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Occasionally I attend a Methodist Church. I see little dogmatic about it. They virtually never read from the Old Testament...it's virtually all New Testament.
What parts of the story of Siddhartha Gautama do you consider to be myth and legend?
Okay, I consider most if not all of it to be myth and legend, and it doesn’t diminish for me one bit the essence of the spiritual mystery behind them, but rather enhances them, because they aren't meant to be historical accounts. Their purpose is to convey that deeper meaning to us right here and right now. Not exclusively for some other people, place, and time.
I know that much of what is written about the Buddha and his former lives comes from older Indian folk tales, and those Jataka tales have become part of the Pali canon. I know that the Buddha, by way of the myth and legend of his life story, has been a saint of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches for over 1,000 years through the life accounts of Saints Barlaam and Ioasaph.
Some may use these examples as evidence that such and such religion stole this from that and so on, but this is really about the universal essence of the human spirit, and that spirit isn't exclusive but is inclusive. The fact is the origins of our religions are mythological no matter how complex metaphysically they become, and we all share the same human spirit so they are coming from the same source.
A recently canonized saint of the Orthodox Church, Nikolaj Velimirovicin, in 1917 expressed this inclusive spirit by saying in his treatise 'The Agony of the Church'; "Just this wonderful power of embracing and assimilating gives evidence of the vitality and universality of Christianity. It is too large in spirit to be clothed by one nation or one race only. It is too rich in spirit and destination to be expressed by one tongue, by one sign, or one symbol, or one form.”, but he also said “Whenever the Christian spirit is strong the Church is not afraid of worship being strange, and ample, and even grotesque. The weaker the Christian spirit, the greater exclusiveness in worship.”
Comments
This thread is weird and I no longer see the point of it, full stop.
I know that much of what is written about the Buddha and his former lives comes from older Indian folk tales, and those Jataka tales have become part of the Pali canon. I know that the Buddha, by way of the myth and legend of his life story, has been a saint of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches for over 1,000 years through the life accounts of Saints Barlaam and Ioasaph.
Some may use these examples as evidence that such and such religion stole this from that and so on, but this is really about the universal essence of the human spirit, and that spirit isn't exclusive but is inclusive. The fact is the origins of our religions are mythological no matter how complex metaphysically they become, and we all share the same human spirit so they are coming from the same source.
A recently canonized saint of the Orthodox Church, Nikolaj Velimirovicin, in 1917 expressed this inclusive spirit by saying in his treatise 'The Agony of the Church'; "Just this wonderful power of embracing and assimilating gives evidence of the vitality and universality of Christianity. It is too large in spirit to be clothed by one nation or one race only. It is too rich in spirit and destination to be expressed by one tongue, by one sign, or one symbol, or one form.”, but he also said “Whenever the Christian spirit is strong the Church is not afraid of worship being strange, and ample, and even grotesque. The weaker the Christian spirit, the greater exclusiveness in worship.”