When Buddha and Jesus Sat Together

Two men were fighting one day. One of them was Christian, and the other was a Buddhist follower.

The Buddhist follower said, “How many times do I have to tell you that our religion is greater than yours. Buddhism does not teach or ask to kill anyone. Your people kill and eat innocent animals to fulfill your appetite.”

The Christian man’s eyes got widened as he shouted, “How dare you call us murderers. We are Christians, and our religion does not prohibit eating meat. Our religion is very liberal. On the contrary, your religion knows nothing about freedom. In Christianity, everyone is equal before God.”

The Buddhist follower’s eyes scanned the Christian man from head to toe and said, “It is true that there are some restrictions in our religion, but they are there to maintain some dignity in the society. We respect God. We consider him sacred. We do not walk in the temple with shoes on like you do.”

The Buddha and Jesus were watching them from heaven. They both got sad and upset.

Jesus, who had sat quietly listening to the two men talk, turned to the Buddha and asked, “Is it true? Does your religion say so? Is it what you taught them?”

Buddha replied in a calm voice, “I understand your confusion, but my teachings are far from this Buddhist follower’s words.”

He looked at Jesus, who seemed worried, and asked, “What about you? Do you agree with the man who is calling himself a true Christian?”

Wiping his sadness away with his magical smile, Jesus replied, “Buddha, I understand why you are asking this question. I am also in the same position as you are. I wish I could come up with some valid answer, but I do not have a clue about why this person is saying something like that? He just made that up.”

Buddha took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He said, “I remember while I was on Earth, I kept requesting people to stop calling me God. I told them that I was born as a human being and I would prefer to be seen and treated as an ordinary person.”

“What happened? Did they go against your wishes?”

“After my death, they ignored my request and started calling me God. They made certain rules, founded a religion, and termed it Buddhism. It is not that I do not respect the fact that they follow my teachings, but the rules, which this Buddhist follower is talking about right now, are made by a group of people. People on the Earth gave me the name Buddha, which means ‘One who is awake’ (in the sense of having woken up to reality), but it looks like this man does not know my teachings at all. I taught them about love. Buddhism teaches about peace, love, and Humanity. But this man is vomiting hatred.”

“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” –Buddha

“You and I share the same story.” Jesus said. “I also taught them about love. Christianity is about harmony and universal brotherhood.”

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” –Jesus

Buddha said, “It is unfortunate that people fight over religion to protect their own personal beliefs. They are so naive to see that all of them want the same thing. In the end, everybody wants to be with God. If they knew the true spirit and meaning of their respective religions, there would be no fight, because all religions talk about peace, love, humanity, universal brotherhood, and righteousness.”

©️ Simran Kankas 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Author of 'Beyond and Within' and 'Moon in Veil' available on Amazon.