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Was Jesus the Maitreya Buddha?

maitreya buddha

If we examine Siddhartha Gotamas prophesy of the future Buddha, we may find evidence that he was predicting the life of Jesus the Nazarite. Siddhartha Gotama called the future Buddha Metteyya, which was later translated into Sanskrit as Maitreya. He also predicted the future Buddha to arrive 500 years after him (DN 26.25).  Well, Jesus the Nazarite came 500 years after Siddhartha Gotama. 

Cakkavatti Sutta

The Wheel-turning Emperor (DN 26.25)

In the past, unskillful behavior was unknown among the human race... Over the course of time, though, they began behaving in various unskillful ways. This caused the human life span gradually to shorten, to the point where it now stands at 100 years, with human beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength decreasing proportionately. In the future, as morality continues to degenerate, human life will continue to shorten... Among those human beings, the ten courses of action (see AN X.176) will have entirely disappeared... The word 'skillful' will not exist, so from where will there be anyone who does what is skillful? Those who lack the honorable qualities of motherhood, fatherhood, contemplative-hood, & priest-hood will be the ones who receive homage... Fierce hatred will arise, fierce malevolence, fierce rage, & murderous thoughts: mother for child, child for mother, father for child, child for father, brother for sister, sister for brother. Ultimately, conditions will deteriorate to the point of a sword-interval, in which swords appear in the hands of all human beings, and they hunt one another like game.

A few people, however, will take shelter in the wilderness to escape the carnage, and when the slaughter is over, they will come out of hiding and resolve to take up a life of skillful and virtuous action again. With the recovery of virtue, the human life span will gradually increase... Only three diseases will be known at that time: desire, lack of food, and old age. Another Buddha — Metteyya (Maitreya) — will gain Awakening, his monastic Sangha numbering in the thousands. The greatest king of the time, Sangha, will go forth into homelessness and attain arahantship under Metteyya's guidance.

Additionally, if we examine the term Metteyya we will see that it comes from the Pali term Metta, which is generally translated as loving kindness or possibly better rendered as brotherly love. Certainly brotherly love was Jesus the Nazarites mission statement.

Of course the question is how could the ideas and terms of India make it to Judea and vice versa?

The Greeks under Alexander invaded India in about 450 BCE.  Later, Persia was conquered by the Indian Emperor Asoka around 250 BCE. Asoka was a Buddhist, so he brought Buddhism to Persia. Later, Persia was ruled by Asokas descendant Melinda in 50 BCE, who happened to be half-Greek because Asoka had taken a number of wives in his military campaigns, and one of those wives was a Greek princes from Bactria, which is modern day Afghanistan.

But even more than military conquest being a means of exchange of ideas, there is ample archeological evidence to prove that trade took place between the peoples on the periphery of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean for thousands of years before Jesus.  Thus, it is not too unreasonable to say that the ancient Hebrews were participants with Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, etc., in exchanges of religious ideas going back into the very origins of each of those cultures and their religions.

Also, there is ample archeological evidence that Buddhism was expressed all throughout the Persian Empire until the Islamic invasion of 652 AD.  Thus, Jesus, during his missing years between 12 and 27, could easily have traveled to Persia, which was no more than a couple weeks walk from Jerusalem (Jerusalem to Persepolis = 850 miles as the crow flies).  He could also easily have hitched a ride on a trade vessel on the southern coast of Arabia and sailed a few days to India, which was certainly doable and may very well have been common practice in his day.

Most of the major religions have a concept of a divinely inspired progenitor.  If we consider the above argument then we can see no difference between a Prophet, a Messiah, a Buddha or an Avatar. However, when we assume that our Prophet, Messiah, Buddha or Avatar is the last one or only comes every few thousand years, then we have just killed our religion, because the record proves that divinely inspired contemplatives emerge all of the time.

Sources:

Cakkavatti Sutta

The Wheel-turning Emperor (DN 26.25)

AN X.176

Sanskrit Maitreya, Pali

mett: 'loving-kindness', is one of the 4 sublime abodes (brahma-vihra, q.v.).

Messiah n.

1. Also Mes-si-as (m-sh2s). The anticipated deliverer and king of the Jews.

2. Also Messias. Jesus.

3. messiah. A leader who is regarded as or professes to be a savior or liberator. [Middle English Messias, Messie, from Old French Messie, from Late Latin MesshEs, from Greek, from Aramaic mR or Hebrew mEa, the anointed, messiah.]

Bibliography:

1. Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion by Holger Kirsten

2. The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus' 17-Year Journey to the East by Elizabeth Clare Prophet

3. Jesus, Last King of Kashmir : Life After the Crucifixion by Suzanne Olsson

4. Jesus' Tomb in India: The Debate on His Death and Resurrection by Paul Constantine Pappas

5. Jesus of India by Maury Lee

6. Jesus in Heaven on Earth: Journey of Jesus to Kashmir, His Preaching to the Lost Tribes of Israel, and Death and Burial in Srinagar by Khwaja Nazir Ahmad