Victor Ponce <vp0001@jove.acs.unt.edu> wrote: >Hello, >I am a christian intersted in the combinations of Buddhism and >Christianity. Does anyone feel that the two can be combined to make sense >out of the whole spirituality concept. I have been a christian for a long >time, and recently, within the last year have become interested in Buddhism >as well. I have read a couple of books concerning the two beliefs being >combined, and I found them very enlightening! I would appreciate any >response, to further my search for total spiritual enlightenment. >VIC Dear Vic, No. Buddhism and Christianity are completely incompatible. Buddhist's don't believe in God... They are athiests whereas Christians most certainly believe in God. If you want an Eastern religion that accepts God and is not at odds with Christianity try Krishna consciousness. Buddhism is certainly spiritual. We worship Lord Buddha as an incarnation of God, but he preached atheism.. God appears at various times or He sends His son [like Jesus] to reestablish the religious principles and He preaches according to His audience. When Buddha appeared in India most of the people were atheists. If he had started preaching about God they wouldn't have listened to him. So he tricked them. At that time the people in India were misusing their scriptures, they were running slaughterhouses and eating meat and using their scriptures to support this. So Lord Buddha said "I reject any scripture which condones killing animals..." and he went on to present His philosophy centered around non-violence. Lord Buddha's real business was to get the people to stop killing animals as this is very sinful and makes it difficult for people to advance spiritually. In the process the people also accepted Him as their leader and, although He didn't mention God, He was an incarnation of God, so indirectly he got these atheists to follow God... "Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Anjana, in the province of Gaya, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist." (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.24) "Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, appeared in the province of Gaya (Bihar) as the son of Anjana, and he preached his own conception of nonviolence and depreciated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically turned into a slaughterhouse, and animal- killing was indulged in unrestrictedly. "Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse psychological effects incurred by animal-killing. Less intelligent men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principles, and for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realization. "He deluded the atheists because such atheists who followed his principles did not believe in God, but they kept their absolute faith in Lord Buddha, who himself was th incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the faithless faithful to him." Thank you very much. Hare Krishna! Thank you. Hare Krishna! Madhudvisa dasa (madhudvisa@krishna.org) /sudarsana All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!
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