Since we project all the gods and other imaginary beings, we can rearrange them for different narrative purposes. In a film of the Mahabharata, the actor playing Krishna holds an elephant mask in front of his face and says, "Sri Ganesha at your service!" In the Gita, Krishna says that the gods are His million faces whereas an Indian Jesuit suggested that the Hindu gods were the man on the road to Emmaus. Whose face is behind all the masks? Maybe we need a mirror?
Hinduism incorporates the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu alongside Rama and Krishna and could incorporate Christ in the same way. A master in a Zen story said that whoever preached the Sermon on the Mount was "not far from Buddhahood." Jesus is a Prophet of Islam.
However, examples need not be multiplied.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I don't believe in or accept any kind of syncretism of this sort, of Christianity being absorbed or morphed into Hinduism. I remember the Catholic French crown prince shaking his head in polite, but firm refusal of any such notions in Stirling's THE PESHAWAR LANCERS.
It would be more accurate and correct to say some Zen Buddhists came close to CHRISTIAN beliefs. Because Catholic Christianity does not deny whatever elements of truth may sometimes be found in other philosophies or faiths.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
The "close to Buddhahood" is a humorous but also respectful acknowledgment of another tradition rather than any sort of claim of superiority.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But I had more in mind how, in some ways, Catholics and Buddhists can agree more often with each other than they ever will with Hinduism. And I do believe Catholicism is true in fundamental ways where Buddhism is not.
Ad astra! Sean
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