Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? (5 page)
Read Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? Online
Authors: R. E. Sherman
He who destroys life, who speaks untruth, who in this world takes what is not given him, who goes to another man’s wife; And the man who gives himself to drinking intoxicating liquors, he, even in this world, digs up his own root.
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The Ten Commandments | The Five Moral Precepts of Buddha |
| |
6. You shall not murder. | 1. Do not kill. |
7. You shall not commit adultery. | 3. Do not indulge in sexual misconduct. |
8. You shall not steal. | 2. Do not steal. |
9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. | 4. Do not make false speech. |
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. | 5. Do not take intoxicants. |
The First Precept (do not kill) is much broader than the Sixth Commandment (do not murder). Killing includes taking the life of any sentient (i.e., conscious) being, including animals. The Tenth Commandment (do not covet) is covered in Buddha’s Second and Third Noble Truths (desire is the cause of suffering, and to eliminate suffering, one must eliminate desire). The Fifth Precept is covered in some of Solomon’s proverbs (“Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise”
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), although other Old Testament references permit moderate drinking that does not involve becoming intoxicated.
5. An ideal that Solomon fulfilled during the earlier part of his reign is clearly described in one of Buddha’s proverbs, even though that ideal was highly undesirable according to Buddha’s own teachings.
The legend of Solomon is described in general terms in Buddha’s 303rd proverb:
Whatever place a faithful, virtuous, celebrated, and wealthy man chooses, there he is respected.
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Why would this proverb be in Buddha’s collection? It is much too “establishment” in its message. If its content were true to Buddha’s teachings, a person “celebrated and wealthy” would be viewed as someone who has delighted in the illusory pleasures and activities of this world. Even if a wealthy, famous person had managed to be a model of faithfulness and virtue, Buddha would not have revered this person because he or she had not renounced wealth and the status that comes from worldly success and position. This proverb contradicts the core of Buddha’s teachings.
On the other hand, this proverb expresses the distilled essence of the legend of Solomon during the early part of his reign. God appeared to Solomon in a dream and told him to ask for whatever he wanted. Solomon very humbly asked only for “a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” He added: “For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” The text continues:
The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not
asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.”
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Solomon displayed great humility, devotion, and virtue, and God rewarded him with wealth and fame. He was greatly respected during his reign:
God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.
Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East,
and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than any other man. . . . And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.
He spoke three thousand proverbs
and his songs numbered a thousand and five. . . .
Men of all nations
came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by
all the kings of the world,
who had heard of his wisdom.
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Did Buddha have Solomon in mind when he spoke his 303rd proverb? We can also wonder about two of Buddha’s proverbs that advocate hard work and the accumulation of wealth, which are very Solomon-like aspirations,
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but which totally conflict with Buddha’s teachings about the necessity of fulfilling vows of poverty:
Men who have not observed proper discipline, and have not gained treasure in their youth, perish like old herons in a lake without fish. Men who have not observed proper discipline, and have not gained treasure in their youth, lie, like broken bows, sighing after the past.
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Proverbs of Buddha like those quoted above suggest that he was a collector of wise sayings from prior sources and incorporated them into his teachings, even when his other teachings contradicted them.
6. The core and bulk of Buddhism can be nearly replicated by following a four-step process.
The four-step process is as follows: (1) begin with Solomon’s writings, excluding references to God; (2) assume reincarnation; (3) renounce the world; and (4) retreat within to insulate yourself from suffering. That this is true may not be a coincidence. It may be a summary of what actually took place in Buddha’s mind as he developed his new religion. However, it is not clear proof.
7. Today, a high percentage of Western Buddhist leaders have a Jewish background.
A striking phenomenon today is that a disproportionate percentage of Western Buddhist leaders were once, or still are, Jews. According to one Jewish author:
A large number of Jews currently practice Buddhism. Rodger Kamenetz, the author of
The Jew in the Lotus,
says, “A third of all Western Buddhist leaders come from Jewish roots.” Half of the participants in the Vipassana meditation retreat near Dharamsala, India, are Israelis. According to one estimate, three out of four Western visitors to the spiritual center of Tibetan Buddhism and the seat of the Dalai Lama are Jewish. Most of the street signs in Dharamsala sport Hebrew letters.
A recent cover story of the
Jerusalem Report
profiles three Jews who have been living in Dharamsala for years. . . . In describing his 253 monastic vows, such as dressing modestly and not sharing private space with women, Tenzin Josh remarks, “It’s not much different from being an Orthodox Jew.”
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That Jesus was influenced by Solomon is almost self-evident, for he was a Jewish rabbi well versed in the Old Testament. In fact, Jesus compared himself to Solomon:
The Queen of the South . . . came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.
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That Buddha was influenced by Solomon cannot be proven, so it is left to the reader to decide this question. Buddha’s words were not committed to writing until 252
B.C.
, more than 225 years after he died. Instead, his teachings were passed orally from one monk to another. These monks had an enormous devotion to Buddha. Any evidence that some of his insights might have come from some prior sage would have been scorned. If a substantial portion of Buddha’s teachings might be attributable to Solomon, we must sketch a very different profile of who he was. This Buddha would be more human and approachable than the Buddha we are used to hearing about. Whether or not he drew from Jewish sources, by noticing the resemblance of Buddha’s teachings to prominent sections of the Old Testament, those who are familiar with Solomon’s writings will be able to more readily appreciate Buddha’s teachings and his historical contribution.
Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
—Solomon
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From the beginning Buddha’s new religion was called “the Middle Way” because it avoided two extremes:
- A Hinduism that enabled those with means to obtain whatever they wanted by offering sacrifices to whichever god would condone or encourage it.
- A Jainism that required its ascetic practitioners to live in abject poverty, begging for every meal, owning nothing but a robe and sandals, and facing starvation and overexposure to the elements while they meditated continually in a search for inner truth.
Buddha was repelled by Hinduism’s galaxy of deities, and he became disillusioned with extreme self-denial after practicing Jainism for six years. His new path would be secular. It must be reasonable, not fanatical, in taming the self. Given this frame of mind, the thorough system of secular ethics Solomon laid out in his proverbs would have been a solid foundation upon which Buddha could construct key facets of his new religion.
Importing the system of secular ethics of a well-known, respected sage from a foreign land far from India could have been an appealing choice for Buddha. The Shramana movement of Jainism was too focused on negatives—on passive rebellion against the predominant belief system—rather than on embracing something different as a positive alternative. Secular Judaism was an available alternative, and it would have been very natural for Buddha to have used it as a source of inspiration for his “Middle
Way” between ethically free-wheeling Hinduism and the radical asceticism of the Jains.
Hinduism and Jainism were diametrically opposed in numerous ways. Consider an extreme contrast: Hindu tantric sexuality versus Jain celibacy. Some Hindus engaged in tantric rituals involving intense, promiscuous sexuality, which they regarded as sacred.
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As an utter opposite, most Jains were total ascetics, vowing lifetime chastity
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as part of their withdrawal from the world in search of purity and truth. Buddha would have seen Judaic ethics about sex as a realistic middle ground between these two extremes. Get married; enjoy sex with your spouse; and be committed to only having sex with your spouse. That sort of sound approach is the stuff that could serve as the foundation of an ordered, flourishing society. Yes, there were many Hindu gods that honored traditional marriage, but there were also a large number of other Hindu gods to whom an Indian could turn for alternatives to conventional sexual mores. Judaism, on the other hand, offered just one true god and one consistent set of ethics. Buddhism stakes out a Middle Way between these two extremes by viewing marriage as a secular arrangement and not a sacrament.
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