The teachings of Jesus are considered in the light of the teachings of the Buddha, going back to the original sources. The practical Nobel Eightfold Path of the Buddha is explained in terms of the teachings of Jesus in the gospels.
THE DHARMA
The words of the Buddha include the words of Lao Tsu from the Tao Te Ching and words attributed to the disciples of the Buddha - the Far Eastern school of thought.
The words of the Christ include the words of John the Baptist and words attributed to the disciples of the Christ - the Christian gospels school of thought. It will be left to each reader to contemplate Christ and to make any conclusions about his purpose in human history.
Where the teachings of the Christ go against the grain of traditional Christianity, there is an opportunity to reflect upon the vision and intent of how the Christ would have wanted Christianity to have developed. All are presented at face value, with no attempt to smooth over what the Christ appears to mean in order to make it more in line with traditional Christian thought.
The teachings of the Buddha represent Buddhism, define Buddhism, and in essence are Buddhism. The teachings of the Christ are overshadowed by the teachings of St. Paul and the fathers of the Church, and as such do not necessarily represent Christianity, define Christianity, or encapsulate Christianity as Christianity has turned out to be.
The central message of Jesus revolves around his parables describing what has been translated as kingdom. It is not an incorrect translation. The Greek word is basileia, and I'm presenting Greek using the alphabet that we can read since this book is not really for scholars anyway. Basileia means the extant of a realm of control. The basileia of a king's reign is the extant of the country. Thus, kingdom was the way that those working under the orders of King James back in 1611 translated this word. They got it right. They got it the best they could in English, detached by language and place and time from the Greek original, which was probably itself not the original language of the gospels. The word basis in English is actually derived from basileia. If we replace the word kingdom with the word basis, the message takes on a richer meaning. The teachings stop sounding like they are referring to some faraway kingdom in the clouds, some distant rule waiting on future events. The!
word kingdom, as applied to the teachings of Jesus, has the effect of detaching their messages from our present reality. We live in the kingdom of capitalism, in the realm of material possessions, on the street of day-to-day life. We can read the gospels over and over and as long as we think Jesus is talking about some pie-in-the-sky kingdom wanna be, then it has no relevance - pretty stories about sowing seeds and growing mustard and rising bread - la ti da. But if Jesus was instead talking about something that should and could be the very basis for our lives, then that changes things. It also changes the way we look at Jesus. That is how Buddhists look at the Dharma of the Buddha.
Christians for the most part look at the words of Paul as carrying the heavy doctrinal messages and the role of Jesus being to die and resurrect and do the being Christ bit. But what if the really heavy messages are contained in those funny sounding stories preserved as the teachings of Jesus? What if this basis that Jesus refers to is seen as the most important message that Jesus had to present to us? Basileia
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also means a foundation, a purpose and mode for walking, the beingin- control of life, the extent of awareness. Your own personal basileia may be your cubicle at work, your car, your house, your family and friends, your realm of influence. What if you saw your realm of influence on a more spiritual level, as even being shared by others with the same spiritual goals, a realm that interpenetrated the hearts and lives of all who shared the same vision? What if you envisioned this realm, this basis, this influence as being worldwide in potential, breaking down cultural barriers, growing in the rich soils of various religious traditions and thriving on the diversity of applications? Call this basis the Holy Spirit and you begin to grasp at the power of the original Christian message. Call this basis Dharma and you have just opened up a channel to the East that brings in much light and explanation to what Jesus was saying. So to clarify the meaning of a Greek word being translated!
into English, I propose that we use an ancient Sanskrit (from India) word. Dharma has already been introduced as a word in itself to the English world. It is understood as implying a universal truth, an experienced holiness, a channel to the Divine, and an expectation of ethical responsibility.
As Josephus duly noted in his writings, you weren't allowed to write text back then that remotely sounded like you didnÕt fully support Caesar's rule. Do and die and have your words eternally burned. If you used basileia, you had to qualify it. Caesar ruled the Empire and no one had better talk about any other king or kingdom or basis for defining who you are politically. So the gospels followed this paranoia with always speaking of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. As long as they were talking about God or heaven then the Romans could dismiss it as pagan superstition.
This having been explained above, the following substitutions will be made in the transliterations. Kingdom, Kingdom of God, and Kingdom of Heaven will all be read as being Dharma. We can still divorce that Dharma from the Hindu and Buddhist concepts, at least initially. For Jesus presents his own Dharma, his own Eternal Truth, his own Way, his own Holy Spirit, and his own Inner Spring. What we can do, however, is to compare the Dharma as presented by the Christ with the Dharma as presented by the Buddha in a simple and open and honest fashion.
This Dharma of Jesus is a teaching to be followed and experienced. This teaching is a pathway to spiritual development. This teaching defines being a Christian in the eyes of Jesus. Note that this Dharma is not presented as a faith, not as a blind acceptance of grace, not as a magic bullet of atonement, not as a place to go to, and not an event to come. This Dharma is a lesson to be learned by each individual on a timeless and universal scale. This Dharma is a property of God that sanctifies those who come to experience it.
I claim a bit of poetic license to paraphrase translations to emphasize meanings and to simply understanding. I take the liberty of not only translating basileia as Dharma, but also by translating other individual words from the Greek gospels in accordance to their meaning in Greek. These differences in translations will be noted and explained in each case. All quotes from gospel and sutra are referenced so that the reader may go to any translation available to contemplate the intent of
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what has been recorded. Concordances are available for those wishing to study the Greek, which require no specialized education or skills.
In short the Noble Eightfold Path can be understood as an eight-step program for self-directed spiritual development. Beginning with vision, we progress through defining what we treasure and what we leave behind. We concentrate on aligning our lives to this treasured vision, in our expression and communication, in our interactions and compassion, in how we present ourselves as being authentic and not sold out for money or status. Then we consider how we are to mature into being fruitful, harvesting from the positive effects that the Dharma has made in our lives. A direct connection to an inner light source, a deep inner well, is discovered. Ultimately we discover a detached holiness, perfection, and a rebirth. The Dharma comes as a tried and true experience, with observable and definable results. As Jesus said, we should judge the tree by its fruit. The Dharma is as valid for you as the results you get out of it. As it has been said, the Lord helps those that help themselves!
. You will get out of it exactly as much as you put into it.
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