Posted on 04/05/2007 5:05:09 AM PDT by Daffynition
If you're a Tibetan Buddhist or you're leaning that way, you may not know it, but you need Jesus.
That's the thinking behind a series of Christian evangelical workshops -- including one later this month in Wheaton -- that will coincide with the Dalai Lama's trip to Chicago and other American cities this spring.
Interserve USA is putting on the workshops to teach Christians how to talk to Buddhists and, perhaps, to win converts.
"We welcome the Dalai Lama here, but we also want to have a chance to reach Tibetan Buddhists with the gospel," said Doug Van Bronkhorst, executive director of Interserve, an international missionary group based just outside of Philadelphia.
The online announcement for the upcoming workshop offers this enticing hook: "Tibetan Buddhism. It's ancient. It's complex. It's trendy. And its leader, the Dalai Lama, is visiting your city this spring."
But Van Bronkhorst said in a telephone interview Tuesday, "We are interested in people, not notches on a belt."
That's not quite how it sounds to the head of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, which includes bishops and leaders from most of the largest Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups in the area.
"I'm speaking without knowing anything about this group," said the Rev. Stan Davis, acting director of the council. "But my sense is that their goal is to try to convert to Christianity. Our goal would be to enter into a dialogue with them, to find out about their faith in a two-way conversation."
'He's a very thoughtful man' So does Van Bronkhorst think Christians can learn something from the Dalai Lama and his teachings?
"Oh, sure," Van Bronkhorst said. "He's a very thoughtful man. He has a lot of good things to say about peace in the world, and he's quite knowledgeable about other faiths, including the Christian faith."
Van Bronkhorst says his organization has no plans to send Christian evangelicals to greet the Dalai Lama during his American tour. "Of course that's up to [individuals] if they want to do that," Van Bronkhorst said.
The Rev. Patti Nakai, a part-time minister at Buddhist Temple of Chicago in Uptown, says Buddhists in general may not disagree with the Bible, just the evangelical spin.
"Most Buddhists would not have a problem with what is written in the gospel," said Nakai, who does not follow the particular practices of the Dalai Lama's sect. "It's what evangelical Christians say -- the idea that you have to be saved in a certain way or you're doomed to eternal damnation, that's what we have a problem with."
The Dalai Lama is due to travel to Chicago in early May, making his first public appearance in the city since 1999.
The spiritual leader is expected to stay on the 24th floor of the Palmer House Hilton in the presidential suite, where amenities include three bathrooms.
It was a popular metaphor, but an incorrect one. Christians don’t throw “life preservers” to non-Christians. We introduce them to Jesus, who offers them life. It may seem like a subtle difference, but it affects the message and our motivations.
“In Shambhala , warriorship is not optional, nor is hospitality.”
What about Sake? I thought Buddhism asked followers to refrain from intoxicants. LOL.
That's not correct. It was the sixteenth century.
Things only started to go crazy in the last half of the 15th century, And the 13th and 14th were pretty tolerant (unless you were Lithuanian - but they were a bunch of lousy pagans anyway)
Easy for YOU to say. Why don't you try it yourself some time?
Cordially,
So the precepts are related to practise and experiencing the world very directly, without anything , such as booze, to get in the way of that process.
In the Mahayana and Vajrayana sense, its OK to have alcohol, as long as its not abused, injurious,or unhealthy.
Like anything else , there is a logical reason for everything.
LOL Okay, I can see that you are stuck on one particular period of history and want to ignore the rest of Christianity's history. Fine. No point in beating a dead horse, since it is clear your mind is closed on the issue.
About the character of God, its all about “feeling on the issue” and your feeling is as good as mine.
Unless you can prove this assertion, it's only your feeling that 'its all about feeling on the issue'.
How do I know? As I said, “belief, faith, opinion, reasoning, best guess etc”..... at least I dont claim I have 100% knowledge, but basic human judgment allows me to distinguish the right from wrong. Thats how you can tell when someone is totally wrong.
So please clarify - you are saying that you don't know about God's character, but because you feel you can distinguish right from wrong, this tells you that no one else knows about God's character? Please explain how that follows.
Your friends have apparently allowed their 'Christianity' to be tainted by folding in beliefs from other religions. What they are believing simply isn't biblical.
They have the choice to believe as they wish, of course, and they can call it 'Christianity' as well. But it's not any more true than if I were to call myself a Buddhist.
It is true that I will answer to God on the last day. Likewise He will answer me. If His answer is that only trusting Jesus as my savior can save me, then I do not wish to be saved.
Just as Planned long ago:
As it is written:
"SEE, I LAY IN ZION A STONE THAT CAUSES MEN TO STUMBLE
AND A ROCK THAT MAKES THEM FALL,
AND THE ONE WHO TRUSTS IN HIM WILL NEVER BE PUT TO SHAME."This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve,
"THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED,
THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER STONE,"and,
" A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE";
for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed."
------------------ "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
"Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me."
Jesus
Cordially,
You didn’t see my sarc tag??? I am sorry that you took me seriously, but sometimes that happens on line. It has happened to me before. Have a great Tuesday!!!
No, either Jesus spoke the truth, or He is a liar. He is God, or he is not God. If you study the Bible intead of Life of Brian, you would know He has given you the choice to accept His redemption, but His Truth is not in doubt.
I dont really subscribe to your revisionist history.
“Unless you can prove this assertion, it’s only your feeling that ‘its all about feeling on the issue’.”
Its for YOU to prove that its not simply about feeling but there is some hard evidence to prove that Jesus is the only God. And please dont tell me Bible is the evidence.
“So please clarify - you are saying that you don’t know about God’s character, but because you feel you can distinguish right from wrong, this tells you that no one else knows about God’s character?”
Precisely. If you claim to KNOW God’s character then better provide the evidence that you really know. Bible is no evidence its just a book written by ordinary human beings who were simply writing what they felt about God. (Same with Gita, Tohra and Koran.) And IMO God’s character is lot more complex for ordinary mortals to fathom (again just my feelings).
And if you dont have any hard evidence then present your belief/hypothesis if possible with adequate philosophical reasoning and leave it for people to decide on which one is better and what sounds or feels right. (Which most people, me included do anyways).
You have continued to make claims without presenting evidence to support them. Let me know when you can, then we'll have some basis for discussion.
1) How many gods are there?
2) Can one know God (or the gods) personally?
3) Is there a heaven, and if so, how does one get there?
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1. There is super conscious, Conscious and Sub conscious. Gods exist in the subconscious because they are created thee in a partnership between the Superconsncoius and the Conscious. They are created by the religions based on a shared symbolic language,concentration and will of the worshipers as they are created by the imagination and have a definite reality if you open yourself psychically.
2. yes. I personally invoke many gods from different pantheons and have had quite a few memorable experiences.
3.Most religions taught reincarnation secretly(like Christianity) or publicly. To get there you complete the great work.
does that make sense (grin). understandable it sounds foreign to most people. But, if you begin by looking at all of the similarities of the religions, The mythologies and and the rites etc one begins to find a lot that is shared. When you then find out that the ancients hid there secrets and did not give them out where they could be misused. You had to earn the right to receive by illumination (mysticism). Then and only then can you understand the real nature of religion(at least from my perspective. Pagan Christs by Carpenter and 12 crucified saviors by Kersey Graves are beginnings but by no means the end of a path that can be very revealing to the right mind. They did "not give holy things to the dogs. They will rend them (in argument) and turn on you. It is like throwing Pearls to the Swine."
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We’ll have to agree to disagree on such matters, but thanks nonetheless for a thought provoking response. I’m no expert on world religions, but here’s what I know:
1) Hindus recognize the existence of many gods. Christians, Jews and Muslims recognize one. Buddhists none. Atheists none.
2) Evangelical Christians believe in an always accessible God, deeply involved in people’s lives. To Muslims, Allah is neither knowable nor accessible.
3) The Muslim view of heaven has something to do with 72 virgins or raisins or whatever. Buddhists believe that after one reaches Nirvana, a state of “perfect peace” or “highest happiness,” one “fully passes away” upon death. The mainline Christian depiction of heaven is not paralleled in other faiths; Heaven is depicted as a place, not of this world, that believers will inhabit forever.
I guess I see more distinctions than similarities between the major religions. IMHO, one cannot believe all of them simultaneously.
actually in one sense Christianity views them as 3 in 1. In another sense in the old testament there are different names for the one god such as “shaddai El Chai”, Elohim Tzaboth” “Yhvh Tzaboth” “El” “yhvh Elovadaath” “yhvh Elohim”
“Elohim gibor” and so forth. they re usually translated to the Lord. They are referring to the one god (the Hebrew god in his different aspects. For instance man maybe a father to his son a husband to his wife and boss to his employees. He is the same man if you will but he has different aspects. Depending on your relationship to him you would invoke him accordingly. So to does the God have different aspects to his Christian and Jewish followers. So they would invoke a different aspect. using another one of his names. Pagans are actually very similar The view all Gods as being one God and all Goddess’s as being one Goddess which is actually a part of the God. What really looks different really is not as different as it appears. Christians tend to emphasize the oneness but believe in the different aspects where as most pagans view the oneness but prefer to emphasize the separateness of that Godhead.
things are often hidden. For instance In most pantheons there is a Virgin mother who is representative the first or primal mater. She is the first form of matter as such she is the giver of life. But, because she is the giver of death because that goes with life. In Hinduism she is Maya in Celtic religion she is Morgan for instance. But let us look at Buddhism. Maya is the mother of Buddha according to that mythology she is the mother of Buddha who was in the royal line and conceived with immaculate conception. In the negative aspect she is Maya the version of material mindedness. In that aspect she is equal to Satan who tempts Jesus in the desert In the Buddhist Sutras it is Maya as the personification of the world illusion who tempts Buddha on his enlightenment. The same story the same circumstance. In most of the religions there is an equivalent whose name means Sea or bitter sea. The name Mary as Mother of God means bitter sea. She like most of the pagan varieties of Maya is a mother who gives birth to the Sun god via immaculate conception. When you become familiar with these stories you begin to see how Mary fits nicely into that tradition as a variety of the virgin mother goddess. But since Christianity only wanted to go to The Sun god (Jesus) they did not make her a goddess in there mythology. But they still needed to connect to that principle of Prima Mater so Mary mother of Christ was venerated. This appears to be a concept they got from Buddhism. While Buddhism does not get into Gods and Goddess’s it does want to venerate them for they are simply different aspects of the spirit. So it introduces them as persons in the narrative of The Buddha. In Buddhism and Christianity the Gods are simply disguised as persons disciples, Virgin mothers etc. The virgin matter in her positive aspect is Martha and her sister Mary Magdalene(both of these sisters names are just another form of the name of Mary). One of them the dark one representing death is pictured as a prostitute. There are also these same sisters appearing in Buddhist sutras with names that translate the same as Mary and Martha both and there fore are representative of Mary and Maya. The story of the the dark-prostitute one washing the Buddhas feet with her hair is the same as in Christian scriptures.
It will be remembered that in Christian scriptures Mary Magdalene and Martha lived in Bethany with there brother Lazarus. some time ago I read that in Egyptian stories there was to sisters Merti and Meri who lived with there brother Elazurus in Bethanu.
The more you develop an eye and the more you look at things the more things like this stand out. For instance there is a God in many pantheons who is mercurial. Hermes for instance whose name means stone. he is also the Psychopomp or guide between the worlds, He is the Priest, and the one connected with the principle of communication and speech. It will be remembered the St Peter was the one whose name meant Rock. He was mercurial in temperament and was the one who held the keys of the kingdom of heaven (psycopomp). he was also the one who takes over and becomes the chief Priest or first pope if you will. He was the one who spoke for the disciples.
Peter is simply Hermes in the Christian religion. Christianity uses the same Gods that the pagans used. As such they are representative of aspects of spirituality of which the follower must connect with. But because Christianity wanted to go to the Solar Deity or Christ principle it simply made them as disciples friends and such. The people of Christianity and just forms of Gods and Godess's in other religions that are themselves representative's of spiritual principles. There are many many similarities in Buddhist and Christian Scriptures and I have only mentioned a few. A reading of the different religious mythologies will be very rewarding to the person who really wants to get into things deeper and have a deeper knowledge of the spiritual tradition of all men. One has to remember that they kept things secret and you had to earn the knowledge of thngs by diligent work and meditation and contemplation.
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