Jesus And Buddha The Parallel Sayings - Marcus Borg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus And Buddha

The Parallel Sayings

Edited by Marcus Borg

Introduction by Jack Kornfield

 

 

The Parallel Sayings,

Parallel sayings, Parallel Lives

 

 

Compassion

 

Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6.31

Consider others s yourself. Dhammapada 10.1

 

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. Luke 6.29

If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon any desires and utter no evil words. Majjhima Nikaya 21.6

 

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. From anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Luke 6.27-30

Hatreds do not ever cease in this world by hating, but by love; this is an eternal truth… Overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good. Overcome the miser by giving, overcome the liar by truth. Dhammapada 1.5 & 17.3

 

Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. Matthew 25.45

If you do not tend one another, then who is there to tend you? Whoever would tend me, he should tend the sick. Vinaya, Mahavagga 8.26.3

 

Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take the sword will perish by the sword. Matthew 26.52

Abandoning the taking of life, the ascetic Gautama dwells refraining from taking life, without stick or sword. Igha Nikaya 1.1.8

 

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15.12-13

Just as a mother would protect her only child at the risk of her own life, even so, cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings. Let your thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world. Sutta Nipata 149-150

 

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1.17

The body of the Buddha is born of love, patience, gentleness, the truth. Vimalakirtinirdesha Sutra 2

 

I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15.10

The bodhisattva loves all living beings as if each were his only child. Vimalakirtinirdesha Sutra 5

 

You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.” Mark 10.19

Abstain from killing and from taking what is not given. Abstain from unchastity and from speaking falsely. Do not accept gold and silver. Khuddakapatha 2

 

 

Wisdom

 

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Matthew 13.31-32

Do not underestimate good, thinking it will not affect you. Dripping water can fill a pitcher, drop by drop; one who is wise is filled with good, even if one accumulates it little by little. Dhammapada 9.7

 

Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, “Friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. Luke 6.41-42

The faults of others are easier to see than one’s own; the faults of others are easily seen, for they are sifted like chaff, but one’s own faults are hard to see. This is like the cheat who sides his dice and shows the dice of his opponent, calling attention to the other’s shortcomings, continually thinking of accusing him. Udanavarga 27.1

 

They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say? He said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8.4-5 & 7

Do not look at the faults of others, or what others have done or not done; observe what you yourself have done and have not done. Dhammapada 4.7

 

Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays. Luke 11.34-36

As a man with eyes who carries a lamp sees all objects, so too with one who has heard the Moral Law. He will become perfectly wise. Udanavarga 22.4

 

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6.25-26

Those who have no accumulation, who eat with perfect knowledge, whose sphere is emptiness, signlessness, and liberation, are hard to track, like birds in the sky. Those whose compulsions are gone, who are not attached to food, whose sphere is emptiness, signlessness, and liberation, are hard to track, like birds in the sky. Dhammapada 7.3-4

 

There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. Mark 7.15

Sealing, deceiving adultery; this is defilement. Not the eating of meat. Sutta Nipata 242

 

 

Materialism

 

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Luke 6.20

Let us live most happily, possessing nothing; let us feed on joy, like the radiant gods. Dhammapada 15.4

 

How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Mark 10.23 & 25

Riches make most people greedy, and so are like caravans lurching down the road to perdition. Any possession that increases the sin of selfishness or does nothing to confirm one’s wish to renounce what one has is nothing but a drawback in disguise. Jatakamala 5.5 & 15

 

No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Luke 16.13

One is the way to gain, the other is the way to nirvana; knowing this fact, students of Buddha should not take pleasure in being honored, but should practice detachment. Dhammapada 5.16

 

If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Matthew 19.21

The avaricious do not go to heaven, the foolish do not extol charity. The wise one, however, rejoicing in charity, becomes thereby happy in the beyond. Dhammapada 13.11

 

 

Inner Life

 

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7.15

What good is hide clothing? While your inward state is a tangle, you polish your exterior. Dhammapada 26.12

 

Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. Mark 8.35

With the relinquishing of all thought and egotism, the enlightened one is liberated through not clinging. Majjhima Nikaya 72.15

 

Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. John 14.27

May fear and dread not conquer me. Majjhima Nikaya 6.8

 

Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. Mark 3.29

Do not let there be a schism in the order, for this is a serious matter. Whoever splits on order that is united will be boiled in hell for an aeon. Vinaya, Cullavagga 7.3.16

 

 

Temptation

 

He fasted for forth days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. Then the devil left him, and suddenly angles came and waited on him. Matthew 4.2 & 11

I thought: “Suppose I practice entirely cutting off food.” Then the deities came to me and said: “Good sir, do not practice entirely cutting off food. If you do so, we shall infuse heavenly food in to the pores of your skin and you will live on that.” Majjhima Niaya 36.27

The devil was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8.44

Mara, the evil one, appeared desiring their ruin, and he closed off the safe and good path that led to their happiness, and he opened up a false path so that they might later come upon disaster and loss. Majjhima Nikaya 19.25-26

 

 

 

Salvation

 

You will know the truth, and the truth will make your free. John 8.32

One who acts on truth is happy in this world and beyond. Dhammapada 13.2

 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Matthew 5.8

Anyone who withdraws into meditation on compassion can see Brahma with his own eyes, talk to him face to face and consult with him. Digha Nikaya 19.43

 

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who take it. Matthew 7.13-14

Just as there are few pleasant parks and lakes, but many dense thickets and inaccessible mountains, so are there few beings who will be reborn among men. More numerous are those who will be reborn in purgatory. Anguttara Nikaya 1.19

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, god did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3.16-17

A certain brahmin said to the Lord: “Reverend Gautama, it is as if a man were to seize someone bu the hair who had stumbled and was falling in to a pit, and to set him on the firm ground―just so, I, who was falling into the pit, have been saved by you!” Digha Nikaya 12.78

 

No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you. “You must be born from above.” John 3.5-7

There are these two gifts, the carnal and the spiritual. Of these two gifts the spiritual is preeminent. He who has made the spiritual offering―such a one, the best of mankind, is honored by all beings as one who has gone beyond. 1Tivuttaka 4.1

 

Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. John 11.26

Those who have sufficient faith in me, sufficient love for me, are all headed for heave or beyond. Majjhima Nikaya 22.47

 

Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5.19

These worthy beings who were well-conducted in body and mind, after death have reappeared in a happy destination, even in the heavenly world. But those worthy beings who were ill-conducted in body and mind, after death have reappeared in the realm of ghosts. Majjhima Nikaya 130.2

 

 

The Future

 

Heaven and earth will pass away. Mark 13.31

This great earth will be burnt up, will utterly perish and be no more. Anguttara Nikaya 7.62

 

The good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come. Matthew 24.14

I will not experience final nirvana until I have disciples who are knowers of the dharma and who will pass on what they have gained from their Teacher, declare it and teach the dharma of wondrous effect. Digha Nikaya 16.3.7

 

In a little while the world will no longer be able to see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. John 14.19

And the lord said: “It may be that you will think: “The Teacher’s instruction has ceased, now we will have no Teacher! It should not be seen like this, for what I have taught and explained to you will, at my passing, be your teacher.” Digha Nikaya 16.6.1

 

 

Miracles

 

When He saw that they were straining at the oars against and adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. Mark 6.48

He walks upon the water without parting it, as if on solid ground. Anguttara Nikaya 3.60

 

Truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there.” And it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17.20

A monk who is skilled in concentration can cut the Himalayas in two. Anguttara Nikaya 6.24

 

That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick. Matthew 8.16

The venerable Kassapa was sick and afflicted, stricken with a sore disease. The Buddha spoke to him and Kassapa was delighted. Then and there he rose up from his sickness and abandoned it. Samyutta Nikaya 46.14

 

 

Discipleship

 

He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. Mark 6.7 & 12-13

Walk, monks, throughout the land for the blessing of the people, for the happiness of the people, and out of compassion for the world. Let not two of you go by one way. Vinaya, Mahavagga 1.11.1

 

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. Matthew 28.19-20

Teach the dharma which is lovely at the beginning, lovely in the middle, lovely at the end. Explain with the spirit and the letter in the fashion of Brahma. In this way you will be completely fulfilled and wholly pure. Vinaya, Mahavagga 1.11.1

 

Looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3.34-35

Just as the great rivers, on reaching the great ocean, lose their former names and identities and are reckoned simply as the great ocean, so do followers lose their former names and clans and become sons of Buddha’s clan. Vinaya, Cullavagga 9.1.4

 

To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. John 1.12-13

You are my own true sons, born of dharma, created by dharma, my spiritual heirs, not carnal heirs. Itivuttaka 4.1

 

Many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. John 6.66

Sixty more gave up the training and returned to the lower life, saying: “Hard is the task of the Exalted one!” Anguttara Nikaya 7.68

 

 

Attributes

 

Jesus spoke unto them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8.12

When a Bodhisattva descends from heaven, there appears in this world an immeasurable, splendid light surpassing the glory of the most powerful glow. And whatever dark spaces lie beyond the world’s end will be illuminated by this light. Digha Nikaya 14.1.17

 

For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 10.45

I am your surety for not returning. Itivuttaka 1.1.6

 

The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever.” John 12.34

Whoever has developed the four roads to power could undoubtedly live for a century. The Buddha has developed these powers. He could undoubtedly live for a century. Digha Nikaya 16.3.3

 

Pilate asked him, “So you say you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” John 18.37

I am a supreme king. So let your doubts about me cease. I am the holy one beyond compare. I rejoice free from fear. Majjhima Nikaya 92.17 & 19

 

 

Life Stories

 

When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. This took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” Matthew 1.18 & 22-23

When the Bodhisattva had descended into his mother’s womb, no sensual thought arose in her concerning men, and she was inaccessible to any man having a lustful mind. Majjhima Nikaya 123.10

 

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him. Luke 2.40

This prince will come to the fulfillment of perfect enlightenment. The religious life will be fully expounded. Sutta-Nipata 693

 

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. Mark 1.35

Then the Lord sat cross-legged in one posture for seven days at the foot of the tree of awakening, experiencing the bliss of freedom. Vinaya, Mahavagga 1.1.1

 

Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, any saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.” Mark 1.14-15

To turn the dharma-wheel I go to the city, beating the drum of deathlessness in a world that has grown blind…. Felicitous is the emergence of the enlightened, felicitous is the teaching of truth. Minaya, Mahavagga 1.6.8 and Dhammapada 14.16

 

Then Jesus cried aging with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. Matthew 27.50-51

At the Blessed Lord’s final passing there was a great earthquake, terrible and hair-raising, accompanied by thunder. Digha Nikaya 16.6.10

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marcus J. Borg is Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon.  Internationally known in both academic and church circles as a biblical and Jesus scholar, he was Hundere Chair of Religion and Culture in the Philosophy Department at Oregon State University until his retirement in 2007.

 

He is the author of nineteen books, including Jesus: A New Vision (1987) and the best-seller Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (1994); The God We Never Knew (1997); The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (1999); Reading the Bible Again for the First Time (2001), and The Heart of Christianity (2003), both best-sellers. His newest books are Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary (2006), a New York Times Best-Seller;  Conversations with Scripture: Mark (2009),  and three books co-authored with John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week (2006), The First Christmas (2007), and The First Paul (2009).

 

His novel, Putting Away Childish Things, was published in April, 2010.

 

Described by The New York Times as “a leading figure in his generation of Jesus scholars,” he has appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” and “Dateline,” PBS’s “Newshour,” ABC’s “Evening News” and “Prime Time” with Peter Jennings, NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, and several National Geographic programs. A Fellow of the Jesus Seminar, he has been national chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature and co-chair of its International New Testament Program Committee, and is past president of the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars.

 

His work has been translated into eleven languages: German, Dutch, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and French.  His doctor’s degree is from Oxford University, and he has lectured widely overseas (England, Scotland, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Israel and South Africa) and in North America, including the Chautauqua and Smithsonian Institutions.

 

• In addition to the eighteen books he has authored or co-authored, he is the editor or co-editor of: The Lost Gospel Q (1996) Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings (1997) God at 2000, co-edited with Ross Mackenzie (2000).
• Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (1994) is the single best-selling book by a contemporary Jesus scholar.
• The God We Never Knew was named “one of the ten best books in religion in 1997″ by Publishers Weekly.
• The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, co-authored with N. Thomas Wright, a well-known British New Testament scholar from the conservative side of the spectrum. It won the “Best General Interest Book of 1999” award from the Association of Theological Booksellers.
• Reading The Bible Again for the First Time (2001) has made Publishers Weekly “ten best selling books in religion.”
• The Heart of Christianity (Harper San Francisco, 2003) has been a group study book in hundreds of churches.
• Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary is a New York Times best-selling book. A very useful study guide for The Heart of Christianity is published by Wood Lake Books and authored by Tim Scorer. 160 pages long, it teaches “Heart” in twelve sessions, with suggestions for small group formation and activities, a DVD that includes handouts, visuals, and some video.  Similar study guides for Reading the Bible Again for the First Time and Jesus are also available from Wood Lake Books. For more information, click on Study Resources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.marcusjborg.com/