Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu Teachings

What do Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and Lao Tzu have in common?

Then there are the lost sutras

A new book by Richard Hooper points out stunning parallels in the teachings of four mystical traditions -- Buddhist, Christian, Taoist, and Hindu. Moreover, a final chapter attempts to debunk Wisdom Quarterly's pet theory that Jesus (St. Issa) was a diversely educated Buddhist as the BBC, Swami Abhedananda, Nicolas Notovitch, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, and Levi H. Dowling have held for many years.

Hooper contends Jesus/Issa could not have been a Tibetan lama because there were not yet any "lamas" in the lamasery now known as Hemis Gompa, and there wasn't even a Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana). Of course, he fails to consider the work of Holger Kersten and Elmar R. Gruber in establishing a Jewish settlements/trading posts as far away as Kashmir, India -- relatively close to Ladakh, India/Tibet (the site of the ancient Hemis Lamasery). Why would the Hemis abbot deny Notovitch's story? Might he want to protect the written records once stored in his temple complex from prying Christian hands? (Of course, if the eminent Orientalist Max Muller denies the existence of any such records because they are not described in the Kanjur and Tanjur, then that is solid evidence to contend with). Whatever drew Jesus/Issa there is likely what still draws Jews from all over the world, who go in search of mysticism and spiritual teachers and experience beyond book learning. Hooper dismisses it all without nuance; it is simply a preposterous "hoax" on the face of it.

  

Illustration of Jesus/Issa in Ladakh, India/Tibet (Elizabeth.C. Prophet)

Of course, what is today Tibet would have been India at that time (a Himalayan corridor still in dispute as variously independently, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian, or CIA-administered territory. And although Buddhist monks in the area may not have called themselves lamas, Red Hats, Black Hats, or Rinpoches, messiahs, Maitreya, or even bodhisattvas, that does not mean they were not Buddhists practicing what would eventually come to be called "Tibetan Buddhism," an exotic branch of Mahayana, which is so strikingly similar to Christianity that it seems preposterous to think they did not influence one another in their development over the past two millenia (particularly as the corporate Catholic Church appropriated the best of what it could find in all mystical traditions in areas it followed as Christian soldiers looted riches any and everywhere it could find them). Aside from this abrupt conclusion, Hooper has created a wonder book of parallel saying from non-obvious sources. Christians may not be pleased, but every student of comparative traditions will be delighted. And it's a short read. Recommended.

  

(Mystical) Book Club Selection

Deborah Arca (Patheos.com Book Club, May 15, 2012)

Can you tell [Patheos] a little about how this book came about?

Author Richard Hooper

Between my second and third year of college I had what the psychologist Abraham Maslow would call a “peak experience.” It resulted in a decision to study for the ministry, so I changed my college major to the Philosophy of Religion because it seemed sensible that a Christian minister should know at least something about other world religions. Surprisingly, when I entered seminary two years later I discovered that I was the only person there who thought such knowledge was important.
   
In any event when I started studying the teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism for the first time, I began to notice similarities between what Jesus taught and what was generally taught in Eastern philosophy. A few years later I started studying the Gnostic Gospels and was astounded by the similarities between the words of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita and the words of the risen Christ in Gnostic-Christian literature.
  

Your book compares the parallel teachings of four world religions, but why didn’t you include Judaism and Islam?

I realized from the beginning that a lot of people would ask this question, so I added a second subtitle to the cover of this book: “The common teachings of four mystical traditions.” More

• Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly; Richard Hooper (The Parallel Sayings)