A strange "Chris-Buddhist-mas"

Ajahn Chah; Ajahn Maha Boowa; Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Was Jesus ever a Buddhist? Yes.*

It was Christmas (December 24th) in Thailand, and the foreign [Western Buddhist] monks decided to celebrate it. They invited some laypeople as well as the Abbot Ajahn Chah to join them.

The laypeople were upset and skeptical. "Why," they asked, "are Buddhists celebrating Christmas?"

Ajahn Chah gave a talk on religion in which he said, "As far as I understand, Christianity teaches people to do good and to avoid doing harm, just as Buddhism teaches, so what's the problem?"

"However, if people are upset by the idea of celebrating 'Christmas,' that can be easily remedied. We won't call it 'Christmas.' Let's call it ['Chris-Buddhist-mas']. Anything that inspires us to see what is true and do what is good is proper practice. You may call it any name you like."

The Christ and The Buddha

Ajahn Maha Boowa

Siddhartha the Buddha, Jesus the Christ, Saintly Young Men Manga (Geraldford/flickr)

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Every [world-] religion teaches people to be good. I do not dare put the Christ (Jesus) and the Buddha (Siddhartha) in the boxing ring to see who's champion -- because the religions do not have anything to argue and fight about.

But we people who are variously "Christians" or "Buddhists" like to quarrel and to fight with words. Because of being stubborn, we do not practice the way of either religion.

The teachings of the founders of each tradition give us a "right path" to follow, so we ought to contemplate the virtues of the founders.

It is as if we were walking along a path to a particular destination. At first we'd go along a path that we knew until we reached a point where we no longer knew the way. So we'd ask someone who knows, and they'd tell us the way to go farther.

Siddhartha the Buddha lived to help others and to rise above the lures of the world.

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As soon as we again reached a point of uncertainty, we'd ask again. We'd continue like this until we reached the goal at the culmination of the path.

The one who points out the path is a benefactor, and we ought to reflect on the gift.

The Buddha saw clearly into Dharma (the true nature of things), because he understood clearly the method by which he had trained himself [to see things as they really are].

Therefore, it was always beneficial when Buddhists turned to him. He was always ready to help the world gain freedom from various dangers with methods that were full of friendliness/loving-kindness (mettã).

To summarize, in both religions, the founders compassionately taught people to be good (virtuous) in the same way. They are different in their degrees of subtlety following the abilities of the founders of each tradition.

*Yes, Jesus was at one time a Buddhist monk, apparently in the Mahayana-Hinduistic-Vajrayana tradition. According to Nicolas Notovitch and many others, Jesus lived in India during the unknown or "lost" years of his life. There in Ladakh, India/Tibet, he was a Buddhist monk, a Hindu yogi, a miracle worker (siddhi), a healer, and teacher who got in trouble and went back to Jerusalem, where he got in even more trouble. And he came back to Kashmir, where we find his tomb now overtaken by a Muslim burial site with a Jewish person, whose feet are symbolized to mark it in a very Buddhist and very non-Jewish way.