Buddha and the Beatitudes

By Carolyn J Sweers

The Sermon on the Mount is a condensed summary of some of Jesus’s key teachings. Some of the teachings bear a remarkable resemblance to those of the Buddha. In fact, in the author’s experience, Buddhist insights and practices can help with an understanding, and putting into practice, Jesus’s words. Following a summary of key Bu

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: Aug 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781949502619

Carolyn J Sweers

Carolyn Sweers grew up on an Iowa farm in the 1950's. It was there that she had her first experiences of the profound truths she tries to describe in this book. These experiences, more than any others, shaped her life and led her to a career as a philosophy student and teacher. This book and others that she has had published recently, have a shared objective: to evoke insight in the reader. She knows from experience the importance of finding what Kierkegaard called "the truth for me." And, she shares the Socratic conviction that people have within them this truth. It simply needs to be evoked.

Book preview

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Buddha

and the

Beatitudes

Carolyn J Sweers

Copyright © 2018 by Carolyn J Sweers.

Paperback: 978-1-949502-60-2

eBook: 978-1-949502-61-9

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Introduction

A Tale of Two Houses

A Short Course in Buddhism

The Four Noble Truths

Meditation

Hindrances to spiritual development

Buddha and Jesus: Some shared concerns

Dhammapada

The Sermon On The Mount

A Cup of Tea

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure

hidden in a field.

If a person finds it

and recognizes its value,

he or she is willing to sell

everything previously owned

in order to buy the field

and with the field

its treasure.

(based on Matthew 13:44)

Introduction

The fall after I retired, I attended a 10 day Buddhist retreat. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. The first five days, we sat on meditation cushions and for seven one hour periods, interspersed throughout the day from 4:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., we were to focus on the sensation of the breath entering and leaving the nostrils. When thoughts arose, as they inevitably