This post will help you talk to any of your reincarnation and/or Buddhist/Zen friends about Christianity. It will help you explain how Christianity goes farther and higher in a friendly way.
Universalism is a popular idea today. There are different versions of it but the general idea is that God will save everyone eventually. Of course this is an attractive idea; who doesn’t want everyone to be saved? Even scripture says that God is “not wishing that any should perish” (II Peter 3:9). But scripture also says in many places that God will send some people to punishment after He judges them for their destructive, unloving lives. We won’t look at all the verses on that because the purpose of this post is to look at why God takes that view.
One of the best ways to understand Christianity is to compare it to other religions. This will help us understand why universalism is not part of God’s plan. In fact, when I study other religions I usually end up more confident in Jesus.
One of the best things to compare is the final destiny of the people, that is, the highest completion of humans. In Christianity the highest destiny of people is to be in a perfected community of love with God and His followers.
In Buddhism, the highest destiny is to achieve Nirvana, or in Mahayana Buddhism it is to achieve Buddhahood. In these states all desire, aversion and ignorance is extinguished (though there are different understandings of this). Regardless of the various types of Buddhism none of them teach that one’s final state is a union of love with a higher God who has always been faultless and loving.
This is the big difference between Christianity and Buddhism. In Christianity it is loving relationships that constitute our highest good. We see this in the Great Commandments to love God and love others. In Buddhism the highest good involves the extinction of unwanted desires and traits which leads to a peaceful happy condition in the person. In Mahayana Buddhism the Buddha then shows compassion by trying to help others be liberated like the Buddha. But even then the Buddha is trying to help others achieve their own condition of a peaceful happy state in themselves. In Christianity it is both the internal goodness and the loving relationships that produce our complete happiness.
Thus, Buddhism ends up very individualistic compared to Christianity. Buddhism counsels one to spend time in meditation ridding oneself of desire, because desire leads to pain. In Christianity we embrace love and desire knowing it leads to pain because it is God’s love in us that helps to heal and redeem others. We accept the pain like Jesus did on the Cross. Thus, Christianity teaches us to actively love others and develop relationships even though they may lead to pain. Buddhism shies away from this kind of love; compassion is important but ultimately one must purge all desire and dwell in individual peace; community is not the final goal.
But let me be clear that I don’t think it is appropriate to be condemning or predominantly critical of Buddhism. Gautama Buddha lived in about the 5th or 6th century B.C. in India. He observed problems with the Hindu religions around him; he especially did not like the caste system that Hinduism led to. He wanted to find a better way. He also decided that he did not know if there was a God or gods, so Buddhism is basically agnostic. There is no relationship with a personal loving God.
He came from a wealthy family and Gautama was very sheltered from the outside world. When he finally went out into the world he discovered sickness, old age, pain and death. He decided it was best to avoid pain and the best way to do this was to avoid desire since desire often led to pain. Desire could be for something good or something bad. Gautama decided to leave behind his wife and young child and search for a new way of living. (This is another place where Christianity would have a problem with the lesser value of relationships; leaving one’s wife and child is not a good way to seek truth.)
Gautama ended up focusing on solitary meditation as the path to perfecting one’s soul. In meditation one would gradually eliminate desire and impurities from oneself. In this way one could avoid pain and find peace and happiness. The great pain Buddhists try to avoid is reincarnation. Like all major religions Buddhists believe that everyone is repaid for what they have done; Buddhists refer to this principle as karma. This happens through reincarnation (samsara). Reincarnation is a merciless, centuries long process that requires a continuous striving to better oneself in order to be reincarnated as a better person. Buddhism primary goal is to escape the perpetual cycle of suffering in reincarnation.
Buddha’s basic ideas make some kind of sense. Why should humans do things that lead to pain? Shouldn’t we try to avoid pain and the desire behind it, and everything else that causes disharmony in our soul?
As I mentioned above Jesus taught a higher way Buddha could not have known about. Jesus taught us that the desire of love is good, and the pain that it brings is worth it, because happiness lies in healthy, mutually supportive relationships. Thus suffering is actually the key to bringing healing and happiness to people. Moreover, God came to earth and died in our place to free us from the penalty of sin and disharmony in our souls, both in justice and in practice. Our purification and wholeness depends on someone much higher than ourselves, not on our own efforts. And we don’t have to worry about repayment for our sins after death, whether through reincarnation or any other source; Jesus has freed us from repayment.
In part two next week we will look at more comparison and how we can interact with Buddhist beliefs.
As always I would love to have your comments and hear your experiences.
Thank you so much, this piece has piqued my interest in learning about Buddhism and Zen…Reincarnation theories have never been convincing to me as a Christian, I’ll definitely be able to affirm my position after reading these series.