Biblical Buddhism: Tales and Sermons of Saint Iodasaph
By Robert M. Price and Lenny Blottin
()
About this ebook
What if such a remarkable religious hybrid actually lived? The brief pieces collected in this book depict what he might have taught, proclaiming Buddhism from the Bible! Amazingly, it turns out not to be much of a stretch! Saint Iodasaph will have you reading familiar texts with new (third?) eyes!
These vignettes originally appeared in The Christian*New Age Quarterly. One reader asked if they were genuine channeled revelations! That's high praise.
Robert M. Price
Robert M. Price is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute as well as the editor of The Journal of Higher Criticism.
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Biblical Buddhism - Robert M. Price
2003
1. The Great Commandment
In the common hall of the monastery of Saint Iodasaph uncommon things were often heard. And it is told that one evening the Blessed Iodasaph ended the long period of gathered silence with the following preachment:
In the scroll called The Great Book of the Second Dharma, it is recorded that he who set in motion the Wheel of Dharma among the Jews, Moses, one day arose and spoke thus to his disciples, Hear, O monks: Isvara our God, Isvara is one; and you shall love Isvara your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Here is the great statement of Truth which towers like Everest. It has many heights, many slopes, and each is full of beauty to whomever should view it from whatever height. If one can see but the lower slopes of the mountain, one has still seen beauty. But there are higher slopes, and let the arhat not rest till he has scaled the heights and assumed the vantage point from which the crest may be apprehended.
What if one should see the pronouncement of the Lord Moses from the foothills of Truth? It is to such a perspective that he refers when he warns the unworthy, Take heed that you go not up into the mountain, or touch even the border of it.
But if one is worthy, yet only such that one may stand upon the bottom-most slopes, this is what one will see:
Moses will be understood to command that one should devote one self to Isvara, the Lord with qualities, with all of one's strength and resources. On this level of perception, which none ought to despise, one sees the Truth under the form of the Sambogkya; one beholds Isvara as a celestial deity. As he appears to his devotees, Isvara is the creator of this world, which does not yet appear to be such as it is, the realm of Maya. But if he has created the whole of this world, then the homage of all his world is most surely due him.
And if the worship of a world be due him, as it somewhere says, Let all that hath breath praise Isvara,
how much more the whole of the self, which is but the microcosm of the creation? Manifestly no less can be due Isvara than this, and manifestly no less can be expected of his devotees than to love him with all the heart, soul, and mind.
But if through Karma or the mediation of some bodhisattva one should ascend to a higher slope of the Mountain of Truth, whether this be called Sinai or Meru or some other mountain, how would one then come to understand the commandment of the Dharma-giver Moses? One's understanding would be enlightened, and one would come to see new meaning in his