[Buddha-l] The Aquarian Gospel: Jesus, India, & Buddhism

[jkirk]

Denizens -

A report in today's Guardian of a new film in the making that 'portrays
Jesus as a holy man and teacher inspired by a myriad of eastern religions in
India' might interest Buddha l'ers.   'We think that Indian religions and
Buddhism, especially with the idea of meditation, played a big part in
Christ's thinking. In the film we are looking beyond the canonised gospels
to the 'lost' gospels," said William Sees Keenan, the producer.'  The report
also includes this:  
"I have seen the scrolls which show Buddhist monks talking about Jesus's
visits. There are also coins from that period which show Yuzu or have the
legend Issa on them, referring to Jesus from that period," said Fida
Hassnain, former director of archaeology at the University of Srinagar.
Hassnain, who has written books on the legend of Jesus in India, points out
that there was extensive traffic between the Mediterranean and India around
the time of Jesus's life. The academic pointed out that in Srinagar a tomb
of Issa is still venerated. "It is the Catholic church which has closed its
mind on the subject. Historians have not."

You can find the article here: http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/
0,,2213087,00.html

Regards,

Steve Hopkins
================================================================

From: Kirkpatrick [jkirk at spro.net]

Not having a first-rate library to hand, I hit google, and after reading
through large amounts of true-believer websites, I finally hit on this one
which points out various problems with Novotich's book, _The Unknown
Jesus_., which seems to have been the main source for such speculations.
http://www.karma2grace.org/page.asp?pg=78
For ex (quoting this text)...

"F. Max Muller (1823-1900), the great Orientalist of the nineteenth century
and translator and editor of the multivolumed Sacred Books of the East,
subjected the Issa thesis to critical scrutiny soon after its publication.
Lest anyone accuse him of ill intentions,[13] in 1882,12 years before
Notovitch's publication, he had written that he "would be extremely grateful
if anybody would point out to me the historical channels through which
Buddhism influenced early Christianity," because he had been searching in
vain for this his entire life.[14]  Muller thought that if the Issa text
were legitimate, it would help establish the historicity of Jesus, despite
the text's difference from the New Testament accounts.[15] 

Writing in 1894, Muller found it exceedingly difficult to believe that a
text of this importance was not listed in the Kandjur and Tandjur
collections, the "excellent catalogues of manuscripts and books of the
Buddhists in Tibet and China."  He found it "impossible or next to
impossible...that this Sutra of Issa, composed in the first century of our
era, should not have found a place either in the Kandjur or in the
Tandjur."[16]  Notovitch responded by saying that those catalogs didn't
exhaust the manuscript resources at his disposal at the Himis monastery.[17]
Yet how plausible is it that Issa would not be well-known in India if, in
fact, Jesus had actually been there?  We would expect this text to be listed
in the major catalogs if Issa had the impact in India that "The Life of
Saint Issa" claims that he did.  We should also remember Notovitch's lack of
scholarly standing and Muller's world renown.[18]"   
There is more in this article. The author, whose name I didn't find, is
obviously a Christian. 
Right now with Christianity reported to be the fastest growing religion in
the world, it's understandable that a film of this sort reported by Steve
would be produced, especially I suspect because a powerful lobby in India is
strongly anti-missionary and anti-conversion to anything outside of
Hinduism.

Joanna K.

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