There has been elected a president of the US who believes himself to be an ordained and blameless messiah figure. His apostles comprise an assemblage of cabinet heads who are also devoted believers. The ascendancy of such a person, so divergent from all norms, certainly seems miraculous.
Jesus must have been quite an intimidating presence. I wonder what such a vivacious individual was doing in the years between his bar mitzvah and age twenty nine when his abbreviated teaching career began? Recently the old idea that he went to India and studied Buddhism has reappeared. It has little credence as a working thesis but does remind us of the amazingly de-emphasized teachings of kindness and non-violence in his ministry. The Sermon on the Mount, as an example, could have been delivered by a Buddhist master, in my opinion.听
The Anglican cleric John Stott observed, 鈥淭he Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed鈥� (The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, 1973, p. 15). " It is true that many, many Christians strive to live up to this teaching but even so there is little honour paid to its spirit by this modern messianic reality we see in politics.
Maybe Buddhist teachings can remind our many Christian religious leaders of how important real-world, here-and-now compassion is within Christianity. In the face of this self-proclaimed messiah many Christian leaders justify and excuse bad behaviour. It is puzzling. Further, when Jesus explained that his ministry fulfilled the Law [of the OT] the purpose of the traditional harsh fundamentalism was exhausted and a new covenant brought into being with a new purpose. But it takes more than a good idea to bring something new into being and have it persist and resist corruption.
Buddhism offers us a viewpoint on how to live together that emphasizes harmlessness. The Buddhist concept of听ahimsa听(no harm; pronounced as it appears, emphasis on second syl) is related to another core concept,听诲耻办办丑补听(doo-ka) meaning suffering. Suffering is the harm that Buddhism seeks to reduce or eliminate. To practice Buddhist meditation means to become increasingly sophisticated about human suffering, its prevention, alleviation and the restorative possibilities. I suggest that this process is fully consistent with the Sermon on the Mount.
Here's a video to watch:听听. It is about an elementary school which experimented with replacing traditional detention with mindfulness meditation. It is very short and I suggest muting the sound track so as to not distract from the images and the text.
I think meditation is the missing element which would allow the religious mainstream to move more toward the compassionate side of the Founder.