Hello Class, I would like to share a couple of stories with
you that are near and dear to my heart. Today I would like to bring up two
world religions: Christianity and Buddhism. Many of you have heard about Christianity because we live in
the state of Oklahoma, however, what many of you may not know quite as well is
the story of The Life of Siddhartha—or Buddha as we have mostly heard him
called.
Maya, Siddhartha’s mother, received news from the gods that
she is to bear a child—a prince. She did not know if the child was going to be
good or bad so she addressed a Brahma who informed her that he will live the
life of a monk and deserve great praises. Throughout her pregnancy, people went
to her to cure diseases. When he was to be born, Maya’s servants decorated the
area with precious stones and rare perfumes. Shortly after Siddhartha’s birth,
his mother passed away. Siddhartha was radiant and everyone praised him
wherever he went. Even his teacher felt unworthy to teach, only to be taught by
him. The prince learned about the aging and death of humanity. When he learned
how to meditate, he hoped to rid all of that. He led a life of a hermit and
eventually had a dream that he would become a Buddha.
Now, as I’m sure many of you can tell, there are many
differences in this story. I do not think this story has any historical
evidence, however, there are still many parallels in comparison to the story of
Jesus. Jesus was born of Mary by immaculate conception. When he was born, the
three wise men brought him many gifts. Throughout his life he chose to live
like the people, even though he claimed to be the Son of Man. These two
characters could have easily lived a life of riches and fame, but they knew
that was not what they were called to do. They knew that life had much more
meaning than material items and they sought to find it.
I hope you all found this story interesting and I encourage
you to try and find a similar story for each different world religion. The
point of religion is not to worship a certain god, but to believe in a higher
being. Remind yourselves of that as you do research on this topic. Class is
dismissed!
Photo found online.
Author’s Note: I
chose to write this story as if I was a Religious Studies professor for OU. I wanted to elaborate how similar the story of the Life of Buddha is to Christianity because I saw so many parallels when I was reading!
Source: The Life of Buddha UnTextbook
I have not read a story told like this all semester and I loved it. It was very easy to relate to and understand. I could totally see this being told in a class and a professor presenting it in this way. The language and wording you used made the story! I think I am going to have to go read some more of your storytelling posts! Great Job.
ReplyDeleteCourtney,
ReplyDeleteI loved the concept of your story. Narrating as a professor of religion class. You made a great point - there are so many similarities amongst different religions and cultural practices that are parallel to those religions. I definitely agree with you on your statement that point of religion is not to worship a certain god and put the other religions down, but it is to believe in a higher being, rather a power. Great job :)
I'm delighted to read about the Buddha's birth in his most-famed incarnation, as he is so fascinating in general.
ReplyDeleteIn the first paragraph, "Brahma" should be "Brahman" or "Brahmin," as Brahma is actually a god. In that same paragraph, I would say "he lived as a hermit" rather than "life of".
There are many other correlations between Jesus and Buddha that you could also include in this story, such as that each has a religion based off of them but neither's religious texts were written by them etc. There are many similarities, indeed! And there is no more evidence that one exists than the other.