People like to draw comparisons. They like to find
common ground and generalities (this is where I need the Nepali grammatical
form “inchha”—which designates a generality, but not without exceptions. The
above statements in English just seem like blanket statements that can be shot
through with holes). One common ground that people have pointed out to me within
Buddhism and Christianity are the concepts of compassion and suffering. Below, I imperfectly compare and contrast two stories, where both Jesus and the Buddha had moments of compassion, and
encountered suffering people.
First, this story is told within Buddhism:
Kisa
Gautami was a young woman from a wealthy family who was happily married to an
important merchant. When her only son was one-year-old, he fell ill and died
suddenly. Kisa Gautami was struck with grief, she could not bear the death of
her only child. Weeping and groaning, she took her dead baby in her arms and
went from house to house begging all the people in the town for news of a way
to bring her son back to life.
Of
course, nobody could help her but Kisa Gautami would not give up. Finally she
came across a Buddhist who advised her to go and see the Buddha himself.
When
she carried the dead child to the Buddha and told Him her sad story, He
listened with patience and compassion, and then said to her, "Kisa
Gautami, there is only one way to solve your problem. Go and find me four or
five mustard seeds from any family in which there has never been a death."
Kisa
Gautami was filled with hope, and set off straight away to find such a
household. But very soon she discovered that every family she visited had
experienced the death of one person or another. At last, she understood what
the Buddha had wanted her to find out for herself — that suffering is a part of
life, and death comes to us all. Once Kisa Guatami accepted the fact that death
is inevitable, she could stop her grieving. She took the child's body away and
later returned to the Buddha to become one of His followers.
Taken from www.buddhanet.net
Now, compare
and contrast that with this story of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke:
Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called
Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the
gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only
son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town
was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and
touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say
to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave
him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A
great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this
report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding
country.
So what similarities do you see between the two
stories? Both concern a mother who had lost her only child to death (albeit one
was a baby and one was a grown man). In both, Jesus and the Buddha are
catalysts to change within the story. Both Buddha and Jesus had “compassion,”
but that’s where the similarities leave off.
Every time the Bible records Jesus having
compassion, he does something: he feeds the hungry, he teaches people, he raises people from the dead. Compassion leads to actions. When
the Buddha has compassion, it about amounts to having nice thoughts about
whoever is speaking to him.
Both Jesus and Buddha encountered people who had
a problem, namely, an experience with death. In other versions of this story,
Buddha is sitting under a tree in the woods starving himself to death trying to
reach enlightenment when Gautami comes to him; yet in the story above, Jesus
initiates interaction with the funeral procession. In other stories, Jesus
enters into the suffering with people, goes into their houses and lives among
them. And of course, Jesus entered into the greatest suffering by bearing sin
on a cross. While the Buddha basically tells this distraught woman to
“suck it up—its your lot in life to suffer and experience death,” Jesus returned
the dead to the living (see also the records of Jairus’ daughter, and returning
Lazarus to Mary and Martha) and ultimately, his death and resurrection allow us
to experience eternal life, and not taste true death.
