When Strangers Come Knocking---Part 3

This is the next installment of my series to be published the first Monday of each month.

There are members of false sects, like Jehovah's Witnesses, that come knocking door-to-door hoping to convert you. Instead of ignoring them, it is we who should try and convert them. In 1 Peter 3:16, our first Pope writes, "But in thy hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks thee to give the reason for the hope that thou hast. But do this with gentleness and respect,..." Before the Great Apostasy, the Church would send missionaries to the ends of the Earth to make as many converts as possible. 

Those in false religions don't always come (literally) knocking at your door. It may be a Hindu at work who wants you to try yoga. It could be a "Christian Scientist" who lives next door and invites you to come to their reading room. Each month, I will present a false sect. Unlike the Vatican II sect, I do not see them as a "means of salvation" or possessing "elements of truth" that lead to salvation. That is heresy. They lead to damnation, and the adherents of the various sects must be converted so they may be saved.

In each month's post, I will present one false sect and give an overview of:  

• The sect's history
• Their theology
• Tips on how to share the True Faith with them

Buddhism

My first exposure to Buddhism was at the age of seven in 1972. My family was poor, so I wasn't on a trip to China, and my parents would never allow me to go to a Buddhist temple here in New York City; they went along with the Vatican II sect at the time, but disapproved of anything non-Catholic. (They would later join me as Traditionalists shortly after my conversion when they realized the Modernist Vatican wasn't Catholic either).  The insidious doctrine of pantheism (the belief that God is "in" all things and that, in some sense, all of reality is ultimately One and Divine) came into my living room under the guise of my favorite TV show, Kung Fu.

In the show, David Carradine (d. 2009) portrayed a Shaolin Buddhist monk named Kwai Chang Caine, the son of an American sailor and Chinese woman, who is orphaned and raised in a Buddhist monastery. Later, he is forced to flee China and come to America looking for his American half-brother in the Old West (late 1800s). While searching for his half-brother, he encounters prejudice and helps people using his Buddhist "wisdom" and martial arts skills. (Ironically, the idea came from martial arts legend Bruce Lee. Lee was himself the son of a Chinese father and Irish-Catholic mother, and wanted to star in the title role. He was rejected for an Irish-American actor because the producers didn't think American audiences were ready for an actual half-Chinese actor as the star). 

In each episode there is a flashback wherein Caine thinks of when he was learning in the Buddhist monastery. In the flashback, one of his Buddhist "masters" would spout some nonsensical mumbo-jumbo, to "enlighten" him. Armed with the remembrance of Buddhist teaching, he was able to save the day. In one episode he somehow knew that if a rancher killed a pregnant cow, the rancher's pregnant wife would have a miscarriage, so he must stop the man from killing the cow. Caine has a flashback where he is reminded how "all life is interconnected"--whatever that means. I was impressed by it because it sounded profound, much like "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

I was one of the first people to see the original Star Wars movie in 1977; my family saved the money for me to buy a ticket, and then I waited on line for hours to get in the movie theater. I loved the movie at the time, which was produced by George Lucas.  His Star Wars franchise is arguably the most profitable and influential series of science fiction movies ever. Lucas got involved in Eastern paganism and refers to himself as a "Methodist-Buddhist." According to George Lucas' biographer Dale Pollock, "The message of Star Wars is religious: God isn't dead, he's (sic) really there if you want him (sic) to be. 'The laws really are in yourself,' Lucas is fond of saying; the Force dwells within." (See Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, NY: Ballentine Books, (1983), pg. 139). 

The Star Wars franchise pushes pantheism. The oft quoted "May the Force be with you," is a blasphemous attempt to replace the True God ("The Lord be with you") with an impersonal energy that binds the universe together. The so-called force may be used to perform seeming miracles such as levitation, moving objects, detecting the presence of various persons, being guided without using your senses, and healing. The force can be used for good or evil ("the dark side of the force"). Although the Force is never called God, those who believe in it and seek to use it are said to be followers of a “religion,” and the teacher of “the ways of the Force” is a 900-year-old “Jedi Master” called Yoda who functions much as a Zen Buddhist "master."

Buddhist influence is everywhere today-- more so then ever before. We have the Vatican II sect to thank for it. I will have more to write about that below. What is Buddhism, and what makes it so popular? How can we try to convert those who are ensnared in it? The answers will be covered in this post.

Origin and Divisions of Buddhism

Roughly 2,500 years ago in Kapilavastu at the foothills of the Himalayas, a young aristocrat named Siddhartha Gautama was born in the lap of luxury. His father carefully insulated his heir from the real world beyond the palace walls, and allegedly gave him three palaces and 40,000 dancing girls. However, Siddhartha inadvertently caught glimpses here and there beyond the royal walls. The following sights in particular gripped Gautama’s heart: (1) a crippled man, (2) a leper, (3) a rotting corpse, and (4) a pious ascetic. These later came to be known as the Four Passing Sights, which so moved him that he renounced his life of comfort and luxury to pursue enlightenment. This Great Renunciation, as Buddhists call it, included Gautama abandoning his wife and child, for “distractions”such as these would impede his quest to untie the Gordian knot of pain, sickness, old age, and death. The driving motivation of Buddhism’s founder was to pinpoint the origin of pain and suffering and to propose a solution.

Gautama eventually turned to a life of meditation. While deep in meditation under a fig tree known as the Bohdi tree (meaning, “tree of wisdom”), Gautama experienced the highest degree of God-consciousness called nirvana. Gautama then became known as Buddha, the “enlightened one.” He believed he had found the answers to the questions of pain and suffering. His message now needed to be proclaimed to the whole world.

As he began his teaching ministry, he gained a quick audience with the people of India since many had become disillusioned with Hinduism. By the time of his death at age 80, Buddhism had become a major force in India. When it came to solving the problem of evil, the Buddha took a very different path from Hinduism. The latter saw evil as maya (illusion), while the Buddha taught that evil is not only real, but that it can be overcome by methodically removing desire—the source of all suffering.

Buddhists teach The Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are accepted by all schools of Buddhism and have been the subject of extensive commentary. They may be summarized as follows. The first truth, suffering (Pali: dukkha; Sanskrit: duhkha), is characteristic of existence in the realm of rebirth, called samsara (literally “wandering”). The second truth is the origin (Sanskrit: samudaya) or cause of suffering, which the Buddha associated with craving or attachment. The third truth is the cessation of suffering (Pali and Sanskrit: nirodha), commonly called nirvana. The fourth and final truth is the path (Pali: magga; Sanskrit: marga) to the cessation of suffering.

The Eightfold Path is Right Understanding, Right Intent, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. This set of "morals" is to bring one to Nirvana. Unlike the Ten Commandments, The Eightfold Path is meant as a guideline, to be considered, to be contemplated, and to be taken on when, and only when, each step is fully accepted as part of the life you seek.

Buddhism is divided into several sects. There are two main divisions:
1. Theravada ("The Teaching of the Elders") Buddhism, which comprises approximately 40% of Buddhists. They are the truest to the teachings of Gautama. This sect is deeply pantheistic, seeing meditation as the main key to “salvation” and quite inwardly focused.

2. Mahayana ("The Greater Vehicle") Buddhism makes up roughly 56% of Buddhists. This sect is more outward focused. It sees Gautama as a "deity." They also have many occult-like practices.

The remaining 4% belong to various small sects that lean more to one or the other main divisions in their teachings.

The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to end the cycle of reincarnation (carried over from Hinduism) and achieve nirvana. Nirvana is not a place like Heaven, but rather an eternal state of being. It is the state in which the law of  the rebirth cycle comes to an end. It is the end of suffering; a state where there are no desires and the individual consciousness comes to an end.

Vatican II and the Growing Influence of Buddhism

The heretical Vatican II document Nostra Aetate ("The Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions"), states in paragraph #2:

Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination....The Catholic (sic) Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.

There was no warning against pagan religions and philosophies from the East coming here, nor any opposition because the Modernists embraced them. The list of influential Buddhists is quite impressive:

• Sports stars Tiger Woods and David Beckham
• Movie actors Richard Gere, Keanu Reeves, and Harrison Ford (think: Star Wars and George Lucas)
• Rock and pop singers Courtney Love (widow of the wretch Kurt Cobain, whose band was named Nirvana), and Tina Turner
• Even politicians like former President Bill Clinton, although not a convert, hired a Buddhist monk to teach him meditation. 

So what's the attraction of Buddhism? There are several:

• The pantheistic belief that "God is all" puts insects, plants, and even inanimate objects on the same level as humans. Tree-hugging environmentalists love it, even though the vast majority see nothing wrong with abortion
• Terms like "inner tranquility" and "enlightenment" are "spiritual" without being "religious." Therefore, atheists can hop on board and deny a Personal God for an impersonal force that allows them to still use the term "atheist" loosely
• There are no Commandments for ethics. Who am I to judge? (sound familiar?) Moral absolutes are absent
• Reincarnation further erodes morals because if you live like a heathen, there is no Hell, just another life to try and "get it right" and achieve nirvana, which is basically extinction--so no one suffers in the end 
• Meditation and yoga are ubiquitous, with the Vatican II sect supplanting true meditation based on the spiritual masters (like St. Ignatius of Loyola) with pagan yoga-meditation. This "mindfulness" meditation is being taught in their schools and churches. Pagan meditation can open a person up to demonic forces

Proselytizing Buddhists

The best way to proselytize Buddhists is to try and attack their underlying belief in pantheism. Basically, Buddhists believe we are all "divine" since "all is God," and people are not aware of it ("universal amnesia"). We need to meditate to realize the truth and reduce ourselves into the mass extinction of nirvana. Here are five talking points:

1. The universal amnesia regarding our "divinity" cannot be satisfactorily explained.

If humanity is really "part of the divine," how is it that we are unaware of it? Wouldn't "god" know he is divine? Why does it take some guru, or yoga, or meditation for "god" to realize who he is? How do we account for this "cosmic amnesia"?

2. How does the pantheist know that HE is not the one mis-perceiving reality?

The Eastern pagans claim that Christians who believe in a world external to their senses are caught in the grip of an illusion, because "all is one." How does the pagan know it is we who are deceived by our common sense experience and not himself for thinking that "all is one;" contrary to what reason and sense experience tells us?

3. If pantheism is true, we can never distinguish between fantasy and reality. 

The burden of proof is clearly on the Eastern pagan to tell us why we should abandon our common ability to distinguish between fact and fantasy. We should believe what our experience tells us is true unless or until we have good reason to think otherwise. The pagans reverse this and would have us believe what is counter-intuitive is true despite the lack of evidence. This is absurd.

4. The Eastern pagans reject logic.

D.T. Suzuki wrote in his Introduction to Zen Buddhism  that we "comprehend life only when we abandon logic." In other words, he's trying to convince you with arguments (using logic) that you need to abandon logic--a self-refuting position. It is (for the pagan) logical to be illogical (that makes sense!)

5. There is no right and wrong.

If reincarnation is true, why bother to be moral? You keep coming back and can do whatever you want. Whenever you decide to finally follow the eightfold path, you will basically cease to exist. What kind of "reward" is that? Keep in mind that if everything is "God," how can evil be real? Is God both good and evil? If so, why should the "good side" of "God" be preferred?

You can also read good Catholic literature about Our Lord from pre-Vatican II and use the information to compare the Buddha to the Christ. Just an outline would be: (a) Christ was predicted to arrive and Buddha was not; (b) Christ confirmed his teachings with miracles and Buddha never proved his teachings true; (c) Gautama is still in the grave, but Christ rose from the dead thereby proving His Divinity. 

(Credit for above information: See e.g., Isamu Yamamoto, Buddhism, Taoism and Other Eastern Religions, [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing, 1998]; Davis Taylor and Clark Offner, The World’s Religions, Norman Anderson, ed. [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1975]; and culled from many and various Buddhist sites and articles regarding same on the Internet such as https://www.buddha101.com/p_path.htm, etc.---Introibo)

Conclusion

The Vatican II sect has welcomed pagan pantheism into the world. It even bases their spirituality on these pagan meditation practices. Buddhist beliefs are more popular than ever and can be found all over our culture; in movies, TV, music, and books. True Christianity and Buddhism are irreconcilable.  In the schema ("proposed document")  De Deposito Fidel Pure Custodiendo, Vatican II was originally set to condemn reincarnation and other pagan, Eastern ideas. Roncalli ("Pope" John XXIII) scrapped all the orthodox documents drawn up by the great theologians, and allowed the Modernists to re-write every document for the Robber Council.

The false Vatican II sect of Bergoglio (himself a practitioner of Eastern pagan "Reiki healing"), will find out the errors of their ways when Hell is found NOT to be an illusion. To escape that fate, they must convert and never forget the condemnation of the Vatican Council of 1870:

"If anyone shall say that the substance and essence of God and of all things is one and the same; let him be anathema."