What’s the point?

Buddhism is a religion that is not a religion. It has no God. Most people don’t realize this. They look for God, they look for something that makes sense and in looking to Buddhism they seem to think they find something concrete. Buddhism has some moral codes that are positive – the five precepts for lay people are very sound. I don’t think any Christian can argue with them.

However the fact of the matter is Buddhism is a non-religion religion that looks towards a man. Even adherents will tell you it isn’t a religion – however there are some who will say yes it is. Religion in and of itself is hard to define – still, the point remains Buddhism is a way of life - One that really has no direction except to live morally and to pursue nirvana. Nirvana which takes endless cycles of re-birth to attain.

Buddhism gives people no purpose…the whole point of life is to suffer and die and be reborn in a state based on the ‘goodness’ of your previous life until you get to be ‘good’ enough to reach enlightenment and end the cycle of rebirth. God however created us with purpose. Jesus came so that we could live our lives with that purpose without the cloud of death hanging over us. And you don’t have to wait for ‘x’ number of lifetimes to get to a place of peace. You can have peace now – even in the hard times. You don’t have to ‘suffer’ through ‘x’ number of lifetimes to get to end the suffering. With Jesus have the one life where you can choose life, choose peace and now and at the end of this life you get to be with God in eternity.

People have said that Siddhartha was on the earth some 800 years before Jesus. I would argue that even though Jesus did not physically manifest himself as a man on the earth until 800 years later, God was still there from the beginning. Judaism was still there. And the Bible teaches us that Jesus is the Word of God – He was there at the beginning, since before creation. Jesus himself said He was with God. The first chapter of John re-iterates this.

Historically speaking there is no dispute that both Siddhartha a.k.a Gautama Buddha and Jesus who is called Christ walked the earth. Also, there is no doubt that the Buddha walked around North India and attracted people to his teaching of renouncing all to follow the path to nirvana. There is also no doubt that Jesus lived and did the miracles and said the things that the Bible said He did and said. There is a BIG difference in the two. Jesus promised life, hope and peace and joy – even when things are awful. In God we have shelter, we have victory over death, we have everlasting life with God, and we have forgiveness and acceptance among other things. In Buddhism, you have suffering, and no way out except to try to follow the Eightfold-Noble Path and hope to be reincarnated as a better person or creature and keep doing that until you can achieve enlightenment/nirvana. If you are a woman, you should strive to be reborn as a man before you could ever hope to get to the stage of arhat or Buddha (not the same, the former is a level below Buddha). Yes Buddhahood is a state not really a person…a person has to get to enlightenment to become Buddha. And even a Buddha will have to continue living until he dies – once he is dead he is gone. Jesus died, just like Siddhartha/Gautama Buddha, but Jesus rose from the dead (which was witnessed by over five hundred people).

If you’re looking for hope Jesus gives it to you free and clear, yours for the asking. Buddhism is a series of hits and misses and you are not guaranteed anything but suffering. Jesus gives you life and hope and strength through the storms that come your way.  I know people considering this faith and it saddens me – Jesus has His arms stretched out to them (can you imagine holding your arms out to someone for an hour let alone everyday, all the time they are apart from you?) I hope you choose life not suffering. Jesus is life.

If you have questions I would love to talk with you. Comments are appreciated but swearing and disrespectfulness will not be tolerated. I will delete those comments as soon as I see them.

God bless