I was searching this evening for Buddhist jokes, as in 'har har, that was funny!' jokes. It's a long story 'why' I was searching for Buddhist jokes so I'll spare you that boring detail.
Anyhow, I stumbled across a forum where one of the members expressed very succinctly about their view of the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity ... you can find the forum thread here.
I like the debate that goes on between beliefs. It's interesting and allows people to understand how others view the world and their place in it. My like of debate finishes when debate goes further than a constructive back-and-forth learning and sharing between people.
This guy, who I quote below, says it well in a nice, balanced fashion.
Before anyone goes and gets up in their pulpit, just read.
*** QUOTE ***
"I really don't see the point in going on other beliefs and philosophies' forums and just claim 'you are wrong, I am right.'
At first I've found it funny... but then I've understood that it's a serious thing: I'm not christian at all but I like Christ and the words he said. And I like him cause he showed unconditioned love for all the beings and great desire of happiness for all.
Now, I think that a person that spends his precious time goin' here and there screaming senseless things like: 'Buddha is dead, Jesus is Alive' is not really so Joyful, nor lucid or learned ...
As far as I know, Jesus' body is dead. Tell me what you want but I never met him physically, thought I wish I could, and I know no-one who did. And I don't think that this is a bad thing: Christ's words and activities are what count, not the piece of meat in which his mind was living.
And then Historical BUDDHA's physical incarnation? Well, he's dead too! But hey! Who cares????
The historical Buddha is NOT a god, not someone hyper-holy or not human ... Buddha is NOT a name, it means 'the fully awaken', 'fully developed' and Buddha (buddhahood) is nothing more than the full development of MIND.
And NOTICE, not full development of ONE's mind or human beings' mind, but MIND.
Realizing Buddhahood, "enlightenment", means basically destructure mind's stiff concepts till coming to dissolve the illusion of EGO.
So it's not the SELFISH self-realization that Christians hate so much... it's really just not the case, no Buddhist teaching says anything like that.
Buddhists work in order to dissolve ego and help all beings reaching a state of happiness from which they can develop ... and HELPING doesn't mean Convert beings to pray something, but help them to become happy and independant ... in ANY constructive way. You'll never see a good Buddhist goin' around trying to convince others with his Ideas.
Then, a suggestion to all the missionary-wanna-be :
If a person came to Buddhism, in most of the cases, he did cause it's a NON-BELIEF and NON-DOGMATIC system.
Siddharta Gauthama (first Buddha of our era) has shown to all beings mind's full development and beyond-ego qualities.
He gave teachings as well as REAL, SKILLFUL, PRACTICAL methods to reach Mind's full development (ego dissolution), enlightenment.
EVERYTHING in Buddhism can be proved with practice - if you do [this] with [this] pure motivation and dedicate it to all beings, you'll obtain [this] result.
And ANY Buddhist teaching can be proved through debate. Ah no, not CAN but MUST be proved through debate and personal experience.
The hyistorical Buddha said: "Don't believe even a single word just cause a Buddha said it, you should analyze, understand and prove it before to accept it"
So, if you want to convert Buddhists to your nice God, TRY to express how Christian practice can remove disturbing emotions like RAGE, JELOUASY, DESIRE, HATE from one's mind, making him experience everything as joyful, rich and full of potential.
TRY to express how Christian practice can make one so stable, strong and full of love that he can help anyone to become independent, strong, useful and joyful in a totally free and unconditioned way.
And it would be nice if you can also show such kind of realization through your words, actions and ... well, thoughts.
If you can manage to do this, and, better, if you can REPLY in constructive AND PRACTICAL way to Buddhist's people questions, well, maybe you'll have a chance to add a new human being to the Christian Community.
Or at least, you'll have a chance to evolve a bit.
May everyone be fully aware and joyful and work with love to bring people to the same state without forcing them into something."
*** UNQUOTE ***
People really are a marvellous thing to behold, whichever way you personally believe we came to be.
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