Romans

& World
Religions

Buddhism and (Ephesians &) Romans

Who is the fat guy?
One of the most recognizable images of Buddhism is the
“laughing Buddha” figure, a fat man with kids crawling all over him.
Naturally this image begs Christians to answer, what is this faith
all about? Well, first of all, the fat guy isn’t Buddha – it’s Buddai, a
follower of the “real” Buddha. That Buddha was named
“Siddhartha” and was born in around 560 BC, more than half a
century before Christ, near the end of the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian ruler who took Judah into exile.

Siddhartha, was born to parents within the warrior-caste of their

country. When Siddhartha was born, a wise man predicted that
he would either be a great world leader or a great ascetic (a
person who gives up earthly pleasures for a spiritual purpose).
His father attempted to give him every opportunity to be a military
ruler, but on a chariot ride, Siddhartha proved that the other
prophecy was to come true.

On this chariot ride Siddhartha saw an old man, a sick man, a

dead man, and a “shramana” (a wandering ascetic monk). He
decided to live his palace life, including his wife and son and begin
a “quest” to find “enlightenment” by talking to shramanas and
engaging in meditative yoga.
• Read Ephesians 1:13-23
• What is Paul giving thanks for? How does he use the
term “enlighten”?

Siddhartha becomes Buddha

Siddhartha was an apt student of the shramanas and even
seemed to naturally do better in his disciplines than they did after
years of practice. Striking out on his own, one day he began to
meditate under a “bo” or “bodhi” tree. There he was tempted by a
evil god-spirit named Mara to give up his meditation, but he
resisted and achieved “enlightenment”, the understanding of how
the natural and supernatural universe works. His title “Buddha”
comes from the “bodhi” tree he was sitting under.
 • Read Romans 3:19-25
• What does Paul say humans can know about God’s
“law” (way of putting together the universe), and what
does that knowledge profit a human?

4 Truths and 8 Paths

Buddhism’s “doctrines” are diverse and some would say “non-
existent”, but they all work out of Siddhartha’s first “sutra” or
teaching after he had reached enlightenment. The four noble
truths are:
• All life entails suffering
• The cause of suffering is desire
• Removing desire removes suffering
• The way for removing desire is to follow the 8 fold path
Which of course, begs the question, what the heck is the 8 fold
path? Here is is:
1. Right views (especially of the Noble Truths)
2. Right thought (shaped by detachment from hatred and
cruelty)
3. Right speech (refrains from falsehood, gossip, and frivolity)
4. Right action (free of killing, stealing, and otherwise
harming)
5. Right livelihood (no sorcery, or anything that harms others)
6. Right Effort (to clear and calm the mind)
7. Right Mindfulness (meditation, sensing self)
8. Right Concentration (another form of meditation, sensing
an outside “point” or object)
One is said to reach the state of “nirvana” by following the 8 fold
path completely. The word is based on the Sanskrit verb
meaning “to be cooled by blowing”. Nirvana is a self-less (you no
longer exist consciously) cooling of desires which cools suffering
and allows the person to “exist in a diffuse, unagitated, and
eternal state.”
• Read Romans 8:1-11
• How does what Paul says here differ with Buddhist
teachings about nirvana and the way to it?

Grace and Sin in Buddhism

Throughout this series, we are going to be especially interested in
each religion’s concepts of sin and grace.
Sin: One could essentially say that Buddhists believe in original
sin as one of their central teachings. They believe that to be
human is to experience suffering, which to a Christian is evidence
of a sinful world state because of original sin. As far as actual sin
goes, Buddhists have no clearly defined sense of right and wrong,
but judge right and wrong based on the consequences and
desires that inspire right action or wrong action.
• How is deciding right from wrong on the basis of
consequence and/or desire different (or similar) from how a
Christian knows right and wrong?
Grace: The “True Pure Land” or “Jodo Shin” form of Buddhism
teaches something that is so similar to the Lutheran
understanding of grace as God’s unmerited favor, that Jesuits
landing in Japan wrote back to their supervisors astounded that
“the devil is working in the Lutheran way here in Japan”. While
Jodo Shin is one of the most popular forms of Buddhism in Japan,
however, a sense of grace is not prevalent throughout Buddhism.
Instead, grace is interpreted as “giving of the law” much as it is in
Judaism. The grace given is simply the rules of the game (i.e. the
8 fold path) which may or may not effect your salvation from
“samsara” (the cycle of death and rebirth) and entrance into
nirvana.
• Buddhists and Christians would define “salvation” as “the
end of suffering”, but how do they differ?

For Next Time

We will study Hinduism. I’m not sure what you should do.
Go to an Indian restaurant? Refrain from eating meat?

Please don’t throw this away. If you’re not going to use it, leave it for
someone else to use.