The Assignment

I was recently given an assignment to visit a Buddhist temple and monastery that is right here in Missouri. This was part of my classwork required by my graduate professor for our World Religions class. Each student was to visit and observe a non-Christian service of a major world religion and conduct an interview with a person—preferably a leader—who could represent their beliefs and practices. 

The Bondage of Religion and the Freedom in Christ

What I can share with you is great encouragement because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ! For those who are in Christ, sometimes we may look at our situation and wonder why in the world God has us going through all these tests and circumstances. Maybe we get frustrated, tired, or perplexed. However, there is a very sharp contrast between our life in Jesus and the life of people who are in the bondage of religion. This truth gives weight to these verses:

“But when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:16-17)

We are in complete freedom through Jesus Christ by His Spirit. If you have lived in the freedom of Christ for any period of time, the bondage that mankind constantly suffers apart from Christ should be in our daily thoughts and prayers. My visit to the monastery was a strong reminder of this fact. The world is in an unbearable state of religious bondage which comes from the kingdom of darkness. Buddhism and other religions have deceived millions of people on the planet into false beliefs, keeping them locked up in spiritual chains. When you witness this in person, our freedom in Christ takes on a whole new meaning. There is an incomparable contrast between religious bondage and the spirit of freedom found in Jesus Christ. 

In this passage about our spiritual freedom, Paul is speaking about the Jews who are still bound to the old covenant through the Law of Moses. The veil he is referring to is what prevents them from seeing the truth about Jesus Christ. However, the veil is not necessarily imposed by God—it is the result of personal choice. Paul says that when “anyone turns to the Lord,” the veil is taken away! (Otherwise, no Jews would have ever believed—or still believe—the gospel message.) However, those who are still veiled are only veiled because they have not turned to Christ. Paul writes “only in Christ is it [the veil] taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:15). 

Likewise, the Buddhist, the Hindu, the Muslim, and anyone else needs only to turn to Christ and their veil will be taken away! Then the promises of the Lord come into play, and His Spirit gives them freedom. This may sound oversimplified, but it is the Word of the Lord and exactly what Paul preached. 

Bondages of Buddhism 

Buddhists base their beliefs on the teachings of Buddha, who most likely had a very real spiritual experience—at least according to the accounts that are available. Based on most textbook descriptions and their oldest sacred writings, it seems apparent that the person later described as the Buddha had an encounter with Satan and other demonic spirits. They are not named as such, but for a Christian reading the details of this experience, it is quite apparent that these were not spirits providing any truth, nor did they offer release from bondage. The teachings of Buddha about the reality of humans and life itself all came from this spiritual encounter—what he termed his “enlightenment” experience. These teachings of the Buddha have led millions into believing many ungodly ideas and have kept his followers in an impossible mission to escape the unending “karma” of the life cycle.

For the Buddhist, to experience total “freedom” is to understand that the individual person does not really exist. The lay teacher who spoke the day of my temple visit—who had been practicing Buddhism for nearly 60 years—admitted he still had trouble with this concept. This idea is typically understood by stating that the individual self does not exist and that people are merely experiencing illusory, sensory perceptions. The endless circle of life (samsara) did not have a beginning, nor will it have an end. It has always existed without a creator. All of the Buddhist practices, such as the mantras (chants) and meditation are meant to empty oneself and escape logic and thought patterns of the mind. There is a constant effort to resist attachment to anything, including people. Attachment is believed to cause suffering because one is trying to attach itself to something that is not real. 

Reaching the Buddhist

How does one reach the Buddhist? Since we know that the unloading of burdens and sin (even though they do not acknowledge the concept of sin) does not come through the teachings of Buddha, those who truly seek the truth will eventually come to this knowledge. God is merciful far beyond our understanding, and because sin cannot be rectified in any other way than Christ, many testimonies are built upon the failures of past beliefs and practices. 

The use of logic is not necessarily a tool for reaching a Buddhist, because logic and reason are precisely what the practice of meditation is meant to overcome. Logic is seen as totally unnecessary and will even prevent the human from reaching enlightenment because the mind and use of logic are seen as agents that oppose the seeker of the truth. This belief clearly denies the innate qualities that God has created within every human being. Yet, to regard logic as an enemy is nonetheless a necessary teaching because most of the Buddhist teachings are highly illogical and contradict each other. (And like most religions, there are various splits and sects, some more liberal than others, some deny any spiritual realms, while others accept them, etc.) 

The concept of love was something I felt the Holy Spirit desired to be introduced in my conversation with the Buddhist teacher. In preparation for the interview, I had worked this into a couple of my questions. First, I had to ask him if he believed love was “real” because the Buddhist is constantly trying to avoid emotional attachment. I fully expected him to say that love was only an illusion or just a temporary perception, like most of the other emotions. However, I was surprised when he admitted, “It is real but needs to be cultivated.” I was excited by his answer and conceded that the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing by prompting me to ask about love!

 My follow-up question was: “What is the origin of love?”

His answer to this question was not as encouraging. The teacher sitting across from me, stated dully, “There is no origin.” Basically, to the Buddhist practitioner, love does exist, but there is no source or origin. The same is believed about wisdom and truth. All three of these qualities the Buddhists are trying to achieve, yet when one is truly enlightened, the great truth of Buddhism leads only to nothingness, impermanence, imperfection, and the impersonal. What a contrast to the love and life that Jesus Christ provides! 

When the teacher revealed his belief that there is no source or origin of love, I saw my opportunity to let some of the real truth come out. I told him that I found this concept hard to comprehend and that my belief was in a Creator God who is the author of love. At least this seed of truth from the Word of God had been planted. God is love and the source of love (1 John 4:7-8). While the teacher acknowledged the reality of love, he only needs to turn to the God of love. After all, love is the foundation on which our very salvation is anchored and the reason for Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection. 

Truths shared with a practicing Buddhist must be grounded in love but also in the power of Christ as an instant remedy for their burdens. Buddhism places all the work on the practitioner in order for them to achieve a fictional release by their own power. The people I encountered at the temple were trying to find relief from life’s problems and the harsh realities of this world. Those who turn to Buddhism are undeniably bearing the burden of sin, and no matter the semantics, what they experience is real and it is painful. A follower of Jesus can testify to the remedy of sin, and it does not take sixty years or a lifetime to attain. Salvation and the lifting of this burden can be received in a moment. 

We may also offer what is real as opposed to the nothingness that pervades Buddhist thought. Instead of uncertainty, we can offer certainty. We can offer the God who makes an unbreakable covenant with His people (Hebrews 9:15), and a God who gives us the promise of the Holy Spirit, which confirms to us that we belong to Him (Romans 8:16). We can testify to a Savior who will never leave us stranded or alone (Hebrews 13:5, Deuteronomy 31:6,8). And instead of no-self, we can proclaim that God knew us individually before we were even born (Psalm 139:16).           

As we go out and encounter those who are not yet saved, I always remember what Jesus said about the power of the Gospel:

“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” (Luke 16:16) 

Never forget that as a believer in Jesus Christ, you carry with you a very powerful tool: the Gospel! Please pray for the people who have become trapped into false religions. In doing so, you are partaking in the glory of the Lord’s salvation for all people.