"BUDDHISM”

What is Buddhism?

Buddhism is one of the leading world religions in terms of adherents, geographical distribution, and socio-cultural influence. While largely an “Eastern” religion, it is becoming increasingly popular and influential in the Western world.

It is a unique world religion in its own right, though it has much in common with Hinduism in that both teach Karma (cause-and-effect ethics), Maya (the illusory nature of the world), and Samsara (the cycle of reincarnation). Buddhists believe that the ultimate goal in life is to achieve “enlightenment” as they perceive it. https://www.gotquestions.org/buddhism.html

Buddhism is one of the world’s major religions. It originated in South Asia around the 5th century B.C.E. with Siddhartha Gautama, and over the next millennia it spread across Asia and the rest of the world. Buddhists believe that human life is a cycle of suffering and rebirth, but that if one achieves a state of enlightenment (nirvana), it is possible to escape this cycle forever.

Siddhartha Gautama was the first person to reach this state of enlightenment and was, and is still today, known as the Buddha. Buddhists do not believe in any kind of deity or god, although there are supernatural figures who can help or hinder people on the path towards enlightenment.

How did Buddhism come about?

Origin and growth: In 6th century B.C. India, Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama.

Born around 563 B.C., Siddhartha Gautama was son to King Suddhodana Gautama, a raja (or chieftain) of the Sakya clan and family of the Kshatriya caste of ancient Bharata. His father reigned over a small district in the Himalayas between India and Nepal.

The King believed that if Siddhartha was exposed to any human misery, he would leave his home to seek the truth. Therefore, he ordered his subjects to shield Siddhartha.

At 16, Siddhartha won the hand of his cousin by performing 12 feats in archery. His cousin Yashodara was his principle wife.

Despite his fathers attempts, he ventured outside the palace and observed a leper, a corpse, and an ascetic. From these observations he determined that happiness was an illusion.

As soon as his first son was born, assuring him that the royal bloodline would be continued, Siddhartha left the kingdom on a pilgrimage of inquiry and asceticism as a poor beggar monk seeking truth.

For 6-7 years, he sought communion with the supreme cosmic spirit, first through the teachings of two Brahmin hermits then in the company of five monks. Despite his efforts, he didn't feel he had found truth. At this point he discovered the importance of what he called the Middle Way.

Instead of denying himself food or sleep as the other monks did, he ate solid food and did not deny himself worldly things. This angered the monks, so Siddhartha moved on.

At Gaya in northeast India, he sat at the foot of a fig tree where Mara, the evil one, tried to thwart his becoming the Buddha.

After withstanding the temptations from Mara, he received a revelation. He now felt he knew the way to escape the cruel cycle of rebirth. He claimed to have discovered the four noble truths (Pativedhanana), and henceforth was the Buddha.

Born on the Nepali side of the present day Nepal-India border, Siddhartha Gautama was a prince around the fifth century B.C. who, upon seeing people poor and dying, realized that human life is suffering. He renounced his wealth and spent time as a poor beggar, meditating and traveling but ultimately, remaining unsatisfied, settling on something called “the Middle Way.”

This idea meant that neither extreme asceticism nor extreme wealth was the path to enlightenment, but rather, a way of life between the two extremes was. Eventually, in a state of deep meditation, he achieved enlightenment, or nirvana, underneath the Bodhi tree (the tree of awakening). The Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar, India—the site of his enlightenment—is now a major Buddhist pilgrimage site.

The Buddha taught about Four Noble Truths.

The first truth is called “Suffering (dukkha),” which teaches that everyone in life is suffering in some way.

The second truth is “Origin of suffering (samudāya).” This states that all suffering comes from desire (tanhā).

The third truth is “Cessation of suffering (nirodha),” and it says that it is possible to stop suffering and achieve enlightenment.

The fourth truth, “Path to the cessation of suffering (magga)” is about the Middle Way, which is the steps to achieve enlightenment.

Buddhists believe in a wheel of rebirth into different bodies. This is connected to “karma,” which refers to how a person’s good or bad actions in the past or in their past lives can impact them in the future.

The head of the Tibetan school of Buddhism and traditional leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, fled from China-controlled Tibet in 1959 to India in fear of his life.

Many Tibetan Buddhists actively resist Chinese control of the region. Recently, the current Dalai Lama, who is understood to be the 14th reincarnation of the first Dalai Lama, has raised questions over whether and where he will choose to reincarnate.

Buddhism theology -

There are three main schools of Buddhism: Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana.

Mahayana Buddhism is common in China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. It emphasizes the role models of bodhisattvas (beings that have achieved enlightenment but return to teach humans).

Theravada Buddhism is common in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Burma (Myanmar). It emphasizes a monastic lifestyle and meditation as the way to enlightenment.

Vajrayana is the major school of Buddhism in the region of Tibet and in Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia. It offers followers a faster path to enlightenment than Mahayana or Theravada.

What had Gautama discovered?

Enlightenment lay in the “middle way,” not in luxurious indulgence or self-mortification. Moreover, he discovered what would become known as the ‘Four Noble Truths’—

to live is to suffer (Dukha),

suffering is caused by desire (Tanha, or “attachment”),

one can eliminate suffering by eliminating all attachments, and

this is achieved by following the noble eightfold path.

The “eightfold path” consists of having a right

view,

intention,

speech,

action,

livelihood (being a monk),

effort (properly direct energies),

mindfulness (meditation), and

concentration (focus). The Buddha’s teachings were collected into the Tripitaka or “three baskets.”

Behind these distinguishing teachings are teachings common to Hinduism, namely reincarnation, karma, Maya, and a tendency to understand reality as being pantheistic in its orientation. Buddhism also offers an elaborate theology of deities and exalted beings.

However, like Hinduism, Buddhism can be hard to pin down as to its view of God. Some streams of Buddhism could legitimately be called atheistic, while others could be called pantheistic, and still others theistic, such as Pure Land Buddhism. Classical Buddhism, however, tends to be silent on the reality of an ultimate being and is therefore considered atheistic. Buddhism today is quite diverse. It is roughly divisible into the two broad categories of Theravada (small vessel) and Mahayana (large vessel). Theravada is the monastic form which reserves ultimate enlightenment and nirvana for monks, while Mahayana Buddhism extends this goal of enlightenment to the laity as well, that is, to non-monks.

Within these categories can be found numerous branches including Tendai, Vajrayana, Nichiren, Shingon, Pure Land, Zen, and Ryobu, among others. Therefore it is important for outsiders seeking to understand Buddhism not to presume to know all the details of a particular school of Buddhism when all they have studied is classical, historic Buddhism. The Buddha never considered himself to be a god or any type of divine being. Rather, he considered himself to be a ‘way-shower' for others. Only after his death was he exalted to god status by some of his followers, though not all of his followers viewed him that way. In Buddhism, sin is largely understood to be ignorance. And, while sin is understood as “moral error,” the context in which “evil” and “good” are understood is amoral. Karma is understood as nature’s balance and is not personally enforced. Nature is not moral; therefore, karma is not a moral code, and sin is not ultimately immoral.

Thus, we can say, by Buddhist thought, that our error is not a moral issue since it is ultimately an impersonal mistake, not an interpersonal violation. The consequence of this understanding is devastating. For the Buddhist, sin is more akin to a misstep than a transgression against the nature of holy God. This understanding of sin does not accord with the innate moral consciousness that men stand condemned because of their sin before a holy God (Romans 1-2). Since it holds that sin is an impersonal and fixable error, Buddhism does not agree with the doctrine of depravity, a basic doctrine of Christianity. The Bible tells us man’s sin is a problem of eternal and infinite consequence. In Buddhism, there is no need for a Savior to rescue people from their damning sins.

For the Christian, Jesus is the only means of rescue from eternal damnation. For the Buddhist there is only ethical living and meditative appeals to exalted beings for the hope of perhaps achieving enlightenment and ultimate Nirvana. More than likely, one will have to go through a number of reincarnations to pay off his or her vast accumulation of karmic debt.

For the true followers of Buddhism, the religion is a philosophy of morality and ethics, encapsulated within a life of renunciation of the ego-self. In Buddhism, reality is impersonal and non-relational; therefore, it is not loving. Not only is God seen as illusory, but, in dissolving sin into non-moral error and by rejecting all material reality as maya (“illusion”), even we ourselves lose our “selves.” Personality itself becomes an illusion.

Colossians 2:6–8 (NASB95)

6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

When asked how the world started, who/what created the universe, the Buddha is said to have kept silent because in Buddhism there is no beginning and no end. Instead, there is an endless circle of birth and death. One would have to ask what kind of Being created us to live, endure so much pain and suffering, and then die over and over again? It may cause one to contemplate, what is the point, why bother? Buddhism teaches that Nirvana is the highest state of being, a state of pure being, and it is achieved by means relative to the individual. Nirvana defies rational explanation and logical ordering and therefore cannot be taught, only realized. https://www.gotquestions.org/buddhism.html

Buddhists are taught to show the same tolerance, forbearance, and brotherly love to all men, without distinction; and an unswerving kindness toward the members of the animal kingdom.

The Universe was evolved, not created. It functions according to law, not according to the caprice of any God.

The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are natural. They have, we believe, been taught in successive kalpas, or world-periods, by certain illuminated beings called Buddhas, the name Buddha meaning "Enlightened."

The fourth Teacher in the present Kalpa was Shakyamuni, or Gautama-Buddha, who was born in a royal family in India about 2,500 years ago. He is a historical personage and his name was Siddhartha Gautama.

Shakyamuni taught that ignorance produces desire, unsatisfied desire is the cause of rebirth, and rebirth, the cause of sorrow. To get rid of sorrow, therefore, it is necessary to escape rebirth; to escape rebirth, it is necessary to extinguish desire; and to extinguish desire, it is necessary to destroy ignorance.

Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a necessary thing. When ignorance is destroyed the worthlessness of every such rebirth, considered as an end in itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount need of adopting a course of life by which the necessity for such repeated rebirths can be abolished. Ignorance also begets the illusive and illogical idea that there is only one existence for man, and the other illusion that this one life is followed by states of unchangeable pleasure or torment.

The dispersion of all this ignorance can be attained by the persevering practice of an all-embracing altruism in conduct, development of intelligence, wisdom in thought, and destruction of desire for the lower personal pleasures.

The desire to live being the cause of rebirth, when that is extinguished rebirths cease and the perfected individual attains by meditation that highest state of peace called Nirvana.

Shakyamuni taught that ignorance can be dispelled and sorrow removed by the knowledge of the four Noble Truths, namely:

(1) The miseries of existence;

(2) The cause productive of misery, which is the desire ever renewed of satisfying oneself without being able ever to secure that end;

(3) The destruction of that desire, or the estranging of oneself from it;

(4) The means of obtaining this destruction of desire. The means which he pointed out is called the Noble Eightfold Path, viz., Right Belief; Right Thought; Right Speech; Right Action; Right Means of Livelihood; Right Exertion; Right Remembrance; Right Meditation.

Right Meditation leads to spiritual enlightenment, or the development of that Buddha-like faculty which is latent in every man.

The essence of Buddhism, as summed up by the Tathagatha (Buddha) himself, is: "To cease from all sin, To get virtue, To purify the heart."

The universe is subject to a natural causation known as "karma." The merits and demerits of a being in past existences determine his condition in the present one. Each man, therefore, has prepared the causes of the effects which he now experiences.

The obstacles to the attainment of good karma may be removed by the observance of the following precepts, are embraced in the moral code of Buddhism, namely:

(1) Kill not;

(2) Steal not;

(3) Indulge in no forbidden sexual pleasure;

(4) Lie not;

(5) Take no intoxicating or stupefying drug or liquor.

Five other precepts which need not be here enumerated should be observed by those who would attain, more quickly than the average layman, the release from misery and rebirth.

Buddhism discourages superstitious credulity. Gautama-Buddha taught it to be the duty of a parent to have his child educated in science and literature. He also taught that no one should believe what is spoken by any sage, written in any book, or affirmed by tradition, unless it accords with reason. by H. S. Olcott - [written at Adyar, India, January 8, 1891]

Buddhist's believe - Nothing is lost in the universe; a cyclical view of time.

The Bible - Time is linear, and one day, God will bring a final judgment, including an end to the present universe and a New Heavens and Earth.

2 Peter 3:7–11 (NASB95)

7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

Revelation 20:11 NASB95

11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.

Revelation 21:6 NASB95

6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.

Buddhist's believe - The cause of all suffering is ignorance and greed.

The Bible - The cause of all evil and suffering are from Adam’s sin.

Genesis 3:1–7 (NASB95)

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;

3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Buddhist's believe - Reincarnation will give men the path to escaping evil and corruption.

The Bible - All men die once, and are raised for a judgment.

Hebrews 9:27 NASB95

27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,

Revelation 20:11–15 (NASB95)

11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Buddhist's believe - The key to advancement is to purge oneself of passion and desires and thus reach Nirvana (which is in itself a passion).

The Bible - All men are spiritually depraved due to Adam’s transgression, hopelessly infected with a sinful nature, and for this reason incapable in and of themselves of escaping evil.

Jeremiah 13:23 NASB95

23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil.

Jeremiah 17:9 NASB95

9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

Romans 5:12 NASB95

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Romans 5:19 NASB95

19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

Buddhist's believe - The path to this Nirvana is called the Eight-fold Path, The Middle Way.

The Bible - Salvation through faith in Jesus who died for sin is the only way to deliverance.

John 14:6 NASB95

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Acts 4:12 NASB95

12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

SO WHAT??

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 (NASB95)

17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.