Buddhist Influence on Jesus

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PHD 301 Did Buddhism influence Jesus and/or did he become a Buddhist doing his lost years? Jesus was many things: for most Christians, the Son of God and redeemer of their sins; a Jew; a prophet; a healer; a moralist; a revolutionary; and by his own admission, some would say, the Messiah. Also there is evidence that he studied Buddhism and/or was also a Buddhist. This evidence follows two dependent approaches; the first is historical, and the second is textual. Historical evidence specifies that Jesus was well acquainted with Buddhism. If Jesus did not go to India, then at least India went to Judea and Jesus. The real historical question is not if he studied Buddhism, but where and to what extent did he study Buddhism, especially during his so-called "lost years." Historical accounts notwithstanding, many textual analyses indicate striking similarities between what was said by Jesus and by Buddha and between the prophetic legend of Jesus and ancient Buddhist texts. The conclusion is that, although not identifying himself as a Buddhist for good reasons, Jesus spoke like a Buddhist. The similarities are so striking that, even if no historical evidence existed, we can suspect that Jesus studied Buddhist teachings and that the prophecy and legend of Jesus was derived from Buddhist stories. Some historical evidence, that we will look at, indicates that Jesus knew about Buddhism, simply because both he and it were in Judea during the same time. While other evidence, perhaps apocryphal, indicates that he spent most of his so-called lost years outside Judea, possibly in Kashmir. Archaically spelled Cashmere, Kashmir is the northwestern region of South Asia. In the first half of the 1st millennium, the Kashmir region became an important center of Hinduism and later of Buddhism. Concerning Buddhism in Judea, Jesus did not live in a rural,

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