Was Jesus really a Buddhist monk?

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Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. ~Gautama Buddha

Yes this may be shocking revelation but there is a lot of evidence. To begin, research shows Jesus might have survived the crucifixion. There are a few pointers to support this theory:

• Investigators say he might have been drugged / sedated on the cross which could have served as some kind of anesthetic to shield him from the pain and also give the impression of death.
• His body was brought down within a few hours when they are now proving that it takes a few days to die on a cross, because none of the internal organs are damaged in the process. Every year at Easter in the Philippines there are people, Christians of course, who volunteer to experience the pain of crucifixion which they believe purges their sins, but they don’t die from it. They are brought down within an hour or so; prolonged stay on the cross causes death more due to suffocation than bodily wounds. This is because the hands are stretched on both sides of the cross which flattens the chest and over time this can restrict airflow into the lungs, thus death occurs due to insufficient oxygen in the body. Still anyone crucified can survive much longer than Jesus was up in the cross. All the gospels said Jesus died after only 3-6 hours; the crucifixion began at the third hour. And then his body was brought down and sent to the tomb for embalming and burial. It is hard to die on a cross within that timeframe.
• The one who donated the tomb for Jesus’ burial was a rich man by the name Joseph of Arimathea. He and Nicodemus came by the night to prepare the body and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes of about a hundred pounds weight. These are curative herbs, not embalming herbs. Today it is the church of the holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem where Jesus was laid. It’s also said to be the site of his resurrection.

Resurrection or Resuscitation?

Perhaps due to the drug, or the shock from the crucifixion Jesus went into an induced coma or had a near death experience (NDE). In those days medical science wasn’t as advanced as today. Millions of people from all over the world are returning alive from coma, near death experiences, after having been certified clinically dead are taking an about turn and coming back to life today. They even claim having been on the other side, having a perception of timelessness, having seen or heard conversations they had no way of knowing or hearing during their out of body experiences, having been enveloped by an all loving light that they did not want to come back to life, but eventually found themselves back in the body. Many doctors, psychiatrists and surviving patients have written books and chronicled these experiences in research journals and other materials. So literally resurrections are happening all over the world now. Or perhaps what Jesus experienced was not really resurrection, but what medical terminologies call today, resuscitation.

I have researched on death, what happens after death, near death and out of body experiences extensively having read many books and met people during my travels across the globe, who recounted their NDE’s. So I would not be surprised if the same had happened to Jesus. When his body was taken into the tomb for burial, it is very possible that instead of embalming him, which is a process of anointing the body with oil and herbs to prepare the dead for the afterlife, perhaps they carried curative herbs that might have healed his bodily wounds. And that is why couple of days later they found an empty tomb with no body.

Nevertheless, the resurrection story is not completely false. Millions of people in the US and across the globe claim to have NDE’s and believe their comeback to life is a miracle. So this idea in the first century where there were no scientific insights or modern hospitals to check if he was clinically dead or not, it could have been assumed he was indeed dead, as he did not respond to the outside world and then came back from the afterlife. It doesn’t make them wrong to think that. Jesus himself might have thought the same.

All the gospels say the disciples saw Jesus as if he were alive. Hence his physical appearances post the crucifixion can be put into perspective here. The gospels describe how after his resurrection, he ate, drank and Thomas could even touch his wounds. So it wouldn’t be inappropriate to conclude that Jesus was alive and did not die on the cross. There are many versions of the story actually. According to John’s gospel the first person who had seen the risen Christ, the first Christian was Mary Magdalene. Then perhaps the apostles and some others who saw him physically, not in spirit.

But if this is true, it shakes the entire foundation of Christianity which is based on two miraculous factors: Jesus’ resurrection from death and physical ascension to heaven. Because people saw him alive physically after his body was taken for burial, that’s what they must have concluded in those days. But what if there was no physical ascension or resurrection? Christianity will always deny his humanness, but more research will perhaps lead us to the factual truth someday. Only time will tell. That said one cannot deny the highly evolved being that Jesus was, and his teachings were indeed very enlightening!

All four gospels have different versions of the story of Jesus witten by the Four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament bear the following titles: Gospel according to Matthew; Gospel according to Mark; Gospel according to Luke and Gospel according to John. Everything we know about Jesus comes from the four gospels. But nobody can be totally sure who really wrote them. In the beginning, the gospels circulated anonymously; there were no names attached to them.

But Jesus was condemned, hence he could not have continued to live in Palestine post the crucifixion. He had to find a way to flee and it was not difficult to take the silk route or the spice route for escape. They say he fled to India and settled down in Kashmir. Many Jewish settlements can be found in this area and apparently Jesus lived and died there until the age of 80. There is a tomb in Kashmir of his burial that faces East-West, the direction of the Jews although Kashmir is majorly a muslim state. There is a pair of footprints that has been preserved over the generations which happen to have the injury marks of crucifixion. There are a lot of speculations about this so perhaps a DNA test could finally reveal the truth for all. Read more about the Roza Bal Shrine in Kashmir where the locals claim his body is buried, here on BBC News.  

The lost years

The three wise men from the East who followed the star and presented their gifts to the baby Jesus could very well have been Buddhists. Because if we compare this story to the Buddhist traditions, when a great Lama dies, the wise men consult the stars and omens and make long journeys to find the child who is the reincarnation of the Lama, like an avatar. And when this child is old enough he’s taken away from his parents and educated in the Buddhist faith. This could be the origin of the story of the three wise men in the Bible. It is very possible that Jesus had been taken away as a child to India and taught the principles of Buddhism. Nicholas Notovich, the Russian writer traveling to India in the 19th century, discovered an ancient manuscript in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet and his book “The unknown life of Jesus Christ” tells of a divine child called Issa born in the first century to a poor family in Israel. Issa or Isa is the Arabic name for Jesus in Islam. Isa came to India at 14 and learned the laws of Buddhism, before returning to Israel at 29. Coincidentally, between the age of 14 and 29 there is no account of Jesus or his whereabouts in the gospels.

During those years, he is also touted to have visited many pilgrim spots in India like Varanasi, Puri, Rajagriha etc. until he finally travelled eastward, toward Tibet. There he was coached by Buddhist monks where he learned ways of healing and miracles. Undoubtedly Buddhism is 500 years older than Christianity, although Buddhism is not really a religion but a way of life! Furthermore, Jesus’ teachings had many similarities with the teachings and miracles of the Buddha. Loving your enemies and the idea that the meek would inherit the earth have zero origin in the Jewish tradition but are what Buddhism teaches; the Buddha was known to walk on water and miraculously feed hundreds of his disciples with only a few morsels of food. After learning, he returned to his country and within a couple of years the Roman governor Pontius Pilate ordered his crucifixion.

This could be another reason he went to India after the crucifixion. The Romans crucified Messiahs. So if Jesus did survive the ordeal, he had to flee his country. The Bible says he had a miraculous ascension as Jesus was taken bodily into heaven. The ascension  does not appear in the original form of the gospels though. The resurrection and ascension references by Mark were among the verses that were added 200 years later. The other gospels had varying versions.

Jesus Christ is not the original name of the savior. His original Hebrew name was Yahshua. His name in other languages are derivatives of his Hebrew name, Yahshua:

• Iesous – Greek
• Iesus – Latin
• Issa – Sanskrit / Arabic
• Yuza – Persian
• Jesus – English

People in Kashmir claim to be descendents of the lost tribes from Israel. They look Jewish with similar features. They believe the first century Yuz Asaf (or Youza Asouph), leader of the healed, who returned to Kashmir in his 30’s, was a prophet and messenger who came from Israel. He came to spread his teachings and lived and died there. He is Jesus and the meaning of Yuz Asaf is healer or shepherd, who died around 80AD and was buried in Srinagar. Below is a documentary on Jesus’ life in Kashmir by the Government of India:

The other side

Everything you just read has already been contradicted by others with facts and figures, some even claiming that Jesus was not a physical incarnate but just a mythical figure, perhaps a figment of imagination! And we can’t prove that wrong either. Of course this is an extremely controversial matter.

You see, when it comes to religion, no two cultures or people can come to any agreement. But how does it matter anyway? This stuff is eons old. We are still holding onto facts and figures from thousands of years ago and fighting with each other about what is right and what is not, which no one can prove really, because even modern techniques of past life regressions or channeling, would be termed as figments of imagination! And the gospels that compiled the original story of the Bible don’t agree with each other, either. When consciousness has evolved so much that today we have Jesus consciousness and Buddha consciousness amongst many in the world, why fight over mere facts?

To learn more about the other side, similarities between Christianity and other religions, the hidden story of Jesus, and more teachings similar to that of Jesus, watch this very intriguing video below:

We are all individuations of divinity, daughters and sons of God! Wouldn’t it be nice if we all treated each other that way? In Sanskrit there’s a saying: aham brahmasmi (अहं ब्रह्मास्मि) which says “I am Brahman” meaning, I am the infinite reality or I am the spirit soul!  Brahm in Sanskrit means ATOM, the smallest independent entity, of which this whole universe is made of, including us! Hence, we all have the creative energies within us. This is what both Jesus and Buddha were trying to teach us. But our awareness of that depends on how actualized we are. And that perhaps is the journey of life!

According to the teachings of Jesus: The Kingdom is not coming with signs to be observed. The Kingdom of God is within you.
The Gospel of Luke

According to the teachings of Buddha: To begin the journey in the Way… first, set yourself straight. You are your only master.
The Dhammapada

Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam or Christianity… our religion above all is Humanity! ~Baisakhi Saha

Happy Easter, folks!

Namaste: the god in me honors the god in you 🙏

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