Why Buddhism Is True (by Robert Wright)

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Perhaps because other religions perceive of God designing things in a way that makes such a sacrifice unnecessary.

If Jesus asserted that no one can come to God except by Him and His sacrifice, then I wonder which god the others are wanting to approach? It can't be the Living God of the Bible because no one can approach Him unless they come through Christ.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I disagree. That message is not unique to Christianity. It's pretty common among the Lovers of God through out the world that come from the varies spiritual traditions. That really comes to light if a person were to read the spiritual journey of some of those people.

But the Good News that I think Jesus was teaching, is that God is a reality right now! Period! And in that Good News he taught us how to make that happen. Jesus talked about Prayer. He talked about Love. He talked about Compassion. He even said in His first public discourse that he came to Serve and than became an example of Service to those in need. All of these things if they were actually taken to Heart would create a much different world than what we have today.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he "must be born again". What do you make of that?

 

[Robban]

Deleted,
looks like Oscarr has been called away, maybe to help the mrs,

who knows.

 

[cloudyday2]

There are plenty of testable claims in Christianity.
(1) Christians claim that they have a relationship with God
(2) fruits of the Holy Spirit are supposed to manifest
(3) the Kingdom of Heaven was supposed to arrive in the lifetimes of the first generation of disciples

Christianity is really no less testable than Buddhism. They are BOTH hard to test. How do we measure suffering in a Buddhist? - "on a scale of 1 to 10 please rate your suffering today..." LOL

PURPOSE is the key. Psychological tools to make me feel good are ultimately of little interest. I would happily suffer for a purpose. I would not be happy being happy without a purpose (does that make sense? LOL)

I suppose it is all about what works for the individual. We can't know if the purpose we imagine is actually legit. We can't know anything really. The goal IS to delude ourselves by believing that the purpose we discover is not imaginary.

 

[dlamberth]

Jesus told Nicodemus that he "must be born again". What do you make of that?

Being born again is pretty much a basic spiritual thing that happens to people across multiple spiritual traditions. One way I've seen it expressed is that "you die before you die".

 

[dlamberth]

If Jesus asserted that no one can come to God except by Him and His sacrifice, then I wonder which god the others are wanting to approach? It can't be the Living God of the Bible because no one can approach Him unless they come through Christ.

There's the Light of God stuff that was the very first thing created. To me, that's the stuff of God that Jesus was pointing towards

Than there's the person named Jesus who was born 2000 years ago.

The way I take it is that it's the Light of God stuff that Jesus was pointing towards about being the only way to the Father and not himself as a person.

 

[Rajni]

If Jesus asserted that no one can come to God except by Him and His sacrifice, then I wonder which god the others are wanting to approach? It can't be the Living God of the Bible because no one can approach Him unless they come through Christ.

And that would make sense. Just like non-Hindus wouldn't approach God from a Hindu perspective even in spite of Lord Krishna's assertions. Each religion's god has made certain assertions, but only those of that religion would, naturally, take them as gospel.

 

[Lukaris]

I think In Buddhism all you have is a wandering mind that reincarnates according to its realization and conduct. In Christianity our soul and our bodies are created at conception in the womb.

There is no compatibility between the belief systems. Christ says we are appointed once to die & then the judgment ( Hebrews 9:27). In the interim after death our soul awaits the resurrection ( 1 Corinthians 15) based on how we lived our one life according to the Lord ( John 5:22-30).

Buddhism stresses virtues as reaching some state of enlightenment ( like the Beatitudes I guess Matthew 5:1-12) but how can a mind in a transmigration state as an animal ( for ex.) achieve anything? When will it become human again? I guess if a Buddhist can live by the Lord’s basic commands ( Romans 13:8-10, Romans 2:6-16 etc.), the person may be saved but it will be a surprise & negation of what they believed.

 

[ItIsFinished!]

No, not a Christian.

She married a Catholic. She is from Thailand and a very strong Buddhist but, she also believes in God and loves Him and prays to him.

Two of my best friends are missionaries in Thailand.
Has she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour?

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Being born again is pretty much a basic spiritual thing that happens to people across multiple spiritual traditions. One way I've seen it expressed is that "you die before you die".

Being born again of the Spirit of God in which a person becomes a new creation has no parallel in any other world religion.

But I could be wrong, so if you can quote anything to the contrary from reliable sources, I am prepared to have a look at it and comment.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

There's the Light of God stuff that was the very first thing created. To me, that's the stuff of God that Jesus was pointing towards

Than there's the person named Jesus who was born 2000 years ago.

The way I take it is that it's the Light of God stuff that Jesus was pointing towards about being the only way to the Father and not himself as a person.

That's not what Jesus said. He said, 'I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father except by me."

Either Jesus was being very arrogant about Himself or He was telling the absolute truth.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

And that would make sense. Just like non-Hindus wouldn't approach God from a Hindu perspective even in spite of Lord Krishna's assertions. Each religion's god has made certain assertions, but only those of that religion would, naturally, take them as gospel.

I don't know of anyone in any other religion except Christianity that has a person to person fellowship with God in which they talk to God and God talks back to them. Moses talked with God face to face as one friend to another. No other person in any other religion ever had that encounter with their god. No other person other than Jesus has ever mixed with people, healed the sick, cast out demons, and said to his followers, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father", in other words those who see him are seeing the Living God. The reason why Jesus was crucified is that the Jewish religious leaders objected to Him referring to Himself as God.

So, either Jesus was mad, a liar, or He was telling the truth about himself. No other religion has had a human being claim to be the Living God and then proving it by countless miraculous acts, and then coming back from the dead, which was witnessed by 500 people at the time, and then fellowshiped with His disciples for 40 days afterward and then rose to disappear into the clouds, saying that He will come again one day in the same manner as He rose up into the clouds.

I have a question to ask you. When Jesus was put in the tomb and was there for three days, and then the witnesses saw the tomb empty with the grave clothes neatly folded, who actually moved the stone to allow Him to come out?

 

[holo]

That's exactly how the founder of Buddhism said it was - not a religion but a philosophy. He also refused to have statues of himself made. It was only after his death that the statues of him were made and worshipped. It was the ones who came after him who turned his philosophy into a religion.

This in my view is one of the great strengths of Buddhism; while there are surely Buddhists who'll argue over which tradition is "best" or more true to the original etc, there really isn't supposed to be one single way that everybody must, or at least should, believe and act. When I was a Christian, there was always a question of which denomination had it Right(tm) regarding this or that theological point. One good thing I'm learning from Buddhism is that questions like that are pointless and I don't even need to ask which particular brand of Buddhism (or any other religion/philosophy for that matter) is "more true". In Buddhism I find a lot of things I can do, while in Christianity there were first and foremost things to believe. For me personally, Buddhism simply works better for achieving my goal, which is to reduce suffering and find freedom.

 

[holo]

So, either Jesus was mad, a liar, or He was telling the truth about himself.

There's a fourth option though: what we read about Jesus in the bible isn't in fact an accurate record of what he said and did.

 

[holo]

What makes Christianity totally different from all other religions is that it is not about self improvement. It is about the Living God who sent His only Son to die and take our sins upon Himself on the cross of Calvary. No other religion does that.

Every other religion involves some type of self improvement through different stages giving the principle that man can solve his own spiritual problems. No other religion causes a complete transformation in a person to change them totally into another person. We call this Christian conversion.

No other religion has their gods talking with and having personal fellowship with their worshipers, or being in the god's own family, as Christianity having the Living God as our Father and His Son as our brother. Other religions have their gods high above their worshipers with no personal contact, while the Christian believer is seated at the right hand of God, blessed with every spiritual blessing that God can give. This is given to the Christian believer as a gift, while in other religions one has to work their way up through different stages and reincarnations to get to that same point, which they never do.

I don't know too much about the multitude of religions out there. I know a lot about Christianity and a little about Buddhism. The Christian gospel is obviously the ultimate and only way to salvation, but that presumes that you accept its premises to begin with. I mean, before talking about the only way to God, I would have to know that there is a God and that there's a way to him. Personally I don't know that.

 

[Zoness]

That's not what Jesus said. He said, 'I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father except by me."

Either Jesus was being very arrogant about Himself or He was telling the absolute truth.

Or the strong probability that the events didn't transpire at all. Or were embellished upon at a much later point.

Bart Ehrman's "How Jesus Became God" has been a pretty interesting read (or listen, in my case) on the topic. It's kept me engaged from start to finish on a subject that I thought would bore the crap out of me.

 

[holo]

I agree. All you have is your human state, ruled by your five senses. So all your experiences come from them. Christians call that "living in the flesh".

IMO, imagining that you have more than five senses, that you're living in a sort of supernatural reality, is very much "living in the flesh." It's an idea (and experience!) that Christianity shares with a lot of religions. Muslims feel God, new agers feel God, people on drugs feel God. I for one would put much more confidence in the five senses we know are real. And the wonderful thing is we don't need an extra sense or some other supernatural or magic stuff to find peace and alleviate suffering. We can make use of what we have right here and now, to end suffering here and now.

 

[Robban]

There's a fourth option though: what we read about Jesus in the bible isn't in fact an accurate record of what he said and did.

Or there is a much deeper meaning that is not apparent on the surface.
Which would be bad news for millions who have been conned.

Torah is in layers, maybe NT text too.

 

[ananda]

There is no compatibility between the belief systems.

The mainstream Christian view is explained in the early Buddhist texts, and is - surprisingly - not incompatible within a larger Buddhist context.

 

[dlamberth]

Being born again of the Spirit of God in which a person becomes a new creation has no parallel in any other world religion.

But I could be wrong, so if you can quote anything to the contrary from reliable sources, I am prepared to have a look at it and comment.

I look at Lovers of God and how they have changed. There are a lot of parallel examples in other religions of that change.