Buddha Vs Jesus
Buddhism teaches that all of physical reality is impermanent therefore life does not have any real meaning, except that we should do no evil and aim to only do good so that we can become enlightened and escape all the suffering in the world.
Christianity teaches that the meaning of life is love: to love God above all else and to love others as much as we love ourselves.
on Materialism and the Meaning of Life
Buddhism teaches that things are impermanent and don't have any meaning, but that humans can give meaning to life through their interpretations. The first Buddha, Guatama, taught that everything that comes into existence will eventually pass away, and that life is a self-created illusion. However, Buddhism also teaches that emptiness includes everything, and that people can drop labels like "I" and "mine" to discover a deeper, freer experience. But if nothing has any inherent meaning, then life becomes meaningless and empty.
Christianity teaches that the ultimate meaning of life is to have a relationship with our Creator God and to learn to love God and other people. Life without love would be totally meaningless, and that can easily happen when a person follows the rules of Buddhism.
I practiced the 8-fold path and got rather good at it. I became so mindful and focused that nothing bothered me. You could slam on the wall right behind me to try to startle me and I would not even flinch. I was more chill than a cucumber. But I was also totally empty. I had no love inside me. To a Buddhist, love is just another attachment, other people and all their needs and drama are just unnecessary complications.
What makes religions like Buddhism so attractive is that they have very fancy spiritual ideas which are called half-truths. Someone seeking Buddhism is searching for spiritual truth, so these half-truths look appealing, but the problem is that at best they only lead to some wisdom and overall they lead to emptiness. They do not lead to life and life abundantly (Jn. 10:10). That is what Jesus leads to.
Buddhism claims that Karma is gained through good actions (such as following the 8-fold Path) and results in positive consequences, and bad actions result in negative consequences. If a person attains the right views and actions, and gains enough positivity without any negativity to hold them back, then they theoretically could achieve enlightenment. Enlightenment could be summarized as understanding and acting within the full realization of a person’s god-like potential.
But once a person achieves enlightenment, which supposedly many have, like the first Buddha (Guatama), then why don’t you see them walking around performing great miracles to help other people like Jesus did? Shouldn’t it be like in the Matrix when Neo realizes he’s in the Matrix and that he can do anything, he starts doing miraculous and impossible things? After all, if a person fully realizes their god-hood, shouldn’t they be able to perform miracles? Buddhists and other practitioners of eastern religions like Taoism will literally say that Jesus was just an enlightened person, therefore His way was just one of many ways to achieve enlightenment (interesting side note, Christianity was originally called “The Way” and Taoism literally means “The Way”).
But Jesus clearly said that He was the only way to the Father and to heaven, and He clearly taught that we are not God, but that He was and still is. He called us sheep and he called Himself the good Shepherd.
The fact that people who have purportedly reached enlightenment don’t walk around like Jesus did healing everyone and doing other miracles like turning water into wine is pretty strong evidence that believing in “enlightenment,” reincarnation, and seeing oneself as the creator God is the real illusion. If we are all just part of the greater consciousness, if we are all parts of the “Creator God,” then why can’t Buddhists perform miracles like Jesus did?
The reason is because Jesus is the Creator and He will not share His power with Buddhists in order to back up their false claims. He will however share His power with Christians and those who pray in His name. For great evidence for miracles, check out the books: The Case for Miracles, by Lee Strobel and Miracles Today, by Craig Keener. Also keep in mind that thousands upon thousands of miracles have been recorded over history, many even verified by modern medicine, and by the very definition of a miracle, which is an event that is impossible in the natural realm – if only 1 miracle has ever happened then we can know without a doubt that God exists.
The best thing that I have ever done in my life is to search for God with all my heart. I was very stubborn and for a long time I refused to accept Jesus out of hand. But thank God, even though I was His enemy, He never gave up on me. With the help of many prayers for my salvation, many years of searching eventually paid off immensely. Finding Jesus has been the best thing that could have ever happened to me and my family.
