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THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS AND THE BUDDHA ON HOW TO LIVE THE GOOD LIFE

I. RENUNCIATION

A. CHRISTIAN Matthew 6:19-21; 24-34:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. . . . No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today‘s trouble is enough for today.

Mark 8.34-38:

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

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B. BUDDHIST From Arya Nagarjuna’s Suhrlekha (“FRIENDLY LETTER”) (34): “The teacher of gods and men declared that being satisfied was the greatest of all riches. Remain satisfied always. One knowing satisfaction is truly wealthy, even without material possessions.” From Pabongka Rinpoche’s LIBERATION THRUST IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND: By the way, you need never fear that if you give up on things to practice the way we’ve described it above you’ll become some poor beggar and starve to death. It is possible for a worldly person to die of hunger, but absolutely impossible for a religious practitioner to do so. This is because our compassionate Teacher, when he reached the state of total enlightenment, still had merit enough from his past deeds to go and take some 60,000 births as a ‘Wheel Emperor’ -- one of those incredibly powerful beings who rule the entire world. Instead he took the fantastic power of these deeds and dedicated it to the food and other necessities that all his future followers might require. In the White Lotus, the Sutra on Compassion, we hear the following oath from the Buddha as he first commits himself to reaching enlightenment for the sake of living kind: ‘And in the days when my teachings spread in the world, any man who wears so much as four inches of the saffron robe shall find food and drink to his heart’s desire. If he does not, then I shall have cheated the state of Buddhahood. And then may I lose my Buddhahood.’ II. COMPASSION FOR OTHERS

A. BUDDHIST

The “Four Immeasureables”: May all living beings be freed from attachment to those who are close to them and dislike for those who are far.

May they escape from the unbearable sea of pain. And then may they find exceptional happiness, And never be without the highest happiness, the happiness of freedom.

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From the Dhammapada (1.5, 17.3-4): Hatred does not ever cease through more hatred. It is by the love that hatred ceases. This is the eternal truth. . . . The one who is angry is conquered by the opposite of anger; good conquers evil; giving conquers the miser, and truth the liar. One should tell the truth and never be angry. When asked, one should give even when one doesn’t have very much. From the EIGHT VERSES FOR DEVELOPING THE GOOD HEART, by the Diamond Lion (Dorje Senge) of Langri Tang (1054-1123): May I always cherish all sentient beings, By thinking of them as more precious Than a wish-fulfilling jewel, And by aspiring to achieve the supreme goal.

Wherever I am and whomever I’m with, May I view myself as lowest of all; And from the bottom of my heart, May I cherish others and consider them supreme.

When I see beings with a bad nature, Overwhelmed by their heavy misdeeds or suffering, May I care for them as if I had discovered A jewel treasures, for they are so hard to find.

May I accept any loss from such unfair treatment As being attacked and belittled By those who are jealous of me; and May I give every gain to others.

May I view one whom I greatly hoped would help me, but Instead mistreats or evens harms me As my greatest spiritual teacher.

B. CHRISTIAN

Luke 6.27-30: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.

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Matthew 25:31-46: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

III. WISDOM

A. CHRISTIAN

John 8.32: The truth will make you free. Luke 6.30-38, 41-44: Do unto others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back. . . . Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself

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do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. John 1.1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

B. BUDDHIST From the HEART SUTRA: This then is the answer that the lord of power, the realized one, the great warrior Loving Eyes gave to the junior monk named Shariputra: ‘Here, Shariputra, is what any son or daughter of noble family should see who hopes to follow the deep practice of the perfection of wisdom. See first all five heaps – all five parts to a person – as being empty of any essence of their own. Your body is empty; emptiness is your body. Emptiness is nothing but your body, and your body is nothing but emptiness. The same is true of your feelings, and your ability to discriminate between things, and the other factors that make you up, and all the different kinds of awareness that you possess: all of them are empty. And thus we can say, Shariputra, that every existing thing is emptiness. Nothing has any characteristic of its own.