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Was the Buddha a Jew?
betaboy
Veteran
His shunyata is devoid of forms, body, it is not a material reality etc. Isn't this similar to yahweh, who is also devoid of forms? So what Buddha called emptiness ... was he on some mystical level experiencing Yahweh?
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This "experiencing Yahweh", I've never heard that before. Is that a mystical branch of Judaism?
His real name was Sid Darte Goda Mayer.
LOL.
If I put my responsible hat on, I would have to say....
According to what I have been taught, Emptiness is not a transcendent creative source like God. That idea is put aside in practice. There is no such thing (or no-thing) called "Emptiness" apart from Form. Emptiness is the nature of Form. It is a tricky subject that, IMHO, is best approached with the guidance of a teacher, because it is not a metaphysical truth, but an understanding for practice.
YAHWEH was a jealous god, who ordered the deaths of thousands of Israelites after the erection of the golden calf.
Yahweh traveled to the promised land and helped them win the victory over the indigenous population of canaan. Deut...chap 3 and4. It was a massacre.
The time of kings and judges came next and it is no secret that solomon and his kingdom believed in a Pantheon of gods, such as baal. And the belief of yahweh was thin compare to other gods of the nations history. Yahweh was no more than an Israelites war God. His erected temple was small compare to the king's harem.
El, adonai, elohim, yahweh?
So so many...not to mention hundreds of years of revision, adoption and corruption of books.
I am simply pointing out that judaism adopted various beliefs and yes, at certain points in their histories they had several gods, because they were living beside the indigenous. Judaism as you know it today is monotheist, largely because of revisions to their books.
I was only giving a little history to another interpretation to Yahweh for the op.
The stories are very identical.
The concept as a whole is an interesting one - is the Buddhist guide to reality in fact another way of expressing a universal deity? Strictly on construction, the 2 are certainly not incompatible... if the proposition is true then I suppose it could be akin to describing your day in 2 different languages... saying the same thing in different ways.
..I need my center to be a monotheistic God and he has to meet certain characteristics in order for me to believe...omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient...etc.
Buddhaism has helped me get closer and if I studies it alone, I fear that I would easily fall into nihilism.
But this is my experience.
Back to topic.