In "The Dharma Bums," Jack Kerouac wrote that Jesus of Nazareth visited India during his youth, adopted Buddhism and became a Bodhisattva. The idea of Jesus' resurrection would certainly support this idea, as would the striking similarity between the Catholic rosary and Tibetan prayer beads. Also, Siddharta's enlightenment under the Bo tree might parallel Jesus' ordeal on the cross/rood.

Any thoughts?

e-Morituri

Toto

There's an entire philosophy-religion-whatever known as Solar Yoga, founded by a Bulgarian gnostic named Aivanhov, which includes the idea that Jesus went to India and learned eastern religious techniques. Walking on water is the sort of thing eastern mystics do.

I'm skeptical.

Both Jesus Christ and the Buddha are described as having miraculous conceptions, I may add. And they are both described as having confronted a big tempter when they started out on their missions. And also as having worked lots of miracles, including walking on water.

However, the Buddha had not been executed by the authorities, and he was not very big on venomous denunciation. Not to mention sending demons into pigs and cursing figless fig trees. Over all, he seems like a much calmer person.

Kerouac..was a trickster....take whatever he said with a grain of salt.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that Kerouac be taken as authoritative. I am also not suggesting that Jesus of Nazareth and Siddharta Gautama were necessarily historical figures. However, I do wonder about the possibility that early Christianity might have been influenced by Buddhism.

Thanks,

e-Morituri

Agreed.

e-Morituri

The Buddha teaches "reincarnation" & how to break out of this "endless" cycle. It has nothing to do with "resurrection" which is to return to the same life after death. Although the two may look similar, reincarnation is being born into a different life or diferent lifeform.
The Buddha attains Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree after he refuses all temptation to stop him from it & breaks away from the endless cycle of rebirth which is not godhood while JC is supposed to be brought back to life by Big G & then fly into heaven after he refuses to be spared death at the cross.
They are both totally different & one important thing between the 2 is that Buddha never claimed he had become Big G but JC did.
A Bodhisattva is one who have not attain full enlightenment due to a vow not fulfilled so if we equate enlightenment to godhood, JC can never claim to be Big G as he is still a step away.

It was my understanding that a Bodhisattva is one who has attained enlightenment, but who forgoes Nirvana so as to help others escape Samsara.

That is my understanding also....
namaste,

Comparing Jesus to Buddha is well...problematic. They are from diverse cultures. Jesus of course was a Jew and was seen as a Rabbi by his own disciples. He even said that he did not come to change The Law(referring to Jewish Law) but to fulfill it. His approach to truth/enligtenment was from a background of monotheism and God.
Buddha on the other hand was from Hindu/vedic tradition which saw the universe as an ongoing cycle of birth and rebirth in relation to multiple deities that were patially if not wholly representational and symboloic.
There are of course similarities in ideas since 'goodness' is an essence of an 'enlightened being'.
To say one is more enlightened than the other is to miss the point entirely.

namaste,