Below is a small sampling of excerpts from the writings,
inscribed on stone steles, ordered by Ashoka, third emperor of
the Mauryan dynasty (India and as far east as Iran). These “Rock Edicts” were placed as widely
apart as 2000 miles across this huge empire from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Kandahar,
At least one was inscribed in Greek and Aramaic. Ashoka was a
Buddhist, who valued all beliefs’ moral teaching. He died more than 200 years
before the birth of Christ
“Meritorious is obedience to mother and father. Moderation
in expenditure (and) moderation in possessions are meritorious.”
“But the just man does not value either gifts or honors so
(highly) as (this), that a promotion of the essentials of all beliefs should
take place. But its root is this: guarding (one's) speech, (i.e.) that neither
praising one's own (belief) nor blaming other (beliefs) sects should take place,
but other sects ought to be honored in every way.
“If one is acting otherwise than thus, he is both hurting
his own religion and wronging others as well. For whosoever praises his own religion
or blames others — all (this) even if out of pure devotion to his own belief —
if he is acting thus, he rather injures his own sect very severely. But concord
is meritorious, (i.e.) that they should both hear and obey each other's morals.”
“Obedience to mother and father, obedience to elders, proper
courtesy to friends, acquaintances, companions, and relatives, ...piety and self-mastery
in all the schools of thought; and he who is master of his tongue is most
master of himself.(italics are mine) And let them neither praise
themselves or disparage their neighbors in any matter whatsoever, for that is
vain fact hurting themselves. It behooves one to respect one another and to
accept one another's lessons.
Socrates
Socrates, born in the fifth century BCE, even predating
Ashoka, died in 399 BCE of his own hand rather than recant his philosophical
beliefs. His great “sin” was teaching the young to think for themselves and
question dogma. Although he never outright rejected the standard Athenian view
of religion, Socrates' beliefs were nonconformist. He often referred to God
rather than the gods and reported being guided by an “inner divine voice”. He
lived and taught in relative poverty, most of his students being young and of
somewhat similar circumstance.
Since he wrote nothing, most of what we
know of Socrates words come from the “dialogues” of Plato and Xenophon. This is
further complicated by the fact that Aristophanes, the dramatist, used the character
in several plays which provide divergent views of Socrates, although Aristophanes,
being a satirist, often skewed the nature of those he limned in plays.
In 399 BC,
Socrates went on trial and was subsequently found guilty of both “Corrupting
the minds of the youth of Athens and of “impiety” for "not believing in
the gods of the state". As punishment, he was sentenced to death: the
drinking of a mixture containing poison hemlock. He did this rather than flee
Athens. In other words, he died for
his beliefs and teachings, condemned by those who favored the traditional state
religion. Sound familiar?
From Plato, ascribed to Socrates:
“You are mistaken my friend, if you think that a man who is
worth anything ought to spend his time weighing up the prospects of life and
death. He has only one thing to consider in performing any action — that is,
whether he is acting right or wrongly, like a good man or a bad one.”
“the unexamined life is not worth living.”
“One's true happiness is promoted by doing what is right. When
your true utility is served (by tending your soul), you are achieving
happiness. Happiness is evident only in terms of a long-term effect on the soul.”
I mention
Socrates primarily because his method of teaching was to encourage students (“disciples” –
the word isn’t religious, as many believe, but simply means “a follower or
student of a teacher, leader, or philosopher “) to question dogma in search of
truth. This is precisely what is ascribed to Jesus, for example: “But who do you
say that I am?” Pure Socratic method.
Socrates also used the parable, or story
with a moral, as a teaching medium. He was far from unique in this, considering
that Aesop’s fables (6th century BCE) are also moral teaching tools.
In fact, this whole essay is the result of reaction to the arrogant assumption which
many modern Evangelical Christians believe, which is that Jesus was the
originator of the parable, or that he originated those ascribed to him in the Gospels.
Neither is true. More on the “parable hoax”
later.
Buddha:
Siddhartha Gautama was the son of a king, raised in
sheltered opulence following his birth in Lumbini, Nepal, in about 567 BCE. On a carriage ride outside his palaces he
first saw a sick person, then an old man, then a corpse. This was his revelation,
that privileged status would not protect him from sickness, old age, and death.
Siddhartha renounced his worldly life and began a spiritual quest. Eventually,
he realized that the path to peace was through mental discipline. According to
tradition, he sat in meditation beneath a Ficus tree, “the Bodhi tree,” until
he awakened, or realized enlightenment. From that time on, he would be known as
the Buddha. In his search for self-awareness (enlightenment) he taught, using
(wait for it) parables. And developing some guidelines for moral living and achieving
inner peace.
Without diving too deeply into Buddhist doctrine: in Theravada Buddhism ― the dominant school of southeast Asia ― it is thought
there is only one buddha per “age of humankind”; The buddha of the current age
is the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. There are other major traditions
of Buddhism, called Mahayana and Vajrayana, and these traditions put no limits
on the number of buddhas there can be. However, for practitioners of Mahayana
and Vajrayana Buddhism the ideal is to be a “bodhisattva”, one who vows to
remain in the world until all beings are enlightened. (and a pretty good Steely
Dan song).
So, what did the Buddha teach?
·
Refrain from taking life. Not killing any living
being. ...
·
Refrain from taking what is not given. Not
stealing from anyone.
·
Refrain from the misuse of the senses. Not
having too much sensual pleasure. ...
·
Refrain from wrong speech. Not lying or
gossiping about other people.
·
Refrain from intoxicants that cloud the mind.
Notice how similar these are to the “commandments?” What is missing is the systematic relegation
of women to secondary status found in essentially all other contemporaneous
religions.
The four vices:
1. The destruction of
life
2. Stealing
3. Sexual misconduct
4. Lying
The four things which lead to evil:
1. Desire, meaning
greed, lust, clinging
2. Anger and hatred
3. Ignorance
4. Fear and anxiety
But the common
man or woman was not the only one for whom Buddha provided guidance. I especially like the tone of the advice he
held for temporal rulers:
The Ten Duties of a King - From the Pali Jatakas (scriptures
developed from Buddhist teachings:
1. Dana: Liberality, generosity, charity, concern with
the welfare of the people.
2. Sila: High moral character, observing at least the
Five Precepts.
3. Parccaga: Willing to sacrifice everything for the
people -- comfort, fame, even his life.
4. Ajjava: Honesty and integrity, not fearing some or
favoring others.
5. Maddava: Kindness and gentleness.
6. Tapa: Austerity, content in the simple life.
7. Akkodha: Free from hatred, ill-will, and anger.
8. Avihimsa: Non-violence, a commitment to peace.
9. Khanti: Patience, tolerance, and the ability to
understand others’ perspectives.
10. Avirodha: Non-obstruction, ruling in harmony with the
will of the people and in their best interests.
Sound like virtues we should seek out and treasure in a President,
don’t they? Every single one of these is exemplified in the opposite
by Donald Trump
Now, as
promised, the rest of the parable “paradox” (sounds better than hoax). The point
here is that many fundamentalist Christians use the parables ascribed to Jesus in
the New Testament Gospels and believe that Jesus was the greatest teacher and
story-teller of all because he invented the story with a moral lesson, No, just
no. Plato’s parable of the cave, (third century BCE), preceded Jesus by centuries.
“But wait, how about Jesus’ ‘original’ ones, you know, like the Prodigal Son?”
Plagiarized, probably not by Jesus, who may (or may not have even told it, but
by the writer of Luke, himself a Greek speaker
who got 70% of his material, according to modern scriptologists from Mark, who doesn’t
mention it. Odd, huh? Of course, neither man actually knew Jesus, anyway, and
were writing, at a minimum, a generation after his death.
Below is the Buddhist “original” of that parable, which may
have been known to Greek intellectuals. Why? Because Plato is said to have left
Athens after Socrates’ death and traveled extensively in Asia Minor and Egypt.
There is speculation that during this period of ten years he might well have come in
contact with Indian religious philosophy, i.e. Buddhism. Plato’s own “Cave”
parable appears in volume 7 of “The Republic” written after his
eastern travels.
The Lost Son
"There was a
householder's son who went away into a distant country, and while the father
accumulated immeasurable riches, the son became miserably poor. And the son,
while searching for food and clothing, happened to come to the country in which
his father lived. The father saw him in his wretchedness, for he was ragged and
brutalized by poverty, and ordered some of his servants to call him. When the
son saw the place to which he was conducted, he thought, "I must have
evoked the suspicion of a powerful man, and he will throw me into prison."
Full of apprehension he made his escape before he had seen his father.
Then the father
sent messengers out after his son, who was caught and brought back in spite of
his cries and lamentations. Thereupon the father ordered his servants to deal
tenderly with his son, and he appointed a laborer of his son's rank and
education to employ the lad as a helpmate on the estate. And the son was
pleased with his new situation. From the window of his palace the father
watched the boy, and when he saw that he was honest and industrious, he promoted
him higher and higher.
After some
time, he summoned his son and called together all his servants, and made the
secret known to them. Then the poor man was exceedingly glad, and he was full
of joy at meeting his father. Just so, little by little, must the minds of men
be trained for higher truths."
A few minor adjustments by Luke, maybe 400 years later and…!
“Lost” becomes “Prodigal” and Bob’s your uncle!
Here with some minor tweaks but essentially the same message
is the Good Samaritan with a bit of Mosaic fiction thrown in
“But the
Bodhisattva said to himself, "If I lose heart, all these will perish, and
walked about while the morning was yet cool. On seeing a tuft of kusa-grass, he
thought: "This could have grown only by soaking up some water which must
be beneath it." And he made them bring a spade and dig in that spot. And
they dug sixty cubits deep. ( Here it must be noted that the unit “cubit” was
never used in India and has no corresponding meaning in Pali, I point this out
because it seems to indicate that the unit was translated as “cubit”, probably
by the Greeks) And when they had got
thus far, the spade of the diggers struck on a rock; and as soon as it struck,
they all gave up in despair. But the Bodhisattva thought, "There must be
water under that rock," and descending into the well he got on the stone
and stooping down applied his ear to it and tested the sound of it. He heard
the sound of water gurgling beneath, and when he got out, he called his page.
"My lad, if you give up now, we shall all be lost. Do not lose heart. Take
this iron hammer, and go down into the pit, and give the rock a good
blow.
The lad obeyed,
and though they all stood by in despair, he went down full of determination and
struck at the stone. The rock split in two and fell below, so that it no longer
blocked the stream, and water rose till its depth from the bottom to the brim
of the well was equal to the height of a palm-tree. And they all drank of the water
and bathed in it. Then they cooked rice and ate it and fed their oxen with it.
And when the sun set, they put a flag in the well, and went to the place
appointed. There they sold their merchandise at a good profit and returned to
their home.
After the Teacher
had told the story he formed the connection by saying in conclusion,
"The caravan the Bodhisattva, the future Buddha; the page who at that time
despaired not, but broke the stone, and gave water to the multitude, was this
brother without perseverance; and the other men were attendants on the
Buddha."
Several parables in one here: but all these concepts are used
in the Gospel parables.
The Sower
"Bharadvaja, a wealthy Brahman farmer, was celebrating his
harvest-thanksgiving when the Blessed One came with his alms-bowl, begging for
food. Some of the people paid him reverence, but the Brahman was angry and
said: "samana, it would be more fitting for you to go to work than to beg.
I plough and sow, and having ploughed and sown, I eat. If you did likewise,
you, too, would have something to eat."
The Tathagatha (honorific title of a buddha) answered him
and said: "Brahman, I too, plough and sow, and having ploughed and sown, I
eat." "Do you profess to be a husbandman?" replied the Brahman.
"Where, then, are your bullocks? Where is the seed and the plough?"
The Blessed One said: "Faith is the seed I sow: good
works are the rain that fertilizes it; wisdom and modesty are the plough; my
mind is the guiding-rein; I lay hold of the handle of the law; earnestness is
the goad I use, and exertion is my draught-ox. This ploughing is ploughed to
destroy the weeds of illusion. The harvest it yields is the immortal fruits of
Nirvana, and thus all sorrow ends." Then the Brahman poured rice-milk into
a golden bowl and offered it to the Blessed One, saying: "Let the Teacher
of mankind partake of the rice-milk, for the venerable Gautama ploughs a
ploughing that bears the fruit of immortality."
And, straight out of John: 4 (but centuries earlier)
The Woman at the Well
"Ananda, the favorite disciple of the Buddha, having been
sent by the Lord on a mission, passed by a well near a village, and seeing
Pakati, a girl of the Matanga caste, he asked her for water to drink. Pakati
said: "Brahman, I am too humble and mean to give you water to drink, do
not ask any service of me lest your holiness be contaminated, for I am of low
caste." And Ananda replied: "I ask not for caste but for water";
and the Matanga girl's heart leaped joyfully and she gave Ananda to drink.
Ananda thanked her and went away; but she followed him at a
distance. Having heard that Ananda was a disciple of Gautama Sakyamuni, the
girl repaired to the Blessed One and cried: "Lord help me, and let me live
in the place where Ananda your disciple dwells, so that I may see him and
minister to him, for I love Ananda." The Blessed One understood the
emotions of her heart and he said: "Pakati, your heart is full of love,
but you understand not your own sentiments. It is not Ananda that you love, but
his kindness. Accept, then, the kindness you have seen him practice to you, and
in the humility of your station practice it to others. Verily there is great
merit in the generosity of a king when he is kind to a slave; but there is a
greater merit in the slave when he ignores the wrongs which he suffers and
cherishes kindness and good-will to all mankind. He will cease to hate his
oppressors, and even when powerless to resist their usurpation will with
compassion pity their arrogance and supercilious demeanor."
The Hungry Dog
"There was a great king who oppressed his people and was
hated by his subjects; yet when the Tathagatha came into his kingdom, the king
desired much to see him. So, he went to the place where the Blessed One stayed
and asked: "Sakyamuni, can you teach a lesson to the king that will divert
his mind and benefit him at the same time?"
And the Blessed One said: "I shall tell you the parable
of the hungry dog: There was a wicked tyrant; and the god Indra, assuming the
shape of a hunter, came down on earth with the demon Matali, the latter
appearing as a dog of enormous size. Hunter and dog entered the palace, and the
dog howled so woefully that the royal buildings shook by the sound to their
very foundations. The tyrant had the awe-inspiring hunter brought before his
throne and inquired after the cause of the terrible bark. The hunter said,
"The dog is hungry," whereupon the frightened king ordered food for him.
All the food prepared at the royal banquet disappeared rapidly in the dog's
jaws, and still he howled with portentous significance. More food was sent for,
and all the royal storehouses were emptied, but in vain. Then the tyrant grew
desperate and asked: 'Will nothing satisfy the cravings of that woeful beast?'
"Nothing," replied the hunter, nothing except perhaps the flesh of
all his enemies.' 'And who are his enemies?' anxiously asked the tyrant. The
hunter replied: 'The dog will howl as long as there are people hungry in the
kingdom, and his enemies are those who practice injustice and oppress the
poor." The oppressor of the people, remembering his evil deeds, was seized
with remorse, and for the first time in his life he began to listen to the
teachings of righteousness."
Having ended his story, the Blessed One addressed the king,
who had turned pale, and said to him: "The Tathagatha can quicken the
spiritual ears of the powerful, and when you, great king, hear the dog bark,
think of the teachings of the Buddha, and you may still learn to pacify the
monster."
The Marriage-Feast in Jambunada (or the wedding in Canaa?)
"There was a man in Jambunada who was to be married the next
day, and he thought, "Would that the Buddha, the Blessed One, might be
present at the wedding." And the Blessed One passed by his house and met
him, and when he read the silent wish in the heart of the bridegroom, he
consented to enter. When the When the Holy One appeared with the retinue of his
many bhikkhus, the host, whose means were limited, received them as best he
could, saying: "Eat, my Lord, and all your congregation, according to your
desire."
While the holy men ate, the meats and drinks remained
undiminished, and the host thought to himself: "How wondrous is this! I
should have had plenty for all my relatives and friends. Would that I had
invited them all. all." When this thought was in the host's mind, all his
relatives and friends entered the house; and although the hall in the house was
small there was room in it for all of them. They sat down at the table and ate,
and there was more than enough for all of them. The Blessed One was pleased to
see so many guests full of good cheer and he quickened them and gladdened them
with words of truth, proclaiming the bliss of righteousness:
(Part wedding miracle and part feeding the 5,000!)
"The greatest happiness which a mortal man can imagine
is the bond of marriage that ties together two loving hearts. But there is a
greater happiness still: it is the embrace of truth. Death will separate
husband and wife, but death will never affect him who has espoused the truth. Therefore,
be married to the truth and live with the truth in holy wedlock. The husband
who loves his wife and desires for a union that shall be everlasting must be
faithful to her so as to be like truth itself, and she will rely on him and revere
him and minister to him. And the wife who loves her husband and desires a union
that shall be everlasting must be faithful to him so as to be like truth
itself; and he will place his trust in her, he will provide for her. Verily, I
say to you, their children will become like their parents and will bear witness
to their happiness. Let no man be single, let everyone be wedded in holy love
to the truth. And when Mara, the destroyer, comes to separate the visible forms
of your being, you will continue to live in the truth, and will partake of the
life everlasting, for the truth is immortal.
There was no one among the guests but was strengthened in
his, spiritual life, and recognized the sweetness of a life of righteousness;
and they took refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha."
Walking On Water
"South of Savatthi is a great river, on the banks of which
lay a hamlet of five hundred houses. Thinking of the salvation of the people,
the World-honored One resolved to go to the village and preach the doctrine.
Having come to the riverside he sat down beneath a tree, and the villagers
seeing the glory of his appearance approached him with reverence; but when he
began to preach, they believed him not.
When the world-honored Buddha had left Savatthi Sariputta
felt a desire to see the Lord and to hear him preach. Coming to the river where
the water was deep and the current strong, he said to himself: "This
stream shall not prevent me. I shall go and see the Blessed One, and he stepped
on the water which was as firm under his feet as a slab of granite. When he
arrived at a place in the middle of the stream where the waves were high,
Sariputta's (Peter’s?) heart gave way, and he began to sink. But rousing his
faith and renewing his mental effort, he proceeded as before and reached the
other bank.
The people of the village were astonished to see Sariputta,
and they asked how he could cross the stream where there was neither a bridge
nor a ferry. Sariputta replied: "I lived in ignorance till I heard the
voice of the Buddha. As I was anxious to hear the doctrine of salvation, I
crossed the river and I walked over its troubled waters because I had faith.
Faith. nothing else, enabled me to do so, and now I am here in the bliss of the
Master's presence."
The World-honored One added: "Sariputta, you have
spoken well. Faith like yours alone can save the world from the yawning gulf of
migration and enable men to walk dryshod to the other shore."
Some coincidences, wouldn’t you say? Or perhaps just Plagiarism.
So, what’s the takeaway
here? Actually, there are several.
Parables as, moral teaching tools are not even close to being original
with Christianity.
The concepts in the parables attributed to Jesus are not
original, nor are they necessarily Christian.
Finally, I think it likely that the Greek speakers who wrote
the Gospels long after Jesus death, may have embroidered what little (if any)
actual written material they had, with moral lessons via parable “poaching”
from Buddhist practice and scripture.
The same is true of the “Golden Rule.”
Not originally Abrahamic even, never mind Christian. In fact, circa 1800 BCE an Egyptian parable known as "Eloquent peasant" story has been said to have the earliest known golden rule saying: "Do to the doer to cause that he do." Confucius stated it in
writing 500 years before Jesus is alleged to have said it, to be recorded 70
years later. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not
do to others”. An English paraphrase would be “do unto others as you would want
them to do unto you.”
Don’t show this
to your Fundamentalist friends. They won’t care for it. They like to think they’re
the only moral people on the planet.
