Arguments Against Christianity - Part 4 -Buddhism

In my last message, I dove into the interesting yet bizarre world of Hinduism. We looked at what Hinduism has to offer us in regards to the big questions in life. How does it answer the questions of origin, meaning, destiny, and morality? Today, we're going to be looking at those same questions: origin, meaning, destiny, and morality, and seeing how Buddhism answers these questions for us.

For the visitors, um, just to kind of catch you up to speed, I didn't do a whole lot of recap here, but I started a series where I started to look at the, um, argument that is presented that there are thousands and thousands of different religions and gods to choose from. And we talk—we've talked about how that really isn't the case, that there really is just a small handful of religions, religious views that are offered in the world. And we've been systematically going through them and looking at how each each religion answers the big questions in life.

What we see in Buddhism is that it is centered around the understanding that to live is to suffer. You can't get away from it. Suffering is an inescapable part of reality. The pursuit of Buddhism is the liberation from suffering.

That is what you're after in Buddhism: to be free from suffering. And it all began with this guy here, Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha or the enlightened one. In the beginning of Mr. Gautama's life, he was a Hindu.

He was born actually as a Hindu prince. He was royalty. But there were some things about Hinduism that he simply couldn't swallow. He rejected the authority of the Vedas. That's one of the Hindu scriptures. He rejected the caste system. There may have been some other things that he rejected, but those are the only two big ones that I'm aware of. So he rejected Hinduism. But if you will remember from my last message, we learned from Mr. Jay Lakhani that though the Buddha rejected some parts of Hinduism, he did not reject three key components that are fundamental in both Hinduism and Buddhism. We looked at them last time. They are Dharma, sorting yourself out; Karma, that things are connected by cause and effect; and reincarnation, the belief that after you die, your soul will be reborn again as some sort of entity.

Now, I'm not going to rehash all of those ideas. We covered them last time. If you're interested in actually learning more about that, you can go back and watch those previous messages. So the Buddha held fast to these three concepts.

Let's dive in and look at how Buddhism is categorized. Only the universe exists. Only the universe exists. It will probably surprise many of you that Buddhism is actually an atheistic religion. Only the universe exists. Only matter exists. There is no God in Buddhism. This is identical to the way that the atheist or the naturalist view things.

Interestingly enough, many Hindus believe that Gautama Buddha is the ninth avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. What does that even mean? Originally, when I wrote this message, uh, I had Hinduism and Buddhism all smashed together in one message, and I realized it was too long. So I split it up into two different messages. Uh, so allow me to kind of go back a little bit and remind you of some of the things that we spoke about just to connect the dots so it's not confusing for you.

In Hinduism, remember, there are three types of gods. There was there was Brahman, which is the ultimate reality. All things are God. Again, we're talking about Hinduism again. Within Brahman, there were higher gods or higher deities, and these were referred to as the Trimurti. And then there are millions upon millions of man-made gods.

Also, remember that when one of these higher Hindu gods becomes incarnate as a man, it's considered to be an avatar. So when a Hindu god becomes man, he's an avatar. Now, one of the most influential Hindu avatars through all of Hindu history was when Lord Vishnu became incarnate as a man named Krishna.

You may be wondering, well, how influential was this Krishna guy? Last week, we talked about the Bhagavad Gita, or the last time I spoke. It's one of the Hindu scriptures. Well, the Bhagavad Gita actually contains teachings of Krishna.

So follow me here. So when this Hindu god Vishnu becomes this man Krishna, and then what that man teaches becomes Hindu scripture. Do you follow that? That is how influential Krishna was when he was incarnate as a Hindu god. And there were seven other times in Hindu history where this same god became a man before Krishna. Krishna was the eighth.

And here's where it gets weird. The first eight times that Lord Vishnu becomes incarnate as a man, the conclusion is that only God exists. All things are God. That was the conclusion the first eight times. According to Jay Lakhani, the ninth time, the next time that Lord Vishnu became a man, he became incarnate as the Buddha.

So think this through with me. When Lord Vishnu was Krishna, and all the times before, the conclusion was that all things are God. But a couple of thousand years later, when the same God becomes incarnate as the Buddha, the conclusion is only the universe exists. There is no God.

From only God exists to only the universe exists. Now, admittedly, not all Hindus hold to this belief. That is that the Buddha was Lord Vishnu incarnate, but Jay Lakhani sure did. Furthermore, according to Jay Lakhani at the Hindu Academy, there is no problematic contradiction here. All things are God or no things are, or there is no God.

This is just Dharma. The Dharma is fundamental in Hinduism. It's fundamental in Buddhism. Working ourselves out. If you want to work yourself out in Hinduism, where all things are God, or work yourself out in Buddhism, where there is no God, none of these details are critical.

In fact, according to Jay Lakhani, even Jesus Christ himself was the same Hindu god Vishnu incarnate as Jesus Christ five or six hundred years later, working out his own human condition five or six hundred years after the Buddha.

In a worldview where all things are God, the law of contradiction gets thrown out the window.

Think back with me to these tests of origin, meaning, destiny, and morality. The criteria that we've been using is that every particular answer has to correspond to truth, either through what can be measured or through the logical reasoning process. And when those four answers are put together, they must actually be coherent.

Does this stuff seem coherent to you? That's the question you constantly need to be asking yourself as you hear this stuff. Does this seem coherent? Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. Irregardless in Buddhism, only the universe exists. Next, we have origin.

The Buddha, just like the atheist, the Buddhist, just like the atheist, and just like the Hindus, also believe in the Big Bang. But what kind of Big Bang is the question? Remember last time we talked about how the naturalists believe in a linear Big Bang. The naturalists believe that there was an original Big Bang, and since then we've been moving towards either eternity or possibly the end of the universe. The Hindus also believed that there was an original Big Bang, but they are different from the atheists in that they believed in Kalpa. They believed in cycles of Big Bangs.

The Buddhist is more close to the Hindu. It also believes in creation cycles. The universe has a beginning, and then it has an end. And then it has a beginning, and then it has an end. The difference is that the Buddha believed that there was no original first Big Bang. According to Buddhism, there have been an infinite number of universe cycles. That is to say, there was no original Big Bang.

Now, if you will remember, as I've been teaching in this series, I've been explaining over and over how critical the answer to the question is, what came before or what preceded the beginning of all things? Or better yet, was there a mind behind creation in the beginning?

There is no answer in Buddhism. In fact, in Buddhism, the question is in some ways dismissed. There is no God, and there is no need to determine what came before or preceded the original Big Bang, because there isn't an original beginning. Every emergence of the universe comes after the emergence of a previous universe.

There is one tale told by the Buddha in the Aguna Sutta, which does describe a creation, but in this description, the Buddha only describes a recreation. So origin is an eternal cycle of Big Bangs. Next, let's look at sacred texts.

Buddhism has a large number of what is referred to as scripture, but no text is accepted as authentic or authoritative across all schools of Buddhist thought. But there are some principles that, as far as I can tell, are accepted across the board. These are the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. These are the teachings of the Buddha that he obtained during his enlightenment.

Think about that word. During his enlightenment. What does that mean? During his enlightenment?

Think about these words.

In this study, I really struggled to wrap my head around this idea of enlightenment.

I think it's coming from over there somewhere.

So I did struggle to wrap my head around this concept of enlightenment. What does this even mean? This is how my brain was seeing it. If divine revelation cannot be possible because there is no divine, then what exactly does enlightenment mean? Enlightened by what?

Or enlightened to what? What does this mean? I can get the idea of a system where there is some sort of divine, something beyond the system that we're in. We've talked about this. We all just woke up in this system. We didn't ask to be here. We all just popped into this existence one day. Maybe there is something that's outside of the system that can reveal itself to us. Maybe there is. And I will admit, it is bizarre to think even in these terms. Even though that's what every one of you in this room believes, if you really, if you're honest with yourself, that in itself is bizarre to think of the outside somehow reaching in.

But I can at least logically comprehend that, especially when the revelation is accompanied by some supernatural feat, like calling fire from the skies or maybe having a donkey talk to you or raising people from the dead. I can get that.

But I struggle with making a logical connection in the Buddhist framework that says that only the universe exists. There is nothing from the outside to reveal. So what is this enlightenment? Where does it come from? It turns out that there actually is an answer to this.

That is, there is a story of how the Buddha became enlightened and what knowledge he acquired that caused him to be enlightened. And through this process of becoming enlightened, he created the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. So here's how the story goes. Break it down in stages.

Stage one is renunciation. Gautama was born as royalty. As I said, he was a prince, but he decided that he was going to seek the fundamental questions of human existence. And so he renounced the luxuries of his princely life, and he embarked on a spiritual journey. That takes him to stage two, the hard way. In the beginning of his journey, he practiced extreme asceticism and self-mortification. What is self-mortification? He would expose himself to the elements. He would go out into creepy graveyards and stay out without purposefully not wearing enough clothes when it's way too cold outside and pray all night long. And he would fast, and he would, for very extended periods of time, and he would hold his breath and go as long as he could without breathing.

And he would deprive himself of sleep. These are all examples of self-mortification. But eventually, he realized that these extreme measures were not the right path to enlightenment. But that was relieving. Come to that conclusion. So then he discovered what is called the Middle Way. This was a balanced approach that avoided the extremes of asceticism and self-mortification. The Middle Way emphasized the importance of a balanced life and a life with harmonious relationships with yourself and with the world.

And stage four is meditation. He practiced various forms of meditation, which helped him to calm his mind, develop mental concentration, and gain insight into the nature of existence. That is where enlightenment comes from. Not from the outside, but from looking within through meditation. So he starts off beating and disciplining his body, and then he realized, no, no, no, that's not the right way. And so he pursues a balanced life, one with harmonious relationships with himself and with the world. And then through years of practicing meditation, he reached a profound state of understanding. And this moment is considered his enlightenment or his attainment of Buddhahood.

Now, remember the question we're trying to answer here is, what is this enlightenment? What information did he obtain that caused him to become this Buddha? There's actually three things. You ready for this? Number one, he understood the nature of suffering. Number two, what causes suffering? And number three, the path that leads to the end of suffering. The nature of suffering, what causes suffering, and the path that leads to the end of it.

Now, if you think about it, this title, Enlightened One, it makes sense, doesn't it? How so? Well, you tell me. How many people do you know that are walking around with the cheat code to life? How many people do you know who claim to have the path that leads to the end of suffering, all suffering? In a world with the inescapable reality that to live is to suffer, a person who actually knows the way to put an end to all suffering would indeed be an enlightened person, wouldn't you say?

So the title is fitting. That is, if it's the truth.

These revelations the Buddha had of the nature of suffering, what causes it, and the path that leads to the end of suffering, these insights are known as the Four Noble Truths, which form the core of Buddhist teaching. The Four Noble Truths, simply stated, are this: the truth about suffering, the truth of what causes it, the truth that suffering can be ended by eliminating the cause of it, and the truth that ending the suffering is accomplished through the Eightfold Path. So suffering exists. It has a cause. If you get rid of the cause, you get rid of the suffering. And the way that you get rid of the cause is through the Eightfold Path.

So what is the Eightfold? What is the Eightfold Path? How does this Eightfold Path liberate us from suffering?

Number one, right intentions. Cultivating wholesome intentions. I think we can all get on board with that. Right speech. Speaking truthfully and retaining from harmful speech. Also a very noble quality to aspire to. Number three is right actions. Avoiding actions that harm others.

Number four, right livelihood. Engaging in work that does not contribute to suffering. Keep in mind, the overall pursuit is the liberation from suffering. Now, notice that these first four, they harmonize with Christian practices. These four at face value at least seem to line up with Christian values. The next five through seven, they take a little bit of a slight turn. Right effort. Cultivating positive mental states.

Number six, right concentration. Developing awareness of one's own body, feelings, and mind. And number seven, right mindfulness. Developing mental focus through meditation. So five, six, and seven begin to turn it inwards. It focuses on the mental state and becoming aware of your body and the way you feel and becoming attuned with yourself and with your mind and entering into meditation with the end goal of number eight, right view, understanding life as it truly is, including comprehension of the Four Noble Truths.

So notice the flow here. The Four Noble Truths point to or are accomplished by the Eightfold Path. And then the last of the Eightfold Path, right view, includes the understanding that the Four Noble Truths actually describe reality. So the Four Noble Truths point to the Eightfold Path, and then the Eightfold Path points back to the Four Noble Truths. A question.

How in the world do these things free us from suffering? I feel like we're getting closer, but I'm still not able to connect the dots. It's not quite clear yet. But we'll connect these dots as we look closer into meaning. And we will start with ultimate meaning.

There is none. There is no mind behind creation to give ultimate meaning. There is no God, and there was no original beginning. Nature has always existed. Buddhists must find their own useful purpose for their lives. Buddhism is like naturalism. You simply dance to the tune of your DNA.

Now, for the visitors, I realized that I've made some concrete claims there that are without much explanation. And again, this is a concept that we have been building on throughout this series. The concept that a preceding mind must exist for an ultimate meaning to exist. If you really want to understand that in a more full way, you can go back and watch those earlier lessons.

Next, we have useful meaning. It's to achieve liberation from suffering. Hell in Buddhism is just like hell in Hinduism. This existence is hell. To live is to suffer. To live is to suffer. And when you die, the suffering will not end because you will be reborn. And the circumstances of your rebirth will be based on your karma, just like in Hinduism. This means that you will live again and you will suffer again. This life is hell.

But in Buddhism, there is an escape. What is the escape? To know this, we must go back to the Four Noble Truths and dig deeper into Noble Truth number two.

Noble Truth number two, the truth of the origin of suffering. What the Buddha concluded through his enlightenment is there are two roots of all suffering, two root causes. Route number one is the idea that there is a permanent you. The idea that there is a permanent you.

It's kind of one of those big human things, right? Think about it. You definitely know that you had a beginning. You know that you didn't exist before that you existed. But there's something inside of us that just screams, "I'm permanent, right?

Aren't I permanent?" There's something in us that screams that. The idea that you, your own self, in some way, shape, fashion, or form, that you are permanent, this is the first root or cause of all suffering according to Buddhism. And the second root of all suffering is desires and cravings.

The root of all suffering is desire. And this leads us to the third noble truth, that suffering can be ended by eliminating the cause of it.

Let's look closer.

Sorry. I had a duplicate slide.

If you can get rid of this idea that you're permanent, and if you can get rid of all of these desires, then you can finally put an end to suffering. But there's a caveat. In Buddhism, you do not have to put an end to just the bad or destructive desires. You have to put an end to all desires. The desire to not suffer, the desire for peace, the desire for love, the desire to be loved, the desire to relax, the desire to marry, the desire to spend time with your children, the desire to feel a cool breeze across your face on a warm winter day. All desires, both pleasant or not.

Most of us can understand why we would want to get rid of bad or destructive desires. But why the pleasant ones? Because all desires in the end lead to suffering. Because if you had no desire to be loved, then you would not suffer when you're not loved. If you did not have the desire to have peace, you would not suffer when you're experiencing times of war. If you did not have the desire to breathe, then to suffocate would not be suffering.

The highest goal of Buddhism is to know that the permanent self is not a reality and to reach a state of complete and total desirelessness. When achieved, according to Buddhism, upon your next death, you will not be reborn. Instead, you will enter into a state called nirvana.

In Hinduism, you enter into moksha, but in Buddhism, you enter into nirvana. Now, the Western mind has all sorts of fancy, full, and fun desirable ideas attached to the idea of nirvana. But true nirvana and baptism is reached by obtaining a total state of desirelessness. It's difficult to even comprehend what that means, really. In many ways, nirvana is to cease to exist. The word itself means to be blown out or quenched.

Another idea of this is to be absorbed or to cease to be the self. There is no permanent you. Nirvana is living in such a way that when you die, you become quenched. You're snuffed out. You cease. When nirvana is achieved, one will enter into an eternal state of desirelessness and to experience the fullness of the reality that there is no permanent you.

This nirvana can be achieved, according to Buddhist doctrine, through the practicing, the meditation, and ethical behaviors in the Eightfold Path. Through meditation and the ethical behaviors, individuals can develop insight into the reality of nature, extinguishing all desires, and eventually attaining the state of nirvana.

So the useful meaning is to enter into nirvana. Next, we look at morality. It is subjective. It is by necessity subjective, for there is no God in Buddhism. Morality is made by and subject to the mind of men.

In the Western mind, there is this concept of sin, but this concept doesn't exist in Buddhism. In Buddhism, there is no God to offend. And this can be confusing because there are so many ethical principles laid out in the Eightfold Path.

Be compassionate, be generous, be mindful, don't lie, avoid harming others, be kindly, don't gossip, don't kill, don't steal, all these good things. These are practiced in Buddhism, not because there is a mind behind creation that has established a moral law about these things. These are practiced because of karma. Every cause has an effect. Practicing these things will move you towards escaping this existence of suffering, and not practicing them will excite within you desires that will keep you trapped in this hell of existence. Not doing them will ensure that you are reborn after you die. God is not involved. Cause and effect, karma.

Finally, destiny. You will either suffer or cease. Our destiny in Buddhism is a mixture between the beliefs of the atheist and the beliefs of the Hindu. They're a mixture. Just like Hinduism, the Buddhists believe that the cycle of reincarnation can actually be ended. There is an escape to this hell. In Hinduism, it's called moksha, to become eternally spirit. In Buddhism, it's called nirvana.

So that is how, regarding destiny, Buddhism is very similar to Hinduism. Buddhism is similar to atheism in this. The atheist believes that when you die, you automatically cease to exist. It's instant.

In Buddhism, that is your end goal. That's what you're after. But in Buddhism, it doesn't come automatically. To the atheist, it's automatic. In Buddhism, you must practice the Eightfold Path, and through the Eightfold Path, you can extinguish all of your desires. And if you are successful, then you will enter into nirvana and experience the truth that you are not permanent.

My opinion.

Within the human race, so long as one man is not treading on another, that is to say, so long as one man is not causing suffering on another man, also, as long as each man is given the freedom to be the author of his own morality, then harmony exists.

I'm not killing you. You're not killing me. I'm not making you suffer. You're not making me suffer. I'm the God of my morality. You're the God of your morality. We're all good. I got no beef. You can call yourself what you want to call yourself. Worship what you want to worship. Worship how you want to worship. I respect and honor your religion. You do you, boo.

It is when objective morality shows up into the picture that things get ugly. Only when objective morality shows up into the picture, harmony goes out the window and off comes the gloves. That's my opinion. I can't state that as a concrete fact. I'm very confident that I'm correct in that, though.

So wrapping this up, I just want to drive a point home. Think about these similarities between what we have discussed in the series of naturalism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Let's look at two of them. One, morality is subjective. All three of them. Each man gets to determine for himself what is good and evil.

And this is actually closely tied to the way that each one is categorized. Try to follow me here. In naturalism and Buddhism, only nature exists. Only the universe exists. There is no God. In Hinduism, only God exists. And these seem to be opposite. But don't they seem to be opposite? Only the universe exists or only God exists. They seem to be the opposite, but they actually produce the same effect on morality.

In Hinduism, a God exists, but all things are God. There is no other. There is no distinguishing between moral good and moral evil. To love your neighbor is a manifestation of God. To hate your neighbor is a manifestation of God. To be gay is a manifestation of God. To be straight is a manifestation of God. To rape someone is a manifestation of God. To not rape someone is a manifestation of God. To love is God. To hate is God. All are God. There is no other. So whether you want to call something good or evil, it doesn't change the fact that in the end, it's all God.

So do you see how only God exists produces the same effect on morality as only the universe exists?

All things being God produces the same effect on morality as there is no God.

And I understand that many of these things seem strange and bizarre to us. And I've been thinking about how easy it is to think that these things are not in our culture. Or at least in my mind, it seems so distant, like we don't see these things. But that's not the truth.

We see it, but oftentimes it simply doesn't refer to itself as Buddhism, doesn't refer to itself as Hinduism. These things have been repurposed and repackaged into all sorts of new age systems. So let's just spend the last few minutes here looking at a few examples of how these religions present themselves in this day and time in this culture where we're at.

Pay close attention to how they all direct themselves inward and how it has even become intertwined into some forms of Christianity. These clips present a mixture of the naturalist, Buddhist, and Hindu thought.

I believe in a creator of the universe of the multiverse even. My studies in quantum physics have showed me that there is proof and evidence that we are living inside of a creation, that there is a creator of all, and that this creation is imbued with divine energy. And that divine spark that created everything in the entire multiverse is in every single atom in my body.

And because of that, I am divine and the divine is divine. So that means I am God and God is me. We are all God walking in the flesh. We are all slightly different expressions of the same one consciousness. God is supposed to be the creator and the manager of this hundred billion galaxies in that this tiny little planet. And you, suppose he doesn't know that you exist. What would... possible or no?

I'm sorry, I'm saying such sacrilegious things. But is it possible or no? What if he doesn't know that you exist? What if he doesn't have a plan for you?

Suppose he doesn't have a plan for you, an individual plan for you. Don't look for such things. The thing is, the creation is made in such a way that creation and creator cannot be separated. Here, you are a piece of creation. At the same time, the source of creation is throbbing within you.

If you pay little attention to this process of life, you would not need any purpose. It'll keep you engaged for a million years if you want. The most powerful way to manifest is in experiencing the fullness of the present moment, undifferentiated fullness, what Jesus called life in its fullness. Life in its fullness is an inner state of being. So if you bring together, if you have a vision in your mind of what it is you want to achieve or create or manifest, and you bring this vision into this sense of still fullness, Jesus expressed it too, he said, when you pray for something, believe that you already have it. Feel that you already have it.

Whatever it is that you want to have, you need to feel already the feeling. By feeling that, which is beyond the world of phenomena, it is to experience, to know, to realize the beingness within you, the I am, which is consciousness itself.

This wonderful picture. It turned the darkness into night, and you could see the civilization from space. It was one of my great heroes, Carl Sagan, said, these are the things. And actually, not only these, but I was looking around, these are the things. Saturn V rockets and Sputnik and DNA and literature and science. These are the things that hydrogen atoms do when given 13.7 billion years. Absolutely remarkable. If you understood that you could actually elevate your state without anyone or anything every single day and hold whatever that intention of your future is and feel the emotion of your future before it happens. That is, you know, you can't wait for your wealth to feel success.

You can't wait for your new relationship to feel love. You can't wait for the mystical experience to feel awe or your healing to feel whole or grateful. If you teach people, then they could elevate their state. And we teach that model through meditation. And they can combine that clear intention with an elevated emotion and teach them how to make that heart of theirs more coherent. I'm going to treat you like I would treat myself because you are me. There's only one real consciousness that exists. And we are just the consciousness separated into trillions and trillions of entities so that it can experience itself subjectively from different perspectives. It wants to see what it's like to be human.

It wants to see what it's like to be a blade of grass or even a rock. We're on a data collection mission, sending information back to the source. When I tell people that they are God, some people will get offended by that, but they don't realize what I'm saying is you have the power of the creator, as above, so below. The power of creation is already inside of you, and we do it every single day. We are also co-creators in our reality as well.

About any of those people would tell you that they're Buddhists or Hindus. But that is the same teachings. It's just repackaged and just called something different. So there really is nothing new under the sun.

We just have, I guess, originals to look at, the original Hindu concepts. But there's only a few concepts really that we can choose from to decide what describes reality. That's all I have to say about Buddhism. And fortunately for all of us, I don't have any more foreign religions to preach there.