SOME years ago a Canon of Cork for whom I did a good turn gave me a book of the Parallel sayings of Jesus and the Buddha.
JESUS: Looking at those who sat around him, he said: “Here are my mother and my brothers whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
BUDDHA: "Just as the great rivers on reaching the great ocean, lose their former names and identities and are reckoned simply as the great ocean, so do followers lose their former names and clans and become sons of the Buddha’s clan."
To me there is something quite sublime in seeing the one saying in the light of the other - something which strengthens the faith of both Christians and Buddhists and even the faith of those like me who have given up trying to put a label on themselves!
Such is the real value of interfaith dialogue.
Michael Jackson, Altrincham Inter Faith Group
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