Background History

The original founder of the Buddhist teachings was Siddhartha Gautama, a prince of the ruling caste of Hinduism born around 485 B.C. At this time, the power of the Brahmin priests had expanded to such an extent that there was a growing dissatisfaction with the current religious system. It was believed that the continuation of the cosmos was dependent on the priests performing ornate and expensive sacrifices, and more and more people became skeptical. During this time, many philosophers arose with new claims to insight into the nature of reality. It was a season when spiritual creativity was flourishing. They questioned the caste system and its inherent inequalities, which divided society into a rigid hierarchy of social groups with the priests as the head and the untouchable “shudra” caste as the feet. They sought for the ultimate truth of reality beyond humans and beyond the gods who were supposedly able to be manipulated through priestcraft. These philosophers sought truth that would bring personal liberation. They were desperate for truth that would free them from suffering, and they were willing to surrender all to experience the reality of that truth once it was found.

Legends about Prince Siddhartha’s early years abound, yet it is difficult to know where to draw the line between fact and fiction. The Jataka tales contain the story of a prophecy at his birth that he would become either a wondering monk or a universal monarch. In order to ensure the later of the two, Gautama’s father protected him from seeing or experiencing the suffering of life. When the prince would go riding through town, the streets would be cleared completely of all the aged, sick and dying. In order to awaken him to his true destiny, the gods intervened and appeared to him on three separate occasions. The first appeared as an elderly man, the second as a diseased man, and the third one appeared as a dead man being carried to his funeral. One of the oldest passages of Buddhist writings site Gautama as saying “I also am subject to decay and am not free from the power of old age, sickness and death. Is it right that I should feel horror, repulsion and disgust when I see another in such plight? And when I reflected thus, my disciples, all the joy of life which there is in life died within me.” Then a fourth appearance gave hope to him in this miserable state. He saw a calm ascetic in a yellow robe, who seemed to have found inner peace. This inspired him to renounce his home, his new wife and baby son, and become a wondering monk. He spent six years testing the spiritual paths of the Hindu ascetics and philosophers, but never was satisfied that he had found truth. By the end of this time his body was emaciated and he was on the edge of death. He then abandoned this extremism and sat under a Bodhi tree in a place now called Bodh-gaya. Here he was said to have reached enlightenment, a middle path between asceticism and indulgence. He then became known as the Buddha, meaning “awakened one” or “enlightened one.”

His realization consisted of the four noble truths:

1) Life is suffering (or unsatisfactory)
2) The cause of suffering is desire (desire for things that are impermanent)
3) An end to suffering is possible
4) This end to suffering is through the 8 fold path.

The 8 fold path consists of the following:

WISDOM
1. Right Understanding
2. Right Thought
ETHICAL CONDUCT
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
MENTAL DISCIPLINE
6. Right Effort
7. Right Awareness
8. Right Meditation

This is the basis of all schools of Buddhism. There are three main schools: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The oldest and most conservative of the three is Theravada. Theravada (also known as Hinayana meaning “little vehicle”) Buddhists focus on individual liberation, while Mahayana “great vehicle” Buddhists believe in bodhisattvas who postpone their own liberation for the purpose of helping others attain liberation as well. Vajrayana is a sect of Mahayana Buddhism. While Theravadin and Mahayana Buddhists believe it takes many lifetimes to attain liberation, the Vajrayana path claims it is possible to attain in one lifetime. Though traditionally seen as distractions to enlightenment, this Vajrayana tradition harnesses sexual and magical energies to assist and speed the liberation process.

What do Tibetan Buddhists Believe?

One of the central and most perplexing teachings of Buddha concerns the doctrine of emptiness, his primary insight into the nature of reality. Buddha taught there are two levels of truth, relative and ultimate. On the relative level, we appear to be individual selves in a solid material world. On the ultimate level of truth, however, everything is empty of inherent, independent existence. It is our conditioning which labels things as “good” or “bad” or “me” or “you.” What we have been conditioned to call a “table” may be broken down into “pieces of wood” and further dismantled and analyzed down to the finest elements which are never static but always in flux. Nothing exists independently, everything is part of this dynamic dance of cause and effect. This leads to the doctrines of impermanence and non-attachment. Nothing is ultimately permanent, so attachment or fixing our desires on anything will only lead to suffering. Liberation comes through the internalization of this truth. It is ignorance of this truth that leads us to grasp for impermanent things, falsely believing they will satisfy us. The root of this ignorance is the belief that we are individual souls, or that there is one permanent, unchanging Soul. Here is where Buddha rejected the Hinduism of his day and claimed there is no Soul underlying all things. Buddha was mysteriously silent regarding the issue of the existence of God. It seems whether God existed or not was not an important point to him. By claiming that nothing permanent existed, however, Buddha’s teaching clearly contradicts the God of Christianity who is eternal and unchanging. There are many “deities” within Tibetan Buddhism in particular, however. These include benevolent as well as wrathful spiritual beings. Here in the West they are usually considered to be only aspects of our own psyche and not actual beings. Tibetan Buddhists recognize five major realms of being: The god realm, the human realm, the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm, and the hell realm. If one attains good merit, it is possible for one’s karma to be reborn in the god realm and experience intense pleasures for a period of time. This is not a goal, however, because there is pride and ignorance that results from this pleasure and which guarantees a lower rebirth. Therefore, enlightenment is only possible within the human realm. One must be born as a human to experience enlightenment, the goal of Buddhism where one is free from samsara, the ever-turning wheel of death and rebirth. Rebirth is not the continuation of an individual soul as in Hinduism, however, since there is no soul. Each human is merely a collection of 5 aggregates including body, emotions, perception, volition, and consciousness. At death, these aggregates are dismantled and rebirth is just a continuation of the leftover impersonal karma. Karma is central to Buddhism as well as Hinduism. It is the impersonal law of cause and effect. Actions have consequences. Every action (whether mental or physical) leaves an imprint, building up tendencies which become causes for further actions. This process expands over many rebirths. If you experience a natural disaster in which all your possessions are destroyed, for example, this is the natural consequence of your karma either from this life or a previous one. It is suggested that perhaps you were previously a thief who stole the possessions of others, therefore in this life you are experiencing the effect of that previous cause. Once one is free from attachment and completely aware of the emptiness and interdependence of all things, one reaches a state of nirvana, or enlightenment, where there is no longer any karma holding them to this world of samsara. The actual definition of what this state of nirvana is like varies from one tradition to another. The ideal within the Mahayana and Tibetan traditions is not to enter nirvana, however, but to become a bodhisattva who will teach others the way of escape so that all beings may attain liberation. Practitioners seek personal enlightenment not for their own sake alone, but for the sake of all sentient beings. This gives a sort of “messianic” motivation for spiritual growth. Thus compassion within Tibetan Buddhism is ultimately the desire to enlighten all beings to the teachings of the Buddha. Other religions are generally seen as instrumental towards spiritual growth on a lower level, and seen positively as such. Ultimately, however, one must come to understand and experience true emptiness for one’s self in order to attain full enlightenment.

Why are people drawn to Tibetan Buddhism?

There are many reasons why Buddhism is popular today. As the days in which Buddhism emerged, there is a widespread disillusionment with the current religious system. People are looking for spirituality because they know that materialism will not satisfy their souls. They are very cautious of religion, however. Many Buddhists grew up in Christian homes and were disheartened by the disconnect between the lives of people at church on Sunday and the way they lived the rest of the week. I have heard many committed Buddhists tell of their belief in God in early childhood, yet through observing the church found themselves no longer able to believe. Buddhists emphasize the experiential aspect of their faith, declaring that you must test and prove the teachings to be true yourself. Through meditation and insight, practitioners feel that they have personally experienced the truths of Buddhism. Since there is no God outside which cannot be proven, it claims to limit the sphere of faith to truths which can be tested and verified personally. Buddhism’s claims go far beyond the limits of personal experience, however. Can one have such an exhaustive experience of the nature of things as to prove that there is nothing permanent or unchanging whatsoever? Just because our observation of nature shows that the material universe is always in a state of flux, this does not automatically prove that there is no Spiritual Being beyond who does not change. It appears more objective on the surface, yet ultimately it is based on a massive step of faith. Although usually presented here in the West as a very scientific religion through the language of psychology, Tibetan Buddhism in particular is full of belief in astrology, auspicious rituals, demons, spirit possession, and magic. Buddhism, as with Hinduism and every other religion, is ultimately a claim to insight into the nature of reality, a universal faith claim by which all other beliefs ultimately are measured.

Another aspect of Tibetan Buddhism that is attractive is its emphasis on compassion. Many people are turned off by the idea of an eternal hell. Although hell states exist within Buddhism, they are only considered relatively temporary (lasting for many kalpas, with each kalpa being 4,320,000,000 years). Not only can you avoid the unpleasant thought of eternal damnation, but you can work toward becoming a powerful messianic being capable of delivering others from the hell realms. The bodhisattva who attains and yet abstains from entering nirvana for the compassionate purpose of loosing the chains of ignorance and enlightening all beings is a very attractive ideal. The Buddhist concept of compassion is ultimately very different from the traditional Western concept fashioned from a Judeo-Christian worldview. It is compassion from the perspective that neither you nor I exist. Therefore, the object of compassion in Buddhism is ultimately suffering itself:

The law of karma does not amount to a theory of human justice, neither does it provide the basis for feelings of moral outrage or ethical superiority. In any case, since experience is the fruit of action, it must follow that in samsara - and this in certain contexts may be difficult to accept - there can be no ultimately innocent victims. In response to this, Buddhism teaches that the object of compassion is simply suffering itself.
-From the introduction to The Way of the Bodhisattva

I have found some of the most compassionate people I know to be Buddhists, yet I find the compassion of Jesus to be beyond compare. He did not view lepers as those suffering due to past karma, but as precious souls created for the purpose of glorifying His Father. He didn’t just throw a coin into their beggar’s bowls, He touched and healed them. He saw the masses who crowded about him as lost sheep, caring deeply for their souls. As their creator and judge, he alone had the authority to cancel a sentence of hell. He saw the depth of wickedness within each of them, yet he chose to perform the greatest act of compassion imaginable. This good shepherd became the spotless lamb and laid down his life for us. He paid the penalty, He suffered and died the death we deserved. He upheld his justice while offering mercy. This is Jesus. This is love.

Immutable Divine Truth: God is Unchangeabale

Wayne Grudem defines God’s unchangeableness as follows:
“God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations.”
Though this world and we ourselves are always changing, the Bible teaches that God is eternally perfect and does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His promises are solid and his word is trustworthy because it comes from His unchanging perfect character.
There is nothing that we can do to change the essence of God. He is who he is and will always be. We cannot add to him or take away from him. He is not distant, cold, or without emotion, however. He is the perfect Person in whose image we have been created. Therefore, his emotions are perfect and real.

Meditation

Take a small rock and put in a place where you will see it often this week. Meditate on God’s unchanging faithfulness. Remember that Jesus alone is the rock on which to build the house of your life. Ask him to show you any areas where you have not trusted him. Thank him for who he is.

Scriptures to Contemplate:

You, Lord, did found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all grow old like a garment...like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end. Hebrews 1:10-12

God is not a human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? Numbers 23:19

I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Malachi 3:6

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28,29