Did you know there are similarities between Queen Maya (Buddha's mother) and Mary (Jesus's mother)?

Question

interesting parallels birth stories include:

Both women conceived during a remarkable vision.

Both Maya and Mary gave birth while traveling away from home on a journey.

Both women gave birth "outside" of a home.

Heavenly wonders appeared in the sky.

Angels announced the newborn as "savior" of the world.

Sages came to visit the newborn and make prophecies of auspicious careers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Maya

I just thought the similarities were interesting and I mean no disrespect to either camp.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Looks like you've made another discovery :-) Good job!

Answer 2

Many times, religions seem to take beliefs and stories from other older religions and you will often find similarities between stories across all religions. This seems to be the case with these two stories, though they could both be true. Some believe that Mary was the reincarnation of Queen Maya, that could also be correct. But considering that no one can prove any of this, we have to be speculative in putting all of our faith towards stories that we don't even truly know what happened. But again both could be true, but it's more likely Christianity sort of "borrowed" some of the details from the story of Queen Maya and the birth of Buddha.

Answer 3

At least Jack can spell that word well...

There's several more gods or demi gods born under the same ircumstances, all with mothers whose names start with M. A lot of the world stories - creation, the flood, garden of eden, etc are the same or very similar across many cultures and religions. Kind of supports the archeological theory of the Fertile Cresent as the founding place for all mankind, who became nomadic and moved elsewhere in the world.

I've always found that intriguing and interesting.

Answer 4

No, I didn't know that, but thank you for the information. For related information, may I suggest these fascinating and informative books: Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings edited by Marcus Borg, and Thich Nhat Hanh's books Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers and Living Buddha, Living Christ.

Answer 5

a clue: Maya is the fabric international and count is female in nature. 'textile' and 'maternal' share an identical root observe. -----have you ever heard of mom Nature? C'mon and shift with me; awaken and notice the amazing thing appropriate to the representation..

Answer 6

Truth is most creation stories borrow from each other. The question then becomes who wrote the first one? And is there someone still around from that time that can provide proof?

Answer 7

i did not know Maya was a Hindustani word. and let me see, i seem to recall he was born a prince, he married, got his wife pregnant and then left her with a newborn baby using the excuse that the infant was merely a material object that he needed to get away from to achieve enlightnment....yes a good role model and someone reliable you can base a religion on.

Answer 8

There are many similarities between Christianity and several older religions.

Answer 9

Oh wow, I asked a question about this a couple of weeks ago, where were you? You would've gotten 10 points! That was the story of Buddha I was looking for. Thanks.

Answer 10

Many stories...warped by passage through many tongues, and many minds. Only God and His Legion know the Truth. We only want you Hear and Abide to the Word, not the Stories, they are unimportant. The Truth is only The Truth.