You Are Punished By Your Anger, Not For Your Anger…

You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger. Let a person overcome anger by love. Hate is never ended by hatred but by love.
— Buddha —

BuddhaThese words could just as easily come from the mouth of Jesus as from Buddha. But in reality Buddha lived on this earth several hundred years before Jesus. It amazes me how similar the reported lives of Jesus and Buddha are. Here are some of those similarities as found at Wikipedia and other sources:

  •  Buddha is actually a title which means “the awakened one”, his name was actually Gautama Buddha.
  • Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events.
  • Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human
  • Most of Buddhism accounts of this life, discourses, and monastic rule are believed to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers
  • Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writhing about 400 years later.

While there are great similarities there are also great differences:

  • Unlike Christians, the ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy.
  • Unlike Jesus, Buddha was supposedly born to a royal Hindi family.
  • Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life.
  • Unlike Jesus, Buddha lived for about 45 years after his great awakening
  • Buddha never considered himself a god, nor do most of his followers. He was human but not merely human.

Even though Buddha is not considered a god is as endeared by the Hindi religion as Jesus is to the Christian one.  I think that all of us should learn what we can from the various spiritual sources.  In that regard his words above inspire me. The anger itself is what punishes you and the way to overcome that anger is love. This relates very closely to the words of Jesus.  I will have to learn more about Buddhism.

2 thoughts on “You Are Punished By Your Anger, Not For Your Anger…

    1. Thanks for the comment. I found it very interesting that many forms of Buddhism is about a way of living and not a belief system about a different version of God. That peeks my interest…..

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