To explain… When I was a child one of my boyhood friend’s was a Mormon. At the time I didn’t think anything about it, as we were too young to really understand the implications. I can remember seeing pictures on his walls of Jesus walking among such tribes as the Navajo and the Cree, telling them The Word. As I grew and become educated I learned a few things about where Jesus lived, where the Cree lived, and how many other parts of the Christian Faith saw Mormonism. In the mean time my friend was “called”, went to Salt Lake City, and virtually vanished from my life without so much as apologizing for the ten foot hole he left after he was gone. Needed less to say this did not make me a fan of organized religion during my teenage years. I was angry of course, but not having a faith system of my own I really didn’t understand the circumstances. “Jesus in the Americas, ” I said. “Who do these people think they are?”

As I grew older though I began to see the bigger picture. Being somewhat a budding writer I began to follow the thoughts of Joseph Campbell (1) and what I began to see was the development of a new faith system that spanned the globe. Campbell loved to discuss (among many other things) the development of cultural archetypes and worked extensively in comparative mythology and comparable religion. It was about the same time that I heard of the idea that during his life Jesus might have visited parts of the Indian Sub-Continent and himself studied the ways of the Buddha. While many Christians I know today are very peaceful and open-minded people, the idea that Christ was “as Buddha” seemed to whip them in to a frothing rage like no other subject. I thought the idea was rather nice myself: “Many recognize him as a "great teacher" (or "Ascended Master") similar to Buddha, and teach that Christhood is something that all may attain. At the same time, many New Age teachings, such as reincarnation, appear to reflect a certain discomfort with traditional Christianity.” (2) Of course right behind the idea of “Grand Master Jesus” was the fact that Jesus was an alien clone, a extradimensinal travalter, or perhaps some type of high powered teacher of the physically enhanced (like some strange aramaic Proffesor X). Persoanlly I refer to Jesus as the “Prince of Peace” and leave it at that.

There are many paralells between the story of the Buddha and the story of Jesus. I’m not going to try to explain them here, but among the contenders are the Virgin Birth, the idea of the Sacred Nature of Life, the idea of Peace, and the idea of an Ulimate Reality. Of course, don’t take my word for it… go look and READ for yourself, but I found the parallel quite pleaseing. Those that wish to “spread the good news via fire and sword” have taken up a great deal of my time trying to convince me otherwise but I like the idea that people all over the word who have different faith systems can get together because of a unilaterally peaceful faith potential… call me crazy.

Since my teenage years I have come to terms with Mormonism, Jesus, Buhddism, and various other states of spiritual conciousness. Joseph Campbell, in his most well known work The Power of Myth, would often quote one of his favorite pieces of scripture: “He who drinks from my mouth will becoem as I am and I shall be he.” As the world slowly and painfull becomes aware of itself we shall all need to drink from many mouths to see ourselves forward into a future we can look back on without feeling ashamed. The joking question “can’t we all just get along” (which has become a joke) will have to become a reality before people can truly be at peace. “My Prince of Piece kicks your Prince of Peace’s ass” makes no sence at all.

By: Ryan Fairley

1. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
2. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesu