Monday, April 09, 2007
Ravi Zacharias
I listened to a CD by Ravi Zacharias entitled "Jesus Among Other Gods". Really worth listening to.
Also read his book "The Lotus and the Cross". The Lotus and the Cross depicts a conversation between Jesus and Buddha set against the backdrop of a woman struggling with a deadly disease. What would Jesus and Buddha say to each other? How would each of them respond to the misery of a sick woman? Come along on an imaginary boat ride as these two eminent figures discuss life, suffering, and redemption. It is an entertaining read.
From my previous understanding:
Gautama (Buddha) was an Indian prince who left the comfort of his palace to live a life devoid of the richness and goodness. He wanted to seek questions to life -i.e why humans were suffering?. He was a Hindu but did not agree with the Indian caste system and was frustrated Hinduism provided no answer to human suffering.
He then meditated for years in a cave and became enlightened (Buddha means enlightened one). In his enlightenment he taught his disciples that if one can deny the 'self' this would end all human suffering. All suffering including hunger, disease were because of consciousness of the 'self'. He taught that humans were born into this world with a debt from previous life. In this current life, we can either pay off or add to the debt according to the way we conduct ourselves this lifetime. But to whom do we pay this debt to? Who is the creditor? The aim is to do more good than bad to reach Nirvana whereby you simply cease to exist at all, and then all suffering is ended as you just don't exist anymore.
I am not here to dethrone Buddha, but he himself never asked to be deified. Buddha taught his disciples that there is no God. Last weekend my family, uncles and aunt were at Ching Meng to pay respects to our grandparents, and there scores of people burning fire crackers to appease bad spirits etc. When you teach people there is no God, the problem is that superstition arises as man was made in his heart to hunger and seek communion with his Creator. Man was made with an awareness of the spiritual world. If you tell him there is no God, he will do all things out of superstition to not offend the spirits etc in fear that something bad might befall him.
If you read the Confucius Analects, the disciples of Confucius paid tribute to their master's holiness and wisdom. Confucius in his teachings had alluded to "Heaven" replied that he is not the holy one. In his Analects, he said if the Holy One was to come He will be found in the west. His disciples went to the west (India) and found Buddha, That is how Buddhism came into China. (If they went further west it will be Jerusalem - they didn't go far enough).
In fact Mencius a scholar 70 years after Confucius and who lived at the time of Prophet Daniel (500BC) actually predicted accurately the timing the Saviour of the world was to come - 500 years from his time. All these Chinese classical writings I bought in Hong Kong - English translations, including the Dao De Jing by Lao Zi.
In the end, as a scholar, I am examining facts. Nonetheless, I rather say why I am a Christian, rather than why you should not be a Buddhist. As the adage goes, if you throw mud at others, you not only lose ground but get your hands dirty.
