be interesting to compare the derogatory comments of the Christians with the helpful and respectful answers you'll get from the Buddhists!!! I have much compassion for those who don't "get" the messages Jesus was trying to impart!

Answer 3

Much of Jesus' teachings are quite similar to the Buddha's. There's a book out on it but I can't remember the title, but it compares Jesus' sayings right next to those of the Buddha. Thich Nhat Hanh has a book "Living Buddha, Living Christ". Looking back at Christianity through the lens of my Buddhist studies I see so many similarities (short of the whole "divinity" issue) that it's eerie.

All I can recommend is if you run a search and see what you come up with.

_()_

Answer 4

You cannot compare Budha to Jesus Christ. There is no comparison. The below is all there is to know about budhism. read the Holy Bible to learn of Christ. If you think that all you have to do is believe he died on the cross and you are saved, than you have to think again.


Founder

Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama)

Year of Inception

525 B.C. in India. Offshoot of Hinduism.

Day of Worship

The Key Writing

The Tripitaka (three basket) which has more than 100 volumes.

Who is God?

Buddist is mostly atheist. Many Buddhist do not believe in God or Supreme Being of
any kind. Others speak of the Buddha as a universal enlightened consciousness or as a
God.

Who is Jesus?

Not part of belief. Buddhist in the West generally view Jesus as an enlighten man.

What happens after death?

People do not have a soul or spirit. One's desires may be reincarnated into another
person. No heaven or hell.

Other Information:

Eightfold path recommends right knowledge, intentions, speech, conduct, livelihood,
right effort, and mediation. Some Buddhist groups talk about an external Buddha (life
force). Some Buddhist off shots includes Zen, Nichiren Shoshu, and Tibetan.

Answer 5

A very short but interesting book I read a couple of years ago that you might find useful for your essay is "The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks with Buddha" (see Amazon link below). It's an imaginary conversation between the two of them, written by Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologist and professor of comparative religions (see Wikipedia link below). I won't claim that he is entirely unbiased in his treatment of Buddha, but I do think he gives him a fair shake.

Answer 6

Many similarities but also many differences.
Buddha taught self awareness, reliance only on what you knew rather than what you believed, that following a moral code eliminates conflicts in society, that knowledge was available to all, that one should regard the unknown as simply unknown and to respect others beliefs as being simply unknown to you, that all problems could be solved by right thinking and that nothing is permanent.
Jesus taught reliance on an established religion and the word of God, following a moral code would eliminate conflicts in society, that knowledge is available to all through the scriptures, that all was known to God and that life eternal was available through worship of God.
Buddha was self confessed as just a man but Jesus was the son of God who called upon his Father in heaven.
Both used similar methods to teach with the use of stories which illuminated their ideas being a popular method. Buddha never claimed to be guided by any higher power than his own reasoning whereas Jesus was guided by at least his belief in the God of the Old Testament.
Buddha taught that no faith was required in order to see the truth whereas Jesus taught that faith was necessary.

Answer 7

Hmm... here's a twist:

according to the Hare Krishna religion, Jesus and Buddha were both the same person. God came down in the form of Buddah to preach to the athiests. Something like that... but you should look into that.

Answer 8

Buddha was born of wealth and privilege (around 500 bc). Things like death, ugliness, etc.. were hidden from him. He decided to look beyond the walls of his palace and found suffering.

He later left his life of comfort to find enlightenment. Men usually did that later in life at the time, but, Siddhartha was young. He met several gurus and mastered what each of these teachers taught.

After several years of practice he became enlightened and decided to teach what he found out to help others become enlightened too. He lived to be around 80.

Answer 9

Buddha was born a prince who did not claim to be the son of God but preach the people to do what is good and true. Jesus was born of ordinary life of the Jews who was claimed to be the son of God and addressed as Prince of peace in the midst of the peace that never was and never is.

Answer 10

Buddha = rebirth in a different form
Jesus = heaven

Answer 11

Buddha: real person. Prince who renounced his thrown, because he saw the pain and affliction of the world and longed to help ease the suffering. Gave teachings for life for nothing. Had the wisdom to act and not pray for something to happen.

Jesus: Fictional character. If he did exist then he was a cult leader who couldn't get his people to die with him.