Editorial Review:Product Description:If Jesus and Buddha were to meet, they would recognize one another as fellow prophets because they were teaching the same truths. This is the spirit conveyed, both in words and images, by this lavishly illustrated gift book.
Readers will cherish both the book's message and presentation. Here are two great spiritual teachers from two very different traditions guiding us - whether talking about love, wisdom, or materialism - along the same path.
Using meditative color photos to complement the universal truths these two charismatic figures proclaimed, this - the first trade paper edition of the illustrated edition - is an important and illuminating oracle of wisdom for all who believe that the spiritual outweighs the material. At the same time, it is a fascinating and appealing anthology of key beliefs within two of the world's great religions.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Jesus and Buddha: Parallel Sayings
I have been reading quite a bit of spiritual literature lately and found this book to be a good one to appreciate the similarities of the minds of Jesus and Buddha.
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Interesting Read
A short book on the similar sayings of Jesus and Buddha. The pictures are great, and sayings they use do demonstrate their likeness. My only complaint is that I thought there would be a lot more of them. You get only one saying a page, with most of the rest taking up by a great photo. Ok book, for what it does.
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Jesus And Buddha Are Clearly Friends
i did not find this book challenging. though its introduction is one of the most beautiful introductions of any book i have ever read. i reccomend it to those who wish to see parallels between the christian and buddhist paths, though of these parallels, it is the compassion/loving kindness practice that is expressed in the introduction that matters most.
the presentation is nice, but it in my opinion says nothing that cant be read in the scriptures. it just seemed a little superficial to me, and as i said, only took three hours to read. big on presentation, little on substance.
there will be those that will say that "you are disrespectful of these two great teachers"... well so be it. i hope i am not.
God knows why i wrote in the earlier post that the buddha is not a source and great fire of love... sometimes the ignorance in my own words dazzles me! the buddha in my opinion has an even more compassionate teaching than jesus. though i am myself a christian, i am dazzled by his love for the evil. and shake at the buddhas teaching of compassion. unlike Jesus, the buddha never cursed anyone or anything... not even a fig tree. Jesus may love hypocrites, but he will apparently watch them go to a fiery hell as a just and fair judgement... fair yes, but not merciful. the buddha would never wish or inflict pain on anyone or anything. therefore my statement stands. the buddha was and may still be more compassionate than jesus.
but... in the end, it is jesus who made the ultimate sacrifice. "if i be lifted up (crucified), i shall draw all men unto me". lets hope that Julian of Norwich is divinely inspired when she says that through God: "all will be well and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well." i dont think i could die for Jesus, but he died for me. now that speaks. the word in action, is a true word indeed.
isnt it remarkable how ignorant one can be at times! i can see my own ignorace and it sometimes worries me!
my only bug-bear with marcus borg is his aversion to the literal ressurection and virgin birth. two things that i strongly believe in.
but then we all have blind spots, and isnt true love/loving kindness far more important than what we believe? i think so.
with love, from, snow-flake. xxx
still learning, still on the path (i hope!)
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LIFE- a tiny word to say but so hard
"Nothing is more simple than TRUTH", as goes an old saying and surely, IT applies to this book. It is an extremely easy yet reassuringly, a most profound 'read' and while seemingly expounding on an already explored topic, it re-enforces the Universality of TRUTH in an engaging and truly commanding and thought provoking way. Entrusted to lesser scholars than its authors, the subject matter surely could easily have been a simplistic undertaking; these authors made it a compelling, and most thoughtful experience.
It demands that its contents be pondered and factored into so very many preconceived notions of topics commanding the skills of a good many profound scholars of Early Christianity beginning with Christ's public ministry.
The patient reader who makes no quick assumptions upon reading the early pages will find a great deal of reason to being provoked by and to some truly serious thought and enlightenment. I almost fell victim to that impulse to simply 'presume' the books remaining comments and thought of putting it aside; I didn't! It has been to my further enlightenment and edification that I persisted and read it; more accurately, 'thought it out' as I read. I re-read it less than one week later. It is more than worthwhile; it is edifying and its lesson lives on with me.
James E. Girzone
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An accesible revelation
I was raised Christian and have long practiced vipassana meditation and follow many of the non-dogmatic principles of Buddhism, so I have had many moments of cross-cultural epiphany, over the years, in which Buddhism and Christianity confirm each other. So I browsed this book with real pleasure. The side-by-side quotes often achieve a greater depth of significance than they tend to on their own, and I feel a growing sense of the universality of the basic tenets of both traditions. Whether Jesus actually came into contact with Buddhism before the age of 30 may be impossible to determine, but, as I see it, he at least had access, through insight, to the fundmantal rightness of compassion as a path, and oneness as the goal. I find the book well-conceived, lucid, approachable, and beautifully designed, too.
It is also interesting to note that this format unexpectedly foregrounds the difference between principles and mere cultural accretions. In this light, ritual practice, questions of authority and lineage, orthodoxies of all kinds, and all the other culturally-determined trappings of religion-as-practiced can be easily shucked off to reveal the "heart of the lotus" [the "plain and simple truths"] within. In this sense, the fundamental priciples of each tradition serve as a sort of Bessamer furnace for the other, ridding it of the unnecessary and increasing its universal appeal at once. Quite a brilliant idea, and well done.
