How Mormons Are Buddhists & Vice Versa (Mormon/Buddhist Fusion Caucus)

A few months ago, I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting in which I discussed how studying other religious faiths and their scriptures had enriched my life. When the meeting was over, a couple approached me and said they wanted a copy of the talk to give their daughter because she described herself as a “Buddhist Mormon.” The couple said their daughter couldn’t decide whether to be a Buddhist or a Mormon, so she was trying to be both.

I responded that in a certain sense I considered myself a “Buddhist Mormon” as well, and that the beauty of true Mormonism is that when we find truth in another religion, we have no obligation to reject it, but rather, are encouraged to embrace it. As Joseph Smith said: “We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out as true ‘Mormons’.” “One of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism’ is to receive truth, let it come from whence it may.” Thus, one could say that to the extent the principles of Mormonism overlap with the principles of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, or other religious faiths, one could say that a Mormon is a Buddhist, a Hindu, or a Taoist, and vice versa.

As I’ve discussed in a previous post, the Book of Mormon declares that God speaks the “same words” to “all nations,” and that one day God’s words to all nations will be “gathered in one.” In a follow-up post, I discussed my belief that the existing great religious texts of the world are God’s word to all nations to the extent their principles and doctrines overlap with the Standard Works. In this post, I’d like to share just a few examples of the great overlapping truths found in the Standard Works, the Buddhist Dhammapada, the Taoist Tao Te Ching, and the Hindu Bhagavad Gita. Please bear in mind that the following list is by no means an exhaustive compilation of all commonalities; due to space limitations, I could only list those overlapping truths that are succinctly expressed in just one or two sentences.

Matthew 10:39 - [H]e that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
The Bhagavad Gita – “Through selfless service, you will always be fruitful and find the fulfillment of your desires”: this is the promise of the Creator.

Mark 9:35 - If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.
Tao Te Ching – If the sage wants to be above the people, in his words, he must put himself below them; If he wishes to be before the people, in his person, he must stand behind them.

Matthew 7:3 – And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
The Dhammapada – Do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do; give it to what you do or fail to do.

Luke 6:38 - Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.

Tao Te Ching – The sage does not hoard. The more he does for others, the more he has himself; The more he gives to others, the more his own bounty increases.

Proverbs 23:7 - For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he.
The Dhammapada – [W]e become what we think.

John 14:15, 15:4,10 – If ye love me, keep my commandments. Abide in me . . . . If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.

The Bhagavad Gita – [T]hose who worship me with love live in me, and I come to life in them.

Proverbs 15:1- A soft answer turneth away wrath.
The Dhammapada – Speak quietly to everyone, and they too will be gentle in their speech.

Luke 14:11 - For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Tao Te Ching – The unyielding and mighty shall be brought low; the soft, supple, and delicate will be set above.

Proverbs 16:32 - He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

The Dhammapada – One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand men on the battlefield.

D&C 38:16 - . . . I am no respecter of persons.
The Bhagavad Gita – . . . none are less dear to me and none are more dear.

2 Nephi 26:22 – [Y]ea, and [the devil] leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.

The Dhammapada – Little by little a person becomes evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water.

D&C 93:29 - Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.

The Bhagavad Gita – There never has been a time when you . . . have not existed, nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist. The body is mortal, but he who dwells in the body is immortal and immeasurable.

Mosiah 4:30 – [I]f ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, . . . ye must perish.

The Dhammapada – Guard your thoughts, words, and deeds. These three disciplines will speed you along the path to pure wisdom.

Mormons believe Christ is the source of all truth. That being so, can any Mormon deny that Christ is the source of the Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu scriptures quoted above? Can any Mormon dispute that the authors of these scriptures were messengers of Christ? Perhaps Christ’s presence in non-Judeo-Christian scripture is much larger than we have been prepared to recognize in the past due to our cultural traditions. Perhaps millions of faithful adherents to the world’s various religions have already heard Christ’s voice and are already living in accordance with Christ’s true principles without even recognizing it.

Seekers of truth,

If you peruse the Free Republic religion forums you will notice a pattern. There's an anti-Mormon group of people here that spends a great deal of their time attacking the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They post regurgitated propaganda on an almost daily basis.

They have a misguided obsession. You can witness many different tactics employed that you might find quite interesting. The straw man argument is a big favorite and is frequently preceded by cherry-picking quotes or other material. After the "quotation" the attacker will misrepresent what has been said or what was meant and then attack their own interpretation.Later they will have the audacity to claim they were "only" quoting our own material.

They will of course insist ad nauseum that they are merely using our sources and are therefore innocent of any deceptive practice. LDS persons have no issue whatsoever having our scriptures or leaders quoted as long as it is presented fairly and accurately. This is rarely (if ever) done.

Another favorite is posting scripture or statements which on their own really present no dilemma. They make something out of nothing while never bringing up a single objection that hasn't been addressed a hundred times before.

You might note a couple of other tactics used to try to antagonize is the use of disrespectful or insulting terms or language and/or pictures. That's a Christlike thing to do right? Yeah I don't think so either. It does speak volumes about them though.

Some of them claim being some sort of special witness to you as being supposedly former Mormons. So someone who is an ex-member of any organization would never have an axe to grind or have reason to try to justify their actions by any means? Perhaps not but perhaps so. The LDS Church gains members from other denominations as well as others faiths all the time. This doesn't make them an expert on anything and you certainly won't hear them attacking their forner Church.

Frequently they cruise the headlines of the day seeking any story that might be twisted into making the Church look bad. Anything will do, just watch the progression of posts following it and see what I mean.

After reading their posts, I invite you to seek the truth about whatever "issue" they seem to be "revealing" or "exposing". I promise that if you do so with honest intent, the "ahah" moments you will have will be many and frequent. You will start to recognize the tactics employed to cleverly twist and attack and will likely chuckle the more you see. In actuality, there's nothing new here. It's all been addressed many times before.

The latest twist in the anti-Mormon propaganda machine is to actually go to the links provided, but then they cherry pick what they want, then quote and straw man attack that. Clever. It almost appears that they are helping you, the seeker of truth out by doing some footwork for you. Not so much. Don't be insulted, look for yourself. It's not the haystack they want you to think.

Here's a few links to get your started from a different viewpoint. I have found that the vast majority of the "issues" brought up can be found and addressed at http://www.fairlds.org/ but here's more:

http://scriptures.lds.org/
http://www.lds.org
http://www.fairlds.org/
http://www.mormonapologetics.org/
http://www.mormonwiki.com/Main_Page
http://www.lightplanet.com/response/index.html
http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDS_Intro.shtml
http://www.answeringantimormons.com/index.htm
http://promormon.blogspot.com/

Now you will likely notice the "you never address or answer our points" posts pop up as usual. All after providing the answers just as you have here.

Sometimes it is claimed that these sites present a needle in a haystack. Far from it. But if you give up before you try you won't know will you? They often state that these sites provide no answer. They just don't want you looking. It is as simple as that.

Will you wear blinders too? Seek truth. Find out for yourself. Want to chat with someone on any topic? A few of these sites provide just that. So do your homework sincere seeker of truth. Listen and read from both "sides". Make up your own mind.

I witness to you of these truths and wish you the best, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

If I live to be 100, I will not have studied and absorbed all there is to the LDS doctrine. I could re-read the scriptures each year and still find things that I didn’t find the first time.

Having said that, I could never find time to study other doctrines much less find time to show they are incorrect.

It appears that some on this site spend more time trying to “save” us from Mormonism than they do making sure they have studied their own doctrine.

I pray that they will be blessed and have their hearts open and realize that Satan spends much time making sure Christians fight among themselves and tear each other down.

I have a friend that is Catholic and one that is evangelical and we spend our time sharing our beliefs and doctrine. We have one rule, we must share our doctrine without tearing down the other’s doctrine or trying to get the others to change religions.

We have our differences but always come back to the fact that we all have Christ as the center and the enemy is not other religions but Satan.

We have our differences but always come back to the fact that we all have Christ as the center and the enemy is not other religions but Satan.

Link

As of December 31, 2009, there were 51,736 LDS missionaries serving in 344 church missions throughout the world. Their work, often in cooperation with local members, resulted in 280,106 convert baptisms in 2009.[12] Author David Stewart points out that the number of convert baptisms per missionary per year has fallen from a high of 8.03 in 1989 to just 4.67 in 2005.[13] He argues that the number of converts would increase if Mormon missionaries made greater efforts in meeting new people; he points out that the average companionship spends only four or five hours per week attempting to meet new people.[13]

How terrible it is that a handful of Christians post a handful of threads per week on FreeRepublic to counter the proselytizing efforts of the missionaries and public relations campaign of the mormon church.

How many millions do you think are directed by the mormon church to TV and radio commercials? Every time a mormon missionary or member boasts of the "Great Apostasy" and "Restoration of the Gospel" they are running down Christianity and saying that THEY and they alone are the "true" church.

Restoration must be at the forefront of interfaith dialogue

In the Sacred Grove, Mormons believe Joseph Smith was told that the sects of the day were false. In the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord tells members that they are part of "the only true and living Church".

"Latter-day Saints had a desire to separate themselves from all other forms of religions — they were different from any other organization of religion, not the least because the Lord had told them that they belonged to "the only true and living Church" (D&C 1:30)," Holt said. "Latter-day Saints defined themselves not only by the unique beliefs they held, but also by recognizing the beliefs they did not."

-SNIP-

"This is not the purpose of interfaith dialogue from an LDS perspective; we don't seek ecumenism, we seek interfaith relationships and dialogue, but we do not seek ecumenism, because the purpose of it is to bring the churches together," Holt said. "That's not an LDS teaching, and we must be honest about it."

If I live to be 100, I will not have studied and absorbed all there is to the LDS doctrine. I could re-read the scriptures each year and still find things that I didn’t find the first time.

Having said that, I could never find time to study other doctrines much less find time to show they are incorrect.

It appears that some on this site spend more time trying to “save” us from Mormonism than they do making sure they have studied their own doctrine.

I pray that they will be blessed and have their hearts open and realize that Satan spends much time making sure Christians fight among themselves and tear each other down.

We have our differences but always come back to the fact that we all have Christ as the center and the enemy is not other religions but Satan.

Very well said.

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