Have you ever wondered about the similarities between the Christian and Buddhist faiths? If you have, I am willing to bet that if you have then you may have noticed some striking similarities between the teachings of Buddha and Jesus. Well If you have your not alone. More and more people (regular citizens and scholars alike) are entertaining the possibility that Jesus was in effect a practicing Buddhist or at the very least the his views about the world (views that later shaped the Christian faith) were influenced by Buddhism. To understand how and why this may in fact be the case we must first examine how this influence could have occurred and why it is Jesus who would have been influenced and not the other way around.
The reason that Jesus could have been influenced by the teachings of Buddha and not vice versa is very simple, Jesus lived around 500 years after Buddha did thus it was impossible for Buddha to learn of the teachings of Jesus but it is possible and indeed plausible that Jesus in fact learned of the teachings of Buddha. You may be thinking: “How can there be no record of this in the Bible?” Well there are two very good reasons there is no biblical record of Buddhism influencing Jesus first you must remember that the bible is a book and books get edited and the bible is no different. In fact it is printed on the cover of most bibles “The King James Version” this means it was edited by King James and many things were omitted from the final draft that we use today. The second reason we see no biblical reference to Buddhist influence is a good chunk of the life of Jesus is missing. From age 13-30 there is no written record of Jesus’s life. Upon his return however he is obviously a changed and “enlightened” man. Most Christians accept that he went out into the wilderness to search for the truth (just as Sidhartha who would become Buddha did 500 years earlier) during the missing years of his life. This prompts us to ask the questions of: Where exactly did Jesus go? Who did he encounter on his travels? And what did he learn on his journey that changed him so profoundly and where did he learn it from?
Some have claimed that a documented visitor by the name or Issa visited a Buddhist monastery in Asia where he learned the teachings of Buddha and that the man the monks called Issa was in fact Jesus. Regrettably there is little to no hard evidence about the lost years of Jesus so this story has no backbone. Since there is no evidence regarding what Jesus actually did during his lost years we must look at how the teachings of Buddha could have crossed paths with Jesus and the evidence within the teachings of Jesus that could support this correlation.
I know many of you are thinking: “Jesus lived in the middle east how could have have known of Buddha who lived 500 years before him and in such a far away region as India?” Well you must remember that Jerusalem was a province of the Roman empire during the life of Jesus. The Roman empire was always in continuous trade with the India and far eastern lands. Knowledge of India was more then prominent in the Roman culture in fact Alexander the Great attempted to conquer India during his reign as king of Greece and he also united all the lands of the former Persian empire (which stretched across the middle east) against India unifying them under his rule. So knowledge of the country of India was most definitely prominent in the region where Jesus grew up and all over the Roman empire. While it is true that Jesus lived some 500 years after Buddha, this actually makes it more not less likely that he was exposed to Buddhist philosophy. In India some 250 years before Jesus an emperor named Ashoka rose to power in India and converted to Buddhism and in doing so ordered missionaries to spread out to far away lands and preach the teaching of Buddha to all they encountered. We KNOW that some of these missionaries made it as far west as present day Syria. After taking into account this historical evidence it is reasonable to conclude that it is indeed plausible that Jesus may have encountered tales and teachings of these missionaries on his travels during the missing years of his life.
But of all the evidence linking Jesus to Buddhism its the words of the Gospels themselves that are most interesting. Jesus preached love for ones enemies in a region where the overwhelming sentiment was disdain and hatred for the ones enemies (The Romans). Jesus preached mercy and peace in an area where people believe vigorously in the Old Testament which spoke of justified war and mercy to none who sinned against the words of God. Jesus taught that a person should give all that they have and lead a relatively simple life when greed and a persons caste meant everything. Jesus taught that a person should strive for perfection by living in harmony with all not just by following blindly what the temple priest had to say. These were extremely out of the ordinary teachings for someone brought up in the Jewish faith especially during this time. However these are teachings that are extremely synonymous with Buddhism. Consider the following words of Jesus and how they relate to Buddhism:
Be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48)
One of the central ideas in Buddhism is that a person should try to attain enlightenment to reach a state of perfection so that they may ascend into Nirvana which is the Buddhist version of heaven.
Love your enemies and forgive those would use and persecute you (Matthew 5:44)
The Buddha taught that negativity would only beget negativity and that a person should love everything and everyone
It is easier for a a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24)
Buddha himself was formerly a very wealthy prince named Sidhartha and he gave it all up to pursue enlightenment and taught his followers to do the same.
The similarities in teachings are uncanny, but this pails in comparison to the actual stories about the birth of both men. ITS PRACTICALLY THE SAME STORY!
We are taught in Sunday school that Mary a virgin was visited by and angel and told she would have the child of God. Buddha’s mother was said to have been visited by an elephant (elephants are holy entities in Buddhism they are just as angels) in a vision and was told she would have the Buddha. Jesus was born in a manger amongst animals that appeared to bow and obey him. Buddha was born in the wilderness where lotus flowers bloomed in his infant footsteps and animals bowed to him. Three wise men traveled long and far to see the baby Jesus telling his parents Joseph and Mary that he would be a great king. A wise man visited the infant Buddha his eyes full of tears telling his parents that they are the tears of an old man who would not live long enough to learn of the teachings of their son. Buddha gave his life to healing the suffering of the world. Jesus gave up his life to heal this suffering and sin. The stories and teachings are remarkably similar. However this does not mean that Jesus and Buddha taught exactly the same thing. This is by no means true. There are a great many things that differ between the teachings of both of these men. Jesus believed in the orthodox Jewish belief in GOD as a spiritual creator of heaven and earth there is no such GOD being in Buddhism.
These differences along with the startling similarities lead many to believe that the Christian faith may in a sense be a hybrid of Judaism and Buddhist teachings and that Jesus in effect fused both faiths together taking elements from both to create a new belief system. Whether Jesus was influenced by Buddhism for sure may never be known. Sadly there is no way of going back in time and finding out. For now all we can do is look at the parallels and wonder.
