BUDDHISM
-
THE PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT OR THE HIGHWAY TO HELL?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ever
wondered if there is a God?
Buddhists
don’t.
They
assume there is no God and concentrate
on their own spiritual enlightenment, which is to be found within -
“OUTTA MIND
IS AN OUTTA SIGHT!”
We’ll
look at various headings comparing
Buddhism with
what the KJV
Bible says:
1. Who is God?
2. Who is man?
3. Salvation
4. Behaviour
5. Worship
Our only
authority is the King James Version of the
Scriptures and we are to be Bereans:
“...they
received the word with all readiness of
mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
Acts
17:11
******************************
“Hell
will be populated by souls who believed it
didn’t exist”
********************************************************
BACKGROUND
Buddhism
arose in the 6th century before Christ and
its founder was a fellow named Gautama who was then called Buddha after
he “got
enlightened” under a tree one day.
Buddha
means “enlightened one”.
It is
said that he found no satisfaction in either
a life of extreme luxury or extreme deprivation called ascetism. He
proposed a
“Middle Way”.
There
are many forms of Buddhism and it has
undergone many changes. It formerly flourished in India but has since
died out
there.
**************************************
GOD
There
is no God in Buddhism.
Buddha,
as such, didn’t deny the existence of God
but said thinking or searching for him could only detract from
following your
own “spiritual path of enlightenment”. He said that leaning on some
sort of
external “god” support didn’t edify yourself.
Buddha
never claimed divinity or any divine source
for his teachings and suggested that his teachings could be compared to
a raft
that should be left behind once the other side was reached.
Buddhists
believe that the suffering and evil in
the world is proof that God doesn’t exist. For the sake of all,
Buddhists like
to think of Buddha as still existing as some sort of semi-divine being
along
with others and has been revered in similar ways to Hindu gods.
WHAT’S GOD
GOT TO SAY ABOUT ALL THIS?
“In
the beginning God....”
Genesis1:1
“For the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and
Godhead; so
that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they
glorified
him not as God,
neither were thankful; but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
themselves
to be wise, they became fools.”Romans1:20-22
Comment: Very
convenient to ignore God, then you won’t
have to be answerable to Him. Like hoping the house isn’t on fire when
it
really is?
MAN
The
origins of man and the world are left
unexplained by Buddha - these topics are seen to be diversions.
As with
Hinduism, Buddha saw life as temporary and
riddled with pain. He concluded that all creatures including man are
merely
“fictions” and there is really no “self”. This notion of “no self” is
so hard
to grasp, much effort is spent in Buddhism trying to grasp it.
WHAT’S GOD
GOT TO SAY ABOUT ALL THIS?
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the
body of this
death?” Romans
7:24
Comment: Budda’s
answer to Romans 7:25
is ignore the body and it’ll go away somehow. How clever! If man is an
illusion
then I guess so is sin!
SALVATION
The
Buddhist longs to be set free from his grasping
self which causes him nothing but pain. His doctrine is summed up in
the Four
Noble Truths: 1. Life is suffering 2. The origins of suffering lie in
craving
and grasping 3. To cease suffering we must stop craving 4. To stop
craving just
follow the Buddhist practice of the Eightfold Path. These are a series
of
self-control and meditative techniques that progressively will lead to
losing
the sense of the “grasping self”. This leads to Nirvana - a term
meaning
“blowing out” as with the flame of a candle. When you have reached this
state
you are said to have “transcended” life - a sort of leaving it behind. This
is the Buddhist
salvation - to be saved from oneself!
Now,
many
who achieve Nirvana refuse to selfishly enter without the rest of
mankind and
so in this way others can be granted aids to salvation should they
petition for
them.
WHAT’S GOD
GOT TO SAY ABOUT ALL THIS?
“Neither
is there salvation in
any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby
we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
“And
as it is appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27
“He that
believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of
God.” John3:18
Comment:
We just got to do it God’s
way. No if’s, buts, and’s or maybes. It’s God’s way or the highway (to
hell
that is).
Should the
thought ever cross their mind that there
might be a Lake of Fire, Buddhists reckon they should be able to cope.
A bit
uncomfortable at first - but after all, it’ll just be state of mind,
won’t it?
BEHAVIOUR
The
Buddhist layman is urged to follow the Five
Precepts: 1. No killing of any sort 2. No stealing 3. No wrong speech
or
gossiping 4. No drugs and alcohol 5. No illicit sex. Now all monks and
nuns
don’t own any personal property and are strictly celibate. Buddhist
teaching
stresses “compassion” to others. Dedication to meditation and
self-denial can
help others by being role models.
WHAT’S
GOD GOT TO SAY ABOUT ALL THIS?
“And
they that are Christ’s have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians5:24
“And
let us consider one another to
provoke unto love and to good works.”
Hebrews
10:24
Comment: The question
is this: “Who gets
the glory?” Self or Christ who died for me?
WORSHIP
Worship
in Buddhism is misconstrued with the paying
of respects to Buddha. 1. occupies their time. Meditating on
their own
breathing, 2. Being conscious of their own attitudes 3. Being clear at
all
times by becoming “ignorant” or neutral 4. Being aware of personal
motives at
all times 5. Divesting themselves of cravings and sense of self.
Some
Buddhists believe one’s own neutrality can be passed onto others to aid
them in
their quest for Nirvana. In these cases “worshippers” petition others
gone
before them for help, grace and mercy.
WHAT’S GOD
GOT TO SAY ABOUT ALL THIS?
“For
it is written, As I live, saith
the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to
God.”
Romans 14:11.
“And
every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the
sea, and
all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory,
and
power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for
ever and
ever.” Revelation 5:13
“By
him therefore let us offer the
sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips
giving
thanks to his name.” Hebrews 13:15
Comment:
Interesting isn’t it? The
Buddhists say they have no worship, but in actual fact they’re thinking
about
themselves all the time and testing their own “spiritual worth”. They
are
obsessed with themselves - Satan’s religious pinnacle is self and
concentration
on one’s own efforts rather than dwelling on what Christ has already
done for
us.
Another
“Buddhist religion” is Roman Catholicism
with its adherents paranoid about their own internal purity all
the time
- not knowing should they die whether they’ll end up in heaven, hell or
the
“halfway house” called purgatory for a spell of burning out the
remaining sins.
No
wonder The One World Ecumenical Church Movement
being headed up by the Catholics, find “bosom buddies” in there “bosom
Buddies”. Criteria for membership? Only one - “Be obsessed with
yourself!”
Buddhism
and Roman Catholicism (indeed Moslems,
Christadelphians, Mormons, SDA’s, JW’s, and any other religion that
won’t
profess the blood atonement of Christ as full and sufficient to be
received by
faith alone) are what you can call DIY’s = “Do It Yourselfer’s”. It
started
back with Cain and Abel. Cain was the “Roman Catholic”- the original
DIY’er
getting rejected for his righteousness before God but Abel was the
equivalent
of the blood washed Christian and it’s been the same ever since.
Now
you gotta hand it to your average Catholic -
still refusing to give up and protesting an eventual home in heaven
even though
they’re playing by the wrong rules. Of course, they’ve got as
much
success with their eternal security as a small piglet in a cage of
hungry dogs
- sort of like a man quickly, diligently & religiously consuming
vast
quantities of Panadol while hurtling over a cliff in a car with no
brakes.
But you really gotta hand it to your average Buddhist - they’ve thrown the towel in completely, stomped off in a huff and are ignoring the whole sin, Jesus, God, hell “thing” by doing “The Mental Mogadon”.
Harley
Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
