There are some people who think they can blend Buddhist and Christian beliefs together. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars once quipped, “I am a Methodist-Buddhist,” feeling that he could combine Christ’s teachings about love your neighbor with the Zen of Buddhist meditation. The problem is fundamentally, Buddhism and Christianity are diametrically opposite. I would even go as far as to say that Buddhism is the direct opposite of Christianity even more so than Satanism. The reason, is that Buddhism ultimately is about self. Yes, Buddhists claim especially in more mystical and traditional schools to be concerned with creation and others, but it all comes from the prism of building yourself up; your own enlightenment, at the end of the day, its about you being on The Eight Fold Path to destroy your suffering, while in contrast Christianity embraces suffering, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to u,” (Romans 5:3-5), “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed,” (1 Peter 4:13), and “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” (Philippians 3:10) and is not focused on one’s own enlightenment but is other centric: we follow Jesus and are told to love others, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another, By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35-36), “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen,” (1 John 4:20), “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins,” (1 Peter 4:8), and “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:7-10).
To break it down, I am not saying Buddhism has no moral teaching or intentions to help enlighten others. The Buddha is recorded in traditional schools to say, “that we are helped in being enlightened, and growth by others that come into our lives,” sounds awfully like, “as iron sharpens iron so brother sharpens brothers.” (Proverbs 27:17). But notice that even in that sentence its, “come to enlighten us,” as in yourself. I am sure the implication is you do the same to others in Buddhism, but the fact the Buddha is recorded as putting it that way, you receiving, you being the orbit of others, proves the point that Buddhism is self focused: about your own enlightenment. In stark contrast, to quote Timothy Keller, the Holy Trinity’s very nature is we, other centered, “The Trinity is in orbit of each other, the Father looks to the Son, the Son to the Father, The Holy Spirit to both; this divine dance of them loving one another and seeking each other is then the model of the divine reality we are suppose to follow, that is being in orbit of others, loving others, not having people orbit us and doing things to make us alone happy, nor even doing love to get something for ourselves out of t.” (Paraphrased, Jesus the King: Understanding The Life and Death of the Son of God, Chapter One). The very nature as Pastor Keller so eloquently puts it is we, or other centered, orbiting over other persons in the Go head, as the Scripture says, “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. I have glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed,” (John 17:3-5), “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased,” (Matthew 3:17), “The Father who is greater than I, none can snatch them from his Hands, I and Father are One.” (John 10:29-30), and “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.” (Hebrews 1:1-4). Buddha in contrast has you seeking the orbit of yourself, that is to bring enlightenment to you; sure there is enlightening others, but ultimately the aim of its monks, mystics, and adherents is each to rise in ranks and become enlightened. Christianity is the opposite, it is the reverse in ranking, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,” (Matthew 11:11), and “But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.” (Matthew 19:30). Buddha has a measure to check your status of enlightenment, while Jesus tells us that you will not know for sure if you are great in the kingdom, and so keep loving God and each other. The former invites pride, and false certainty of understanding, the ladder pushes us as humans to set aside accolades and trying to be great in God’s Kingdom and instead just be his Kingdom.
I want to highlight that we actually do not know absolutely what Buddha taught. His writings date 300-400yrs after he existed. That is a long time for things in oral tradition to be changed by the mystics and great teachers Buddhism; look at what Catholicism in three to five centuries after Jesus changed, putting in doctrines that are not in Scripture for example. In contrast, many of the epistles of St. Paul range from 53-58 A.D., and were circulating in written form expounding on Christ’s teachings when Jesus lived in 33 A.D., that makes the earliest manuscripts only twenty years after Jesus, meaning eyewitnesses who listened to Jesus, from young to old still were alive that could verify what Jesus taught. The Gospel of Mark is 70-75 A.D., which again is only forty to forty-five years after Jesus, meaning people who heard Jesus teach and saw his Crucifixion and Resurrection were still alive to question and verify if Jesus said that. This is why we trust our Scriptures, they are so close to the time period of the subject, Jesus Christ our Lord, while Buddha’s teachings were kept in oral tradition till three to four hundred years after his death, meaning we cannot be absolutely sure it was what he said, because there is no written documents or scrolls of what he said close to the time he lived.
It is important to understand that while Buddhism has three main different schools of thought, traditional, zen, and mystical; which vary greatly in beliefs, the goal is the same, elevation of your own enlightenment as the Buddha did when he under a tree had something fall on his head and he left his wife and kid to pursue enlightenment; notice there is no love there, to abandon your family. In contrast the Apostle of Jesus says, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her,” (Ephesians 5:25), “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers,” (Proverbs 17:6), “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward,” (Psalm 127:3), and “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8). To think you could blend Buddhism and Christianity is like blending oil and water, fire and water, either water will put out the fire or fire will boil the water; you cannot be lukewarm as Jesus said, “So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!.” (Revelation 3:16). Amen.
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