Christian Perspective on the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism

You must first open up your mind.

I am sure that many Christian/Westerners, have no idea about or even heard about the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. Since my own awakening experience, I have made it my personal crusade to inform and educate people of Eastern philosophies, which parallel the teachings of Jesus Christ.

• Many Westerners make the mistake like I did, in thinking that Buddhism is a religion. When in all actuality, it is a lifestyle. Better yet, it is a very detailed orientated, ancient, philosophy to living life correctly. What Christians, Jews and Muslims fail to realize is that there are many similarities, between our monotheistic, religious beliefs and Buddhism. For instance, the Four Noble Truths (as listed below) is one such comparison.

1. Life is laborious, painful and challenging.
2. Life is challenging, painful and laborious because we feel the need to nurture the craving of satisfaction and gratification. This innate desire leads us to an end with dissatisfying results.
3. Probability exists within us to obtain freedom from life's hardships.
4. The three training practices above are made into the Eight-Fold Path to Enlightenment: Compassion, Awareness, Mediation and Prayer.

As a whole, most world religions have a tendency to fail people. In some Eastern and Western religions, church dogma fails to make the worshiper, beholden to their own destiny, whereas Buddhism does make a person completely accountable. As within the realms of Christianity, a person only has to ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and miraculously all their daily sins are completely washed away. In the Christian faith people are almost encouraged these days, to keep sinning. The more sinners the faith has, the bigger the confers grow.

• In Buddhism, the concept of needing to pray for forgiveness for committing a sinful act, is a life altering experience. For one to have even contemplated the act of committing a sin- is a horrific enough act- that keeps them from committing the sinful act in the first place. Christians do not think this way. Christians, do not think twice about being full of envy and pride. Which happen to be two of the seven deadly sins, of our religious philosophy, while "Pride" is considered the worse of the seven. However, here in America- pride is a celebrated and sought after enduring quality. Go figure. Americans covet their neighbors more than any other society. We are glutinous, sloths. Nevertheless, the same can not be said of Buddhists. The whole atlas of the Tibetan peoples, are as humble and peaceful, as a society can be. They are a shining example of what it is to be "Christ-like." One only has to compare our religious leaders to see the difference in our philosophies and beliefs. Moreover, is the sad reality that when we compare the Pope to the Dali Lama, there is nothing to compare. So they're both men of the cloth, but the Christian Pope, has never been a humble servant to his people. You won't see the Pope in a crack clinic, holding a crack baby while it suffers from withdrawals, but you could see the Dali Lama there. So what gives?

For all those who like to quote scripture, do you realize that Christ told Mary Magdalene that the only way unto him, was through enlightenment, meditation and prayer. Does that sound amazingly familiar, to a certain type of lifestyle I have mentioned here today? Yes- you know it does. Well those concepts are the same as the spiritual philosophies of Buddhism. When I realized this, I started reading more of Buddhism's religious findings and theories. I was amazed at the similarities of Christ's teachings and theirs. It is my personal opinion, that the ancient philosophy of Buddhism, was sent here by God, as a religious awakening to prepare us for Christ's birth. I feel that if we would combine the philosophies of Buddhism, with the teachings of Jesus Christ, many of our unanswered questions would find their meaning. Thereby, leading all of us wayward souls to the righteous path of spiritual understanding.

• I truly appreciate that Gautama Buddha, never said that life is suffrage. Instead, he had the belief that life, has suffrage within it. Christ too, hung to this valve and belief. His holy doctrine and many parables deal with this thought process and reality. One of Christ most notable experiences of this concept, was his first hand account to his disciples, after spending 40 days and nights in the desert with Satan. Christ came out of the darkness humbled. There was no pride for surviving the ordeal. There was no envy for not having the luxuries of comfort. There was only peace, compassion, joy and love. That tells me, that the lifestyle of Buddhism is the path to true enlightenment in Jesus Christ. I have become a firm believer, that we should somehow incorporate these ancient Buddhist teachings, into our own religious lifestyles. Imagine the world Christ wanted for us, living in a harmony, with all walks of life. A life completely free of unnecessary, aggressive, hounding that plaques our society today. Christ speaks often about being true to our holy advocate- our soul. He gave us teachings that involved our inner emotions, and told us be at peace with ourselves. Those who lived with him were lucky. They could see, on a first hand basis, how to do that. Whereas, Christians today can only read what that means. Which causes people to fight, because seriously people, who wants their "right to sin" to be taken away from them? Therefore, people fight over interpretations. If someone really wants to see the face of Jesus Christ, and to be Christ like, they don't have very far to look. Christ is in every Buddhist Monk, mother, father, and child. Buddhism is the soul of our earthy society. There prayers, not our Christian selfish prayers, keeps us all from rolling downhill. I think if it weren't for the Buddhist, God would have lost faith in mankind long ago. Buddhism is the virtual reality of "brotherly love."

Here is some food for thought:

Is this a Buddhist saying or a Christian saying???

"Peace be with you all. Take my peace into yourselves; be watchful so nobody leads you astray claiming, 'Look there, look here.'"

Or this saying, which could be Taoism, Buddhism, or Christian???

"Matter; caused powerful passions to enter into you. Forces which come from its opposites in nature."

Sounds like Yin and Yang to me, and a little like Karma. But if you know that these are the words of Jesus Christ- you are correct. Christ said these things. Why is so much of what Christ said, ignored by Christians? These are but a few my favorite scriptures of Christ, that are rarely notice. Yet they are more important than John 3:16 will ever be. Why? Because they are little well-known verses, giving us a glimpse into the psyche of Christ. That's why.

Which makes me wonder, did Christ make a proclamation to future Christians, that Karma was real? Was he telling us to be mindful and aware of Yin and Yang? The second of the four truths speaks about this subject matter as well. Thereby, why is it so difficult for Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, etc..., to recognize; that within their faith lies doctrine such as this, so maybe God is trying to tell us all something? That is why I feel there is a need to combine East with West philosophical doctrine and spiritual text, and start going over the comparisons. How else are we supposed to achieve spiritual virtue and integrity? The one basic implications of life, is to be at peace. How can we possibly begin to understand the meaning of peace, when we cannot even agree on sin?