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Christianity has kept it going for 2000 years blaming Jews for killing Jesus when their own book says the Gentiles (Romans) did. Try calling an Italian Christ killer. |_ 388 C.E. -- First synagogue burned by the Bishop of Kallinikon. | |_ 4th Century -- Synagogues burned by Christians. Thousands of | Jews slain. |_ 5th Century -- Bishop Innocentius of Dertona (Italy) destroys | Synagogues. |_ 694 C.E. -- Jews enslaved. Jews lose rights and property. | Jewish children forced to be baptized. |_ 1010 C.E. -- Jews who didn't convert to Christianity were killed. | |_ 1096 C.E. -- First Crusade. 12,000 Jews slaughtered through- | out Europe. |_ 1147 C.E. -- Second Crusade. Hundreds of French Jews killed. |_ 1189 C.E. -- Third Crusade. Jews banished altogether from Great | Britain. |_ 1234 C.E. -- Thirty Four German Jewish individuals slain in Fulda, | Germany. |_ 1257-67 -- English Jewish Community was exterminated. | |_ 1290 C.E. -- 12,000 Jews allegedly slaughtered in Poland and | Bohemia. |_ 1337 C.E. -- German Jew-killing craze reached 51 German towns. | |_ 1348 C.E. -- 2,000 French and Swiss Jews burned. | |_ 1349 C.E. -- In more than 350 European towns, Jews murdered. | Most were burned alive. 1 |_ 1389 C.E. -- Three-hundred Jews killed in Prague. | |_ 1341 C.E. -- Archbishop leads 4,000 Jews to be killed and 25,000 | to be sold as slaves. |_ 1392 C.E. -- While Columbus journied to the new world, three- | hundred thousand Jews were expelled from Spain. |_ 1648 C.E. -- Chmielnitzki massacres in Poland. About 200,000 Jews | were sadistically tortured to death by pious Christians | Footnotes 1. In this one year more Jews were killed than Christians in 200 years of ancient Roman persecution of Christians. 2. Their identification was made easy by the brightly colored "badges of shame" that all Jews above the age of ten had been forced to wear.  (POPE) CLEMENT I: (d.101) Highly esteemed Christ- ian martyr and Apolistic Father of the Church who blamed the Jews for Nero's persecution of the Christians. (SAINT) JUSTIN MARTYR: (100-165) Recognized as one of the most important early Christian writers, and also one of the original anti-Jewish church fathers revealed his anti-Semitism when he stated in the year 116 that: "The Jews were behind all the persecutions of the Christians. They wandered through the country everywhere hating and undermining the Christian faith." TERTULLIAN OF CARTHAGE: (150-225) advised that "Only those who were baptized [Christians] and follow- ed the prescribed course of penitence could hope for release from punishment" and "Divine revelation, not reason, is the source of all truth." QUINTAS SPETIMUS FLORENS TERTULLIAN: (160-230) Latin Church Father who bruited that: "The Jews formed the breeding ground of all anti- Christian actions." (SAINT) HIPPOLYTUS: Roman Priest (170-236) who was obsessed with the belief that the Jews were receiving and would continue to receive God's punishment for having murdered Jesus. The "Saint" avouched: "Now then, incline thine ear to me and hear my words, and give heed, thou Jew. Many a time does thou boast thyself, in that thou didst condemn Jesus of Nazareth to death, and didst give him vinegar and gall to drink; and thou dost vaunt thyself because of this. Come, therefore, and let us consider togeth- er whether perchance thou dost boast unrig- hteously, O, Israel, and whether thou small portion of vinegar and gall has not brought down this fearful threatening upon thee and whether this is not the cause of thy present condition involved in these myriad of troubles." ORIGEN: Well-known teacher and preacher credited as the greatest theological scholar of the early church. Born in Egypt (185) his works range from Contra Cels- um (which abolishes idolatry) to Hexapla (Old Testam- ent scholarly work). But when it came to Jews, his comments were less scholarly: "On account of their unbelief and other insults which they heaped upon Jesus, the Jews will not only suffer more than others in the judgm- ent which is believed to impend over the world, but have even already endured such sufferings. For what nation is in exile from their own metropolis, and from the place sacred to the worship of their fathers, save the Jews alone? And the calamities they have suffered because they were a most wicked nation, which although guilty of many other sins, yet has been punished severely for none as for those that were committed against our Jesus." (BISHOP) CYPRIAN: (200-258) He is credited with the much quoted anti-Jewish (among other faiths) phrase: "Outside the Church, there is no salvation." EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: The first historian of the Christian Church (265-339), and credited author speaks in Demonstration of the Gospel (I.I.) of how the royal metropolis of the Jews would be destroyed by fire and the city would be inhabited no longer by Jews, "but by races of other stock, while they [Jews] would be dispersed among the Gentiles throughout the whole world with never a hope of any cessation of evil or breathing space from trouble. Furthermore, he claimed that Jews in every community crucified a Christian at their Purim festival as a rejection of Jesus. He also made a distinction between Hebrews [who he saw as "good men of the Old Testament"] and Jews [who he characterized as "evil."] (SAINT) HILARY: Noted author from Potieres (315- 367) who spoke of the Jews as "a people who had always persisted in iniquity [sin] and out of its ab- undance of evil glorified in wickedness." (SAINT) JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: The strongest att- acks on Jews and Judaism by the Church Fathers are to be found in the homilies of Chrysostom (344- 407) in his Antioch sermons. He is considered to be among the most beloved and admired in Church history. Besides his proclamation of Jews as "god- less, idolaters, pedicides, stoners of prophets, and commiters of 10,000 horrors [which, incidentally, is found in the anti-Jewish Christian Bible in Matthew 23:37-38], Chrysostom said in his book Orations Against The Jews that: "The Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are lecherous, rapacious, greety. They are perfidious murderers of Christ. They worship the Devil. Their religion is a sickness. The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude forever. God always hated the Jews. It is essential that all Christians hate them." (year 379) Furthermore: "The Jews sacrifice their children to Satan ...they are worse than wild beasts. The synagogue is a brothel, a den of scound- rels, the temple of demons devoted to idol- atrous cults, a criminal assembly of Jews, a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ, a house of ill fame, a dwelling of iniquity, a gulf and abyss of perdition. The Jews have fallen into a condition lower than the vilest animal. Debauchery and drunkenness have brought them to a level of the lusty goat and the pig. They know only one thing: to satisfy their stomachs, to get drunk, to kill, and beat each other up like stage villains and coachmen. The synagogue is a curse, obstinate in her error, she refuses to see or hear, she has deliberately perverted her judgment; she has extinguished with herself the light of the Holy Spirit." Chrysostom further said that the Jews had become a degenerate race because of their "odious assass- ination of Christ for which crime there is no expiation possible, no indulgence, no pardon, and for which they will always be a people without a nation, end- uring a servitude without end." He also declared in one sermon that the Jews "built a brothel in Egypt, made love madly with the barbarians, and worship- ped foreign gods" (page 2). He elaborated further on God's punishment of the Jews: "But it was men, says the Jew, who brought these misfortunes upon us, not God. On the contrary, it was in fact God who brought them about. If you attribute them to men, reflect again that even supposing men had dared, they could not have had the power to accomplish them, unless it had been God's will. Men would certainly not have made war unless God had permitted them. Is it not obvious that it was because God hated you [Jews] and rejected you once for all?" On yet another occasion Chrysostom is quoted as saying "I hate the Jews because they violate the Law. I hate the synagogue because it has the Law and the prophets. It is the duty of all Christians to hate the Jews." Chrysostom's homilies were to be used in seminaries and schools for centuries as model sermons, with the result that his message of hate would be passed down to succeeding gen- erations of theologians. The nineteenth century Protestant cleric R.S. Storr called him "one of the most eloquent preachers who ever since apostolic times have brought to men the divine tidings of truth and love." A contemporary of Storr, the great theol- ogian John Henry Cardinal Newman, described Chrysostom as a "bright, cheerful, gentle soul, a sensitive heart." (SAINT) GREGORY: Turkish (Nyssa) Saint (330- 395) who gave the following indictment directed at the Jews: "Slayers of the Lord, murderers of the proph- ets, adversaries of God, men who show con- tempt for the Law, foes of grace, enemies of their fathers' faith, advocates of the Devil, brood of vipers, slanderers, scoffers, men whose minds are in darkness, leaven of the Pharisees, assembly of demons, sinners, wicked men, stoners, and haters of righteou- sness." (SAINT) AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO: (354-430) Church Bishop and Father who characterized the Jews as "willfully blind to Holy Scripture, lacking in unders- tanding, and haters of truth." Further, he affirmed: "The true image of the Hebrew is Judas Iscar- iot, who sells the Lord for silver. The Jew can never understand the Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of Jesus." In a sermon on Catechumens, he says: "The Jews hold him, the Jews insult him, the Jews bind him, crown him with thorns, dishon- or him with spitting, scourge him, overwhelm with reviling, hang him upon the tree, pierce him with a spear. The Jews killed him." (POPE) SYLVESTER I: Serving from 314-335, this Pope condemned "Jewish anti-Christian activity." (SAINT) AMBROSE: Italian born around 340 who defended a fellow bishop for burning a synagogue at Callinicum and asked: "who cares if a synagogue -- a home of unbelief, a house of impiety, a recept- acle of folly, which God himself has condemned -- is burned?" Moreover, this 'saint' stated it was no sin at all to burn synagogues. Although we possess no substantial evidence to support this, Ambrose alleged that since Jews killed Jesus and had es- caped persecution, it is all right for Christians to do whatever they must to the synagogues. In a letter he wrote to his sister, a nun, he professes that any action against the Jews are acceptable to God. (POPE) VALENTINIAN III: Besides murdering one man, this acclaimed 'saint' of the West expelled Jews from holding office, forbade Jews to disinherit their children or grandchildren if they converted to Christianity, and punished all who did not agree. In Ibid. (page 205), we find he added: "I do not wish Christians to serve such persons, lest by their office they find occasion to corrupt the venerable Christian's faith." (EMPEROR) JUSTINIAN: Author of The Justinian Code (527-564) which negated civil rights for Jews including loss of Synagogue, loss of reading the Hebrew Bible, loss of social gatherings, and loss of holiday celebration [Passover]. Furthermore, his law went on to state: "But what ye are wont to call Deuterosis (the Mishnah) is entirely forbidden, and the Heads (of the Synagogues) shall see to it that this law is carried out." JOHN DAMASCENE: 8th Century Syrian writer who, according to the Historian Ruether in her book Faith and Fractide (p.127 F) said: "God gave the Jews the Sabbath because of grossness and sens- uality and and absolute propensity of material things." (POPE) GREGORY VII: He was the Pope from 1073-1085 who forbade Jews to have power over Christians and forbade them to hold office, in a letter dated 1081 to Alfonso VI of Toledo, Spain. Furthermore, the letter stated that Jews must pay special "Jews Taxes" throughout Spain. (SAINT) BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX: Eleventh Century medieval saint who was highly regarded and the most venerated of the saints of his time. His devotional writings were an inspiration for further Christian generations. Although he had a high status with Christians, he may have not been so cozy with the group he condemned -- the Jews. He was opposed to Jew-killing bec- ause he wanted them [the Jews] to live on and see the terrible 'sins' he accused them of comm- iting. Further, he was partially responsible for the Crusades. (SAINT) THOMAS AQUINAS: 13th century schol- astic philosopher commonly known as the "Angel- ic Doctor" In his "On the Governance of the Jews," he wrote: "The Jews should not be allowed to keep what they have obtained from others by usury; it were best that they were comp- elled to worked so that they could earn their living instead of doing nothing but becoming avaricious." (POPE) INNOCENT III: (1198-1216) maintain- ed that Jews were directly subject to Christians and in a Vienna charter of 1237 he declared that: "Because of the Jews intolerable sin I will be your [Jews] Lord since imperialist auth- ority opposed everlasting servitude on the Jews from ancient times as punishment for the Christ-killing." Further, he defined explicitly the Jewish position in the Christian world: "The Jews' guilt of the crucifixion of Jesus consigned them to perpetual servitude, and like Cain, they are to be wanderers and fugitives. The Jews will not dare to raise their necks, bowed under the yoke of perpetual slavery, against the reverence of the Christian faith." Additionally, in 1205 he announced: "God is not displeased, but, rather, finds it acceptable that the Jewish dispersion shall live under Catholic kings and Christ- ian priests. (POPE) GREGORY IX: Italian Cardinal (1170-1241) who, in 1233, announced to the Dominican order that their main goal was to "convert Jews to Christ- ianity." Moreover, he condemned the Talmud as containing "every kind of villainess and blasphemy against Christian doctrine." (SAINT) JOHN CAPISTRANO: San Juan Capist- rano is a city in California named after this 'saint'. Little do most people know that St. John's nick- name was "the scorge of the Jews." He lived from 1385 to 1456. From the Franciscan order, he led campaigns in opposition to the Jews. In 1453, he efforts to him to a trial in Breslau [Poland], in which several Jews were killed and the entire Jewish population of Breslau was expelled. He even sunk so low as to call the Jews "dreadful." (POPE) BENEDICT XIII: Spanish cardinal, later appointed Pope, who promised work toward reunification of the two obedience's, but later resisted the pressure on him to abdicate. His Bull on the "Jewish Issue" (1450) declared: "The heresies, vanities and errors of the Talmud prevent their [the Jews] knowing the truth." (POPE) SIXTUS IV: Italian (1414-1485) Pope who encouraged and approved (1478) of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella's (Spain) exp- ulsion of the Jewish Community within Spain. BERNARDINO OF FELTRO: 15th century Italian priest. A mild man who extolled patience and charity in normal circumstances, he described himself as a "barking dog" when dealing with Jews: "Jewish usurers bleed the poor to death and grow fat on their substance, and I who live on alms, who feed on the bread of the poor, shall I then be mute before outraged charity? Dogs bark to protect those who feed them, and I, who am fed by the poor, shall I see them robbed of what belongs to them and keep silent?" (E. Flornoy, Le Bienbeureux Bernard in the Feltre) (POPE) CLEMENT VIII: Italian Pope (1536- 1605) who professed that: "All the world suffers from the usury of the Jews, their monopolies and deceit. They have brought many unfortunate people into a state of poverty, especially the farmers, working class people and the very poor. Then, as now, Jews have to be reminded intermittently that they were enjoying rights in any country since they left Palestine and the Arabian desert, and subsequently their ethical and moral doctrines as well as their deeds rightly deserve to be exposed to criticism in whatever country they happen to live." (POPE) JULIUS III: Contra Hebreos Retinentes Libros (1554) ordered the Talmud burned "every- where" and established a strict censorship over Jewish "genocidal writings" - an order that has never been rescinded and which presumably is still binding upon Catholics. (POPE) PAUL IV: His Cum Nimis Absurdim (1555) was a powerful condemnation of "Jewish usury." It embodies a legal code to curb "Jewish power" that was recommended to all communities. (POPE) PIUS V: Counter-Reformation Cardinal (1504-1572) who disclosed his views on Jews in Hebraeorum Gens (1569) when all Jews were expelled from the Papal States. (POPE) GREGORY XIII: He was the Pope from 1572-1585 who declared that the Jews "continue to plot horrible crimes against Christians with daily increasing audacity." Moreover, he condem- ned Jewish "genocidal writings." (POPE) BENEDICT XIV: In Quo Primum (1751) he denounced Jewish "control of commerce" and "systematical despoliation" of Christians through usury. MARIA THERESA HAPSBERG: Queen of Hung- ary and Bohemia (1771-1789) broadcasted her detrimental views of the Jewish people as follows: "Henceforth no Jew, no matter under what name, will be allowed to remain here with- out my written permission. I know of no other troublesome pest within the state than this race, which impoverished the people by their fraud, usury and money- lending and commits all deeds which an honorable man despises. Subsequently they have to be removed and excluded from here as much as possible." (CARDINAL) JOSZEF MINDSZENTY: Hungarian symbol of resistance to Communism throughout the 1950's who was quoted in The B'nai B'rith Messenger, January 28, 1949: "The troublemakers in Hungary are the Jews! They demoralize our country and they are the leaders of the revolutionary gang that is torturing Hungary." ========================================= LOGICAL CHRISTIAN QUOTES ========================================= IGNATIOUS ANTIOCHUS: Christian martyr who stated c.104 C.E. that: "It is monstrous to talk of Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism." (POPE) LEO X: Privy to the truth because of his high rank, the Pope made this curious declarat- ion recorded by both Reverend Robert Taylor in his Diegesis (p.35) and by Barbara Walker in her Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (p.471): "It was well known how profitable this fable of Christ has been to us." LUCIUS COELIUS FIRMIANES LACTANTIUS: Third Century Church Father who, in Letters From Rome (London, 1752, vol. 1, page 51.) said: Among those who seek power and gain from their religion, there will never be wanting an inclination to forge and lie for it." (SAINT) FAUSTUS: Fifth Century French Bishop who was quoted by Reverend Robert Taylor in Diegesis (p. 66): "Many things have been inserted by our ancestors in the speeches of our Lord which, though put forth under his name, agree not with his faith; especially since -- as already it has been often proved -- these things were written not by Christ, nor [by] his apostles, but a long while after their assumption, by I know not what sort of half Jews, not even agreeing with themselves, who made up their tale out of reports and opinions merely!" 

Of course. Although unusual, it’s not unheard of, particularly among converts (in either direction). Speaking personally, I’ve officially been a Buddhist Christian for 25 years and unofficially for 50 years. I was raised as a Methodist, started studying and practicing Buddhism informally from books when I was 13 and officially became a Catholic when I was about 30, (primarily thanks to Mother Mary of Guadalupe and an excellent RCIA teacher), then finally met my Buddhist teacher and took Refuge (and officially became a Buddhist) when I was 37. For the last 50 years, I have found many good arguments and much supporting evidence for reincarnation and karma (2 of the main points of contention for most Christians re Buddhism, with the existence God being the third), but nothing convincing or worthwhile in opposition.Even the following (relatively brief) explanation is rather lengthy (so if anyone is actually interested in going in-depth, this could take awhile, but I’m game if you are), but to start with a shorter answer, I studied the teachings and history of Jesus and the Buddha well enough to realize after just two years that there is no real contradiction between the two religions and actually a great deal of overlap. It took a bit more time and research to uncover that Jesus actually quotes the Buddha extensively, (for starters, see the appendix in The Gospel of Buddha by Paul Carus for a good list of parallel quotations) and that Jesus had access to the Sutras of Buddha in the Library of Alexandria, Egypt as a child (where they were placed by the Buddhist monks from India at the order of King Ashoka way before the birth of Jesus) and may well have spent some years in his 20’s in India (unproven but an interesting theory). One of the most interesting parts of the puzzle was learning that, like the Buddha, Jesus taught reincarnation and karma (and impermanence and infinite compassion) to the disciples and quite a few others.A bit of history that you’ll never hear in Sunday school or catechism: St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from the scholar’s Greek to the common vernacular of Latin (hence the term, Vulgate”), tried to refuse the Pope’s assignment to do so (despite the team of scribes who did most of the work under his supervision), because some would accuse him of omitting teachings that should have been left in and others would accuse him of leaving in teachings that should have been taken out. (He was right, too. That’s exactly what happened.) But what teachings was he referring to? A very interesting quote by Jerome in a letter to Demetrius would seem to shed a bit light on this question (and notice how he phrased it): “The doctrine of transmigration has been secretly taught from ancient times as a traditional truth which was not to be divulged” to non-scholars who would misunderstand. (See the 2 anthologies by Head & Cranston: “Reincarnation, an East -West Anthology and “The Phoenix Fire Mystery”.)The Jewish concepts of reincarnation and karma are known today as gilgul and tikkun, respectively. No idea as to what the ancient Aramaic terms were in Jesus’ time, but Jewish rabbis and other Jewish scholars were quite familiar with these oral teachings way before Reb Luria wrote them down and way before Jesus taught them. Some of the Judeo-Christian references to the teaching now known as “gilgul” (typically translated as “transmigration” by the early Jews and Christians rather than as “reincarnation”, following the wording in ancient Greek) survived the rather stringent elimination that resulted from the Fifth Ecumenical Council (E.C.).So we find Jesus repeatedly stressing (for those “who had ears to hear”) that John the Baptist (actually the Baptizer) was the reincarnation of the Prophet Elijah, (the same “spirit” and spiritual “power”, referring to how the spirit of a prophet (or rabbi) reincarnates without a loss of spiritual power. Elijah’s return as John was the fulfillment of the last prophecy in Malachi that God “will send you the Prophet Elijah” as the forerunner of the Messiah, so the return of Elijah was eagerly awaited as the sign that the Messiah would appear shortly thereafter. See also Jesus’ teaching that teaching that “he who lives by the sword dies by the sword” (re both karma and reincarnation, because many murderers die of old age, so, to make sense, this would refer to the karma of some killers ripening in a future earthly life)Then there is the fascinating account of Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin (and, hence, well-educated and, therefore, knowledgeable re gilgul, “the way of return,” and tikkun, “the way of recompense”), testing Jesus’ knowledge of reincarnation and Jesus trying to tell him that, yes, He was aware of this “earthly mystery” but that there was more to it, that mere transmigration of the soul or spirit into a new body didn’t necessarily make one a better human being. One could reincarnate repeatedly without making any spiritual progress and even devolve. One had to undergo an inner transformation of the spirit and develop ethics, justice, kindness and, finally, wisdom. (See also the quote re putting new wine into new bottles, a transformed spirit into a new body.)BTW, as I used to remind my students, almost all of the O.T. and N.T. was written by Jews, who (like any good teacher) made extensive use of metaphor and parables or stories to illustrate deeper meanings and aid in their students’ understanding. This is why Biblical exegesis avoids strictly literal interpretations as often being too simplistic at best and erroneous at worst, because the Bible was written on different levels. Odd how many Christians are unaware of this fact. (Again, a lack of scholarship, no knowledge or understanding of their own history.). Yet no one thinks Jesus was dispensing advice on farming when He said to plant your seeds deeply in rich soil rather than on rock or in sand. But if the inner meaning of this parable is clear, (re the growth of faith), then it should also be clear that other parables and other teachings have inner meanings and are not meant to be taken literally.(But again, I digress. Hopefully it will be useful). Two quotes which clearly indicate that the disciples knew about gilgul are when they ask Jesus re whether a man had been born blind due to his having sinned (and Jesus replied that, in this specific case, neither, but he also didn’t dispute their connecting being born blind to having sinned prior to birth in general), and again, when Jesus asked them about what others were saying re who he was and they answered, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." So the idea that Jesus could have been Jeremiah or another prophet reincarnated was prevalent enough to be a topic of discussion by at least some of the general populace.I would like to mention at this point to any conservative Christians that might read this, that it should quite clear that anyone who sincerely seeks to be or become a Christian in truth (rather than in name only) needs to be following the teachings of Jesus rather than Paul. I do not understand how anyone can consider themselves a Christian, yet not know Jesus’ teachings well enough to see that Jesus was a liberal who opposed the political and religious conservatives of his time, who always sided with the poor and did not judge sinners, but showed them compassion, warning the rich Pharisees, among others, to “judge not, lest ye be judged with the same judgment you judge others with” (which is so clearly about tikkun or karma, as is the Golden Rule to “do unto others as you would have others do unto you” because as we do unto others, so others will do unto us). It is not enough to merely believe that Jesus died for your sins. He warned His followers that, if they truly loved Him, then it was necessary to keep His commandments to “love one another as you have been loved, to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the prisoner” and that “blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (also karmic).So be careful about claiming to be a Christian while demonizing and despising and condemning anyone to Hell (surely God’s province alone) and especially those who are different from you simply because they are different, because Jesus was quite clear that “he who is not against me is with me” and that many would “come from the east and the west and sit at table in God’s kingdom because the law of God, Who is love, was in their hearts naturally, without being taught Judaism or Christianity, but the Pharisees ( and by extension the Christians) who ”had the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” (who had been taught and knew the Jewish teachings and, later, the Christians who knew the Christian teachings ) “but kept others from entering, nor enter in themselves” would be left in the outer darkness. “For what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justice [at the very least] and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God” (Hosea).There is no humility, justice or mercy in condemning and despising others who are not Christian simply because they are not Christian. Do you really believe that an all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful God who created an entire planet (and perhaps beyond) of unique individuals would then punish them with eternal Hell simply because they were not Christian? Yet all Christians will go to Heaven simply because they believe in Jesus and accept that He died for their sins? On that illogical (and some would say insane) interpretation, Lao Tzu and Shakyamuni Buddha are both in Hell and Hitler and Torquemada and Reagan are in Heaven.But I digress. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) For those of you who want to keep going on the original question as to if one can be both a Buddhist and a Christian, (and how I can answer in the affirmative), I started studying religion 52 years ago, beginning by reading the Bible at the age of 10 (a gift from my parents when they couldn’t answer my questions about the existence and nature of God, suffering and death and basically said, “Here, read this”). I focused that first study on the teachings of Jesus in the 4 Gospels (rather than Paul-or Calvin or Falwell, etc., something I again heartily recommend that my fellow Christians try if they wish to strive sincerely to be genuinely Christian instead of in name only). I finished the New Testament, then read the Old Testament, then read the New Testament again (because even then I knew that the proper focus of a Christian are the teachings of Christ).My first reading of the Bible answered some of my questions but not the main ones, (if God is truly omniscient, omnipotent and all-loving, then why do so many innocents suffer?) A year later, I went to a Baptist service in south Texas (small town, too), at the invitation of a friend and was so offended by the preacher saying that only Baptists would go to Heaven that I added on a new nightly prayer to the regular litany telling God that I knew the preacher was wrong, that God (an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God) could not be so cruel and unjust as to doom everyone but the Baptists to Hell (just from my reading the Bible and my very limited child’s understanding of God, as well as basic logic) and asking Him to let me know the truth, if it was possible for me to understand.Two years later, I passed by a book on a table in the school library entitled The Life of Buddha, by the Theravada monk, Walpole Rahula. Never heard of the Buddha but was so drawn by the kind and peaceful smile of the depiction of the man sitting with closed eyes, so I sat down and started reading the beautiful story of the young Hindu prince, Siddhartha.BTW, yes, Buddhism is a very philosophical religion but it is most certainly a religion by the standard definition and any other reasonable definition, and any religion can be a way of life if practiced sincerely and consistently. Did the Buddha intend for it to become a separate religion? Probably not. Born and raised as a Hindu, he stressed to his audiences of Hindus (who believe in God) and Jains (who don’t) that he didn’t teach anything re the existence or nonexistence of a supreme being, or if there was one God or many Gods. He taught about suffering and overcoming suffering, about how to quit causing suffering for oneself and others, about how to develop compassion and wisdom. People were free to believe whatever they liked about God (wow, what a concept!) But if they still suffered from any type of “unsatisfactory” experiences, mental or physical, regardless of their theological position regarding God, then his teachings might be useful for them.Also, (yes, another digression to correct a little particle of the mountain of misinformation out there), Buddhism is most certainly not idolatry, any more than Hinduism or Catholic Christianity is idolatry because Hindus use pictures and statues of Gods and Goddesses and Catholics have pictures and statues of saints. Pictures and statues are just representations of holy beings. Nobody thinks a statue of Buddha or a picture of Mary is the actual person. Paper, paint and stone are not flesh and blood (although pictures and statues of the holy ones do sometimes become vehicles, so to speak, of those they depict, but that’s a long digression. Again, a bit of research is useful.For instance, there are some amazing stories about Jusn Diego’s cloak with the image of Mary of Guadalupe, which still stumps the scientists. For starters, they can’t explain how the image came to be on the cloth— ruled out paint and dyes and there’s no underlying sketch. The best they’ve come up with is that it was a result of some sort of “energy”. They also can’t explain why the colors haven’t faded since 1531 or bwhy the cactus fibers of the cloak (“tilma”) didn't disintegrate after 50 years, like every other cloth made of cactus fibers.Like Mother Mary and the other saints in Catholic Christianity (and Greek and Russian Orthodox Christianity), Buddha is not worshipped. He was a human being, not a God- which he emphasized repeatedly, because there was a bit of confusion at first among some of the Hindus), just like the other Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, saints and other holy men and women of many religions were/are also human beings. (Venerated, admired, loved, respected, emulated, but not worshipped.)Ok, back to the main account. When I got to the teachings on reincarnation and karma in the second chapter, (yes, still sitting at the school library table) (and how did that particular book wind up in a small town in Texas on the very table that I walked past on my way to the horse books? And why did it draw me back?) When I read about karma and reincarnation for the first time and it made perfect sense, I realized immediately that I had finally found answers to my questions about God and suffering and death, that God was answering my nightly prayers, and I got so excited that I totally forgot where I was and said, rather loudly, “This is it! This is it!” (But then the librarian shot me a stunned frown that shut me up to a whisper, over and over, “This is it!”).So I checked out the book, finished reading it, and although my original questions were largely answered, I had to try to make sure, so I started reading more books on Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism specifically, (because Jesus was a rabbi, so I thought I should learn more about Judaism too), as well as other religions more generally, because now I had a bunch of new questions, the main one being, if reincarnation and karma were true (which I already strongly suspected but was not yet fully convinced), and Jesus was the incarnation of God on earth, (which I already believed), then why didn’t Jesus teach about reincarnation and karma?So, once again, I read the four Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, only this time, seeking and finding what seemed to me even then to be numerous references to both reincarnation and karma, including those mentioned above. Then back through the Old Testament, where I found the same thing. (Especially in Psalms and Proverbs.) My suspicions re these quotes as referring to the Judeo-Christian understanding of karma and reincarnation was verified and considerably expanded by the study of Judaism in the next 2–3 years, together with books on the history of Christianity, which led me straight to Catholicism and deeper into Judaism, taking up the rest of my teen years and next 2 decades.BTW, the 5th Ecumenical Council roughly a century after Jerome was a big piece of the puzzle, as it explained how the early Christian belief in gilgul and tikkun was almost completely eliminated by the 5th E. C. (aka the 2nd Council of Constantinople, for you researchers out there), which was improperly convened by Emperor Justinian instead of Pope Vigilius, who was imprisoned by the Emperor for refusing to condemn Fr. Origen’s teachings on transmigration. He later agreed to condemn only Nestor and was finally released from prison just in time to die on the way back to Rome (as even the Emperor didn’t want to be accused of killing the Pope). But the Council, led by the Emperor, condemned the teachings on transmigration and many overt references in the Christian scriptures were removed. (Again, see more on this topic in the 2 anthologies by Head & Cranston: “Reincarnation, an East -West Anthology and “The Phoenix Fire Mystery”. and elsewhere.)Another big piece of the puzzle was learning about the apokatastasis, another early teaching that Fr. Origen and his teacher, Clement of Alexandria, (among other early Christian theologians) expounded on. Referring to the eventual restoration of all souls back to God from Whom we all came and Who can do nothing in vain, it is the eventual culmination of the entertwined processes of gilgul and tikkun. God prepared for all souls a “way of return” until we will “go out no more” when Jesus “will be all in all”. Cf. also Jesus repeatedly reassuring Julian of Norwich that, despite the teachings of the Medieval Church in Hell, “All will be well and all will be well and all manner of all things will be well”. (I could go on, as you’ve probably surmised, because there is much more to this part, but this should get you started on your own research.)Then I went to an Ash Wednesday Mass when I was 29 or 30, (first Mass ever), and before Mass even began, I experienced a strong sense of presence originating from a beautiful life-sized portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe that we sat next to. I was stunned, and then stunned again by a strong sense of Mother Kuan Yin being present. (Mother Kuan Yin was an old friend by then-but skipping that story, at least on this post) but I really didn’t expect her to show up at a Mass or to be so close to Mother Mary.Long story short, (no, really), after some stringent urging by Mother Mary, I promised to look into Catholicism (on the way home after Mass) but told her I really didn’t understand why, since I was a practicing Buddhist and I didn’t believe that only Catholics go to Heaven (my mistake, not a post-Vatican 2 Catholic belief), so I didn’t get the point of learning about it. But there they both were the next morning, so (again due to some rather insistent urging by Mary), I called the rectory to ask for a recommendation of a good book about Catholicism, because I didn’t want to become a Catholic, I just wanted to learn about it, and the lady said, “Oh, I can do better than that, it just so happens that there’s an RCIA class starting this Friday. You can come and ask all the questions you want.” (I could hear the Mothers laughing right about then. They seemed to think it was very funny.) [Yes, I know it sounds odd. I thought it was extremely odd at the time, although I had become close to Mother Kuan Yin when I was 16 as a result of a similarly sudden and unexpected experience of her presence. But never expected it to happen again with Mary or anyone else. [Periodic experiences of a strong sense of presence and sometimes locutions, but no visions]. However, I can at least give you the one locution I’ve heard repeatedly that is frequently their last word to me in most of their locations: “All good things in all good time.” ( Which could easily refer to the apokatastasis.)So after I don’t recall how many months of the RCIA classes, (which were fascinating, by the way, due to an excellent teacher who welcomed questions), I told my RCIA teacher, (a priest and scholar), that I was a practicing Buddhist the week prior to becoming a Catholic and he had no problem with it, (after one extensive discussion and after reading a 20-page paper on the history of reincarnation in Christianity that was basically my freshman English term paper revised and expanded. ) So I officially became a Catholic Christian while still practicing Buddhism.About 7 years later, I met my Buddhist teacher, Geshe Gyeltsen, (with a very powerful and immediate sense of recognition that was so strong, it was both disconcerting and discombobulating-seriously), (for me, anyway. He, of course, thought it was very funny. Couldn’t quit laughing and shaking his head.) A year later, he offered Refuge, (taking Refuge is how one officially becomes a Buddhist). I told him that I was a practicing Catholic before I took Refuge with him and he only had one question: who do I take refuge in? I said, “my teachers, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.” And he had no problem with it, so I officially became a Christian Buddhist at that point. He remained my closest teacher for the next 17 years, during which time he was always amazingly kind, patient, understanding, perceptive, generous, knowledgeable, wise and humble. When he was 85, a few months after being diagnosed with cancer, he sat in the Clear Light meditation for 3 days, 3 hours and 30-something minutes, then effortlessly left the body, manifesting a stunning double rainbow (one of which faded quickly, like an ordinary rainbow, and one that was huge and brilliant and which stayed for at least 10 minutes without fading. The Dharmakaya rainbow. Very well-documented, see pic below. The ordinary rainbow is barely visible but the Dharmakaya rainbow is still very vivid.) Looking at it, those of us who were so blessed to be there were filled with bliss, despite just learning that Geshe-la was gone. A few years later, a little boy in Mondgod was officially recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as “the unmistakable reincarnation of Ven. Geshe Gyeltsen”. The Dalai Lama, who was one of Geshe-la’s very closest teachers, verified his identity after the young boy showed some very strong indications of being Geshe-la and passed all the usual tests tests, culminating with the personal meeting with the Dalai Lama. He is nowan 8-year-old Rinpoche at Gaden Shartse monastery in India. (“By their fruits you will know them.”)No contradiction in believing that an all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful God would send Shakyamuni Buddha (or Gautama Buddha, if you prefer) to teach the realities of impermanence, causation and interdependence, (facts that modern science also affirms), to teach people how to quit causing suffering for themselves and others and to urge people to love instead of hate, to be kind instead of cruel, to think of others instead of being selfish and self-centered, to grow in wisdom and understanding instead of clinging to foolishness and ignorance based on the self-cherishing ego, and that God would later incarnate as Jesus to teach these same lessons and take on the “sins of the world” by suffering and dying, although being without sin, to accept and remove some (but not all) of the heavy negative karmic burden we have accumulated. Note that He said “to take away the sins of the world” and not just of the Christians. But remember also His warning to the Pharisees and the similar, if softer, warning to His followers: it is not enough to merely believe (faith is the milk, the beginning. Not the end, Luther’s sole fide definitely notwithstanding. Wisdom is the meat, and there is no true wisdom without kindness. We must also strive to “go and sin no more”, (not keep sinning against our brothers and sisters because they are different from us—-remember the parable of the Good Samaritan)—to keep His commandments to love one another, (not hate, not harm, not kill)…to do good to those who harm us (not harm those who have done nothing to us and just want to be free to follow their own path)….to be merciful (not merciless and condemning)… to be a peacemaker, for they will see God, (not wage war or be pro-war in the name of God, how insanely perverse and how offensive to God this must be).Suffering exists. That’s realistic recognition of an obvious fact, (not pessimism, not hatred of the world, not nihilism.) There is an illusory aspect to how we perceive phenomena but that doesn’t mean that nothing exists at all. Just that nothing exists permanently or independently or without a prior cause (again, science affirms this.) The phrase is “empty of inherent existence”, not “empty of any existence whatsoever”. Shakyamuni Buddha’s 4 Noble Truths and Eightfold Path are still as effective today at teaching people how to stop creating suffering for oneself and others as they were several centuries before the birth of Jesus. The Christian saints who were martyred believed in Jesus and accepted that He came to save people from their sins, yet they still suffered greatly. Good, kind and even saintly people of many different religions, including Buddhism and Christianity, have suffered and died and continue to do so. Recognition of suffering is not pessimistic or nihilistic, it’s just realistic.Any deeper search for truth, for greater knowledge and understanding of the history and teachings of Jesus will inevitably come to uncover and include the above facts re gilgul (transmigration) and tikkun, (basically, karma) as taught by Jesus and others, as well as re God’s infinite love for all souls, all who were created by Him.One point I’m going to insert here (without a 3-hour exposition) is the teaching of the (almost undisputed) preeminent Christian theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, that, although human justice and human mercy are very different virtues by definition and in practice, God is simultaneously infinitely just and infinitely merciful. Because God is both omniscient and omnipotent, (so He knew before creation that we would misuse free will and He could have created us to be very different), it is just for God to be merciful. I have yet to discover whether Aquinas was familiar with the Talmud and other Rabbinical teachings, (although I have to suspect so), because I have read in more than one Rabbi’s teachings that the process of tikkun, the way of recompense, is an expression of God’s infinite justice and the process of gilgul, the way of return, is an expression of God’s infinite mercy.“Know the truth and the truth will set you free”. Free from ignorance, hatred and prejudice. And eventually, free from suffering.Finally, a few (more) recommended topics and books, for those of you interested in more info: the rebirth stories of the Tibetan Buddhist Rinpoches, including His Holiness, the Dalai Lama (and his predecessors, so to speak) and the Karmapa (and his predecessors) who writes a letter re the details of his next rebirth before he passes on, (his name, his parents’ names and the name of the town or city of his next rebirth) so he’ll be easy to find; (and the Dalai Lama recently said he’s going to start doing the same thing, to prevent the Chinese government from installing their own Dalai Lama). If you want to hear the story of the discovery of Geshe-la’s reincarnation, the account of the two monks who found him is on the GSTDL website. (Gaden Shartse Thubten Dhargye Ling). Also, see Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation”, by Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia and the continuation of his work by his students and colleagues; “Zen Catholicism” by Dom Aelred Graham and the Asian Journal of Fr. Thomas Merton. Tons more out there but this will get you started.

Of course. Although unusual, it’s not unheard of, particularly among converts (in either direction). Speaking personally, I’ve officially been a Buddhist Christian for 25 years and unofficially for 50 years. I was raised as a Methodist, started studying and practicing Buddhism informally from books when I was 13 and officially became a Catholic when I was about 30, (primarily thanks to Mother Mary of Guadalupe and an excellent RCIA teacher), then finally met my Buddhist teacher and took Refuge (and officially became a Buddhist) when I was 37. For the last 50 years, I have found many good arguments and much supporting evidence for reincarnation and karma (2 of the main points of contention for most Christians re Buddhism, with the existence God being the third), but nothing convincing or worthwhile in opposition.Even the following (relatively brief) explanation is rather lengthy (so if anyone is actually interested in going in-depth, this could take awhile, but I’m game if you are), but to start with a shorter answer, I studied the teachings and history of Jesus and the Buddha well enough to realize after just two years that there is no real contradiction between the two religions and actually a great deal of overlap. It took a bit more time and research to uncover that Jesus actually quotes the Buddha extensively, (for starters, see the appendix in The Gospel of Buddha by Paul Carus for a good list of parallel quotations) and that Jesus had access to the Sutras of Buddha in the Library of Alexandria, Egypt as a child (where they were placed by the Buddhist monks from India at the order of King Ashoka way before the birth of Jesus) and may well have spent some years in his 20’s in India (unproven but an interesting theory). One of the most interesting parts of the puzzle was learning that, like the Buddha, Jesus taught reincarnation and karma (and impermanence and infinite compassion) to the disciples and quite a few others.A bit of history that you’ll never hear in Sunday school or catechism: St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from the scholar’s Greek to the common vernacular of Latin (hence the term, Vulgate”), tried to refuse the Pope’s assignment to do so (despite the team of scribes who did most of the work under his supervision), because some would accuse him of omitting teachings that should have been left in and others would accuse him of leaving in teachings that should have been taken out. (He was right, too. That’s exactly what happened.) But what teachings was he referring to? A very interesting quote by Jerome in a letter to Demetrius would seem to shed a bit light on this question (and notice how he phrased it): “The doctrine of transmigration has been secretly taught from ancient times as a traditional truth which was not to be divulged” to non-scholars who would misunderstand. (See the 2 anthologies by Head & Cranston: “Reincarnation, an East -West Anthology and “The Phoenix Fire Mystery”.)The Jewish concepts of reincarnation and karma are known today as gilgul and tikkun, respectively. No idea as to what the ancient Aramaic terms were in Jesus’ time, but Jewish rabbis and other Jewish scholars were quite familiar with these oral teachings way before Reb Luria wrote them down and way before Jesus taught them. Some of the Judeo-Christian references to the teaching now known as “gilgul” (typically translated as “transmigration” by the early Jews and Christians rather than as “reincarnation”, following the wording in ancient Greek) survived the rather stringent elimination that resulted from the Fifth Ecumenical Council (E.C.).So we find Jesus repeatedly stressing (for those “who had ears to hear”) that John the Baptist (actually the Baptizer) was the reincarnation of the Prophet Elijah, (the same “spirit” and spiritual “power”, referring to how the spirit of a prophet (or rabbi) reincarnates without a loss of spiritual power. Elijah’s return as John was the fulfillment of the last prophecy in Malachi that God “will send you the Prophet Elijah” as the forerunner of the Messiah, so the return of Elijah was eagerly awaited as the sign that the Messiah would appear shortly thereafter. See also Jesus’ teaching that teaching that “he who lives by the sword dies by the sword” (re both karma and reincarnation, because many murderers die of old age, so, to make sense, this would refer to the karma of some killers ripening in a future earthly life)Then there is the fascinating account of Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin (and, hence, well-educated and, therefore, knowledgeable re gilgul, “the way of return,” and tikkun, “the way of recompense”), testing Jesus’ knowledge of reincarnation and Jesus trying to tell him that, yes, He was aware of this “earthly mystery” but that there was more to it, that mere transmigration of the soul or spirit into a new body didn’t necessarily make one a better human being. One could reincarnate repeatedly without making any spiritual progress and even devolve. One had to undergo an inner transformation of the spirit and develop ethics, justice, kindness and, finally, wisdom. (See also the quote re putting new wine into new bottles, a transformed spirit into a new body.)BTW, as I used to remind my students, almost all of the O.T. and N.T. was written by Jews, who (like any good teacher) made extensive use of metaphor and parables or stories to illustrate deeper meanings and aid in their students’ understanding. This is why Biblical exegesis avoids strictly literal interpretations as often being too simplistic at best and erroneous at worst, because the Bible was written on different levels. Odd how many Christians are unaware of this fact. (Again, a lack of scholarship, no knowledge or understanding of their own history.). Yet no one thinks Jesus was dispensing advice on farming when He said to plant your seeds deeply in rich soil rather than on rock or in sand. But if the inner meaning of this parable is clear, (re the growth of faith), then it should also be clear that other parables and other teachings have inner meanings and are not meant to be taken literally.(But again, I digress. Hopefully it will be useful). Two quotes which clearly indicate that the disciples knew about gilgul are when they ask Jesus re whether a man had been born blind due to his having sinned (and Jesus replied that, in this specific case, neither, but he also didn’t dispute their connecting being born blind to having sinned prior to birth in general), and again, when Jesus asked them about what others were saying re who he was and they answered, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." So the idea that Jesus could have been Jeremiah or another prophet reincarnated was prevalent enough to be a topic of discussion by at least some of the general populace.I would like to mention at this point to any conservative Christians that might read this, that it should quite clear that anyone who sincerely seeks to be or become a Christian in truth (rather than in name only) needs to be following the teachings of Jesus rather than Paul. I do not understand how anyone can consider themselves a Christian, yet not know Jesus’ teachings well enough to see that Jesus was a liberal who opposed the political and religious conservatives of his time, who always sided with the poor and did not judge sinners, but showed them compassion, warning the rich Pharisees, among others, to “judge not, lest ye be judged with the same judgment you judge others with” (which is so clearly about tikkun or karma, as is the Golden Rule to “do unto others as you would have others do unto you” because as we do unto others, so others will do unto us). It is not enough to merely believe that Jesus died for your sins. He warned His followers that, if they truly loved Him, then it was necessary to keep His commandments to “love one another as you have been loved, to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the prisoner” and that “blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (also karmic).So be careful about claiming to be a Christian while demonizing and despising and condemning anyone to Hell (surely God’s province alone) and especially those who are different from you simply because they are different, because Jesus was quite clear that “he who is not against me is with me” and that many would “come from the east and the west and sit at table in God’s kingdom because the law of God, Who is love, was in their hearts naturally, without being taught Judaism or Christianity, but the Pharisees ( and by extension the Christians) who ”had the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” (who had been taught and knew the Jewish teachings and, later, the Christians who knew the Christian teachings ) “but kept others from entering, nor enter in themselves” would be left in the outer darkness. “For what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justice [at the very least] and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God” (Hosea).There is no humility, justice or mercy in condemning and despising others who are not Christian simply because they are not Christian. Do you really believe that an all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful God who created an entire planet (and perhaps beyond) of unique individuals would then punish them with eternal Hell simply because they were not Christian? Yet all Christians will go to Heaven simply because they believe in Jesus and accept that He died for their sins? On that illogical (and some would say insane) interpretation, Lao Tzu and Shakyamuni Buddha are both in Hell and Hitler and Torquemada and Reagan are in Heaven.But I digress. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) For those of you who want to keep going on the original question as to if one can be both a Buddhist and a Christian, (and how I can answer in the affirmative), I started studying religion 52 years ago, beginning by reading the Bible at the age of 10 (a gift from my parents when they couldn’t answer my questions about the existence and nature of God, suffering and death and basically said, “Here, read this”). I focused that first study on the teachings of Jesus in the 4 Gospels (rather than Paul-or Calvin or Falwell, etc., something I again heartily recommend that my fellow Christians try if they wish to strive sincerely to be genuinely Christian instead of in name only). I finished the New Testament, then read the Old Testament, then read the New Testament again (because even then I knew that the proper focus of a Christian are the teachings of Christ).My first reading of the Bible answered some of my questions but not the main ones, (if God is truly omniscient, omnipotent and all-loving, then why do so many innocents suffer?) A year later, I went to a Baptist service in south Texas (small town, too), at the invitation of a friend and was so offended by the preacher saying that only Baptists would go to Heaven that I added on a new nightly prayer to the regular litany telling God that I knew the preacher was wrong, that God (an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God) could not be so cruel and unjust as to doom everyone but the Baptists to Hell (just from my reading the Bible and my very limited child’s understanding of God, as well as basic logic) and asking Him to let me know the truth, if it was possible for me to understand.Two years later, I passed by a book on a table in the school library entitled The Life of Buddha, by the Theravada monk, Walpole Rahula. Never heard of the Buddha but was so drawn by the kind and peaceful smile of the depiction of the man sitting with closed eyes, so I sat down and started reading the beautiful story of the young Hindu prince, Siddhartha.BTW, yes, Buddhism is a very philosophical religion but it is most certainly a religion by the standard definition and any other reasonable definition, and any religion can be a way of life if practiced sincerely and consistently. Did the Buddha intend for it to become a separate religion? Probably not. Born and raised as a Hindu, he stressed to his audiences of Hindus (who believe in God) and Jains (who don’t) that he didn’t teach anything re the existence or nonexistence of a supreme being, or if there was one God or many Gods. He taught about suffering and overcoming suffering, about how to quit causing suffering for oneself and others, about how to develop compassion and wisdom. People were free to believe whatever they liked about God (wow, what a concept!) But if they still suffered from any type of “unsatisfactory” experiences, mental or physical, regardless of their theological position regarding God, then his teachings might be useful for them.Also, (yes, another digression to correct a little particle of the mountain of misinformation out there), Buddhism is most certainly not idolatry, any more than Hinduism or Catholic Christianity is idolatry because Hindus use pictures and statues of Gods and Goddesses and Catholics have pictures and statues of saints. Pictures and statues are just representations of holy beings. Nobody thinks a statue of Buddha or a picture of Mary is the actual person. Paper, paint and stone are not flesh and blood (although pictures and statues of the holy ones do sometimes become vehicles, so to speak, of those they depict, but that’s a long digression. Again, a bit of research is useful.For instance, there are some amazing stories about Jusn Diego’s cloak with the image of Mary of Guadalupe, which still stumps the scientists. For starters, they can’t explain how the image came to be on the cloth— ruled out paint and dyes and there’s no underlying sketch. The best they’ve come up with is that it was a result of some sort of “energy”. They also can’t explain why the colors haven’t faded since 1531 or bwhy the cactus fibers of the cloak (“tilma”) didn't disintegrate after 50 years, like every other cloth made of cactus fibers.Like Mother Mary and the other saints in Catholic Christianity (and Greek and Russian Orthodox Christianity), Buddha is not worshipped. He was a human being, not a God- which he emphasized repeatedly, because there was a bit of confusion at first among some of the Hindus), just like the other Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, saints and other holy men and women of many religions were/are also human beings. (Venerated, admired, loved, respected, emulated, but not worshipped.)Ok, back to the main account. When I got to the teachings on reincarnation and karma in the second chapter, (yes, still sitting at the school library table) (and how did that particular book wind up in a small town in Texas on the very table that I walked past on my way to the horse books? And why did it draw me back?) When I read about karma and reincarnation for the first time and it made perfect sense, I realized immediately that I had finally found answers to my questions about God and suffering and death, that God was answering my nightly prayers, and I got so excited that I totally forgot where I was and said, rather loudly, “This is it! This is it!” (But then the librarian shot me a stunned frown that shut me up to a whisper, over and over, “This is it!”).So I checked out the book, finished reading it, and although my original questions were largely answered, I had to try to make sure, so I started reading more books on Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism specifically, (because Jesus was a rabbi, so I thought I should learn more about Judaism too), as well as other religions more generally, because now I had a bunch of new questions, the main one being, if reincarnation and karma were true (which I already strongly suspected but was not yet fully convinced), and Jesus was the incarnation of God on earth, (which I already believed), then why didn’t Jesus teach about reincarnation and karma?So, once again, I read the four Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, only this time, seeking and finding what seemed to me even then to be numerous references to both reincarnation and karma, including those mentioned above. Then back through the Old Testament, where I found the same thing. (Especially in Psalms and Proverbs.) My suspicions re these quotes as referring to the Judeo-Christian understanding of karma and reincarnation was verified and considerably expanded by the study of Judaism in the next 2–3 years, together with books on the history of Christianity, which led me straight to Catholicism and deeper into Judaism, taking up the rest of my teen years and next 2 decades.BTW, the 5th Ecumenical Council roughly a century after Jerome was a big piece of the puzzle, as it explained how the early Christian belief in gilgul and tikkun was almost completely eliminated by the 5th E. C. (aka the 2nd Council of Constantinople, for you researchers out there), which was improperly convened by Emperor Justinian instead of Pope Vigilius, who was imprisoned by the Emperor for refusing to condemn Fr. Origen’s teachings on transmigration. He later agreed to condemn only Nestor and was finally released from prison just in time to die on the way back to Rome (as even the Emperor didn’t want to be accused of killing the Pope). But the Council, led by the Emperor, condemned the teachings on transmigration and many overt references in the Christian scriptures were removed. (Again, see more on this topic in the 2 anthologies by Head & Cranston: “Reincarnation, an East -West Anthology and “The Phoenix Fire Mystery”. and elsewhere.)Another big piece of the puzzle was learning about the apokatastasis, another early teaching that Fr. Origen and his teacher, Clement of Alexandria, (among other early Christian theologians) expounded on. Referring to the eventual restoration of all souls back to God from Whom we all came and Who can do nothing in vain, it is the eventual culmination of the entertwined processes of gilgul and tikkun. God prepared for all souls a “way of return” until we will “go out no more” when Jesus “will be all in all”. Cf. also Jesus repeatedly reassuring Julian of Norwich that, despite the teachings of the Medieval Church in Hell, “All will be well and all will be well and all manner of all things will be well”. (I could go on, as you’ve probably surmised, because there is much more to this part, but this should get you started on your own research.)Then I went to an Ash Wednesday Mass when I was 29 or 30, (first Mass ever), and before Mass even began, I experienced a strong sense of presence originating from a beautiful life-sized portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe that we sat next to. I was stunned, and then stunned again by a strong sense of Mother Kuan Yin being present. (Mother Kuan Yin was an old friend by then-but skipping that story, at least on this post) but I really didn’t expect her to show up at a Mass or to be so close to Mother Mary.Long story short, (no, really), after some stringent urging by Mother Mary, I promised to look into Catholicism (on the way home after Mass) but told her I really didn’t understand why, since I was a practicing Buddhist and I didn’t believe that only Catholics go to Heaven (my mistake, not a post-Vatican 2 Catholic belief), so I didn’t get the point of learning about it. But there they both were the next morning, so (again due to some rather insistent urging by Mary), I called the rectory to ask for a recommendation of a good book about Catholicism, because I didn’t want to become a Catholic, I just wanted to learn about it, and the lady said, “Oh, I can do better than that, it just so happens that there’s an RCIA class starting this Friday. You can come and ask all the questions you want.” (I could hear the Mothers laughing right about then. They seemed to think it was very funny.) [Yes, I know it sounds odd. I thought it was extremely odd at the time, although I had become close to Mother Kuan Yin when I was 16 as a result of a similarly sudden and unexpected experience of her presence. But never expected it to happen again with Mary or anyone else. [Periodic experiences of a strong sense of presence and sometimes locutions, but no visions]. However, I can at least give you the one locution I’ve heard repeatedly that is frequently their last word to me in most of their locations: “All good things in all good time.” ( Which could easily refer to the apokatastasis.)So after I don’t recall how many months of the RCIA classes, (which were fascinating, by the way, due to an excellent teacher who welcomed questions), I told my RCIA teacher, (a priest and scholar), that I was a practicing Buddhist the week prior to becoming a Catholic and he had no problem with it, (after one extensive discussion and after reading a 20-page paper on the history of reincarnation in Christianity that was basically my freshman English term paper revised and expanded. ) So I officially became a Catholic Christian while still practicing Buddhism.About 7 years later, I met my Buddhist teacher, Geshe Gyeltsen, (with a very powerful and immediate sense of recognition that was so strong, it was both disconcerting and discombobulating-seriously), (for me, anyway. He, of course, thought it was very funny. Couldn’t quit laughing and shaking his head.) A year later, he offered Refuge, (taking Refuge is how one officially becomes a Buddhist). I told him that I was a practicing Catholic before I took Refuge with him and he only had one question: who do I take refuge in? I said, “my teachers, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.” And he had no problem with it, so I officially became a Christian Buddhist at that point. He remained my closest teacher for the next 17 years, during which time he was always amazingly kind, patient, understanding, perceptive, generous, knowledgeable, wise and humble. When he was 85, a few months after being diagnosed with cancer, he sat in the Clear Light meditation for 3 days, 3 hours and 30-something minutes, then effortlessly left the body, manifesting a stunning double rainbow (one of which faded quickly, like an ordinary rainbow, and one that was huge and brilliant and which stayed for at least 10 minutes without fading. The Dharmakaya rainbow. Very well-documented, see pic below. The ordinary rainbow is barely visible but the Dharmakaya rainbow is sill very vivid.) Looking at it, those of us who were so blessed to be there were filled with bliss, despite just learning that Geshe-la was gone. A few years later, a little boy in Mondgod was officially recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as “the unmistakable reincarnation of Ven. Geshe Gyeltsen”. The Dalai Lama, who was one of Geshe-la’s very closest teachers, verified his identity after the young boy showed some very strong indications of being Geshe-la and passed all the usual tests tests, culminating with the personal meeting with the Dalai Lama. He is nowan 8-year-old Rinpoche at Gaden Shartse monastery in India. (“By their fruits you will know them.”)No contradiction in believing that an all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful God would send Shakyamuni Buddha (or Gautama Buddha, if you prefer) to teach the realities of impermanence, causation and interdependence, (facts that modern science also affirms), to teach people how to quit causing suffering for themselves and others and to urge people to love instead of hate, to be kind instead of cruel, to think of others instead of being selfish and self-centered, to grow in wisdom and understanding instead of clinging to foolishness and ignorance based on the self-cherishing ego, and that God would later incarnate as Jesus to teach these same lessons and take on the “sins of the world” by suffering and dying, although being without sin, to accept and remove some (but not all) of the heavy negative karmic burden we have accumulated. Note that He said “to take away the sins of the world” and not just of the Christians. But remember also His warning to the Pharisees and the similar, if softer, warning to His followers: it is not enough to merely believe (faith is the milk, the beginning. Not the end, Luther’s sole fide definitely notwithstanding. Wisdom is the meat, and there is no true wisdom without kindness. We must also strive to “go and sin no more”, (not keep sinning against our brothers and sisters because they are different from us—-remember the parable of the Good Samaritan)—to keep His commandments to love one another, (not hate, not harm, not kill)…to do good to those who harm us (not harm those who have done nothing to us and just want to be free to follow their own path)….to be merciful (not merciless and condemning)… to be a peacemaker, for they will see God, (not wage war or be pro-war in the name of God, how insanely perverse and how offensive to God this must be).Suffering exists. That’s realistic recognition of an obvious fact, (not pessimism, not hatred of the world, not nihilism.) There is an illusory aspect to how we perceive phenomena but that doesn’t mean that nothing exists at all. Just that nothing exists permanently or independently or without a prior cause (again, science affirms this.) The phrase is “empty of inherent existence”, not “empty of any existence whatsoever”. Shakyamuni Buddha’s 4 Noble Truths and Eightfold Path are still as effective today at teaching people how to stop creating suffering for oneself and others as they were several centuries before the birth of Jesus. The Christian saints who were martyred believed in Jesus and accepted that He came to save people from their sins, yet they still suffered greatly. Good, kind and even saintly people of many different religions, including Buddhism and Christianity, have suffered and died and continue to do so. Recognition of suffering is not pessimistic or nihilistic, it’s just realistic.Any deeper search for truth, for greater knowledge and understanding of the history and teachings of Jesus will inevitably come to uncover and include the above facts re gilgul (transmigration) and tikkun, (basically, karma) as taught by Jesus and others, as well as re God’s infinite love for all souls, all who were created by Him.One point I’m going to insert here (without a 3-hour exposition) is the teaching of the (almost undisputed) preeminent Christian theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, that, although human justice and human mercy are very different virtues by definition and in practice, God is simultaneously infinitely just and infinitely merciful. Because God is both omniscient and omnipotent, (so He knew before creation that we would misuse free will and He could have created us to be very different), it is just for God to be merciful. I have yet to discover whether Aquinas was familiar with the Talmud and other Rabbinical teachings, (although I have to suspect so), because I have read in more than one Rabbi’s teachings that the process of tikkun, the way of recompense, is an expression of God’s infinite justice and the process of gilgul, the way of return, is an expression of God’s infinite mercy.“Know the truth and the truth will set you free”. Free from ignorance, hatred and prejudice. And eventually, free from suffering.Finally, a few (more) recommended topics and books, for those of you interested in more info: the rebirth stories of the Tibetan Buddhist Rinpoches, including His Holiness, the Dalai Lama (and his predecessors, so to speak) and the Karmapa (and his predecessors) who writes a letter re the details of his next rebirth before he passes on, (his name, his parents’ names and the name of the town or city of his next rebirth) so he’ll be easy to find; (and the Dalai Lama recently said he’s going to start doing the same thing, to prevent the Chinese government from installing their own Dalai Lama). If you want to hear the story of the discovery of Geshe-la’s reincarnation, the account of the two monks who found him is on the GSTDL website. (Gaden Shartse Thubten Dhargye Ling). Also, see Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation”, by Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia and the continuation of his work by his students and colleagues; “Zen Catholicism” by Dom Aelred Graham and the Asian Journal of Fr. Thomas Merton. Tons more out there but this will get you started.