In part one of this topic (which you’ll have to refer to to follow this second part), I included three pieces of scripture and emphasized the order in which they were supposedly written: the Buddhist first, the Hebrew second, and the Christian third. After all, that’s the order the events would have occurred.
All three relate stories of kings riding on donkeys or mules, in a gentle manner (this will become important in a minute).
As expected, I was refuted. I was refuted because, as I knew, the exact date of the written Dhammapada is very difficult to place, and it certainly wasn’t written all at once. Likewise, there is significant debate about whether Zechariah was written all at once by the prophet himself, or whether different chapters were written at different times by different people.
Now, first to my “experimental” point. When I stated something in absolute terms, I was refuted, corrected, criticized and questioned. And yet, whenever I express positions here that are less absolute, subject to interpretation, analysis, and critical thinking, I am most often met with claims of certainty (and in fact that happened too with regard to the Zechariah text). Ah, the irony!
Secondly, given the difficulty of pinning dow actual dates that texts were written, whether one influenced the other or vice versa, I think it is equally plausible to posit that the Christian scriptures are not a literal fulfillment of the Hebrew scriptures. I’m more prone to believe that the Christian scriptures were often written in specific response to the Hebrew scriptures rather than the events actually taking place as a fulfillment of them. There certainly is no doubt that the writers of the Christian scriptures knew the Hebrew scriptures because they often quote them verbatim (as was the case with Matthew’s depiction of Jesus entering Jerusalem).
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter because the story is an important one with deeper meaning in each instance. Yes, I do believe it is plausible that the Buddhist text was written first, then the Hebrew, then the Christian. I am also willing to accept that a significant level of ambiguity in determining dates exists to the point that this might not be the case, and so I can let go of that matter without losing the importance of the texts.
We can also let go of the chronology, the donkeys, and mules, and elephants, and horses. We can even let go of the common thread of kingship, and go to the other similarity… the fact that the rider, the one on the journey in each text, was gentle… tame.
He is gentle and riding on a donkey…
Among humans a tamed one is best…
By a well-subdued, disciplined self.
Not a trick rider at all! Just a fellow traveler who was at home wherever he was… Who had learned to be at peace with himself and with others. Who had stopped yearning for something more, and in doing so found himself exactly where he was meant to be…
Few of us will break donkeys or become trick riders… I doubt any of us will become a king or a queen… but all of us can tame ourselves…and be a bit more gentle than we have been…
As T.S. Eliot said:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.