Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? (10 page)
Read Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? Online
Authors: R. E. Sherman
This pairing makes a great deal of sense, in that:
(1) One’s view of the world has a big impact on (2) one’s intentions about how to live.
(3) One’s words reflect what is inside and precede (4) one’s actions.
(5) One’s livelihood is the training ground for learning how to direct (6) one’s efforts.
(7) Learning to be mindful and focused is key to (8) practicing meditation (concentration).
As part of the beginning of each step in the Noble Eightfold Path, a quotation from a popular Buddhist website
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describing that step introduces our discussion of it in the text.
Right View
“To grasp
the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects
and ideas, and to understand
the law of karma and karmic conditioning.”
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Solomon believed it was absolutely critical that a person have a right view of this world and this life:
Get wisdom! Get understanding!
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The theme of pursuing wisdom is central throughout his Book of Proverbs, especially in the opening chapters that set the stage for the book. Buddha had the same sense that becoming freed from ignorance was a critical priority for the seeker of enlightenment:
But there is a taint worse than all taints,—ignorance is the greatest taint. O mendicants! throw off that taint, and become taintless!
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Why is ignorance the greatest impurity? Shouldn’t it be intentional wickedness? Perhaps the reason is that what causes a person to become wicked is immersion and attachment to this world. Those attached to the world are ignorant of its delusions and prone to fall into wickedness; to renounce the world and be pure, one must dispel ignorance. That notion is implied in the following series of Buddha’s proverbs:
Come, look at this glittering world, like unto a royal chariot; the foolish are immersed in it, but the wise do not touch it.
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O man, know this, that the unrestrained are in a bad state; take care that greediness and vice do not bring thee to grief for a long time!
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There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.
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To Solomon, ignorance and error come upon a person not because of innocence, but because they fall for the invitations of “the adulteress,” who symbolizes the false allures of this world:
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman; they will keep you from the adulteress, from the
wayward wife with her seductive words. At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in. Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. (She is loud and defiant, her feet never stay at home; now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.) She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: “I have fellowship offerings at home; today I fulfilled my vows. So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you! I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let’s drink deep of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.” With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.
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In this passage, much as in the proverbs of Buddha, the young man is portrayed as foolishly chasing worldly pleasures that will lead to his own ruin. Comparing him to an animal about to be slaughtered or trapped, Solomon makes it clear that the young man is ignorant of what his true situation is and the danger he is in. As in Buddha’s proverbs, the world is a delusion, and the wise person will realize this and renounce its false attractions.
In any event, ignorance and error will not excuse a person from the suffering that will result from them. This is certainly true for Solomon’s foolish young man, and it is also true for Buddha. The Dhammapada puts it this way:
They who fear when they ought not to fear, and fear not when they ought to fear, such men, embracing false doctrines, enter the evil path.
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They who forbid when there is nothing to be forbidden, and forbid not when there is something to be forbidden, such men, embracing false doctrines, enter the evil path.
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Buddha also placed great importance on having a “Right View” of this world and of life. To him, this was the most important starting point in the path toward nirvana:
They who know what is forbidden as forbidden, and what is not forbidden as not forbidden, such men, embracing the true doctrine, enter the good path.
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There are several aspects to the Right View that Buddha espoused, and for which we find parallels in Solomon. Each is covered in a separate section below.
The Irreality of Existence
Solomon decried all of existence as being futile and absent of reality and substance:
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
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The Hebrew word translated as “meaningless” in the New International Version appears differently in other Bible translations. In the New American Standard Bible, Young’s Literal, and Darby versions, it is translated as “vanity.” Vanity is defined as a “lack of real value; hollowness; worthlessness.” In the Amplified Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:2 is translated, “Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities, says the Preacher. Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities! All is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and vainglory).” In The Message, this verse reads, “Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.] There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke.”
Buddha used very similar imagery:
Look upon the world as a bubble, look upon it as a mirage.
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This world is dark, few only can see here; a few only go to heaven, like birds escaped from the net.
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There is no path through the air, a man is not a Samana by outward acts. The world delights in vanity, the Tathagatas (the Buddhas) are free from vanity.
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Solomon lamented the tedious nature of all things and of life:
All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
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Buddha struck a similar theme in the following three proverbs. To him, all objects in the physical world were “created,” or “composite” things, that is, made up of different elements. They were not permanent because they would always eventually decompose, or “fall apart.” They were not eternal:
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“All created things perish,” he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity.
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“All created things are grief and pain,” he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way that leads to purity.
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“All forms are unreal,” he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way that leads to purity.
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Buddha’s “created” things, sometimes translated “compounded” or “composite” things, are very much like the smoke and vanity Solomon found in everyday life. In response to this insight, Solomon focused on the great value of right states of
being
as opposed to
having,
as wealth is illusory:
He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.
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This proverb claims that the direct consequence of trusting in the path of righteousness is that a person will thrive like a flourishing plant. In other words, wisdom does not reside in gaining wealth, but in being righteous. The theme is a recurring one in Solomon. For example:
Buddha noted:
There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.
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So the path to purity is open to those who realize that the attractions of this world are very hazardous.
The Cyclical Nature of Life
Unlike the authors of nearly all of the rest of the Old Testament, Solomon viewed all of life as being cyclical and repetitive:
Buddha also had a cyclical view of life, as was very common in India. He saw life as a wearisome series of repetitive beginnings and endings:
Looking for the maker of this tabernacle, I shall have to run through a course of many births, so long as I do not find (him); and painful is birth again and again. But now, maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge-pole is sundered; the mind, approaching the Eternal (visankhara, nirvana), has attained to the extinction of all desires.
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Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.
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Although Buddha believed in reincarnation and Solomon did not, their ideas about the weariness and unending toils of life were very similar. What Buddha saw as a cycle that manifested in repeated lifetimes, Solomon simply saw as patterns repeating throughout the generations.
Men Are Like Animals
Again, unlike nearly all the other authors of the Old Testament, Solomon’s views on the similarities between people and animals were very much in line with Hinduism:
I also thought, “As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”
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Durant, commenting on Hinduism’s views on the same topic, wrote: “To the Hindu mind there was no real gap between animals and men; animals as well as men had souls, and souls were perpetually passing from men into animals, and back again; all
these species were woven into one infinite web of Karma and reincarnation.”
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Oddly, however, none of Buddha’s proverbs touch on this point. One current Buddhist source on this issue says that “there is no clear distinction between non-humans and humans in Buddhist philosophy. Eons of transmigration have had a predictable result: today’s duck and dog are yesterday’s human sisters and brothers. Each cow and chicken was at some point one’s parent, and to harm one’s parent is a particularly base act for Buddhists. All species are also subject to the same karmic process.”
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So we can assume that this concept was so widely accepted by Buddha and his followers that he felt no need to discuss it.