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 —
These 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.f Unlike Jesus, Buddha was supposedly born to a royal Hindi family. Buddhist texts reflect what Gautama may have taught; they were not concerned with 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 he 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 leaders.
Buddha’s words above inspire me. The anger itself is what punishes you and the way to overcome that anger is by love. This relates very closely to the words of Jesus. I will have to learn more about Buddhism. It sounds like it could be a meaningful addition to most anyone’s life. I know there is a lot of pent up anger and hate in this world. We need to learn how to get rid of it. A little more about that this afternoon…..
RJ's Corner 
Budda is more like a verb than a noun. It means full enlightenment. The man who founded the way of life WAS a man from a family of great wealth who could not agree with the cast system of Hindism (another way of life). Both ways of life share the same gods- who are only worshipped for their individual powers and not way of life. Like Confusious, they are men who took from a religion and established a following… Much like great rabbis or Catholic saints (st Francis Assi comes to mind).. Most of these are men who left family behind in search of their own enlightenment. Maybe that is why Jesus never married….
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Thanks for the additional thoughts Janette. Most people think of Buddhism as a religion but it really is more as you indicate, a way of life. Gandhi, who proclaimed to be a Buddhist, said that all religions were equal to him, so he resisted any attempts to convert him.
Buddhism is getting quite an increased following lately but that does not mean that those who espouse it leave family in search of enlightenment. Often it is simply added as an additional layer onto their existing belief system; that is kind of neat….
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