Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? (29 page)
Read Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? Online
Authors: R. E. Sherman
For both, long life is a clear consequence of honoring one’s parents or the aged.
Both Buddha and Solomon link laziness to negative consequences. It is one of the most direct forms of good versus bad karma.
Solomon | Buddha |
| |
The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway. | He who lives looking for pleasures only, his senses uncontrolled, immoderate in his food, idle, and weak, Mara (the tempter) will certainly overthrow him, as the wind throws down a weak tree. |
A sluggard is “a person who is habitually inactive or lazy.” Each of the above proverbs focuses on this type of person and the difficulties they bring on themselves.
However, not all bad karma is so direct or immediate. As the following proverbs make clear, some bad deeds at first seem to be accompanied by sweetness.
Solomon | Buddha |
| |
Food gained by deceit is | As long as the evil deed done does not bear fruit, the fool thinks it is An evil deed, like newly-drawn milk, does not turn (suddenly); smouldering, like fire covered by ashes, it follows the fool. |
The above proverbs are quite parallel in their usage of sweet food as an analogy, as well as in the implied delay between doing a bad deed and seeing its undesirable consequences.
Influence Karmic Proverbs
Right living and right views may seem like personal matters, but both Solomon and Buddha point out that they can have a big impact on other people, sometimes affecting an entire city.
Solomon | Buddha |
| |
When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices; and when the wicked perish, there is jubilation. By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful ambassador brings health. | The scent of flowers does not travel against the wind, nor (that of) sandal-wood, or of Tagara and Mallika flowers; but the odour of good people travels even against the wind; a good man pervades every place. |
Solomon envisioned the ways that upright people can “exalt” an entire city. This same concept is expressed by Buddha, though perhaps in a more localized manner, in the above proverb. The scope of the influence of the virtuous is described much more
expansively in two proverbs of Buddha immediately following the one quoted above:
Buddha spent forty-five years of his life attempting to help others reach the awakened state he believed he had attained. In Buddhism, those who reach enlightenment are liberated from the cycle of birth and death and can go to nirvana; choosing to come back to earth in another incarnation in order to help others reach it is regarded as the ultimate act of selfless compassion.
The curious thing about Solomon’s proverbs is that, although he believed in God, only a few of his proverbs directly refer to God as the one who causes the Law of Karma to operate. The sense that the vast majority of Solomon’s proverbs leave is that they are statements of universal laws that operate automatically, without the direct involvement of God. They are natural or logical consequences that follow from prior acts and intentions. This facet of Solomon’s proverbs would have made Buddha comfortable with much of their content. He did not have to accept Solomon’s god in order to value his teachings.
