Measuring up to God's Word are followers of Jesus Christ who, according to God's Word, have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and that not of themselves but as a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8).
Thus the preference to say, "followers of Jesus Christ" who live by the standard of God's Word.
Although many references for my discoveries come from various articles from the internet (links will be interspersed as reference made), this work is based largely on a book written by author Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda, called What Buddhists Believe. Page numbers given beside quotes will reflect this book.
You'll discover, as according to one pastor in his sermon some years ago, that the major religions are superficially the same but fundamentally different to the message of Jesus.
I hope you'll stick with me over the many upcoming entries in this series and be able to see, know, and understand God's love, care, grace and sure hope of salvation. I pray you too, will have that burning quest to recognize and accept for yourself just how you, an individual, can be saved through the suffering of Jesus Christ. That's God's paradox for you.
Strange, but true.
~erc~
And now begins Buddha and His Burning Quest...
There is the story of a chieftain's son who was sheltered from the outside world by said chieftain, the father. This chieftain's son was given the handle "Siddhartha Gautama". This Gautama is more well known, the world over, by the name, Buddha.
Gautama Buddha, a highly intelligent fellow, instituted a world pivotal philosophy by which to live. He taught that it was a "Middle Path" that he walked on and encouraged one and all to tread it for themselves.
The story continues and is that Gautama was kept from seeing life outside the home confines; what life was really like: the old, the misery, the sick and diseased and death; kept from seeing suffering in general. Some say his Dad also kept him from religious teachings of the times, I suppose to allow him to make up his own mind about spiritual issues.
Gautama was cooped up until about the age of 16, then that sheltered bubble burst (page 4 of What Buddhists Believe) as Gautama took forays into the outside world. About the age of 29, he, after having been married at a younger age to his cousin Yasodhara who gave birth to their son Rahula, renounced all his luxurious living, and family, and struck out to find the answer to his burning question. That question was, why did all the suffering and misery happen to mankind and how can one eradicate it.
Coming from great affluence in the home in which Gautama's family lived, he swung the pendulum way over to asceticism for his personal way of life but eventually swung back to a more moderate approach which, as you read above, got dubbed, "The Middle Path" (page 4).
It is said that at one point Gautama went and sat under a tree and declared he wouldn't get up until he got enlightened with the truth; that is, the answer to the question as to why suffering, and, to how to eradicate it. He sat there until he got enlightened with his answer. That is the point in time he became Buddha (the Sanskrit word meaning "enlightened" or know").
Up he got and is said to have had a 45 year ministry of teaching to any who would listen to his words of enlightenment. From that time which was roughly 500-600 years before Jesus was born, until this present day in the year 2018, these teachings have persisted and give the adherents, of which there are about 500 million, their way of life (pages 2-11).
On this point of the number of adherents, I need to note that from a small pamphlet titled, One Billion Wait, put out by OMF International, they make that number even higher. They say that...
"Today one billion people live in the shadow of Buddha..."
The following many blog entries of this Burning Quest will deal with his teachings as they compare to what God has to say in His. This has been a quest of my own for many, many months, perhaps even for more than a year. I'm not trying to earn a Ph.D or any such thing. Just a seeking and a trying to understand another's beliefs and how they line up to what I believe, based on the Bible's teaching.
No offense is meant against any of the adherents of Buddhism or of any other religion. The intention and prayer is that as an individual seeks truth and enlightenment, there will be an honest evaluation and comparison of the teachings of Jesus Christ. I pray that one and all will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32).
~ERC January 2018~
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