Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has said that there is no need to stir up fear around nuclear weapons, as Christians are not afraid of the end of the world.
Kirill added that this “does not mean that we should sit by idly”.
“On the contrary, our earthly mission is to be the Lord’s soldiers … to resist evil and defend high moral ideals. This is the goal setting in Russia,” he said.
Uhm. This is why historical context is incredibly important when talking about these things.
Jesus was the son of a carpenter. he wasn’t exactly wealthy, by any means. He certainly didn’t have the resources to take a trip to India to study anything- such a trip would have taken at least a year just to travel.
He was raised in the Jewish tradition and taught their religious teachings, which, most certainly did not include the philosophies of other religions. Suffice it to say, that Jesus was thoroughly Jewish his both his understanding of the world about him, and how he expressed that understanding.
Further to the point, when jesus was at what we now call “the last supper”… he was not speaking to a bunch of Hindus. he was speaking to a bunch of Jewish men. Even if he had been aware that Hindus exist at all- never mind having studied their teachings and philosophies- he wouldn’t be relating such in that place at that time.
When he says “this is my body” or however you want to translate that, he meant it to be a more literal symbolism than you ascribe. in jewish tradition, when an animal was brought to the temple for sacrifice, it was common for only a small part of that animal to be burned at the altar. the rest of that animal was then divided between the priests and the petitioner (or it went entirely to the priests, or it was the less-common sort that was entirely burned. it depends on the reason for the sacrifice).
he was speaking to jewish men. He was establishing a new sort of sacrificial offering (the right of communion.) and while the disciples didn’t fully understand what he meant, they figured it out pretty damn quickly. he was saying he’s the ‘final’ sacrifice, and therefore- as part of the ritual offering- his followers were to symbolically consume his flesh and blood.
now Catholics take that a step further and follow a doctrine that says the communion bread and wine literally become such during the right (it’s called ‘transubstantiation’). But he was ultimately talking about how he was a sacrifice and he was establishing a new sort of ritual for his followers.
This was an echo of already-established jewish tradition. he wasn’t drawing on hindu or hopi or any one else’s teachings. he was drawing on jewish tradition surrounding sacrificial offerings and echoing that. because he and his followers were jewish.