Buddha & Christ

I am an idiot.

My maternal relatives are mostly Buddhists while paternal relatives are mostly Christians, so I was brought up to compare both faiths.

Gautama Buddha attained nirvana at the age of 35, but He refused to die for us, instead He promised to live for us and He spent the next 45 years preaching the dharma for His followers, helping many attain enlightenment. Quite on the contrary, around the same age, Jesus Christ was crucified at 33 years old and He sacrificed Himself for a greater good. He was not as fortunate as the Buddha did to have 40+ years of preaching, but He eventually still had the Gospel composed and the Bible left as a legacy for His followers.

As for me, like I say, I am an idiot. I studied both Buddhism and Christianity to my best of abilities, limits and means, and I ended up pretty agnostic, not sure what to believe in and what to advocate. I picked up the Kalama Sutta, and I said, "Ok, let's do this."

I have no attainments whatsoever all these years, but as an ordinary individual I am grateful to the Buddha for all that He has taught us. My life could have taken a turn for the worse if it weren't for the timely intervention of the triple gem to rein me in when it mattered most. I still know nuts about Buddhism, but I am willing to consider myself a nominal Buddhist practising the Buddha's teachings.

I am 43 years old this year. I left this post because if I didn't die prematurely like Jesus probably did, I might want to come back to read what I posted and see for myself what became of me several years down the road. Buddhist endeavour is a lifelong journey, I won't know what outcomes I might encounter, but I still do value the journey because life can be transformative.

May one and all be well, happy, safe and peaceful.

Thank you and in metta.