During my college years, my wife and I worked with Vietnamese refugees in Southern California. Almost all of them came from Buddhist backgrounds. So I learned a lot about respectfully engaging Buddhists as a youth pastor at a little church plant in Orange County. Much of our time was spent building relationships with these teenagers and their parents.
It seems many educated Buddhists talk about Buddhism as a lifestyle or a philosophy instead of a religion. But most Buddhists I’ve met syncretize or blend their folk traditions with other religious themes. This shows that Buddhism is highly adaptable. It can include a wide spectrum of belief on how to approach to life. Still, there is a core that is elastic enough to accommodate a variety of worldviews. This is part of what allows a large spectrum of people to stay faithful to Buddhism even though they all live in different cultural environments.
As part of my involvement with the Hendricks Center’s initiative to help Christians respectfully engage world religions, I invited Harold Netland to help us think through respectfully engaging with Buddhists. In this post, I share a few things he mentioned answering three key questions: What attracts some people to Buddhism? How does Christianity intersect with Buddhist concerns? How can we begin to build bridges in spiritual conversations?
What attracts People to Buddhism?
Logical explanations
Some people initially resonate with the Buddhist take on evil and suffering. Think about karma. And I don’t mean the American idea of “what goes around comes around.” Karma in Buddhism is an impersonal, irresistible law by which the moral or immoral things you do in this life determine your next life. This is linked to reincarnation. And it fascinates some converts. Harold said: “Karma and rebirth is a logical explanation for the suffering and the inequity we see in the world. It’s a very cold explanation.”
Longing for Transcendence
Many Buddhists seek a connection to something “other.” Something beyond our phones, other possessions, and commercialized society. But Buddhism can be a kind of atheism. And it’s a system where things like hope and desire are not celebrated. So, there’s a tension there. Think about how many people at Buddhist temples are looking for a connection to transcendence. Harold explained:
You have tension between the philosophy and how the masses of Buddhists live and respond. On the scholarly level, there is no god. But we know God created us with an awareness of transcendence and our accountability to a creator. You see this manifest in the folk Buddhist response.
Although they are told, “There is no God,” many Buddhists will pray to one of many Buddhas. Pure Land Buddhism scholars are emphatic: “Amitābha Buddha is not a god.” But on the popular level in the temples, people treat Amitābha Buddha as a kind of deity. They pray and ask for Amitābha’s help.
How Does Christianity Speak into Buddhist Concerns?
God and Beauty
If you’ve visited a Buddhist temple, you get the value they place on beauty and aesthetics. Many converts like this a lot. Talking about these things can open the door to conversations about God and the Bible. A great way to begin is by asking questions. Here’s what Harold suggested:
We should ask, “What do you mean by God?” “Who is God?” Until they appreciate the idea of a creator God, none of the Bible will make sense. There are natural points of contact and resonance. Buddhism in Asia has become very closely-aligned with the arts. So it’s a very aesthetic religion. Temples have beautiful gardens. Chinese and Japanese Calligraphy have Buddhist origins. A tea ceremony, poetry. Much of the literature picks up on allusions to the transitory nature of life… The Japanese have an appreciation for Ecclesiastes that many Americans don’t. The language is something they resonate with. In Ecclesiastes, at pivotal points, you have God: “Remember your creator”…There are points of contact and resonance there.
Suffering and Charity
How else does Christianity speak to Buddhist sensitivities? Some Buddhists who are especially concerned about social justice may feel a tension in the system of karma and reincarnation. After all, if the poor are suffering because it’s exactly what they deserve (based on their own immoral actions in a past life) it would seem like there are no true victims. Do the poor really deserve to suffer in subhuman conditions? Or do human rights apply to all people, regardless of their station in life? If you give to charity, will you get bad karma because the poor are suffering as a result of their own bad karma? How can you know you’re getting good karma by giving to charity in a system like this? Harold explained:
Any action bears some karmic effect, positive or negative. And part of what you want to do in situating yourself for a better birth next time around is to reduce the negative karma and increase what is positive. So this leads to kind of a merit-making within Southeast Asian Buddhism. You can build up merit giving food to monks who come around and beg, for example. This is one way of building up positive karma or merit…
I know a Japanese professor…as a deeply committed Buddhist, he was also committed to human rights and the struggle for justice. He was very honest. He said, “It’s very hard to have a platform for human dignity and human rights strictly on Buddhist principles…we need to learn from you Christians on this.” But there is a paradox here. Many Western converts to Buddhism are deeply committed to human rights, social justice. But many of them also say, “It is really hard to justify this strictly on Buddhist principles.”
The Bible recognizes suffering and teaches that we live in a fallen world. Talking about suffering and charity may spark respectful, spiritual conversations with a Buddhist.
Building Bridges in Spiritual Conversations
Buddhists have a sense of care and compassion for people that’s hard to explain in a cold system of karma and reincarnation. You could start there and talk about the Christian view that people are made in God’s image. This is what gives us ultimate value as human beings. Very different from the Buddhist view that you are basically an illusion. You’re not real. You have no soul or spirit. There is no “you.” Harold says:
What attracts some people to Buddhism? How does Christianity intersect with Buddhist concerns? How can we begin to build bridges in spiritual conversations? Read this #apologetics post: Respectfully Engaging with Buddhists Click To TweetYou have actions but no self that performs the actions. You have suffering but no soul that suffers. Compassion and suffering are two areas where we can identify and resonate. There is much in the words attributed to Gautama about suffering that I find very moving. He was an astute observer of human nature and the human condition. The big difference is, “What is the cause of suffering and how do we overcome suffering?” The Bible has a very different diagnosis of suffering than does Buddhism. If you look at Jesus and how He approaches suffering, it’s very different from the path of Gautama…
Historians and scholars have rightly noted that there is a kind of passivity that seems to come along with Buddhism. Now, modern Buddhism is working hard to challenge that and combat that in social justice and human rights. But there is a kind of passivity and acceptance of…karma. In other contexts, you would call it fate. There’s almost an acquiescence: “Well, what can you do? This is the way it is?”
Conclusion
Even after almost a decade of ministering to Vietnamese refugees, I learned a lot from Harold Netland’s answers to these questions: What attracts some people to Buddhism? How does Christianity intersect with Buddhist concerns? How can we begin to build bridges in spiritual conversations? Some converts resonate with Buddhist explanations of evil and suffering. Others yearn for a connection to transcendence. Social justice issues and the arts can lead into spiritual conversations about God, Jesus, and the Bible.
Interfaith dialogue and global cultural engagement don’t just happen overseas anymore. We must take the time to listen as we engage our neighbors as individuals, getting to know their views on God and spirituality before assuming knowledge of their religious perspective. May God grant us courage and compassion as we respectfully engage Buddhists.
