Who is Jesus? Part II

Jesus and Buddha

1. Both Buddha and Jesus were baptized in the presence of the "spirit" of God
2. Both went to their temples at the age of twelve, where they are said to have astonished all with their wisdom.
3. Both fasted in solitude for a long time: Buddha for forty--seven days and Jesus for forty.
4. At the conclusion of their fasts, they both wandered to a fig tree.
5. Both were about the same age when they began their public ministry:
Buddha was twenty nine years of age
Jesus was about thirty years of age
6. Both were tempted by the "devil" at the beginning of their ministry
7. Buddha answered the "devil": "Get you away from me.
Jesus responded: "...be gone, Satan!"
8. Both experienced the "supernatural" after the "devil" left:
For Buddha: "The skies rained flowers, and delicious odors prevailed [in] the air."
For Jesus: "angels came and ministered to him"
9. The multitudes required a sign from both in order that they might believe.
10. Both strove to establish a kingdom of heaven on earth.
11. According to the Somadeva (a Buddhist holy book), a Buddhist ascetic's eye once offended him, so he plucked it out and cast it away.
Jesus said: "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, and throw it away;"
12. "Buddha taught that the motive of all our actions should be pity or love of our neighbor. Jesus taught: "Love thy neighbor as thyself...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"
13. Buddha said: "Hide your good deeds, and confess before the world the sins you have committed."
Jesus said: "Beware of practicing your piety before men to be seen by them” and "…Therefore confess your sins one to another…”
14. Both are said to have known the thoughts of others:
"By directing his mind to the thoughts of others, [Buddha] can know the thoughts of all beings."
"But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said: `Why do you think evil in your hearts?'"
15. Both were itinerant preachers with a close group of trustees within a larger group of disciples.
16. Both preached that their disciples should renounce all worldly possessions.
17. Both had a disciple who "walked" on water
18. Both met a woman at a well (remember, so did krishna)
"One day Ananda, the disciple of Buddha, after a long walk in the country, meets with Matangi, a woman of the low caste of the Kandalas, near a well, and asks her for some water. She tells him what she is, and that she must not come near him. But he replies: `My sister, I ask not for your caste or your family, I ask only for a drought of water.
"There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her: `Give me a drink.' For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him: `How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?' For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans"
19. Both received similar receptions:
For Buddha, "The people swept the pathway, the gods strewed flowers on the pathway and branches of the coral tree, the men bore branches of all manner of trees, and the Bodhisattva Sumedha spread his garments in the mire, [and] men and gods shouted: `All hail.'"
"And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and he sat on it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields"
20. Both had a close figure trying to betray them:
Buddha – Devadatta (a cousin)
Jesus – Judas (an apostle)
21. Both told their disciples to continue the ministry after they were gone and they would be with them always.
22. When Buddha died: "The coverings of [his] body unrolled themselves, and the lid of his coffin was opened by supernatural powers."
When Jesus died: the stone blocking the entrance of his tomb was rolled away.
23. "In the year 217 B.C. Buddhist missionaries were imprisoned for preaching; but an angel, genie or spirit came and opened the prison door, and liberated them."
"They arrested the apostles (of Jesus) and put them in the common prison. But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out"
25. Both men's disciples are said to have been miracle workers.