When Jesus Met Buddha

[camerata]

When Jesus met Buddha

Something remarkable happened when evangelists for two great religions crossed paths more than 1,000 years ago: they got along

Was the Buddha a demon?

While few mainline Christians would put the matter in such confrontational terms, any religion claiming exclusive access to truth has real difficulties reconciling other great faiths into its cosmic scheme. Most Christian churches hold that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and many also feel an obligation to carry that message to the world's unbelievers. But this creates a fundamental conflict with the followers of famous spiritual figures like Mohammed or Buddha, who preached radically different messages. Drawing on a strict interpretation of the Bible, some Christians see these rival faiths as not merely false, but as deliberate traps set by the forces of evil.

[...]

When Nestorian Christians were pressing across Central Asia during the sixth and seventh centuries, they met the missionaries and saints of an equally confident and expansionist religion: Mahayana Buddhism. Buddhists too wanted to take their saving message to the world, and launched great missions from India's monasteries and temples. In this diverse world, Buddhist and Christian monasteries were likely to stand side by side, as neighbors and even, sometimes, as collaborators. Some historians believe that Nestorian missionaries influenced the religious practices of the Buddhist religion then developing in Tibet. Monks spoke to monks.

In presenting their faith, Christians naturally used the cultural forms that would be familiar to Asians. They told their stories in the forms of sutras, verse patterns already made famous by Buddhist missionaries and teachers. A stunning collection of Jesus Sutras was found in caves at Dunhuang, in northwest China. Some Nestorian writings draw heavily on Buddhist ideas, as they translate prayers and Christian services in ways that would make sense to Asian readers. In some texts, the Christian phrase "angels and archangels and hosts of heaven" is translated into the language of buddhas and devas.

Full article in the Boston Globe.

[Samuian]

After all it's only variations of faith 'colored' by cultural backgrounds, viewed through the lenses of ethnicity and the varying societies.

As the Puranas recognized the "Buddha" as the ninth Avatar, claims of Christ's tomb in Kashmir, Mary's tomb in Pakistan, the people who live there don't have a problem with it, because in their faith it's only a prophet, not the "son of the almighty"...ahh' well...how old are the Vedas, the Gilgamesh Epos.... .... we have all these colorful variations to delve in..

Vipassana, Yoga, Pranayama, Meditation yes... religion, faith, believe NO!

[PeaceBlondie]

As a Christian pacifist, I have just spent an hour reviewing wikipedia articles about Nestorian Christians and their successors in Asia. The Nestorians date from such an early age in Christian history, that they may have separated from Rome before the Constantinan and Augustine heresies about church and state perverted nonviolent Christianity into a bloody, conquering crusading church. Thus - I am only guessing here - their encounters with Buddhists in Asia, even with Buddhist missionaries, may have been peaceful and tolerant.

This is just my guess. Christian pacifism has endured and reappeared countless times in history.

[JimsKnight]

Good thread and post PB you may be onto something...

[PeaceBlondie]

I do not know that part of church history, Nestorians. But Christianity was evangelical nonviolently for many centuries, and the eastern church might have escaped the Constantian shift and and done peaceful missionary work. We are so accustomed to the sword being used to force false Christianity.

[AmeriThai]

As a Christian pacifist, I have just spent an hour reviewing wikipedia articles about Nestorian Christians and their successors in Asia. The Nestorians date from such an early age in Christian history, that they may have separated from Rome before the Constantinan and Augustine heresies about church and state perverted nonviolent Christianity into a bloody, conquering crusading church. Thus - I am only guessing here - their encounters with Buddhists in Asia, even with Buddhist missionaries, may have been peaceful and tolerant.

This is just my guess. Christian pacifism has endured and reappeared countless times in history.

As pointed earlier, ALL religions have variations and divisions. There are elements that have common ground, and elements that separate each group from others. That can easily be seen by the wide variety of Christian denominations. Even in the earliest days of Christianity, there were differences between groups which involved different views and practices. There are even early references to what seem like bitter divisions. The same can be said for groups and sects of Buddhism.

While the topic is about some of the earliest meetings of Christianity and Buddhism, though it might be seen as admirable and peaceful encounters, I don't think it held much weight since the Nestorians were/are a very small sect in comparison to the rest of Christianity. There may have been some influences from such an encounter, but probably not much to make any major differences in the outlooks between the religions. In the West, in particular under the influence of early churches of Rome, disagreement tended to escalate into violence over control of power. Some of that may have been due to a backlash of the persecutions of Christians. Regardless, it somehow seemed to go out of control to the point of Christians persecuting other Christians. And the divisions continued to divide and expand, and still do to this day.

However, I'm not surprised about the Nestorians. Even of the earliest leading figures of Christianity, such as Peter and Paul, one of them had traveled to Rome and was greatly impressed at the fine examples of statuary honoring the deities of the region, finding one to an unknown god as something they shared in common, rather than to criticize the differences. Because of pointing out such a common denominator, communication was easier because it involved mutual sharing of points of views. But when the struggles for power arose, sharing seemed to get lost in the fray.

I think the same thing can be found in areas that are predominantly Buddhist. There are differences that cause divisions. The message of Buddhism gets lost because of personal ambitions rather than the basic message.

Was the encounter between Nestorian Christians and Buddhists remarkable? Noteworthy, yes, but probably not really remarkable because it's more like another chapter in the migratory nature of humans. The Nestorian/Buddhism encounter seems to be an example of a peaceful exchange of thoughts and ideas, although I don't really know the historical details about it. Still, such peaceful encounters would be far better and more productive than to focus only on the differences and arguing over who's right and who's wrong.

[Xangsamhua]

Nestorius was condemned at the Council of Ephesus (431) because he could not accept Mary as the mother of God (Theotokos). He accepted her as the mother of Christ in his humanity, but not his divinity. He could not accept the hypostatic union (Jesus as fully human and fully divine at the same time), the final formulation of which was at the Council of Chalcedon (451).

Being excluded from the Church over something as incomprehensible as the hypostatic union freed up Nestorius and his followers to become more open to other ideas, and Nestorians were great travellers in the East. After all, if you have to believe that your Saviour is fully and equally God and a human being at the same time, your options for dialogue are limited. However, the idea that a religious leader is God incarnate or an avatar of an aspect of god is not unusual among religions (e.g. Guru Nanak or the Buddha as Vishnu).

Had Nestorius been around today he probably wouldn't be a bishop, but he could easily be a Catholic theologian - maybe rapped over the knuckles by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - but still teaching in a Catholic university. The exclusivist position taken up after the Athanasian-Arian struggle in the 4th and 5th centuries and maintained in effect until the second world war is now under concentrated attack or is ignored and will either disappear after the present pope has died or be retained within a rump church in the West.