Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparrow
My sister attends a Catholic church where the parish priest is also a Buddhist - there's no contradiction in that from a Buddhist pov as far as I'm aware.
I think there are Buddhists of many religious faiths and none.
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The parish priest may be a student of Buddhist philosophy, however, if he were actually to call himself a Buddhist, then he would have to deny the divinity of Jesus Christ, and that would be a very long stretch for most priests.
My lama once said that Jesus would have made an outstanding Buddhist, except for all that "God" and "Son of God" stuff. And, from what I have read, there is a great deal of Jesus's teachings that do dovetail nicely in with the Buddha's.
And, if you consider that the title "Buddha" means nothing more than "the enlightened one" .... I suppose in the Christian scheme of things Jesus was a sort of buddha-like individual.
However, Buddhism does not embrace (1) a deity, (2) heaven, (3) hell - except for that created by man on earth, and (4) attributes the same type of "soul" to all creatures, man and animals. None of these are concepts that you would find most parish priests teaching to their flock.