Buddha and Jesus?

John Thatamanil asks, What Does the Buddha have to do with Jesus?

"The time has come for religious communities to demand a new kind of clerical leadership. Every religious leader -- Rabbi, Imam, or Priest -- must be required to know a second religious language. Seminaries must develop new curricula adequate to the changing American religious landscape. These institutions must inculcate in students a measure of religious multilingualism.
And all of us, lay and clergy, must demand a new civic culture marked by interreligious hospitality and by a deep desire to learn not just about but from the faith of our neighbors. We must rise to one of the great spiritual challenges of our time: the hard work of integrating multiple religious wisdoms into our personal lives and public vocations."

I am very fortunate to be on intimate terms with Buddha and Jesus. And I have found their approaches to life to be very similar. Culturally, their traditions have been carried forward by very different institutions, but these two men and spiritual leaders have much in common.

They were both predominately interested in how people should live in a world full of pain, hate, greed, and pride. And they both felt that people must rethink their current habits and take up new ways of walking through life bolstered with compassion, humility, and determination. They were both seditious rebels of the finest type. They toppled long-held taboos and caste systems. They crossed political and theological lines to reach out a hand of help and healing to any who had ears to hear their messages of hope.

I believe that Buddhists and Christians have a lot to teach each other.