Expert: Joe McSorley - 12/12/2002

Question
Hello and thank you ahead of time for helping me out.  I have one question and please don't worry that if the answer is "no" that my next email will be a lecture...

Do Buddhists believe in Jesus?

Thank you and have a great night!

Answer
Hi Jenifer,
  If you are asking, 'do Buddhists beleive in the divinity of Christ', the answer is 'no'.  It's like asking if Christians believe in Buddhism, then they wouldn't be Christians, right?  By the way, Buddhists do not believe in Buddha as god.  He was a man that came to a spiritual awakeing and all other humans can do the same.  The word 'buddha' means awakened one.   So anyone who comes to an awakening is a Buddha.  You have to realize too, that Buddhism was around 500 years before Christ was born so there was no influence of Christianity on Buddhism.  Buddhism in non theistic and has no saviour and is not faith based.  If a Buddhist were to believe in the divinity of Christ then I would say they have little grasp of the heart of Buddhism.
 .........and no lecture?  what fun is that? I haven't been told I'm going to hell by a loving Christian for a least a week and I'm getting lonely! : )
take care,
       Joe