Jesus and Buddha Quotes

“All finite beings are like waves riding upon the watery Spirit-power of God. Christians relate to God by imagining God “up there,” “out there,” but God is the “within” of all finite beings continually communicating to them autonomous identity.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“Again, there is unanimous agreement among the differing schools of Buddhism that once we begin to “wise up” to the Emptiness or interconnectedness of everything, we will—necessarily, naturally, spontaneously—feel compassion for everything (including ourselves).”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“No where” means “now here.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“Non-theists are not atheists. There’s a big difference, I suggest, between non-theists and atheists.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“Their message for anyone who wants to follow Buddha is clear: if you are harming others in any way—by the way you treat them, talk about them, or affect them in the profession you have—then no matter how deeply you study and comprehend Buddha’s teachings, no matter how long and earnestly you sit in meditation, nothing is going to work!”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“So if dialogue requires “head work” in serious study, it leads to and demands “heart work.” Interreligious dialogue really doesn’t happen until heart speaks to heart.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“If this is so, if religion and religious experience deal with a Mystery that is as real as it is incomprehensible, if each religion knows something of the Truth but never the whole Truth, then in order to learn more of this Truth they all must learn more from one another.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“Therefore, for Buddha (and I suspect for Jesus too) the primary reason, and the primary starting point, for all interreligious dialogue is the ethical need for cooperation in order to remove suffering. If interreligious dialogue doesn’t remove suffering, it would be, according to Buddha, a waste of time.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“There will be no peace among nations unless there is peace among religions. And there will be no peace among religions unless there is genuine dialogue among them.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“This should broaden the meaning of the person’s own religious beliefs, values, and perhaps practices because these are now situated within a wider horizon.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“Spirituality is what we do in order to wake up to what we really are.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“Being a member of a community does not swallow individuality but supports and nourishes”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation

“what I hear in silence I have already been feeling in the service of others and of the world. Silence that serves. Service that lives out of silence. I think that gets at the heart of Buddhist spirituality.”
― Paul F. Knitter, Jesus and Buddha: Friends in Conversation