To study
and to spread a knowledge of
the complementary relation
between the religious
systems of Christianity and
Buddhism, with the aim of
creating a new movement, the
Buddhist Christianity, in
which the two system are
seen as complementary and
necessary to each other, as
we read indicated in the
following quotations:
“... we regard the two
systems as complementary to
each other, each being
indispensable,...” [Life of
Anna Kingsford,
Edward Maitland, Vol. II, pp.
161-162]
“This precise attitude
towards that particular
system of religion, Buddhism,
which preceded the advent of
Christianity by some five or
six centuries has been
little short of suicidal to
the real success of the
latter, having proved
disastrous to its hold on
all save the ignorant or
elementary, the prejudiced,
and the conventional classes
still dominated by
Ecclesiasticism. For the
fact is that the doctrine of
the Buddha, with its Four
Great Truths and its Noble
Eightfold Path, its
boundless compassion towards
all sentient life, its
reasonable ethical teaching
of development through
self-conquest and
self-culture, its simple yet
profound analysis of
suffering and sorrow with
the method of escape
therefrom open to all, its
entire regeneration of the
mind, its exalted code of
morality and standard of
tolerance, peace, and
charity – that doctrine is
the indispensable forerunner
and interpreter of the
doctrine of the Christ. In
brief, they are not two
gospels but two aspects, the
without and the within, of
one Gospel. For Buddhism
finds its translation and
completion in Christianity,
and Christianity its
inception and foundation in
Buddhism.”
[The Living Truth in
Christianity, Bertram McCrie, pp. 26-27]