Download Buddhism doesn`t answer questions of origin. Where do we come

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Siddartha Gautama
Prince, lived a protected life
Himalayan foothills, what is today Nepal (“Vesak” day – celebrates Buddha’s birth)
Around 560 BC (Israel during the Babylonian exile)
Buddha means “awakened one” or “enlightened one”
Went on an outing one day, saw old man, sick man, corpse and an ascetic (monk)
Left his life of comfort and started meditating
Bodhi tree
Tempted by Mara (demon) with visions of beautiful women
Achieved enlightenment
Teachings:
Four Noble Truths
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Suffering is part of existence
In life we experience suffering of all kinds: dissatisfaction, pain, anxiety, frustration, stress,
anger, and fear. Even things that are good and pleasurable leave us dissatisfied or suffering
when they inevitably end. In Buddhist texts, the word Dukkha is used to encompass all these
forms of misery. As a result, the word is often translated as “suffering” but “dissatisfaction”
might be most literally accurate.
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Origin of suffering is craving
The cause of suffering is craving, or “attachment”. We suffer when we feel that our
happiness comes from satisfying our desires rather than flowing from our own state of
mind. We feel attachment to all kinds of pleasures, successes, and even opinions about
ourselves and the way we want to the world to be. But if we have a constant need to have
our desires fulfilled and our expectations met, then we feel endless craving and thus we
always experience varying levels of dissatisfaction.
2 Peter 1:4 “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises so that
through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the
world cause by evil desires.”
2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through
our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
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Suffering can be ended
Suffering can be overcome by ending attachment and craving.
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By following the Noble Eightfold Path
The path which can be followed to end suffering is the Eightfold Path. This is a set of eight
principles that will lead to the cessation of craving, and therefore the cessation of suffering.
Noble Eightfold Path
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Right view, understanding the world as it truly is, including the existence and cause of
suffering
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Right intentions, be aware of your true intentions in all that you do, and all your interactions
with others
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Right speech, saying all that is, and only what is, required
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Right action, be aware of how your actions affect people and things around you, so that you
act in ways that do not lead to more suffering for anyone.
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Right livelihood, choose a job or livelihood that does not bring harm to others
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Right effort, put sincere and persisting effort into developing good thoughts and habits that
reduce suffering, and abandoning bad thoughts and habits that increase suffering.
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Right mindfulness, always be attentive and aware of what is happening around you and to
you; what is affecting your body and your thoughts
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Right meditation, when you meditate, begin by concentrating entirely on a particular object,
idea, or one’s own breathing, until you become fully absorbed in the meditative state
The Five Precepts (the ethical code of Buddhism)
1. Refrain from destroying life.
Do not harm living beings of any kind.
2. Refrain from taking what is not given.
Self explanatory. Do not steal.
3. Refrain from overindulgence of sensual pleasures.
This includes refraining from gluttony, but it primarily refers to sexual behaviors which harm
anyone, disrespect relationships, or result in you placing importance of your senses over your
mind.
4. Refrain from untrue speech.
Have respect for truth. Do not lie or mislead.
5. Refrain from what causes intoxication.
Do not become intoxicated, as this causes you to lose awareness and self-control, which
harms one’s own health and can result in unintended harm to others.
The Three Poisons
There are considered to be three main causes of suffering, called the Three Poisons:
Delusion (Ignorance, Misperception)
Misunderstanding the real nature of oneself, others, and reality. It especially refers to the
misperception that phenomena exist in a more absolute or permanent way than they really are.
This misperception of reality gives rise to the other two poisons.
Attachment (Greed, Craving)
Clinging to desires as a wrong means to happiness. The feeling of needing to satisfy one’s
desires, wherein happiness or suffering is determined by their fulfillment or non-fulfillment. This
gives rise to the next poison.
Aversion (Anger, Hate)
Anger and hatred towards what we dislike and what blocks us from fulfilling our desires.
Karma, literally means “action” or “doing” – whatever we do has a result
In Buddhism, Karma is moral causation. It is the primary factor that determines the
conditions of your life and lives to come.
Karma is comprised of intentional actions, both physical and mental. However, involuntary
and unintended actions are not Karma and have no impact on future rewards and
punishments. In Buddhist texts, Karmic actions are likened to seeds which later sprout and
yield the appropriate fruit.
Everything about you is affected by prior Karma, both from this life and prior ones: your
physical traits, health (including disease), talents, intelligence, and the class you are born
into.
Karma is considered the primary cause for what determines these things, but it isn’t the only
factor. Buddhism does not view the world as fatalistic or predestined. Rather, they believe
we can work to change our thoughts and behavior so we can receive different karmic results.
The accumulation of good Karma helps negate the accumulation of bad Karma, and this will
improve conditions for you in the future.
Because Karma is the main cause of your future conditions, it is the force that drives the
cycle of rebirth. And chief among the causes of bad Karma is craving. Thus upon one’s death,
Karma produced by craving results in the formation of a new being (human baby, or another
type of living being depending on your accumulated Karma) whose thoughts continue the
chain of newly appearing consciousness.
Reincarnation/Rebirth
“Rebirth” can be a misleading term since it normally implies, as it does in Hinduism, that
some fixed, specific entity of consciousness or essence of identity like a soul is re-established
inside a physical body, or connected to one.
In Buddhist belief, a person is an aggregation of body and thoughts and feelings, and at
death, these things break up and dissolve. However, if the state of a person’s mental acts
was still dependent on the senses and still suffers from craving, that consciousness gives rise
to a new “aggregation” of thoughts, feelings, and body. In other words, it causes a new
person to be born. And that new person’s first thought continues the causal chain of mental
states which produced it.
But remember that each mental act that arises is new in each moment. It only bears the
impression of the previous one, and what comprises an individual includes the thoughts and
feelings that arise from the sense organs and mind. To Buddhists, this is why the next person
is different, but as they believe, also has the ability to remember past lives through
meditation.
Thus in Buddhism, rebirth is a word for the event where the final mental act in one being
gives rise to a new being and makes an impression on its first thought, thus continuing the
impressions from that sequence of mental acts.
Nirvana, literally means “blowing out” or “extinguishing” – ends the cycle of rebirth
Becoming a Buddha means achieving the rare state of being “awakened”. It is the state of
being completely liberated from the suffering caused by the Three Poisons, because one’s
state of mind has become utterly independent from the feelings that arise from the senses
and unhealthy thoughts. Reaching this state requires great effort for many lifetimes, and a
deep love and compassion for all life.
Someone who becomes a Buddha is also released from the otherwise endless cycle of
rebirth. Since Buddhism does not believe in a soul, there is nothing which can be said to
“not exist”. Rather, the way to explain release from the cycle of rebirth is that the mental
acts which comprised that being from moment to moment cease to give rise to a new
aggregation (person) of thoughts and consciousness after the final thought at death. The
process simply ends. No new awareness, thoughts, or feelings arise.
Similarities and differences
How is the Noble Eightfold Path different from the Christian’s view of salvation?
Rom. 2:13 “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those
who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”
Rom 3:20 “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law;
rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”
Rom. 3:21-22 “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to
which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ
to all who believe.”
Bottom line – We cannot save ourselves.
Buddhism doesn’t answer questions of origin. Where do we come from?
How does Buddhism address sin?
The teachings of historical Gautama became overlaid with increasing levels of divine beings, rituals, and
speculations.
2 Pet. 1:16 “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
Closing
How can you share your faith to a Buddhist? What is the starting point? What are some ideas?
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There is absolute truth
Sincerity isn’t enough – illustration of a blind man standing near a cliff
Jesus
Pray for those you come in contact with who do not yet know Jesus.