Christianity is just Buddhism for white people.
Discussion
I hear this a lot and I could see why people think that. Some of the practices and wisdom overlap.: (stillness, humility, kindness, detachment from possessions, etc)
But Christianity’s cosmology and call on a person’s life is not inwardly focused (where there is more overlap with Buddhism).
The call is to bring heaven to earth: to speak truth, to oppose evil, to fix poverty, to heal the sick, to bring people hope they lost a long time ago, to teach people about the God made human in Jesus who did the work to make it all possible.
I believe there is goodness is Buddhism but I don’t think Jesus and Buddha would have haven’t along philosophically on what mattered most to each of them.
Both "Buddhism" and "Christianity" are vast and varied in their actual practice.
Most Buddhism is not "inwardly focused" and is practiced as you describe.
and there are certainly Christian sects that are as meditative as any Buddhist monk.
Jesus and Buddha point to the same eternal truth. What matters most to each of them is identical.
What eternal truth do you think they both point to?
"Lift the stone and you shall find me
Split the wood and I am there"
That is a useful and eternal truth, it’s just a very small part of what Jesus taught.
He taught us who created the universe and why. He taught us our place in it. He taught us that people are broken and need help from outside to be able to live into our purpose.
He taught us about God’s nature. That He is a person and yet a community in Himself. A being who desires relationship with us.
He taught us that without sanctification we cannot stand to be in the presence of the divine, it will destroy us.
He taught us there’s a place separate from here that is Heaven and it yearns to be joined with Earth but it’s not yet time.
He taught us there’s a separate place from here that is Hell which keeps evil out of Heaven.
He taught us that God will go to any lengths to save us, even sacrificing His own child.
Yes Jesus taught us that it’s important to seek the divine, and that in work and suffering there is much to learn and connection to make. Jesus did cultivate His mind through meditation and other practices in common with Buddha.
His teachings are just so much bigger in scope, and narrower in their prescriptions about what is a good life. (Even though I believe many Christians have too narrow a definition of a good life)
I’d love to learn more about Buddhism from your perspective, I just don’t think Jesus and Buddha teachings are the same.