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Siddhartha Gautama is the central figure in Buddhism historically. The earliest available accounts of his life were written several hundred years after his death. Can you imagine what would happen were someone to decide to write the life of George Washington without previous biographies? Three hundred years leaves a lot of room for truth to grow into myths. Try it sometime. Get fifty people together. Tell one of them a short story. They tell the third. The third tells the fourth. By the time it reaches fifty people, you'll have myths mixed in to the original story.
Some of the accounts regarding Siddhartha Gautama made their way into Pali canon (80 B.C.) and Sanskrit accounts. I don't think those documents are written in stone like the Word of God. The Scribes of ancient Israel were not allowed to make mistakes in copying scrolls neither were they permited to add to or take away from the content. The line between facts and legend is blurred concerning Siddhartha Gautama not only for a lack of biographical evidence, but also due to the questionable reliability of religious documents regarding the practices of Buddhism. We have different sects and churches, but basically the same holy Book. Buddhists seem to be a tossed salad of religious doctrines and writings with some revered monk deciding what is and isn't right.
Three major schisms exist in Buddhism: Theravada ("the doctrine of the elders"), Mahayana ("the Great Wheel"), and Vajrayana ("the Diamond Vehicle"). They are in effect three different paths with one thing in common. They all point to Siddhartha Gautama as their founder. In other words, their central point of agreement is upon a man. Ours is the Word that becomes Spirit. (St. John 6:63)
Buddhism does not have the solid historical foundation of Christianity with miracle workers dating back to the beginning of time. They have nothing comparable to Jesus Christ fulfilling many prophecies as the Son of God, the teacher and exemplifier of truth incarnate. The Word of God offers many teachings regarding the great mystery of godliness for the individual to become a new creature in Christ and Jesus Christ is accepted by all genuine believers as the second person of the godhead. He came as God in the flesh of man. Siddhartha Gautama made no claim to deity. Neither did he ever do anything recommending him as a god, yet he is revered as though he were God.
How can the popularity of Buddhism be explained? All religions have one thing in common contrary to the path of Life hidden in the Spirit of Christ. Their popularity is apparently centered in the lack of a requirement for the individual to be changed into a new creature like we are to become in Christ. Buddhists like to get together and chant "OM"Mmm to come into contact with spirits. Where two or more are gathered in Christ's name, there he is; and where two or more are gathered in the name of other gods, there they are. So the Buddhist comes back from their gatherings and tells his friends and neighbors he felt the presence of God. Sound familiar? But what god did they experience? It is presumptuous to think any spirit will do.
To become a Christian, we received Jesus Christ as our Saviour. His name was specified because there is no other name under heaven by which an individual can be saved. We should see ourselves as sinners in need of transformation by the Spirit of revealed truth rather than simply making contact with the spirit world.
Buddhism suggests enlightenment comes from the middle road where evil human nature is not confronted with the test of living by faith in poverty seeking God continually according to his revealed Light. In learning to follow Christ, the true disciple builds Light according to obedience to the Word of God. He purchases gold tried in the fire living the lifestyle of Christ's poverty and bearing the sufferings he bore of hunger, of being despised and rejected, of poverty, of having no place to lay his head, of being in constant danger of violence and so on. In Buddhism, there is a fixation on ascetism for monks, but no real Spirit of truth to transform them into angelic holy men like those we read about in holy Scripture. The middle road is really more of a life of leisure. It is a life with less responsibility instead of more. It is a deceptive path where anyone can escape into egotistical pride thinking themselves spiritual simply because they are able to chant themselves into the presence of hordes of invisible demons with the presumption they have made contact with God.
Is it any wonder Buddhist monks get so frustrated, some of them set themselves on fire to try to make their statement to the world? The press says, "Wow!!! What courage!!! What commitment!!! What concern for humanity!!!!" But the spirit of the monk who committed suicide falls into the bottemless pit from where there is no return. He is rejected by God Almighty. The LORD was not impressed with their deed. And no Buddhist seems to have sat under a fig tree long enough to figure that one out. We hear of no Buddhists in the press objecting to their fellow monks setting themselves on fire with hell. The burning of oneself is the mad act of a man who cannot change themselves or the world into a better place, so they foolishly destruct. My advice to you Buddhists who are near to commiting suicide is that you renouce your faith in your false religion and come out of it before you destroy yourself.
You would think people would be more careful about what deity or deities they choose in this lifetime, especially with all of the talk of a burning hell where sinners are consumed forever. People are by nature impulsive, forward and presumptous, reacting to what seems popular while looking for some kind of covering for their sinfulness. People are always looking for the easy way out of their imprisonment here on the planet earth. Human nature is evil, but mankind wishes to consider itself good. The popularity of Buddhism seems to hinge on its open door to the lower castes who had been taught in Brahamism, they had to re-incarnate up the social ladder to the upper castes before they could become enlightened and become one with God. Many in India traded in one false religion for another offering them more hope. The end product of every false religion is deadly however, so we hope you who consider yourselves Buddhist will come to saving faith in Christ.
Religion in India seems to have one thing in common. A promise of the individual coming back in a continuous recycling of souls. In India, they are famous for going hungry even unto starvation rather than butcher a sacred cow. Rats multiply in great numbers in India because they don't want to kill any creature, supposing their souls to be in the recycling process. A convenient doctrine when you think about it. The individual who embraces one of the Indian religions doesn't think they have to worry much about living obediently to God since they expect to come back in some form to this world.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is uniquely different with an all powerful God requiring accountability to Him in this lifetime. Many unbelievers embrace Buddhism when a witness for the Lord comes by to lead them to the Lord, yet they probably have not given Buddhism the time of day until they felt the need to hide in the religion nearest to them culturally. I have seen the non religious standing up for Buddhism without a single thread of truth or knowledge to support their doing it. Their main reason for believing in Buddhism tended to be their unbelief in Christianity and their willingness to grab hold of a religion requiring nothing of them. It is taught in holy Scripture that mankind loves spiritual darkness so much they want to hide in their sins rather than come out of them and experience divine goodness in God through Christ, the supernatural Lord of heaven and earth.
Siddhartha Gautama was supposed to have been born around 563 B.C. and died like a man in his sins approximately eighty years later. There is no record of him disappearing like Enoch the Prophet. There is no miraculous account of his climbing a mountain like Moses to die in perfect health. There is no testimony of a flaming chariot of fire taking him to heaven like Elijah. Neither is there any record of him dying for the sins of the world and rising from the dead as Christ did. How did he become the central figure in Buddhism? Simply by practicing ascetism and sitting under a fig tree until he says he became enlightened? Not a very realistic foundation for a religion. The world is full of people who say they are enlightened. Practice ascetism and find a fig tree to sit under in silent meditation. Ridiculous. They call it the Bodhi tree as if it obtained some kind of magical qualities in the Buddhist myth. Personally, I do not wish to have a dead Buddhist idol as my guide in this world nor a mythological tree to sit under when I can be filled with the divine Presence of Jesus Christ by turning my life over to Him completely. You would be wise to do the same.
Siddhartha Gautama was apparently the son of a small time king by the name of Suddhodana Gautama, a raja or chieftain of the Sakya clan, a family of the Kshatriya caste of ancient Bharata. His father reigned over Kapilavastu, a small area on the Indian slope of the Himalayas in a region between India and Nepal. Don't bother taking off your shoes! Holy ground is always found in Israel in stratifications from its borders inwardly to the holy places. The gods of India have produced one of the spiritual cesspools of the world. The inhabitants of Indian who have awakened to Christ will tell you so. They have found their way out of the darkness of self into the ever increasing Light of Christ until one day our soul will inhabit Him and He will inhabit us. (2 Corinthians 6:16)
Legend has it Dad tried to keep his son from discovering suffering in the world, but the young man managed to find out and upon the birth of a grandson as a heir to the kingdom; Siddhartha Gautama set off to live the life of an ascetic suffering along the lines of holy apostles and prophets. The difference being, Siddhartha did not find his way into the divine Presence of Christ as they did; so he came to the conclusion such sufferings were of little or no use. To this day Buddhism represents THE MIDDLE WAY. That is, not too much pleasure and not too much suffering, not too much wealth and not too much poverty, not too much work and not too much leisure. Apparently, ascetics had gathered around the wandering prince as you might expect, thinking to enjoy crumbs from the royal table, and share in his high esteem among the people; and they thought Siddhartha had lost his ascetic discipline in suggesting people ought to live MIDDLE OF THE ROAD lives. They reportedly separated company for a little while. His regaining favor with them later is supposedly proof of his enlightenment. Jim Jones and David Karesh had plenty of followers, yet you would be hard pressed to find anyone lost or saved who would say they were enlightened. Men look upon the appearance of things, but God looks upon the heart. You will be wise when you are able to do the same in the Spirit of Christ when you are filled with his Word.
Siddhartha supposedly attained to spiritual enlightenment in a revelation on the bank of Meranjana at Gaya in Northeast India near the village of Urvela where he sat at the foot of a fig tree. Many who have had contact with the spirit world before coming to Christ, know what it is like to receive what appears to be a major revelation seeming so right on; the individual would be inclined to promote the idea the remainder of their lives. I have personally discerned unclearn spirits specializing in promoting everything from homosexuality to evolution. It does not surprise me to discover a major religion founded on one man's puffed up belief he had come to the ultimate state of enlightement. Yet there is nothing in Buddhism supporting his claim. The teachings of Siddhartha Gautama read like the counsel of man, but not with the height, width and depth of holy Bible truths.
There doesn't seem to be much policing of Buddhist doctrine like you find in Christianity where men point to the Bible and cry foul if someone has taken a perverted or controversial viewpoint of some doctrine. It would be rare to hear of a Buddhist or an Hindu or even of a Muslim heretick. You probably noticed after the World Trade Center attack, that Muslims around the world supported Ben Laden. They still do. Only a few Muslims here and there suggested he did not represent Islam. Had someone devastated the World Trade Center in the name of Christ, the entire Christian and Catholic world would have rejected them with few exceptions. You will know individuals by their spiritual fruit, and you will know religions by their spiritual fruit too.
Three major branches of Buddhism exist: Theravada ("the doctrine of the elders"), Mahayana ("the Great Wheel"), and Vajrayana ("the Diamond Vehicle"). They all point to Siddhartha Gautama as their founder. In other words, their central point of agreement is upon a man. Ours is the Word that becomes Spirit. (St. John 6:63)
Legend has it Siddhartha withstood temptations from the Evil one suggesting Buddhists ought to believe in forces of good and evil in the spirit realm, but I'm not sure they believe in God. There seems to be confusion on the part of Buddhists on that point.
I told the owner of a business I was greatly offended when I came to the cash register to pay for services and found a Buddha idol facing me on the counter. We are not to have any other gods before us, but he said it was not a god to him. Just a decoration. I was seriously grieved and let him know he would lose Christian business if he kept the idol by the cash register. It was no longer there the next day. False religions have set up idols to worship throughout history. The Word of God in the Ten Commandments strictly forbids such practices. If Buddha is holy, then Christ is unholy, but if Christ is holy, then Buddha is unholy. Make up your mind what path you will travel to become one with God. Hell is already heavily populated with Buddhists. But the Saints of the most High God are resting in heaven awaiting the glorious resurrection in the end of this Age.
Siddhartha who is revered as Buddha apparently claimed enlightenment in such a way as to become free from the Samsara cycle of rebirths and to have come into the wisdom of realization of the supposed four Noble Truths known as the Pativedhanana. Those kinds of words impress Westerners. Yet there is nothing in Buddhist writings comparable to the Word of God in the Bible. It is nothing more nor less than a system of persuasion such as is found in pre-prepared sales pitches.
People claiming to be Buddhist have told me they do not believe in God while others worship in Buddhist temples where idols are obviously treated as gods. In the Pao Fa, a five million dollar temple in Orange County, there are three thousand gold Buddha idols. There are also larger idols everywhere in the temple. Each one seems to have some assigned virtue or deified power. One supposedly listens to the sounds of the world suggesting he has the all hearing ear we attribute to the God of heaven. What good the all hearing ear does their dead statue is the big question. They assign wisdom to another dead statue. Wouldn't you think it would be better for one God to have the all hearing ear and wisdom to go with it??? Another dead statue supposedly provides healing. Another supposedly provides sunlight. Another moonlight. And another dead idol will not attain to Buddha'hood until everyone is saved from hell. Actually their dead statues cannot attain to anything. Buddhist idols have no more power than a flower pot. Since Buddhists admit there is a hell, they had better find out what they need to do to be saved from it.
The Devil is the author of confusion. He is the god of all false religions. He took thirty three percent of the angels of heaven with him to the earth in his initial rebellion against God Almighty. They receive worship given to idols and service unregenerative religions of the world even to the occasional working of miracles. Buddhist temples are havens for those unclean spirits causing devotees to believe they are in touch with the Supreme God of the Universe.
It was not long after his false claim to enlightenment that Siddhartha Gautama received the ascetics into the "Sangha," the priestly order we now see wearing the reddish brown robes of Buddhist monks and they spread the "Dharma," his teachings and the "Vinaya" the disciplinary regulations concerning their conduct. I was not there, but it's easy to envision the son of a king telling people what they would do; rather than converting them, and by such a means Buddhism was probably established like many other false religions. By the advantages of power and wealth rather than by someone multiplying fish and loaves on a mountainside to feed thousands who had listened to the truth for three days without eating. Siddhartha Gautama used his materialistic advantage, but Christ is God in the flesh of a man. He left all materialistic advantages behind him except for his supernatural power. He proved he is the Son of God in so many ways, the individual who has not searched holy Scripture to know the truth of the matter is literally robbing themselves in their quest to be one with God.
Now, you might find the Lord as your Saviour while sitting under a fig tree, but you'll never attain to spiritual enlightenment without the cross of Christ. So don't get puffed up because you have the revelation of Christ while Buddhists remain deceived. Be humble in presenting your revelation so they may have it too, then perhaps some of them may outrun you in the race to spiritual perfection.
Now you would think all religions teach obedience to God, but not so with the founder of Buddhism. He apparently believed in God, but offered what they call four Noble Truths as a ladder to Nirvana. After several re-incarnations an adherent could expect to find deliverance from suffering. They are not noble truths however, but babblings about the existence of suffering and the overcoming of it in their own power. For those who attain to Christlikeness there is an overcoming of suffering, and even a dissolving of pain in the anointing of the divine Presence when the Lord of glory comes to a temple of flesh. But as soon as Saints cease to seek the Lord in the laws of the Spirit, the angel of the divine Presence departs from them leaving them in their natural state.
It is extremely difficult to abide in his divine Presence where suffering dissolves in his power. Saint John of the Cross was known to walk barefoot in the snow in winter proclaiming salvation by Christ without pain. In Foxes Book of Martyrs there are testimonies of believers burning at the stake raising their hands in worship to signal others waiting to die, that it was not painful. Don't try anything extreme dear Christian until you lose your life for the Gospel and become a Saint. There is no permenent overcoming of suffering promised in this lifetime neither for fully committed Saints or Christians serving two masters. Save that hope for the Ages to come when you have ascended the spiritual ladder to God a little further than your present state.
The Four Ignoble truths of Buddhism are vain promises. Buddhism cannot provide its adherents with the beauties of holiness the more devout and enlightened Saints experience in divine ecstacies when Christ manifests fully in the kingdom within them. The first ignoble truth, the Duhkha, is simply common knowledge. Everyone is aware of: THE UNIVERSALITY OF SUFFERING. Ask any pregnant Mother if she knows she is going to suffer with this present birth too, and she will tell you such suffering is universal. Ask anyone in the operating room in a hospital if they expect to suffer after surgery, and they will tell you it is expected. It is trickery to glorify common knowledge as though it were a deep spiritual revelation. Egotists love to run with puffed up principles as though they are spiritual but everyone already knows suffering is universal. Buddhism also fails to define human nature as it really is. They do not see themselves as evil unregenerate sinners in the Duhkha. Therefore the Buddhist has no idea they are lost in spiritual darkness. Far better to remain outside of all religions until the revelation of Jesus Christ is obtained. Once the individual becomes a devotee of a particular religion, they become rooted in them; and it is difficult for them to even think of uprooting themselves. Think of it. You're a Buddhist monk twenty five years. Get a job. Re-adjust into the world. UNTHINKABLE!!! Many monks join a monastery because they did not want to work a real job. They'll reject Christ in the blink of an eye.
The second ignoble truth, the Tanha, is a reference to THE ORIGIN OF SUFFERING: The Second Ignoble truth says suffering is caused by false desires of the senses deceived into clinging to the impermanent world. There is an element of truth in their definition, but not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Lustfulness causes frustration because it cannot be fulfilled for long and soon vexes the bearer if anyone hinders their sensual appetites. Sex perverts are consumed by lust one for another and heterosexuals are turned into fornicators and adulterers by too much lust. Covetousness of your neighbors' goods is like lust. It cannot be satisfied for long in its more severe form, it drives men to steal and kill to take that which is not theirs. The love of money is the root of all evil. In addition, prideful egotists are always contentious and cannot get along with others for long, so they suffer miserable grief much of the time. The fearful suffer torments. The sloven suffer impoverishment.
We are to die to wrong motives within ourselves, but death of self does not guarantee the divine Spirit of Christ will fill the human vessel who has died to self. Fulfill the laws of the Spirit as Christ did and you shall have Christ within you after you have died to self. Buddhists are opening themselves up to become habitations of demons. Their escape from fixations upon this materialistic world makes them all the more vulnerable to unclean spirits who cannot provide them with the beauties of holiness. Buddhism is a dead end street.
Siddhartha Gautama was apparently such an antichrist he taught against the worship of God. He set himself above all even as the Antichrist to come shall do. The Antichrist shall go into the holy of holies of the rebuilt temple and show himself he is God. This is the ultimate madness, when men gain advantage over others and show themselves to be greater than God himself. Siddhartha Gautama taught the worship of gods obstructed one's quest for Nirvana, thus cutting a path for his followers to revere him more than God.
The fourth Ignoble Truth is the Buddhist ethic called the Noble Eightfold Path. It is moralistic enough, yet many moralistic souls are in hell for having rejected Christ as their supreme sacrifice and Saviour; so there is nothing sacred about the moralistic eightfold path. Every law abiding citizen should have right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, a decent livelihood, right endeavors, right concentration, and right mindfulness. It is by grace through faith we are saved and not by works alone, but also not without good works. For faith without works is dead. The Buddhist ethic suggests your attempting to do good through your own power will get you to Nirvana, but the Word of God teaches you can do nothing good of yourself. We need to build the Spirit of God to do good works of righteousness in Christ. Then the devotee of Christ can say, "It is I, yet not I who does the works."
Well there you have it. An insight into the dark corridors of Buddhism. Why follow an
egotistical prince into hell when you can follow the Prince of peace into the beauties of
holiness forever. Siddhartha Gautama couldn't save himself from the grave, how could anyone
expect his teachings to deliver them from sufferings into the nothingness of Nirvana unless
you too wish to enjoy your sins and be consumed entirely by the fires of hell. Lose your
life for the God of heaven and find Life in Him during this lifetime. Why wait???
