J on Nostr: It's really hard to say. There certainly are themes of kenosis; emptiness of the ...

It's really hard to say. There certainly are themes of kenosis; emptiness of the self, and universal compassion, and statements like "ye are gods" (not univocal language to Yogacara and Buddha Nature thought, but pretty close.)

But ultimately I don't like dissecting Christianity to only pick out the favorable parts. It's too easy to do because the Bible has so many damn mysteries, you can make Jesus agree with just about anything if you twist his arm.

Some Buddhists like to praise the Gnostic cosmological texts but they seem more Hermetic than anything. Not to mention thematically off. Why would a bodhisattva be meticulously teaching his disciples how to deceive illusory beings that they could simply transcend through awakening?

I tend to think of it as upaya. Jesus probably wasn't a literal bodhisattva, though he's certainly closer to one than an average sage, but it could be helpful for some to think of him that way to emulate his positive qualities.