Who copied whom: Gnostic Jesus or Buddha?

They didn't understand, Jay. - I know, Sid

(Primeval Archives) The Buddha ("Awakened One") and the Gnostic Jesus ("Anointed One") were teaching the same escape route they somehow both knew. Who took it from whom?

Answer

*Irony* Well, clearly Buddhism, which existed five or six centuries before Jesus was born, must have stolen the idea from Christianity by somehow finding a way to time travel centuries into the future, seeing how popular Christianism would get then absconding like a time bandit with Gnostic papyri under his arm back to South and Central Asia (India and Afghanistan). Wait, is there time travel yet? When will that arrive?

So Jesus Christ must have heard the teaching, seen the Buddha's finger pointing at the path (as preserved in the Buddha-Dharma and the Sangha, the Teachings of the Buddha and the monastic institution the Buddha set up to preserve and practice those Teachings so that the world would never be bereft of path or enlightened disciples, who are the unexcelled source of merit for the world).

Jesus was a Buddhist monk (BBC)

• Jesus was a Buddhist monk (BBC): Holy Week: Happy Maundy Thursday
• VIDEO: Jesus in India as a Buddhist monk (BBC)

Socrates, Jesus Christ, the Buddha, Lao Tzu

Primeval Archives does such a great job presenting the case then falls on his A.I. face by claiming that all the evidence that Jesus spent the missing 18 years of his life between the time he was a teen then a teacher traveling to India, Tibet, and the mystic East. All the evidence in the world wouldn't convince someone who has already made up his or her or their mind.

Jesus Lived in India

Is there evidence? Because if there is, then the question answers itself about who borrowed from whom. The BBC says that Jesus was a Buddhist monk during a part of those "missing years," which did not really go missing at all, but rather were buried and erased by the institution. Churches, councils, Vatican, clerical organizations, they never heard it, just as they ignore the Apocrypha, a wondrous source of Christian and pre-Christian knowledge. The lost Gnostic Gospels cannot now be ignored, nor could the parallels between what may spiritual traditions seem to be trying to say in their own way.

• Nicolas Notovitch, Russian Christian, found written documentation of Jesus (St. Issa) in Tibetan monastery Hemis Gompa, Ladakh
• He returned to West, was met with shock and doubt. Then someone claimed to go ask at the monastery, which denied knowing anything about a book documenting Jesus (St. Issa) training there then returning to Palestine (ancient Israel) before getting in trouble again, getting crucified, cut down and released by bribed Roman guards, and returning to India to live out his life till the age of 80 in Kashmir, where he is buried in the Jewish style
• Indian Swami Abhedananda heard about this, traveled to Ladakh, was shown the book (because he was not a Westerner who would steal it like others were likely to do), corroborating all that Notovitch had claimed
• Why a Hindu Accepts Christ and rejects Churchianity: Swami Abhedananda
• Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion | Holger Kersten | Goodreads

Jesus was a Buddhist monk (BBC documentary)

Truth is truth, and no one is owner of it. What the Buddha, the Awakened One, realized he shared with the world like an openhanded teacher. Jesus may have had a much smaller circle of special disciples (Apostles), but he certainly tried to tell people of his visions, realizations, and setting forth a way of following in his footsteps. It's a terrible pity the official Church took that, stripped it of its vital call for real gnosis (direct personal experience, shamanic realization, seeing to believe) and replaced it was a pitiful shell of obedience to authority, mindless learning by rote, and blind faith.

We are responsible for our own actions, which is our karma (deeds). We reap what we sow, which is to say we harvest what we plant. As is said in Buddhism, "No one saves us but ourselves; no one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path; buddhas [awakened teachers] only point the way."

• Primeval Archives (video); BBC (documentary); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Malaysia: Buddhist-Hindu temples discovered

(Obsidian Discoveries) Impossible Buddhist discoveries in Malaysia that terrify everyone

• Buddhism in Malaysia
• Buddhism in Singapore
• Bujang Valley
• Sungai Batu
• Tambun rock art
• Mount Jerai Mountain
• Candi temples: A candi (from Kawi caṇḍi [1]) is a Hindu or Buddhist temple in Indonesia, mostly built during the Zaman Hindu-Buddha or "Hindu-Buddhist period" between the 4th and 15th centuries.
• Does the Indonesian yakkha or "Bigfoot" (Orang Pendek) live in these jungles protecting natural resources?

Krishnamurti: Don't become enlightened

(Mystics of India) Would Krishnamurti ever accept teachings of Osho (Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh)?

(Krishnamurti Foundation Trust) Becoming enlightened is a horrible idea | Krishnamurti

• 

  Syncretism: Theosophy

  While sounding like a madman at first, the great Krishnamurti actually has a point to make about "efforting," muscling, struggling, and striving to gain or win enlightenment. Buddhist awakening (bodhi) is far more about letting go of delusion, confusion, and illusion and instead gently cultivating allowing, radical acceptance of what is, and dispassionate (disinterested, unbiased) viewing like some kind of Taoist, being the watcher rather than the striver or go-getter.

The Great World Teacher or Jiddu?

Of course, Krishnamurti was more a Hindu than a Buddhist, having escaped the clutches of the Western Theosophists who found him, saw his potential, raised and nurtured their new Messiah (Maitreya) in hopes that he would become a "Buddha" or "World Teacher" for our time (like the promised Buddha Boy decades later).

But he burned them and instead taught a whole kind of Zen nondoing, nothing special, there's nothing to achieve approach to spirituality and spiritual (un)accomplishments. The Theosophists were not happy, so Krishnamurti went off on his own, not aligning himself with any religion but sort of incorporating them all into a syncretism.

The gymnosophist Mahavira

He's a subtle speaker and thinker, along the lines of Bhagwan Shree Rajnessh (Osho) and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, both alleged to be frauds immersed in sex and money scandals. We would not want to misrepresent Krishnamurti's views, if he holds any, as he can quite well speak for himself. Like the great Mahavira (Vardhamāna, the founder of Jainism, called the Nigantha Nattaputta in Buddhist texts), Krishnamurti must have some good qualities that he is still remembered and listened to.

What ever happened to the Hare Krishnas?

(ABC Australia) What happened to Hare Krishnas? | Compass | ABC Australia

• Leader: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
• International Society for Krishna Consciousness
• Krishnamurti Foundation Trust (video); ABC Australia; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Tara? Rainbow light of Yeshe Tsogal, Tibet

(Buddha's Wisdom)

Rainbow light body? 

Vajrayogini

Yeshe Tsogyal (circa 757 or 777–817 CE) [1] is also known as "Victorious Ocean of Knowledge," "Knowledge Lake Empress" (Wylie ye shes mtsho rgyal, ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ) or by her Sanskrit name Jñānasāgarā "Knowledge Ocean," or by her clan name "Lady Kharchen" [2].

She attained enlightenment in her lifetime and is considered the Mother of Tibetan Buddhism. Yeshe Tsogyal is the highest woman in the Nyingma Vajrayana lineage.

Some sources say she, as princess of Kharchen, was either a co-wife or consort of Emperor Tri Songdetsen (Trisong Detsen) of Tibet [3] when she began studying Buddhism with Padmasambhava, who became her main karmamudrā consort.

(Buddhist Monks) 21 Tara Mantra: 24/7 sacred chant for protection

• 

  Samantabhadri

  EMANATIONS: Yeshe Tsogyal is considered a manifestation of the Bodhisattva Tara. She is also considered an emanation of Prajnaparamita, Samantabhadrī, and Vajrayogini [16]. In the Life of Yeshe Tsogyel, Padmasambhava predicted that Yeshe Tsogyel would be reborn as Machig Labdrön; her consort Atsara Sale [2] would become Topabhadra, Machig’s husband; her assistant and another of Padmasambhava’s consorts, Tashi Khyidren, would be reborn as Machig’s only daughter, and so on. All of the important figures in Yeshe Tsogyel’s life were to be reborn in the life of Machig Labdron, including Padmasambhava himself, who would become Dampa Sangye [17].
• VIDEO: Gender? Tara, the most powerful Goddess?

Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava is a founder-figure of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism and is considered a second "buddha" of our era [4] [which at least one other tradition, sticking to the original texts, would say is impossible, given that the historical Buddha often pointed out how rare the arising of a buddha is and how few there have ever been, with only one in any epoch.]

She is known to have revealed terma ("hidden treasure") with Padmasambhava and was also the main scribe for these terma. Later, Yeshe Tsogyal hid many of Padmasambhava's terma on her own, under the instructions of Padmasambhava for future generations [2].

Emperor Trisong Detsen

Born a princess in the region of Kharchen, Tibet, in about 777 CE, she fled from arranged marriages until captured for Emperor Tri Songdetsen.

Yeshe Tsogyal lived for approximately 99 years and is a preeminent figure in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism and a role model for contemporary spiritual practitioners.

Although often referred to as being Padamasambhava's main "consort," Yeshe Tsogyal was primarily a spiritual master and teacher in her own right.

Prajnaparamita with Devotees

Based on her spiritual accomplishments, the Nyingma and Karma Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism recognize Yeshe Tsogyal as a female buddha.

The translators of Lady of the Lotus-Born, the namtar or spiritual biography that Yeshe Tsogyal left as a terma/hidden treasure, observe:

"As Dodrup Tenpai Nyima makes clear, beings able to reveal Termas must have at least the realization of the Perfection Stage practices. On the other hand, the one who originates the Treasures must have the supreme attainment of Buddhahood. Lady of the Lotus-Born is thus a testimony of Yeshe Tsogyal's enlightenment" [5]. More

Gender? Tara, the most powerful Goddess?

The lovely Tara enshrined in art

(Buddha's Wisdom) TARA: The most powerful Goddess in Buddhism — and why she refused to be reborn as a man

Tara (Sanskrit तारा, tārā, Standard Tibetan སྒྲོལ་མ, dölma), Ārya Tārā ("Noble Tara") is also known as Jetsün Dölma (Tibetan rje btsun sgrol ma, "Venerable Mother of Liberation"). She is an important female buddha in Vajrayana and Mahayana Buddhism.

• 

  The Elevation of Mary Magdalene

  Our reading of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Vajrayana is a sub-school, suggests that the MOST powerful Buddhist goddess is actually Kwan Yin (Guanyin, a female manifestation of Avalokiteśvara) Bodhisattva. She is queen or in any case certainly the most powerful, for she looks on and hears the cries of the world with utmost compassion, a kind of Virg Yin Mary (not Jewish or Essene Miriam so much as the ultimate goddess in Gnostic Christianity, Mary Magdalene).
• If Theravada Buddhism made much of personifying qualities through transcendent goddesses (devis), our vote for the Ultimate Goddess right alongside Kwan Yin (Guanyin) would certainly be the glorious Prajnaparamita of Java, Gnostic Sophia, the personification of the Perfection of Wisdom. And we wouldn't stop there. Maha Pajapati Gotami, Yasodhara (aka Bimba Devi, Rahulamata, Bhaddha Kaccana, Sundari Kaccana, etc.), Khema Theri, Uppalavanna Theri, and Queen of [Tusita] Heaven Maya would serve as the raw basis for building up goddesses, venerable enlightened Buddhist women in history.

Prajnaparamita Java (side detail)

• [Earlier traditions hold to the view, one of five niyamas, that while females are of course equally capable of arahantship, full enlightenment, as well as many other accomplishments, literal buddhas only arise as males. Why this would be, or why any of the niyamas are true in and of themselves, is not explained. 5. dhamma-niyāma "the constraint of dhammas (things, phenomena)," namely, such events as the quaking of the 10,000 world-systems at the conception of a bodhisatta conception in his mother's womb and again at his birth (partition from that womb). At the end of the discussion Sumaṅgalavilāsinī passage, the Commentary states that dhamma-niyāma explains the term dhammatā in the text of the Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN ii.12) (Cf. S 12.20 for a discussion of the use of the word dhamma-niyamatā in the Pali canon sutras.
• It should always be borne in mind that no individual is an actual sex but fluid because one can be reborn as any of the three genders -- male, female, pandaka. How many genders are there? The answer could easily be more than three because pandaka can be variously defined as pervert, eunuch (pansexual as the word is understood in the East not as we use it in the West), hermaphrodite, bi, gay, asexual, intersex, transgender, transsexual, crossdresser, etc.)
• The Dalai Lama, who is Tibetan Vajrayana joked about this in one of his PR movies, declaring something like: "Of course a woman can become a buddha...she just has to be reborn as a man first" then laughing. People popularly regard him as the "Pope of Vajrayana Buddhism," though he is not; he's not even the pope of Tibetan Buddhism because the non-Gelug schools do not regard him as the pontiff but rather a useful political leader, a kind of temporal king who made it to the world stage with more than a little help from the CIA. This topic of gender should be questioned, debated, and explored as it seems awfully unfair and denigrating to femalehood, but might it be the case, as a Hindu priest once told our college Comparative Religion class that the reason a being, a gandhabba seeking rebirth in a human body, is reborn as a female rather than a male at any given rebirth is due to the level of attachment, affection, and clinging present in that relinking moment. If that is the case, we have all been and will all be females, so placing femininity one down from masculinity is a bad strategy that will turn around and bite us. Likewise, all females reborn as humans, as rare and difficult as it is to ever secure a human rebirth, will also experience what it's like to be a male. And we say with no confusion, it's not all it's cracked up to be.]

Humans love to carve ideal attributes in stone.

She may appear as a female bodhisattva (a "being bent on full or supreme enlightenment," the two not being the same thing, one being an arhat, the other a buddha) in Mahayana Buddhism [1].

In Vajrayana Buddhism, Green Tara is a female buddha who is a consort of the Cosmic Buddha Amoghasiddhi.

Tārā is also known as a savioress who hears the cries of beings in saṃsāra (the interminable round of rebirth and suffering) and saves them from worldly and spiritual danger [2].

In Vajrayana, she is considered to be a buddha, and the Tārā Tantra describes her as "a mother who gives birth to the buddhas of the three times [past, present, and future]" who is also "beyond saṃsāra and nirvāṇa" [3].

• Earlier tradition distinguishes nirvana as being nothing like samsara, and since all we have ever known is the latter, anything else could be considered nirvana. Some do not like this definition as it seems to define nirvana, which many feel is ineffable, indescribable, and incomparable even though the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama did indeed define and describe it.

Tārā is one of the most important female deities in Vajrayana (Esoteric Buddhism) and is found in apocryphal sources like the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa and the Guhyasamāja Tantra [4].

Key Indic Vajrayana texts that focus on Tārā include the Tantra Which Is the Source for All the Functions of Tārā, Mother of All the Tathagatas (Sanskrit Sarva-tathāgata-mātṛtārā-viśva-karma-bhavanāma-tantra) and Tārā's Fundamental Ritual Text (Tārāmūlakalpa) [5, 3].

Both Green and White Tārā remain popular meditation deities or yidams in Tibetan Buddhism, and Tara is also revered in Newar Buddhism.

Tārā is considered to take on many forms or emanations, while Green Tara emanates 21 Tārās, each with different attributes—colors, implements, and activities such as pacifying (śānti), increasing (pauṣṭika), enthralling (vaśīkaraṇa), and wrathful (abhicāra) [2].

Green Tara (or "blue-green," Sanskrit Samayatara or śyāmatārā) remains the most important form of the deity in Tibetan Buddhism [6, 7].

A practice text entitled Praises to the 21 Taras is a well known text on Tara in Tibetan Buddhism within Tibet, recited by children and adults, and is the textual source for the 21 forms of Green Tārā.

The main Tārā mantra is the same for Buddhists and Hindus: oṃ tāre tuttāre ture svāhā. It is uttered by Tibetans and Buddhists who follow Tibetan culture as oṃ tāre tu tāre ture soha. The literal translation would be "Oṃ O Tārā, I pray O Tārā, O Swift One, So Be It!" More

• Ancient Buddhist Goddess Guanyin embraces nature’s gender spectrum (FāVS News)
• Three Goddesses of Divine Grace | brief introduction
• Buddha's Wisdom (video); edited by Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wiki edit Tara (Buddhism)

Every Buddhist "God" explained in minutes

(Greg Knows All) Every major Buddhist "God" explained in 38 minutes

• These are the "Gods" of faith-based Mahayana, Vajrayana, Jodo Shinshu, Nicheren, Shingon...rather than the much smaller (10%) back-to-basics Theravada Buddhist tradition, which recognizes countless brahmas and devas, particularly Great Brahma and Sakka (Sakra, Indra), King of the Devas, but neither worships them nor regards them as "Gods" in the Western sense.
• Pure Land (Sukhavati) of Amitabha Cosmic Buddha

Jesus, Buddha, and Lao Tzu: Same Truth?

(The Lost Gospel)

ETs on ancient Buddhist temple wall art?

(Praveen Mohan)

Hidden Birth of Zen (as Taoism)

Bodhidharma: Nothing you do... - Are you crazy, then why do anything? - Be. Go with the Tao

What are you doing, Zen Master? - I'm going with the Tao. - You're not doing anything. - Yes.

(Buddha's Wisdom) When Buddhism met Taoism: The Hidden Birth of "Zen"

• So much of what people call "Zen" (capitalized as opposed to zen or jhana/dhyana) sounds more like Taoism (with a stiff dose of Confucianism) than Buddhism, and here's why. It was all picked up in translation. So what was lost? Those may be beautiful spiritual/temporal traditions with which to blend, but what is obscured is the historical Buddha's message until it is almost completely lost and replaced by Hinduism (with its Tantra, yoga, and magic that gave rise to another branch Vajrayana/Shingon attached) to a new religion that came to be called Mahayana, far from the Buddha's Dhamma.

Everything Zen

We silly Westerners have no idea! We think we know

"Zen" is a silly word, carrying so much meaning in American English. Goodness knows what it means in Japan or China nowadays, a dying religious sect taking sides in the jiriki versus tariki battle?

We aim to find out on Thursdays in Los Angeles at the Pasadena Zen Sangha. There is a path. What is it? If one were to ask the average American Zen practitioner, then everything likely to be heard in response would be some derivation of Taoism, not Buddhism or any relation to relation to the Doctrine of the historical Buddha.

Shikantaza: just do it because it's just sitting.

Lao Tzu (Laozi) was not a Buddhist. He was possibly a celestial (deva), descended to Earth to philosophize and guide the Chinese.

For all that, on "Buddhist Radio" (Alan Watts - KPFK 90.7 FM, 8:00 am, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026) Alan Watts explained Zen in 18-minutes.

His brief talk lays bare the root of every misconception. Moreover, Buddha's Wisdom (in the video displayed above) does much to add context and clarify. Zen can be grasped.

 

KPFK Public Radio - Online Archives Archive

Watts says the problem with understanding Zen is that unless one were raised Japanese -- very punctilious, rigid, formal, ritualistic, deadly afraid of a faux pas, losing face, or doing things incorrectly -- one will not be able to appreciate what Zen (Taoism) offers as relief.

Zen promotes spontaneity, naturalness, flow, being at ease, comfort, and relaxing into a kind of "just being" present and mindful (of the moment) without so much thinking (premeditation).

• FREE THURSDAYS: Zen Meditation Community, LA

• Buddha's Wisdom, Feb. 2026; cartoonist Brad Warner, Angel City Zen, 4/15/24; Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Hel (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Christ vs. The Buddha: similarities

Sid (the Buddha), Kris (Krishna), Mo, Josh (Jesus), Aquaman, Lao Tzu, Joe (Joseph Smith)

JESUS vs. the BUDDHA: Love vs. Non-Attachment

The Buddha and the Christ: friends

(Buddha's Wisdom) 🔍JESUS vs. BUDDHA: LOVE vs. DETACHMENT: TWO PATHS, ONE TRUTH. What happens when Jesus’s fearless [yogic] love [called agape in Greek] meets the Buddha’s wisdom of [boundless love called metta and] letting go*?

• *“Attachment says, ‘Be mine,’ whereas love says, ‘Be well.’”

This video explores how two of history’s greatest spiritual teachers [the Buddha preceding Christ by at least 500 years], born five centuries and continents apart, answered the same human question: *How do we love without suffering*?

• *Suffering: dukkha, disappointment, pain, unsatisfactoriness, misery, ill, woe, not getting what we want and getting what we don't want.

From Galilee to the Ganges, discover how their paths converge in a timeless lesson for the modern heart.

📿 DISCOVER:

• The radical love of Jesus that defied tribal and political boundaries
• The Buddha’s teaching on non-attachment and the end of desperate grasping and clinging
• The hidden parallels between early Christian and Buddhist thought
• The mystery of whether the Christ and the Buddha’s teachings ever crossed paths [in ancient India, Tibet, and Central Asia]
• How to practice “love with open hands” in relationships today

🙏 Subscribe for more East-meets-West wisdom: Every week, we explore the meeting point of philosophy, history, and spirituality, from Buddhist cosmology to hidden wisdom in Western thought.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:0

• 00:00 The grip in our chest
• 01:14 The love paradox
• 02:44 The dangerous love of Jesus
• 07:24 The freedom love of Siddhartha the Buddha
• 11:19 When two truths collide
• 15:35 Love without the leash
• 21:21 The third path
• 24:50 Love fearlessly, LET GO freely

📚 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:

• The Metta Sutta (Sutta Nipata 1.8) – Teachings on Loving-Kindness
• Sallatha Sutta (SN 36.6) – The Parable of the Second Arrow
• The Gospel of Luke 10.25-37 – The Parable of the Good Samaritan
• The Gospel of Matthew 5.44 – “Love thy enemies”
• Comparative studies on Greco-Buddhist exchanges along the Silk Road
• Historical scholarship on early Christian monasticism and Buddhist influence

📱 Join community: Instagram: buddhaswizdom. Facebook: buddhaswizdom. ☕ Support the channel: buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom

• * Love fearlessly. Love freely. Stay curious. Stay wise.

#Jesus, #Buddha, #Love, #Detachment, #NonAttachment, #Spirituality, #Mindfulness, #Buddhism, #Christianity, #Philosophy, #EastMeetsWest, #Wisdom, #Enlightenment

• Buddha's Wisdom, Nov. 8, 2025; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhism's biggest pyramid: Borobudur

(Ancient Architects) Ancient megastructure: The world's largest [excavated*] Buddhist temple: Borobudur Pyramid, Java, Indonesia, with its Unfinished Buddha.

• *The larger Buddhist temple complex, which is said to be at least one square mile large, is Mes Aynak, Afghanistan (ancient Gandhara). Afghanistan has the world's largest Buddha statues (the largest, a reclining figure, still hidden for its protection) because that's where the Buddha is from (Saka/Shakya/Scythia, not Nepal and not India, which did not even exist as a country or empire until centuries later when Buddhist Emperor Ashoka united disparate kingdoms and various janapadas or clan territories). It may well hold an even larger temple. Mes Aynak remains unexcavated and undiscovered due to American imperialism in its prolonged war of plunder followed by Chinese business interests attempting to raze the ancient archeological site for its store of rare earth minerals, gold, and copper.

Classical Indian music meets metal

(Opalinskyband) Metal genres vs. metal fans - Five metalhead myths debunked in 30 seconds

Would Lord Ganesha approve? Goddess Kali?

Bloodywood is an Indian heavy metal band from New Delhi that formed in 2016. They began as a parody band that uploaded metal covers of pop songs on YouTube [1] and later wrote their own music. They have become India's first metal act to chart on Billboard [1]. HISTORY: Prior to forming the band, Karan Katiyar regularly uploaded parody metal covers of popular Bollywood songs on YouTube, but he had trouble finding a suitable vocalist. At a local gig... More

Bloodywood and Babymetal

Bloodywood with Babymetal on same stage - Bekhauf (Mohegan Sun Arena, June 27, 2025)

• Karl Rock, YouTube.com; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Zen: How to talk to Catholic Christians

How to speak to Christians as a Buddhist

(Zen Confidential) May 8, 2025: A Patron sent me an email that basically says, "I have a friend who just found Jesus, and she's driving me CRAZY!!"

Why is she driving him crazy? It's because my Patron's friend is convinced that there is ONLY ONE true religion, one way or path, and she thinks anyone who doesn't follow it -- that is, anyone who doesn't go "full Yazoo" -- is on AC/DC's Highway to Hell.

Is there ONLY ONE TRUE WAY? My Patron wants to know. Yes, is my answer. There IS just one true way.

• Darby Crash, frontman of the Germs and an early Hollywood Zen Buddhist, wrote "The Slave," which goes: "It starts in your head/ And moves to your hands/ Your body starts shakin'/ 'Cause you're in demand/ You do the slave to the beat/ Of the neuro-sutra can can// You're lashed 'twixt the stars/ With your ice and motor cars/ You do the slave to the beat/ Of the neuro-sutra can can// Oh yea, yea, pull out the Zen/ I've got a Buddhist principle in my hand/ Your life seems wasted/ Your bodies laced in/ Don't stop now, you've got to trace it/ You put your hands together/ Writhe in the shackle/ You twist your body round/ 'Til it starts to crackle/ You do the slave to the beat/ Of the neuro-sutra can can// Right here right now/ Shake it in and out now/ Lights on off now/ Make it spin and fight now"

Unfortunately, it's different for absolutely everyone! Let's touch on a lot of the basics that make Zen [and other forms of Buddhism] different from "religions."

For one thing, in Zen there is nothing to "believe" in [except maybe Taoism]. There is a practice, and there are principles, and the practitioner puts those principles into practice. That's kind of it.

What is Catholicism? It's Universalism

The main practice is zazen ("sitting meditation"), often defined as shikantaza ("just sitting"). Through this practice, attention is cultivated. But even this is saying too much.

Speaking of not speaking, we could say that Zen is the practice of not filling silences. To wit, there is the Great Silence from which we all come and to which we all go. Religion kinda sorta sometimes puts a great big Jesus statue right in the center of that silence, or a great big Buddha statue right there in the middle of serene silence.

It tries to fill the void, the peace of silence, as if it could improve on it, gilding the lily, giving the snake legs, papering over the gaps and blanks, pretending that we can fill the not-knowing with some kind of knowing.

Jesus had a foreskin?

One can't reason with blind faith, so what talking?

But in the end, the job of a spiritual practice is not to remove uncertainty. Rather, in my experience at least, a practice humbles us before that uncertainty. There's a big difference. Every time I think I finally found the One True Way, something changes -- me, the world around me, the situation, life -- and I have to change along with it, grow, go with the flow, and keep going, keep living, keep not knowing. No fake certainty!

• Zen and Zazen with Muho: Spiritual bypassing, and what is the role of the sutras in Zen?

Today, on YouTube, I offer these videos for free, but you can support my work here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?busine... Find essays, blogs, and videos here: patreon.com/ShozanJackHaubner. And buy my books: amazon.com/Shozan-Jack-Ha...

• Shogan Jack Haubner, May 8, 2025; Darby Crash, Germs, "The Slave"; What is Catholicism? (video); Strangest Catholic relics (video #short); Seth Auberon, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Yogananda Fest 2025: What happened?

WHAT HAPPENED?

YoganandaFest.com featured activities

It rained in Los Angeles on Saturday morning, as it has 5 out of the 6 years this fest has existed. So most diehard yogis were undeterred. While it remained cold, cloudy, and drizzly with showers in some parts of the megalopolis that is LA County, which stretches for over 50 miles across as a basin, the sun came out over Torrance, the city (one of 88) hosting the festival.

Lovin schismatic disciple Kriyananda

Yogananda was a great Indian guru who is bigger than the organization that claims to be his exclusive promoter, the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). There is a better albeit smaller organization that promotes the real guru, baby and all.

(Could the great Hindu-Christian syncretic-saint have had a baby with one of his American female disciples?) The Ananda Church of Self-Realization (Donate | Yogananda Fest) is a kind of schism that arose among Paramhansa Yogananda's followers.

Autobiography of a Yogi: The
Original 1946 Edition plus

One original disciple, Kriyananda, was a purist. He decided to publish the founder's autobiography in its ORIGINAL (unredacted, unabridged) form. It's better that way to read it, but SRF doesn't like it.

The larger, less orthodox SRF organization made changes to the classic book and will not settle a lawsuit that says the rightful owner of the religious organization is Yogananda's unacknowledged son. There's DNA evidence to back up Ananda's claim, but SRF will not acknowledge, as to do so would mean the loss of their ability to legally claim ownership of the book, its proceeds, the properties spread across LA and elsewhere, and the legacy of the great master. What to do? What to do? More lawyers are needed to settle the issue. Or the son should become a guru, claim his lineage, and speak out publicly rather than behind the Ananda organization. Until then, there are TWO versions of the book. Which have most people read?

After about 9:00 am, with clear skies and lots of enthusiastic participants from the Holy City of Lost Angels, events went on as planned: meditation, Kriya Yoga, Hatha Yoga, inspiring featured speakers and more.

• Also participating: Glendale's Ashwin Clinic-College of Ayurveda Yoga & Vedic Sciences – Ashwin Ayurveda – Love in all we do – since 1901
• Kriya Meditation Ayurveda Yoga Vedic Sciences Clinic/College | Meetup
• 4:30 pm Soundbath and Prana Lifeforce Healing, Sat, May 3, 2025, 4:30 PM | Meetup
• Dharma Buddhist Meditation (Disclosure Project, Los Angeles) Events

Event details

I paved the way for PY in 1893.

Yogananda Fest (YoganandaFest.com – 2025 | Paramhansa Yogananda's Keys for Peace and Happiness) is an annual Kriya and Hatha Yoga, meditation, and spiritual-living festival. Join in an all-day program celebrating and sharing the teachings of the great American missionary and Indian yogi Paramhansa Yogananda.

Indian gurus in the USA?

Swami Paramananda, 1923

[After the arrival of Swami Vivekananda in the United States for the Chicago Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893, visiting Pasadena and declaring it the "Varanasi (Buddhist Kashi and Benares) of America," both set up ashrams here, Swami in South Pasadena and Yogananda in neighboring Mt. Washington, a prominent hill above the next town over, Highland Park, with a magnificent view of the Downtown Los Angeles skyline.

Paramahansa Yogananda, 1920

That mansion became Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship's Mother Center (older than the magnificent Lake Shrine in Malibu, currently closed due to the Palisades Fire), after the organization's founding in 1920, along with a big temple in Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. (next to an old hospital purchased by Scientology and made into big cult offices), whereas Vivekananda's Victorian style house is a small and easily missed blip on Figueroa Street. Not far from there, a devotee of Sri Anandamayi Ma named Swami Paramananda founded the beautiful and rustic monastery in Glendale/La Crescenta called Ananda Ashram (Ananda Ashrama, spiritual center for Vedanta) in 1923.

Hinduism in America: Converge

So Yogananda is a sort of latecomer but by far the most successful of Indian gurus in America, outshining even the Beatles' cultish Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder and promoter of Transcendental Meditation (TM), which was a fad from the 1960s though still some people swear by it, like a young Jeff Goldblum in his cameo in Annie Hall.

Why does any of this matter? Not only did Hinduism come to America, Buddhism came along as well (many centuries earlier, even before Columbus and Christianity, according to Rick Fields, Edward P. Vining, and other American historians), making an incredible splash that still reverberates and sends out rings of influence. Books have been written about it.]

• Buddhism in America: Global Religion, Local Contexts
• Hannah: The Untold Story of Buddhism
• Meditating at the Glendale Temple, Los Angeles
• Sri Aurobindo, founder of Integral Yoga
• Bikram Yoga's Choudhury, Dick Nixon's trainer
• Hare Krishna Movement (ISKCON)
• Sri Anandamayi Ma: The Divine Mother
• Top 10 Spiritual Gurus of India

West Coast used to have some parties that made LA the antithesis of NYC

• Yogananda Fest – 2025, YouTube.com; Siri, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly