Jesus Christ is Buddhist

The lost years of Jesus concerns the undocumented timespan between Jesus' childhood and the beginning of his ministry as recorded in the New Testament.

The gospels have accounts of event surrounding Jesus' birth, and the subsequent flight into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod (Matthew 2:13-23). There is a general reference to the settlement of Joseph and Mary, along with the young Jesus, at Nazareth (Matthew 2:23; Lk. 2:39-40). There also is that isolated account of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus' visit to the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, when Jesus was twelve years old (Luke 2:41-50).

Following that episode, there is a blank space in the record that covers eighteen years in the life of Christ (from age 12 to 30). Other than the generic allusion that Jesus advanced in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52), nothing is known of this time span. The normal assuumption is that Jesus simply lived in Nazareth during that period, but there are various pseudohistorical theories, popular among New Age adherents in particular, that present more adventurous scenarios, typically including travels to India. The Jesus in India idea appears to originate with Louis Jacolliot (1869) and has been repeated by numerous authors since, among them Nicolas Notovitch (1894), Levi H. Dowling (1908), Mathilde Ludendorff (1930) and more recently by Holger Kersten (1981, 1994), who however has Jesus travel to Kashmir not as a young man but after survivng his crucifixion.

Most of these theories are informed by the identification of Kashmiri saint Yuz Asaf with Jesus by the Ahmadiyya sect (founded 1889).

None of these theories are taken seriously in mainstream Biblical scholarship.

There is speculation concerning a possible connection between both the Buddha and the Christ, and between Buddhism and Christianity. Buddhism originated in India about 500 years before the Apostolic Age and the origins of Christianity. Scholars have explored connections between Buddhism and Christianity. Elaine Pagels, professor of religion at Princeton University, analyzes similarities between some Early Christian texts and Buddhism. Describing teachings in the non-canonical GnosticEhrman, Bart (2003). Lost Christianities. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. xi-xii. Gospel of Thomas, Pagels says, "Some of it looks like Buddhism, and may have in fact been influenced by a well-established Buddhist tradition at the time that these texts were first written." Albert Joseph Edmunds believed the Gospel of John to contain Buddhist conceptsBuddhist Texts Quoted as Scripture in the Gospel of John (1906) and others have compared the infancy account of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke to that of the Buddha in the later Lalitavistara Sutra. Godfrey Higgins claims in several of his books, that after Asoka's subtle mandate of Buddhist worship, Buddhist established themselves with the European outposts of Asoka's missionaries. During the life of Jesus Christ and the period in which texts like the Gospel of Thomas were composed, Buddhist missionaries lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Historians believe that in the fourth century, Christian monasticism developed in Egypt, and it emerged with a corresponding structure comparable to the Buddhist monasticism of its time and place.

In his book, Bible Myths, and their parallels in other religions, Thomas WIlliam Doane states "The mythological portions of the histories of Buddha and Jesus are, without doubt, nearer in resemblance than that of any two characters of antiquity"

In the thirteenth century, international travelers, such as Giovanni de Piano Carpini and William of Ruysbroeck, sent back reports of Buddhism as a religion whose scriptures, doctrine, saints, monastic life, meditation practices, and rituals were comparable to those of Christianity and of Nestorian Christian communities in close proximity to traditionally Buddhist communities.Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2004, page 160 When European Christians made more direct contact with Buddhism in the early 16th century many Catholic missionaries (e.g. Francis Xavier) sent home idyllic accounts of Buddhism. At the same time, however, Portuguese colonizers of Sri Lanka confiscated Buddhist properties across the country, with the full cooperation of the Christian missionaries. This repression of Buddhism in Sri Lanka continued during the rule of subsequently the Dutch and the English. Portuguese historian Diego De Conto reminded the Vatican that their Christian Saint Josaephat was actually the Buddha.Father and Son East is West

With the arrival of Sanskrit studies in European universities in the late eighteenth century, and the subsequent availability of Buddhist texts, a discussion began of a proper encounter with Buddhism. The esteem for its teachings and practices grew, and at the end of the 19th century the first Westerners (e.g. Sir Edwin Arnold and Henry Olcott) converted to Buddhism, and in the beginning of the 20th century the first westerners (e.g. Ananda Metteyya and Nyanatiloka) entered the Buddhist monastic life..

In the 20th century Christian monastics such as Thomas Merton, Wayne Teasdale, David Steindl-Rast and the former nun Karen Armstrong,http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200103u/int2001-03-21 Armstrong on Buddhism & Christianity and Buddhist monastics such as Ajahn Buddhadasa, Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama have put energy into Buddhist/Christian dialogue.W.L. King, Buddhism and Christianity: Some Bridges of Understanding, Philadelphia, 1963. They each see in the otherwise disparate teachings of Jesus and the Buddha a basic commonality of insight and purpose which offers the possibility of profound remedy to an ailing world.The Dalai Lama,The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus, ISBN 0-86171-138-6Thich Nhat Hahn, Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers, 1999. ISBN 1573228303 The historian of world culture Arnold Toynbee has speculated that in centuries to come the encounter between Christianity and Buddhism may come to be seen as the momentous event of the 20th century.Arthur Versluis, American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions, 1993.

Barlaam and Josaphat is a Christianized version of the story of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. In the Middle Ages the two were treated as Christian saints, being entered in the Greek Orthodox calendar on 26 August, and in the Roman Martyrology in the Western Church as "Barlaam and Josaphat" on the date of 27 November.

According to the legend, King Abenner or Avenier in India persecuted the Christian Church in his realm, founded by the Apostle Thomas. When astrologers predicted that his own son would some day become a Christian, Abenner had the young prince Josaphat isolated from external contact. Despite the imprisonment, Josaphat met the hermit Saint Barlaam and converted to Christianity. Josaphat kept his faith even in the face of his father's anger and persuasion. Eventually Abenner converted, turned over his throne to Josaphat, and retired to the desert to become a hermit. Josaphat himself later abdicated and went into seclusion with his old teacher Barlaam.The Golden Legend: The Story of Barlaam and Josaphat