Lectures

The Christian questions to Buddhist

 Whenever you talk to a Christian, the more missionary types who are out to convert others, they ask questions about Buddhism such as:

  • Did Buddha die for your sins?
  • Is Buddha your savior?

The Christian questions to Buddhists always break down to:

– You should embrace Christianity and reject Buddhism, and

– Why don’t you consider what we believe and turn your back on Buddhism.

All questions are presented to maneuver or to drive you to this final position.

  • The Trinitarian Belief of God is the ultimate drive of the Christian Missionary

Truth is, Buddhism and Christianity differ so radically on all basic issues and core metaphysics, that there is no common ground or even a bridge to meet on.

Buddhism is not an idolic religion, we do not worship Buddha (the man) as God, like how the Christian worships the man (Jesus) as God. Buddhism rejects all idolatry.

Christians believe in a fixed and permanent soul that goes to heaven or hell upon the death of the body, whereas Buddhists reject the notion of permanence, eternalism, and nihilism.

Christians believe in a subservient relationship to God a relationship creating a “Daddy Jesus” type of situation, whereas, Buddhists believe in spiritual practice and becoming Buddha.

Christians believe that The Bible is the final words of God and does not have an oral tradition, whereas, Buddhists believe that the sutras are only the teachings of this Buddha in this Kalpa and have a strong oral tradition meaning “Living Dharma” to guide our way to Buddhahood.

The entirety of Christian belief is based upon indoctrination of dogma, whereas, Buddhism encourages the seeker to find out for themselves, through themselves, if the Buddhist teachings are true or not.

Buddhism would view Christianity as an inferior religion “wrong view” because it creates suffering.

Some Buddhists have suggested that Jesus is a Buddha, but, Jesus was not a Buddha because he did not teach a path out of suffering.

Core positions of Christians:

  • The belief in the resurrection of Jesus
  • Only through Jesus can you get to God (rejects all other paths)
  • Believe that Jesus is God
  • The Bible is the final authority of God and is infallible. (Reject all other writings)
  • Believe in monotheism and the Trinity doctrine.

Core Positions of Buddhist:

  • The Dharma teaches us a way to immortality through spiritual emancipation from this phenomenal reality
  • The Buddha is transcendent, though may manifest through the phenomena arising to speak the Dharma, thus we seek to become Buddha to spread the Dharma
  • The Sutras are only the teachings of This Buddha in this Kalpa, through the sage Sakya Muni (Siddhartha Gautama). We recognize Prior Buddhas and Buddhas yet to come.
  • Rebirth, not reincarnation, is what happens to sentient beings who do not emancipate from this phenomenal karmic creation, the ever unfolding-manifesting reality.
  • Buddhist believe in gods, deities, buddhas, and spirits, however, we do not worship them or seek to become them.

Many would-be Buddhist attempts to shoe-horn Christian positions into Buddhism, but find that they cannot and go quite insane with this dilemma. Many Christian rejects, those who rejected the core Christian positions, still cling to them due to the brainwashing indoctrination they may have had, and end up not only perverting the Buddhist teachings but creating quite the delusional state of mind for themselves.

Buddhists who come from Christianity must give up everything about Christianity, and openly denounce the core Christian positons as delusional and to hold them only creates suffering.

Otomo

Non-aligned Zen Teacher currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada USA Youtube Channel Website