I need info on the Buddhist religion...

and how it pertains to Christianity......sort of a compare and contrast, if you will. My brother has recently converted to Buddhism, and I would like some info., or websites, or something so that I am well informed (and prepared) for the conversations that I am sure will ensue tomorrow.

Thanks!

Blessings,

Tammy
 

Susan

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I will try to find some and post here.
First of all, it is anti-Christian in several important places. The few places of agreement do not validate Buddhism NOR make it compatible with historic and Biblical Christian faith. :)
Here is one suggestion I thought of immediately. Go to Google and type in "Ravi Zacharias Ministries." I do not know the exact URL but that's a good first stop related to Buddhism, also find his book on it. I think the book is called "The Lotus and the Cross." You can probably find it at a local bookstore or online. :)
I will have some more helpful advice and links for you when I can find it. Also I will pray for you, and he. :)
Oh, one more thing? Which part of Buddhism is he in? Is it Mahayana, Theravada, or Tibetan? (note: Mahayana is the Buddhism of China, Japan, Korea, and most often the US; Theravada the more stringent form found in Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. Tibetan is the form based on tantrism found in Tibet, the Kingdom of Mustang, and India.) :confused:
Also is it a syncretic group like the Johrei Fellowship?
Or is it a group like Soka Gakkai or Zen that militates that only its own way is valid?
If it's Aleph, I can direct you to some sources that are helpful and send you some of my own writings about where it contradicts Christianity.
 
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SenseiPiccolo

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Originally posted by susabean
and how it pertains to Christianity......sort of a compare and contrast, if you will. My brother has recently converted to Buddhism, and I would like some info., or websites, or something so that I am well informed (and prepared) for the conversations that I am sure will ensue tomorrow.

Thanks!

Blessings,

Tammy

Id suggest usein this search engine:

google.com and search for it or

belief.net it has several different religions on that site in a compare/contrast sorta way

Ill be praying for your brother,
one question that always gets them is this:

"Where is their body?"

:)
 
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Thanks, all. I think today will just be an information gathering day. I have NO clue what kind of buddhism they are involved in, as I did not know that there were so many options!

Please keep my family in prayer for today as tempers can flare easily when dealing with my dear brother. He is VERY touchy, and it is often like playing with lit dynamite to talk even in very generic terms with him. Pray for peace, if you would!

Blessings,
Tammy
 
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elephanticity

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Personally, i'd start with your brother.

Why did he convert? What did he find appealing? What is the attraction there, what caused him to leave before?

If you just try to refute his current beliefs, of course there will be friction. And even if you tear apart buddhism, will that perforce bring him to your beliefs? Or will it just drive him further away, maybe into something (gasp) Satanic?

Is he a buddhist because he is truly impressed with the doctrine, or because he is trying to p***-off some christian. I knew someone in the Navy that claimed to be Muslim, but didn't know that he shouldn't be eating pork. We discussed this a bit in the time between his ordering a BLT and the waitress bringing it. Seems he just wanted to get attention. On the other hand, we didn't know one shipmate was pagan until he retired, and had a pagan priestess brought in for the ceremony.

There could just as easily be a post somewhere of your brother trying to find info to help save you from your spiritual mistake....

Try to avoid too many assumptions before you start, beyond some of the better ones:
You love your brother.
You want the best for him.

From this puportedly common ground, maybe you and he can come to better understanding.
 
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OH, please understand....I am not in the business of converting him. I pray for him and ask that God would speak to his heart. My brother was in a christian cult (it was actually on a list of cults, and kicked off the college campus by where we lived) when he was younger, and he tried to "convert" everyone in the family through hell fire and damnation.....the group he was with knew of no mercy nor grace. He got very hurt in that group, and there is so much more that I won't even go into here.....but suffice it to say that he is pretty turned off to christianity. Of course, the whole rest of the family has gotten saved in the last 12 years, and he takes it as a personal affront. He and my mom go round and round. I figure he is a smart guy. He has been told over and over why I believe what I do...at his asking. He has free will.

No, the problem with my brother is that he is intolerant of anyone he deems intolerant. And by his definition, intolerant is anyone that does not agree with HIM. He gets digs in quite a bit, and if you say ANYTHING to him about it, he goes into a rage. (He once turned a table over in a restaurant, while screaming F*** all of you at the top of his lungs.....a very nice, 5 star restaurant that we were being treated to because my dad said something about God in a generic sense. ) He, historically, has not had a chip on his shoulder as much as he has had the whole giant redwood forest.

Tonite went well, though. He didn't bait anyone, and no one tried to "witness" to him, except my 9 year old, who showed him resurrection eggs. He handled it with amazing aplomb. He tried to explain to me what he believed and why, but wouldn't get into it around my mom, so we didn't really discuss it. But I want to know about what he believes and why and how it compares and contrasts to christianity SO that I can find the common ground. Would I like to see him come to Christ? Of course I would. If I say I believe that what the bible says is true, (and I do,) of course I want to see my brother become a christian. But its not my job to make it happen. Its my job to love him unconditionally.

I'm sorry if that was not clear.

Thanks.

blessings,
Tammy
 
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Blessed-one

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hey Tammy,
there's one thing about Buddism that baffles most Christians: in the belief of Buddism, people have second lives, so after u die, u'll be born into a human or an animal, according to how much good u've done before u die.
So, since the rate of crime's being increasing and the world's getting worse as many people agree, howcome the world's population's increasing?? shouldn't it be decreasing as most dead people're being born into the body of an animal??

also, Jesus's the only one who offers freedom from sin, and Christianity is the only religion of God reaching out to people, not people reaching out to God.
Hope this helps.
 
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elephanticity

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it's possible that there are, say, 100 billion souls. Even now, there's a wait for a new body, human or earthworm. When the planet population was smaller, it was a longer wait. And not all bodies born will have a soul within. THere may be room for another to grow. And not all living bodies still contain the souls they had. Some spiral down into death, but the soul that has learned all that it needed from that life can sometimes escape, when there is little or nothing to hold it back. And worms don't live very long. If you're a bitter and mean human, and get reincarnated as a bug, you'll work off the karma of a 70 year life in a few cycles as fish bait.
 
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Originally posted by elephanticity
it's possible that there are, say, 100 billion souls. Even now, there's a wait for a new body, human or earthworm. When the planet population was smaller, it was a longer wait. And not all bodies born will have a soul within. THere may be room for another to grow. And not all living bodies still contain the souls they had. Some spiral down into death, but the soul that has learned all that it needed from that life can sometimes escape, when there is little or nothing to hold it back. And worms don't live very long. If you're a bitter and mean human, and get reincarnated as a bug, you'll work off the karma of a 70 year life in a few cycles as fish bait.

is this a joke/your real opinion/the core of buddism?
 
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elephanticity

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I don't, personally believe that souls cycle into animals. But refuting buddhism by questioning the number of available souls is like the atheists that ask if God can make a rock so big that even He can't lift it.

Conditions that far outside of our levels of experience are beyond even wondering about. We just can't grasp it.

If you and I both race our cars towards an observer between us, and the observer sees each of us approaching at 55 miles an hour, then you would percieve me as approaching you at 110 miles per hour.

If you and I race our spaceships towards an observer on a stationary astroid, and we are each traveling, with respect to the observer, at 90% of the speed of light, you would perceive me as coming at you at 99% of the speed of light.

It's the same physics in both cases, but our expectations are only valid for a certain range beyond experiences, then everything seems to change. The Creator, and the universe he made, are largely non-intuitive.
 
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Originally posted by elephanticity

If you and I both race our cars towards an observer between us, and the observer sees each of us approaching at 55 miles an hour, then you would percieve me as approaching you at 110 miles per hour.

Its not a perception. Altho you ARE not going 110 upon impact it would be an impact zone of an 110 collision in a head on collision.
 
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elephanticity

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Originally posted by Susan
Ah, if it wouldn't be offensive for me to ask, what faith do you adhere to, EC?

Nothing organized.
We are made of the same materials and components as the rest of the universe...we are star stuff, and parts of stars are within us. Similarly, within each of us is a spark of the creator. This bit of the divine guides each of us, and informs our seach for a relationship with the creator. Every attempt to know God is valid in the attempt.

The true nature of the Creator far exceeds our abilty to fully grasp it. Like the blind men and the elephant, each religion is correct, as far as it goes.
 
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elephanticity

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Originally posted by Optimus_P


Its not a perception. Altho you ARE not going 110 upon impact it would be an impact zone of an 110 collision in a head on collision.

From my perception as a driver, the stationary observer is coming at me at 55, the other car is coming at me at 110.

Anyway, the point was that the way we expect physics to operate based on our perceptions down here at mere miles per hour is different than it actually operates at or near the speed of light.

Or, if i borrow $5 from you at lunch, and pay you back once we get back to the office, there is no large affect felt outside of the two of us. If i owe you $5 billion, shifting that much funding between us will have a major impact on the financial landscape.
in matters of scale, the difference between mortal and immortal, between human and creator, between what happened a year ago and what happened 5 billion years ago, the very change of scale introduces difference in meaning, view and perception. It's too different for simplistic questions.
 
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