I posted this here as its a bit out of line for afterlife discussion.

This is an interesting and apparently researched (but not necessarily unbiased) article postulating a lot of cross over between Buddhism and the earlier forms of Middle Eastern beliefs including Christianity. How true I've no idea.

http://images.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dailynews.lk/2005/06/07/z_p46-Buddhism.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dailynews.lk/2005/06/07/fea09.htm&h=252&w=170&sz=43&hl=en&start=17&um=1&tbnid=ms8MppBb6KbvlM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=75&prev=

Another linking Buddhism with much earlier Middle Eastern traditions:

http://www.geocities.com/okar_review/index.html

Thought provoking if ultimately unprovable stuff that's probably speculative too! But it rather underlines the futility of getting uptight about the so called differences between traditions.

And then you get stuff hell bent on heading in the opposite direction:

http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/main.html

;) We're in big trouble if God gets hung up on the detail of what we believe......