Buddhism and Spiritual Science

Buddhism constitutes a profound change in the evolution of human consciousness. The religious tradition inspired by Siddartha Gautama gave the world a new understanding of the nature of human suffering. And in his realization of bodhi, or enlightenment, he made it possible for an earth-bound humanity to aspire to reunion with the spiritual world. This course compares Buddhism with Anthroposophy (Spiritual Science), building vital bridges between history, religion, and myth. In Anthroposophy, the events and processes of history contain meaning materialistic readings of history overlook. Events generally understood as mere legends, myths, or anecdotes often conceal matters of great spiritual significance. We’ll examine the relationship between Christ and Buddha, finding the discrepancies between the stories of Jesus' lineage in Luke and the other synoptic gospels are not contradictions – but clues to a deeper, and radically new understanding of the incarnation of divinity in the person or persons of Jesus. (The idea of two Jesus children in 1st century Palestine would strike most Christians as shockingly heterodox, yet the awareness of these two boys and their respective soul-properties does much to explain the superficial differences in the gospels, illuminating the roles of Buddha and other exalted spirit beings in the formation of historical Christian consciousness.)

Estimated average course time for completion of this course: 4 weeks