Who is Buddha?
A Buddha is the title of an extraordinary man who is the Supreme being of all existence. He has fulfilled ten perfections including Khanti parami, which is extremene patience even in life threatening conditions, such as crucifixion, in a countless number of previous existence. He has made a resolution after meeting a life Buddha to become enlightened like the Buddha himself, without the help of others in his final existence.
The Buddhist Canon states that there were uncountable number of Buddhas in the past, as Samsara, the cycle of unlimited existences has no beginning and no end. Uncountable numbers of Buddhas will also appear in the future when the teaching of a Buddha, the Dhamma disappears from the human world.
The next Buddha in this world will be Metteyya (in Pali) or Maitreya (in Sanskrit), who will appear as a human when the teaching of the present Gotama Buddha disappears, which will be in any period after the next 2500 years.
A Bodhisatta (in Pali) or a future Buddha, is an extraordinary person who has an aspiration to attain the highest knowledge and the title of Buddha. He would do anything to achieve his objective, even if he had to sacrifice his own life, and is always willing to help others for salvation. In theory, everyone can become a Bodhisatta, a future Buddha who is perfect in everyway. He has immense love, empathy and sympathy towards everybody, without any discrimination or setting boundaries, and salvage all beings from suffering if they have faith in him.
In practice, only a few can really become a Buddha as it takes enormous amount of effort, sacrifice and energy to fulfil the ten perfections which would take an infinite period of time, in terms of earth years.
Who is Jesus?
The historical Jesus has been a mystified person to many. Jesus' teachings in the parables appear to contradict Mosiac Law of the Old Testament; for instance 'Turn the other cheek' against 'An eye for an eye.' Being a Jew himself, and trying to preach his fellow Jews, Jesus had to be esoteric in his teaching to be accepted by the Jews. Thus, Jesus became a mystified person after his death, and his genuine teaching might have been misinterpreted by his followers.
Orthodox Christians regard Jesus as the son of God, born to a Jewish commoner, Mary, by a virgin birth; the Saviour who took the sins of man when he died on the cross, and resurrected to become the Christ who would come back into the human world in the near future to salvage mankind.
To many researchers Jesus appears to be a man, born naturally to Mary, who was believed to be of royal descent, had a twin brother, Judas Thomas, who wrote a Gnostic Gospel; lived in Jerusalem about 500 years after Gotama Buddha; he was in India during the lost years and his perachings are similar to that of the Buddha; he was crucified by Romans for fear of leading an uprising by Jews.
Some researchers even go further and believed Jesus had survived the crucifixion; went to Kashmir with some of his followers, died there of a natural cause and was buried in a tomb in Kashmir that is revered by locals of different faiths. They back up their hypothesis by producing literature and archeological evidence.
If there was any truth in this hypothesis, it could jeopardise the Christian faith which has put much emphasis on the atonement of our sins by Jesus' death on the cross.
Research on the possibility of Jesus as the Future Buddha
Considerable number of people in the West, and some Mahaya Buddhists beleive that Jesus is the future Buddha since his parables are similar to that of the Buddha's teachings, and his second coming to salvage mankind coincides with the perdiction of the future Buddha Metteyya by Gotama Buddha. However, proper research into this subject is lacking and the authors of 'Who Is Jesus, A comparative Study on Christianity and Buddhism,' have tried to explore the 'Null Hypothesis' on Jesus as not Bodhisatta Metteyya, the next Buddha in waiting who is currently residing in Tusita Heaven.
The authors, Tin Htut and Htin Paw are Theravadins who have tried to document any evidenve of the future Buddha Metteyya's final destination in the Tusita Heaven using extensive literature search on the internet, exploring archeological and iconological inscriptions, contacting experts and scholars in Buddhism, quoting rare books from both Mahayana and Theravada sources, from Puranas, the Torah, the Bible, the Orthodox and Gnostic Gospels, and from some Sufi Islamic texts.
If there is hard evidence on Bodhisatta Metteyya's final residence that dated prior to Jesus' appearance on Earth, the hypothesis on Jesus as the Future Buddha will be nullified.
However, if the evidence were to be at the later date, after the crucifixion of Jesus, there is a possibility of Jesus being the Next Buddha since Jesus' intentional instigation that had led him to be crucified could be a fulfilment to test his patience or in Pali, the fulfilment of his last 'Khanti Parami' as a Bodhisatta before residing inTusita Heaven.
Should Jesus become the next Buddha he would be the 'Saviour' since many beings would be saved by his teaching. It is well documented in the Buddhist literature that anyone who had listened to a discourse of the life Buddha Gotama and had developed a faith, became instantly enlightened; thus, it is a salvation.
1st Century Bodhisatta Metteyya icon with a nail mark in the palm,depicting of crucifixion. Bodhisaatva Maitreya icon from Gandhara, Late 2nd Century. Jesus' live appearance in Nairobi, Kenya June 1988.
The stupa, which is a private collection of William H. Woeff, New York, has the typical head dress, a tied waist band and the Nagakesara flower in the left hand which are typical iconographical features of Maitreya. In the picture on right, Jesus appeared to be wearing a similar tunic and a head dress that is depicted in the stupa.
The book has two parts. Part One deals with comparative study and Part Two deals with Buddhist Philosophy from a scientific perspective. It also explores the possibility of life after death, what happened at death, the 31 existence in Samsara, UFOs, parallel world, and on how to purify yourself to prepare for the encounter with the next Buddha. The second edition of the book has just been released. It is a free gift, a Dhamma Dhana and anyone who is interested canrequest for a free copy from the authors.
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Sidney Tin Htut, The Author 
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I have several copies of the above book to give away. Anyone who is interested in receiving a free copy, please contact me giving your postal address.
Contact email address: Sidney Tin Htut Mr Maung Paw
To download PDF file of the book
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