Jesus was a Buddhist? In my opinion Christ if he existed was trying to teach people to live in the present moment. There have been several books that postulate that the lost years of Jesuss which are not accounted for in the bible were spent in India, Tibet and China, learning eastern religions. One book I read claimed that there are records of this visit in an Tibetan temple. Whether this is true or not, Jesuss core teachings are the same as those of eastern religions: Be kind, love one another, judge not, dont worry, forgive yourself and others, When one learns to stop believing the negative thoughts that are the root of suffering like worry, fear, sadness, judgment, anger, shame, lack, guilt, etc. the mind becomes quiet and peaceful which is the goal of meditation/prayer. Following Jesus is supposed to give one the peace that passes all understanding. I think the praying that Christ recommended is simply meditation and learning to simply observe ones thoughts and rather than give energy to those thoughts by believing them rather gently dismissing them to return to a state of peace. Jesus recommends believing that you have received the answer to prayer simultaneously with the prayer, which would simply amount to disbelieving in the negative thought that something is lacking. It is exactly the same as present moment or mind quieting meditation. In Western civilization we are taught that our unhappiness is always in response to circumstances outside of ourselves and the way to quit suffering is to, get more money, have someone to love, have a better car, etc. But, anyone with even a small amount of life experience knows that this is temporarily helpful when we finally get whatever we think will give us happiness - absence of suffering. But, before we get the desired circumstances the desire that circumstance change is actually the source of suffering so the perceived solution in western society and religion is actually the problem. The real solution is to look inside to our thoughts, challenging negative thoughts that are the root cause of all suffering. Is that thought true? Could the opposite be true, could the circumstance we think causes suffering and that we dont want actually be good? Could others be in the same circumstance and be happy instead of upset. How would I feel if I didnt believe the negative thought? These questions and similar ones do not change our circumstances per se, they are result in changed states of mind or perspectives, but this changed perspective would then guide our actions more effectively than the idea of changing our circumstances to heal the problems that are largely imagined in our head. If these ideas are correct, the purpose of life wouldnt be to solve problems, but rather to see that there really arent any other than the emotional upsets that result from believing negative thoughts..
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 14:21:40 +0000
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