Reaching the Buddhists (Part 1 of 3)

Reaching the Buddhists

Sharing the Gospel with our Buddhist friends

Khen Lim

Part One of Three


Image source: Glogster

Many Christians in Malaysia – and perhaps in some other parts of the Asian world – were once upon a time Buddhists. I was one until a few years into my life in Australia. There, in a quiet little city called Geelong, I was baptised a Christian. That in itself is a story for another day but at the age of twenty-three (I think), I was free to decide who I wanted to believe in. A few years earlier while still in school, I’d asked my parents if I could get baptised but I was rebuffed.

By the time of my baptism, I, too, had heard countless stories of fellow Buddhist friends who had different tales, different outcomes perhaps and different levels of challenges. Some like me had fairly forceful parental opposition and bided our time. Some had it easier with parents who were accepting of their children becoming Christians at their early age. But there were others who had it worse. A few I know came under such tremendous pressure – and threats – from family members even in their adult years.

Back home in Malaysia, some friends of the family had turned to Christ – also from Buddhist backgrounds – and they went to visit my parents to share the Gospel. Except that they had no idea what they were doing. In their overzealousness, they ended up offending my mother, saying things they shouldn’t have. Among the many things, their newly-baptised friends confronted their faith and challenged them to accept Christ, offering to break the family altars into pieces and have them ignominiously disposed.

Not. Good. All that did was to help undo a great deal of personal effort to bring my parents to Christ. For years after that, my mom harboured a quiet disdain for Christian evangelism, not wanting anything to do with them. As for the son who had turned to Christ, she probably made a grudging exception not to heap misery on me. That little misstep alone might be one reason why it took them almost three decades to finally accept the Lord.

We know of a friend whose acceptance of Christ was met by the decision of the grandfather to leave him out of his will. In the case of another friend, the parents threatened to kick him out of their home – and the family – if he decided to become a Christian. 

We also have yet another friend who has, since his baptism years ago, not seen his parents, grandparents and siblings. Being barred from the family meant he couldn’t be part of the Chinese New Year and whatever birthday celebrations among his loved ones. It was a costly price to pay because he feared he might not get to see any of them ever again. But he certainly did consciously choose Christ.

There are some things in life that are very difficult to talk about such as death, politics and religion. In Malaysia, proselytising a Buddhist is not illegal; at least it’s nothing like trying to do the same with a Muslim. But still, it’s not as easy or straightforward as it seems. So long as there are no laws of the land to prevent us from reaching the Buddhists, there is hope.


Image source: br.pinterest.com

Short facts about Buddhism

A big part of the reason why overreaching Christians offend Buddhists is they fail to understand the religion. They don’t make enough effort (if at all) to learn things about the religion leading to a regrettable level of insensitivity to the ways of their belief system. Lacking religious tolerance, it’s no surprise that some Christians can do considerable damage, making it an uphill task for many of us to reach the Buddhists ourselves.

For some of us who may not have the time to go on an extensive course to better understand the religion, a short but incisive tour of Buddhism’s prevalent points could go a long way. Here are the core issues in a nutshell:

Do Buddhists believe in God?

Surprising to many, Buddhism in its purest form has neither a deity nor a supreme being in the way we have God the Creator at the centre of our Christian belief system. Looking in from the outside, it does appear that if adherents recite the name of Buddha, they might as well be praying to him. But even so, there is no deified status to speak of. Buddha is no more than a principle – similar to universal love – but clearly, not a god.

What are the basic creeds of Buddhism?

We’re told there are many creeds to consider and so, we’ll focus on the key ones, which in Buddhism’s ‘Core Beliefs’ are philosophical principles that revolve around three things, namely, the Four Noble Truths, Noble Eightfold Paths and the Five Precepts.

Of these, ‘discontentment’ and ‘suffering’ coexist in an intertwining way. Both are part of life for everyone and, according to Buddha, they contribute substantially to our misery and that the key source of this is ‘desire’ and ‘attachment.’ 

In his search for a solution, Siddhartha Gautama – himself a prince from a sizeable clan called Shakyas in Lumbini (modern Nepal) – sought to discover Enlightenment. That was around 6BC. With his father the king ruling over a tribe that was economically poor, desire and attachment were of course in spades. Considering all of that, it’s not too much for anyone to blame the poverty on the pursuit of materialism, which is often the bane of suffering and itself a fruitless search for contentment.

In Gautama’s quest came the idea of pursuing a state of voidness where there is no personal god, leading to the idea that there is nothing fixed or permanent. And in that, change is always inevitable although ultimately, it is enlightenment that one must seek in order to be liberated from desire and discontentment as well as an endless loop of suffering.

He called it Nirvana and to reach it, he devised the concept of reincarnation – rebirth, in many ways – where a person can be trapped in a seemingly never-ending cycle of death and rebirth that would forever lock him out of happiness and contentment. Gautama called this terrible endless loop of suffering Samsara. Putting the two concepts together, he reasoned that the successful pursuit of Nirvana requires one to escape Samsara.

The problem with reincarnation for Christians is that a person once dead can come back to life in other forms. Of course the worrying thing is you won’t be a human anymore. The next worrying thing is in what form one will return in. Since the whole kingdom of living creatures are at its behest, Buddhism could determine that an adherent could return as a roach, rodent, marsupial, reptile or a nice juicy trout waiting to be someone’s next dinner.

I remember once when I was a young kid, my late grandmother would suddenly exclaim, “Don’t hit that moth!” She was in her garden when a harmless looking spotted moth appeared in our midst. Mystified, one of my cousins asked her why and she said, “I think that’s your great-grandfather!” All of us cousins looked at one another goggled-eye and tried desperately to stifle our laughter. 

In another case, a cleaning maid of ours told us her dead mother – she committed suicide by jumping into a river – had returned home to look on her family…in the form of a snake. I asked if anyone thought to catch or kill it since snakes can be dangerous and she indirectly admonished me saying, “How can we kill our mother!?”

It’s all pretty hard for Christians to come to terms with. Reincarnation is as arguable among even Buddhists as it is for us. As I discovered on the Internet, there are Caucasian Buddhists who deny that’s what reincarnation is all about but not their Asian brothers and sisters who do follow the concept that animal forms in their afterlife is beyond debate. I guess some like the idea of Buddhism but not about being turned into an animal! 

For the diligent and studious adherent, it is all part of the process of coming back in a quest to purify oneself but I guess very few Buddhists would find it humorous enough to look at this and laugh about it.

From all this, Buddhism, at the very heart of the religion, is the quest to attain purity and calmness of mind. From there, comes the seeking of wisdom. In the Noble Eightfold Paths, the first two of eight refer to discernment, the last three belongs to concentration and the middle three relate to virtue…while Gautama’s Four Noble Truths evince the exploration of human suffering.

Though moot but very debatable is the question of whether Buddhism itself is a religion or not. As many legitimately query the same of Islam being more a militant political order, Buddhism is arguably a philosophy or a way of life while others view it as a way of finding reality.


A Bodhisattva (Image source: Lion's Roar)

Who do Buddhists worship?

Worship in the Mahayana tradition centres on devotionals to Buddha and to Bodhisattvas. An original Sanskrit term, a Bodhisattva is a person who has generated Bodhicitta, a spontaneous wish and compassionate mind to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. In simpler English, a Bodhisattva is able to reach – and attain – Nirvana but chooses to delay it out of compassion for those who are still suffering in this world.

When worshipping, the faithful usually sits on the floor barefoot and in a lotus position called Padmasana. This means sitting upright but with legs crossed and both feet resting on opposing thighs with their soles facing upwards and the heels close to the abdomen. 

He sits facing an image of Buddha – usually but not necessarily always a statue of sorts – and chants or he listens to monks who chant from religious texts accompanied by instruments (or otherwise) as part of the prayer ritual. Buddhists claim that in this meditation pose, they attain the power to achieve calmness, awaken their energy levels and quieten their minds as they allegedly empty out their thoughts.

While some say that meditation – called Dhyana – is simply just a state of deep peace achievable only when the mind is calm and silent. Psychologists contend that it is a practice of turning one’s attention to a single point of reference that involves focusing on the breath, bodily sensations or even on a word or phrase known as a Mantra.

But meditation in Christianity is nowhere the same. Unlike Buddhism (and Hinduism), it isn’t the repetitive chanting of a mystical monotony or phrase. Instead, the Bible mentions 23 occurrences concerning the word ‘meditation’ or ‘meditate’ with 19 of them in Psalms. 20 of these occurrences speak measuredly about meditating on the Lord in one way or another on His actions, law or testimonies, all of which are found in His Word. 

What the Christian form of meditation isn’t are precisely the things that Buddhists do with meditation: sitting with an empty mind, mindless ritualistic repetitions to gain a transcendental state, burning candles or sitting calmly listening to sonorous music or in the practice of yoga.

With all this meditation, praying seems to be a rather odd practice in Buddhism because it is neither mono- nor polytheistic. Buddhists do not have a personal god. There is no creator god. Buddhism doesn’t talk about who created life or the nature around us or the universe for that matter. So the question is where do all these prayers go to? Who are they directed at? What do Buddhists really meditate on if there is no god?

Is there a holy book in Buddhism?

Three major non-canonical texts dominate the practice Buddhism in most parts of the world including Malaysia.

The first is Pali Canon. Also called the ‘Tripitaka,’ this is ‘the word of Buddha.’ It includes some of Gautama’s discourses as well as the teachings of his pupils. The Pali Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist doctrinal tradition. Theravada Buddhism is the oldest school of Buddhism founded in India that later made its way to Sri Lanka and other countries in the south-east Asian region. It is called ‘Pali’ because that’s the language it is written in.

The second, the Mahayana Sutras, are a broad genre of Buddhist scripture that different traditions of Mahayana Buddhism consider as canonical. Largely preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, they are also integral within the Tibetan Buddhist canon and the Sanskrit manuscript. 

Although Mahayana Buddhists revere the Pali Canon as sacred scripture, these Sutras are added to it to reflect the distinctive Mahayana concepts that Mahayana Buddhist priests predominantly use. There are some 2,000 Sutras available that were written between 200BC and 200AD, which was when this Buddhist sect was developed.

The third is the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Also called the Bardo Thodol, this is the best-known work of Nyingma literature, describing the experiences that the consciousness has in post-death – called the Bardo – which defines the interval between death and the next rebirth. 

It is a funerary text that is part of a much larger corpus of teachings, recited to ease the consciousness of a recently deceased person through death and to assist it into a more favourable rebirth. It also teaches that once awareness is freed from the body, it creates its own reality as one would experience in a dream.

Image source: Dong Hung Buddhist Temple - Buddhist Education Centre

How Buddhism handles sin and suffering

Given that’s a very broad overview of Buddhism, you’re not going to be an expert on it but at least you have a useful idea of what it is basically about. Perhaps even more incisive a view would be to look at the contrasting differences in order to better understand what it’ll take to share the Good News with our Buddhist friends without which, the challenges ahead cannot be addressed.

One of Buddhism’s most major talking points is ‘Suffering.’ It’s a theme that the religion embraces as a central doctrine that defines pretty much everything that it stands for. From there, Buddhism determines that life itself is transitory, meaning it’s not permanent. We’re on a trajectory going somewhere except no one really knows where exactly. There is nothing substantial about a life that has no permanence. Life is as illusory as it is purposeless. Being meaningless, what you aim to achieve in life might all be for nothing because everything becomes one big pointless exercise.

To escape suffering, Buddhism persuades its adherents to just get on with meditating. It is the one method that Buddhists believe will help them break the vicious cycle of death and rebirth. But one must wonder where all this will lead to. If meditation does do what they say it will, what then comes next? 

Since they believe that life is illusory, then meditation is no more than a means to reach the other end, which is nothing but again, emptiness. Meditation within the Christian theological mindset is difference because it helps us to concentrate on God in our quest to attain holiness and oneness with Christ. You could say that while Buddhism engenders emptiness, we eschew it.

While suffering is central to thematic Buddhism, managing sin doesn’t seem to appear on its horizon. Perhaps since life is illusory, is sin then, illusory as well? The impermanence of life could suggest then that sin is nothing but a concept. But Christ is real. He is no illusion. He is physically real but also the perfect Lamb for the sins of the world. Through His Son, God the Father offers us a covenant of forgiveness and salvation if only we receive Him as His gift to us:

“But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.” (Jn 1:12, NLT, my emphasis)

It is our acceptance of this gift – the gift of Jesus as our Saviour who laid down His life for us – that defines Christianity.

This preoccupation with cyclical death and rebirth is central to the Buddhist principle that every human action carries consequences either for now or in the next iteration of life. Consequences that are felt within the sphere of immediacy is called Karma. Consequences for the next life is referred to as Samsara. 

The basic principle here is that with good deeds, the adherent improves on his reincarnation prospects. It is said that in his next life, he’ll have it a little less insufferable. But with bad deeds, his next life will turn out just the opposite. Exactly to what degree either way isn’t spelled out.

The problem with Samsara is that it is void of forgiveness. What is done is done and cannot be undone. There is no point in being remorseful for what you have done because you’ll have it coming for you no matter what. You cannot dodge the bullet. There is simply no recourse to change anything because there is no god around to forgive you. Neither was there anyone who, in his purity and perfection, could have died for your bad deeds to save you.

There is no escaping the never-ending loop of Samsara and therefore, adherents are forever bound to the material world that is, unless one achieves Nirvana. With no imminent release from past actions, you really have to wonder how many adherents get to escape the vicious cycle. And if they do not experience divine forgiveness for their bad deeds, how do they learn – and who do they learn from – to forgive those who wrong them in their lives?

Buddhism offers the Eightfold Path as a way to alleviate oneself from suffering. In this creed, adherents follow eight virtues – right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation. In a tenuous way, we could consider this as the Buddhist equivalent of ‘salvation’ but with a huge difference.

While Christians cannot achieve salvation without God’s grace, our Buddhist counterparts claim they can do all this on their own through self-help and also form of guidance from temple abbots and by way of attending religious classes conducted by teachers, which is technically why they don’t need a personal god in the first place. But then if sin is not an issue, where would the embracing of the Eightfold Path lead to?

Buddhism doesn’t have to wrestle with the elephant in the room – sin, that is – because the primacy of the religion holds that there is no God to be responsible to. Without needing to reconciling with God, sin does not play any important role. If we need conviction on this, consider that even Gautama himself –as Buddha – owned up to the fact that he could not directly help anyone with sin any further than simply pointing the way. In other words, he can only guide but he cannot absolve the way God can.

So, here’s the major predicament – Christians strongly believe that sin is a serious issue; serious enough because it violates God’s holiness. Because of our sin, we cannot go face to face before God the Father. And we needed the Son of God to come in human form to die on the cross in order that His blood could wash our sins away. 

That act alone offer us the path to salvation, leading to eternal life, without which, we have no other way at all to save ourselves. In all of that, sin frames our life and gives us a perspective as to where we ultimately stand before a holy God. For us therefore, sin has consequences and we cannot ever possibly run away from it.

Buddhism vests no interest in dealing with sin because its doctrines and philosophies do not allow it to. Where life holds no meaning, therefore, sin also has no meaning. One may commit it, yet doesn’t worry about consequences because life is transient with neither permanence nor purpose. Sin forces us to face God’s nature and laws, which is why we have Judgement Day, which in Buddhism, the closest equivalent is Karma. 

However, while Christ will bring judgement to the world, Karma has nothing to do with god. Instead, Karma is a cosmic law of cause and effect. It embraces a merciless force that is impersonal and without empathy. Hence it has no ability to forgive. Much like a computer, it is without emotion.

The problem with Buddhism’s hands-off approach to sin, it’s a struggle to see how it compares with Christian ethics. Without an ethical consideration towards managing sin, morality becomes an issue. If the ultimate reality is impersonal, there cannot be any talk about morality as well, which then leads us to seriously wonder what personal framework there is in Buddhism to deal with moral duty. In other words, how does an adherent of Buddhism cope with moral obligations to do the right thing if the distinction between good and evil does not exist?

Let’s consider a simple example here. Let’s talk about the morality of a dagger. We know it is inconceivable to blame a dagger even if it’s been used to mortally wound a person. Since the dagger is not a person, there are no moral obligations we can attach to it. Rather, we look at the person who armed himself with the said dagger and then used it to murder another person. 

Therefore the evil purpose cannot be with the dagger but instead, it must be pinned on the murderer, a human person. Because the dagger has no personal value whatsoever, it is impossible to view it as evil. But we can do that to a person. We can call a person evil if that’s what he has done.

Most leading dictionaries define sin as an immoral act that is considered a transgression against a moral code that has divine origins. This definition alone is the troubling part of Buddhism because of its roots in divinity. So if a person commits an obvious sin, that definition indicates that this is a moral error. And moral errors require atonement. In Buddhism, how does an adherent achieve real atonement with Karma?

You can’t because Karma is a cosmic law. It is void of the person. It is also void of morals. Karma is impervious to what is right and wrong. Because of its impersonal nature, it does not discriminate between sinning in private or in public. It doesn’t even have any contextual relevance to determine a moral error since morality is indefinable in the purest form of Buddhism.

If Karma isn’t the answer, what is in Buddhism? Perhaps its adherents can consider seeking atonement by way of prayer or devotion to either Buddha or a Bodhisattva. Maybe we can get one or the other to listen and if either does, perhaps the adherent can then be forgiven. But remember, Gautama himself said he cannot absolve but point a person in the right way, which means it’s a waste of time seeking forgiveness from him. 

Which then leaves sin being unpaid for. If sin is left unpaid, it means that sin still exists. Buddhist adherents simply cannot defeat it and if that’s the case, sin can overrule life. In Christianity, we staunchly believe that sin demands justice. It has to be met by the full force of Christ’s sacrifice but that’s not possible in Buddhism.

Some might be surprised by the fact that only Christianity, as a religion, has the human condition covered. While many of the world’s religions do speak legitimately of some grain of truth, the human perspective is a very different matter altogether. That’s because in Christian belief, Jesus is our viable answer. He is the One who makes the most perfect sense. 

But He only exists within the framework of Christianity and not others. And while Jesus is humanity and divinity in one, Buddhism resorts to the impersonal approach of meditation, works and prayer all converging in a hopefully-worthy pursuit of enlightenment.

Buddhism suggests adherents can work themselves out of the endless loop of Samsara (reincarnation) but that’s a very poor substitute for the very thing they lack that we enjoy and that is, God’s grace. We are redeemed to Christ not of our choice or making. It is because we have a personal God who loves us well before we even know what that word ‘love’ even means. We don’t deserve any of this love but God chooses to save us from sin. It has nothing to do with what we can do to save ourselves because ultimately, we cannot do that.


Image source: Tibet Vista

Buddhism’s vagaries with desire

Gautama believed that, at the heart of all that troubles man is ‘Desire.’ Called Tanha in Sanskrit, desire is the ruination of man. It is the very reason for human suffering and therefore, must be eliminated. However, by subjecting his adherents to the vicious cycle of reincarnation (Samsara), it has turned out to be very difficult to comply with. To Gautama, desire isn’t a contextual thing but literal in every sense of the world and how it is applied. And because of this, it is yet another very troubling concept to understand.

Not all desires are bad but shoehorning it the way Buddhism has makes it impractical, unrealistic and impossible to deal with. In Christianity, desire is something we can celebrate provided what we yearn for is without moral complications. Where Buddhist ethics will struggle with our viewpoint, the desire among Christians allows us to attach emotional feeling towards the notion of wanting something in our lives. 

But desire doesn’t always refer to material longing. For Christians, our single greatest desire is to follow Christ. Using Buddhism’s language, yes, desire is an attachment because we yearn to be with and in Christ while at the same time, we also long for Him to be in us. Our desire is to ultimately be less of us and more of Him (Jn 3:30).

The Buddhist ethic has no answer to desire the way Christians handle it. To their adherents, they cannot be want of anything because they have no way to distinguish between good and bad. Therefore, instead of being able to discern good from bad desires, Buddhists find themselves lumping every conceivable desire into the same gunnysack, not realising that the one worthwhile desire we all covet as humans is ‘Love.’

Love often brings out the best in man. Man wants to love as much as be loved. Families are united in love for one another. Love is the foundation that builds lasting relationships. Marriages that are grounded in love endures hardships. In fact, love brings out the best in each of us. It is like a fuel that energises us like adrenaline. 

With love, we can conquer even the most insurmountable. The Bible tells us that love makes life worth living. The apostle Paul says that among all the things desired, love is the most important (1 Cor 13:13). In the Gospel of John lies one of the most beloved of biblical messages that underscores how powerful love is:

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.” (Jn 15:13, NLT)

Sacrificial love. Unconditional love. This is the kind of love that Christ showed all of us. It is this love that saved us from damnation. In recent years, America’s tragic mass killings have resulted in many such sacrificial acts of love even among strangers, let alone friends. We hear stories of those who block a spray of bullets to save others from certain deaths but only to die themselves. They used their bodies to shield others, taking a hail of bullets that ended their own lives.

Sacrificial love is the greatest expression of love. It is so great because it takes one to ultimately give up his life for another. Christians understand this far more than any adherent of any other faith because only Jesus went to the cross to die for all the sins we commit in order that in exchange, He could then offer mankind salvation that is otherwise not available from any other means. He took the lashings. He was bloodied beyond recognition. He was tortured within an inch of His life before He was ultimately nailed to the cross. It was Jesus who articulated this love so well in our lives:

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much He loved us by sending His One and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love – not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us.” (1 Jn 4:7-12, NLT)

In Scripture, it is God’s moral code that urges us to love our parents (Ex 20:12) and neighbours (Mk 12:31) and irrespectively, one another (Jn 13:34). In fact, in so many other parts of the Bible, the call to love is in many other forms but all of them are an urging to be good to one another. Yet look a little further and study all this a little deeper and you’ll have a perfect understanding that love is of course a form of desire. Many would say it is the greatest of desires.

In the Beatitudes, Christians are called to hunger and thirst for Christ’s righteousness (Mt 5:6). The poetic use of the words ‘to hunger and thirst for’ is no different than to say ‘to desire’ or to ‘pine for.’ We covet Christ’s righteousness as something very desirable to acquire. 

Otherwise, we cannot ever possess any degree of attachment towards God for it is only through the Lord that we gain the wisdom and lovingkindness to care for someone else’s wellbeing. In much the same way, we learn, through love, the power to forgive others for their transgressions.

None of these can ever be possible if we are to remove all desires in our lives.


Image source: John Ankerberg Show

For Christians, the challenging barriers

If you have read this far, you’re likely to gain the impression that sharing the Word with Buddhists isn’t without its complications. The pitfalls become crystal clear the moment you understand how starkly different they think, believe and accept. While we retain the enthusiasm and love to convert them to Christ, we must always be mindful that it isn’t straightforward. The barriers are formidable because their teachings and ours are completely incompatible.

If any of us think that we can just steamroll our way through any Buddhist, think again. If we want to lose them fast, then hurl the Gospel at them. Don’t expect them to understand a word of it. Instead watch them walk away from us, fearing to hear any more about what we have to say. But if we tread a little more cautiously and identify the barriers they put up, then we have a far better chance of truly reaching them.

The first barrier is the idea of ‘Salvation.’ Buddhists believe they have salvation under control. They think it’s all about doing good works on their terms and conditions. Because they know no god (or any god), the only way they know to save themselves is to get it all done by themselves. Follow the Buddhist creed, do the eight virtues under the Noble Eightfold Plan and everything will fall into place, as far as they’re concerned.

If in reaching out to the Buddhist, we talk about salvation through God’s grace, we’d lose them. They do not have any concept of saving grace. They also don’t understand God’s role in all this because there is no existential god in Buddhism. Talking about salvation from the typical Christian standpoint is fraught with disaster at such an early stage. 

To cover that ground, we have a lot of ground to cover beforehand and we need to do all that in order to nullify the Buddhist precepts of Karma (retribution), Samsara (death and rebirth) and Nirvana (enlightenment). All of these (and more) cloud their view of who Jesus is, let alone possess any ability to understand that it is only through Him that we have a stab at salvation and eternal life.


Image source: Reuters

The second barrier is a little more physical. Most Buddhists in Malaysia have a strong familial-type community that represents a powerful stronghold of Buddhism culture. Being that, it’s very hard – though not impossible – to penetrate because households are surrounded by all-things Buddhist such as temples, clan associations, columbaria, incense houses and even public funeral parlours. It’s hard to gain inroads with a mindset that is gridlocked in Buddhism everywhere.

When households steeped in Buddhism live under such a setting, for anyone to accept Christ would be like stabbing your own family in the back. The sense of betrayal is not lost on a person in such a family. Steeped in strict Buddhist tradition, these tend to be families with roots that take them back to mainland China. These are people with very strong heritage and breaking the mould is filled with embarrassing potholes for us. To be too presumptuous would be to court disaster when it comes to sharing Christ with them.

Since my return from Australia, I have been a witness to many such situations. Other than my own personal experience (when I myself was wet between the ears), I’ve come across countless cases of individuals who have personally expressed a deep interest in wanting to know (or even accept) Christ but were firmly rebuffed by their own families.

In the days when I operated an IT business, a past employee of mine accepted Christianity but even after his marriage, he showed neither the boldness nor faith in introducing his own wife to Christ because he didn’t relish the possibility of a confrontation. As far as I know today, he’d made no progress to getting baptised. In fact, it’s very questionable whether or not he has turned his back on Christ because of all that.

Another past employee, who has since remained single, has been attending church quite regularly but out of respect for his family, has stalled all idea of getting baptised let alone share the Gospel with his parents and siblings. The importance of not stirring things up took precedence over God even if this means accepting the Lord’s offer of salvation and eternal life.

In a former church of mine, a woman has been a believer for years but chose to wait for her husband to be converted. Although she had faithfully attended church services, she never once invited him to go together; not even for the Christmas celebrations or for that matter, anything to do with church. And yet whenever the husband hurt himself in any of his accidents, he had no problem welcoming the church to pray for him. For more than two decades until the last day before the church closed, she kept waiting. And waiting.

In fact, I have come across many women who allegedly gave their lives to Christ but neither saw nor understood the urgency to involve their husbands. Maybe that’s a little unfair to say; after all, why their husbands weren’t in church wasn’t something we were told. It also didn’t mean that the wives had no interest in involving them. We are, of course, not privy to the personal petitioning that at least some of these women would have quietly done in their prayers to God.

Still, the husbands didn’t turn up but life went on. Nothing changed. When discretely asked, most women said very little. There would have been reasons but the reluctance to speak up spoke volumes of the situation that we knew was taking place. 

It didn’t take too much imagination to understand that many women felt the lack of resolve or inner strength to do what was necessary to convict their spouses into coming to church. Between keeping the peace at home and rocking the relationship over the matter of having a church life together, it’s probable that more women than not would opt for the former. It’s just a safer option.


Image source: NPR

The third barrier is the Buddhist’s fear that in post-death, no one would visit their graves or pray for them. This is used as a means to keep everything together under the same religion. To embrace Christ would therefore mean a breakdown in family loyalty. Knowing that Christians do not set up family altars and do not subscribe to praying to anyone else but God, Buddhist patriarchies (and matriarchies) vehemently reject any brand of Christianity, often calling it a threat to household unity. In the process, members down the family tree are given the impression under no uncertain terms that to be a Christian would be an act of betrayal to everybody else.

Families that are steeped in Buddhist tradition are very hard on members who do not ‘toe’ the line when it comes to religious allegiances. For them, there cannot be any religion other than Buddhism. For them, Buddhism holds every family member together like the myriad threads in a fabric. Any incursions made by Christianity can be seen as posing a serious threat to family unity. To introduce such a faith into a very conservative Buddhist household is tantamount to creating havoc and chaos in the most unprecedented way.


Image source: Centre for East Asian Religions

The fourth barrier has to do with Christians being somewhat confused because at the end of the day, the question is whether or not it is Buddhism that the Chinese practise. Even to the untrained eye, it is obvious that Buddhism in its purest form isn’t as common as we think. This is because by and large, the Chinese community mires itself with a pragmatic adulteration that sees Buddhism mixed in with Taoism and Confucianism. For those requiring a brief introductory understanding on what these are, allow me to explain here:

Taoism is a mix of religion and philosophy emphasising a life in harmony with the ‘Tao.’ It is based on the writings of a person called Lao-Tzu who advanced the notion of religious piety and humility deeply rooted in Chinese traditions and worldview. ‘Tao’ itself undergirds the whole system of belief by being the absolute principle behind the universe itself. It combines within itself the principles of the Yin and Yang, which espouses the way or code of conduct that must be in line with the order of Nature.

In some ways, Confucianism is similar to Taoism. While it is also a system of philosophical thought and ethical teachings, it is also said to be a humanistic or rationalistic interpretation of a religion. Known also as Ruism, some prefer to think of it as a complete combination of everything from tradition and philosophy to religion, humanism and rationalism. 

As such, Confucianism can even be all things to all people except that it is also deeply rooted in Chinese tradition. Founded by Confucius (K’ung Fu-Tzu) in 6-5BC and then developed by Mencius, Confucianism has a substantial impact on the life, social structure and political philosophy of China.

In the Malaysian context, the Chinese community is a mishmash of all three thrown in. Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism all share centre stage. One borrows liberally from another and vice-versa where communities freely integrate with ancient clan religious practices that are brought to Malaysia from their ancestors in mainland China. 

As to how the leanings may look, that depends on the household and to a large extent, the community it belongs to. Some are almost pure Buddhists but a large proportion of them use Buddhism as a base but are far more steeped in either Taoism or Confucianism.

Because of Taoist and Confucian influences, the practice of Buddhism has become somewhat more confusing. In fact throughout the world, Buddhism has produced enough variations – such as Zen, which is a Japanese interpretation of Mahayana Buddhism – to further add to the confusion. 

From these influences, Buddhists in Malaysia who are less pure-minded have involved deification where they indulge in the idolatrous practice of praying to Taoist-inspired gods – some of whom have mortal underpinnings – that invariably look as hideous as they are fierce and angry.

To some extent, these explain why many Chinese actually do pray at family altars and offer material tributes in temples. In so many of their homes, altars are set up not only for their deceased beloved but also tablets in the kitchen and the outside patio. You also see them in countless coffee shops, retail outlets, business offices and even swanky looking boutiques and palatial residences. 

Chinese burn not just incense sticks as offerings to their gods but they also burn all sorts of paper paraphernalia including mock currency notes – aptly called ‘hell bank notes’ – to their deceased relatives, convinced that these will transform into real material wealth for them to consume in their netherworld. Predictably, most of these are not rooted in pure Buddhism.

The Chinese understanding of Buddhism appears more pragmatic by taking on the concerns of the real world within the framework of a spiritual realm. With that in mind, the Chinese therefore pray for financial acumen and stability as well as business prosperity and academic success with the view that these gods would do something to tweak the real world accordingly.

The fifth barrier has more to do with ourselves than the Buddhists. It is the poor impression we impart that sends all the wrong signals to unbelievers. It is of course a cause for great concern because the misperception is grounded in our own actions and behaviour. While none of us are without sin, we seem to be more inclined in proving that point rather than masking it by being more Christlike. 

And because of this, many Buddhists become witnesses to poor testimonies where we misrepresent Christ owing to the things we say, the actions we do and/or the thoughts we harbour. It is no surprise then that we all appear far less moral and spiritual than even our Buddhist counterparts.

But it isn’t just the way we appear before the local Buddhists in Malaysia that is most disconcerting. It is also the misconception that Christianity is a western religion when, of course, it is not. The association with western culture comes from centuries of religious history where Christian protagonists were essentially either Europeans or Americans. Then of course there were the innumerable Christian missionaries that came to Asia from the continents.

In recent decades, the misguided notion of Christianity being rooted in western values has only amplified the worst of the (western) culture. In a continual outburst of immorality, the western world has yet to stop serving up every piece of evidence that gives Buddhists reason to think they’re all offshoots of our decadent Christian culture. 

Whether it is liberal or socialist politics, public violence, sexual hedonism, ostentatious materialism or simply just self-serving importance, self-indulgence and turpitude, it is not surprising that Buddhists are inclined to point the finger back to Christianity as the root of all such troubles.

None of these help in any way to ease our approach to first base with our Buddhist friends. In fact, every one of these barriers simply become layers of persistence to act against us. Buddhists in general view us as a threat to their culture. While they have no problems being friendly, it’s quite another matter for us to get any closer. 


Image source: ABC

It is also a very good reason why Chinese vernacular schools in Malaysia often interweaves Chinese literature with Buddhism and Buddhist teachings. They do not exactly hate us but neither do they take Christianity as an example to follow. Therefore, to break through all these misperceptions will require something quite exceptional.

As Christians at the other end of the spiritual divide, Buddhism can be confusing. Many continue to grapple with whether it is a religion or a philosophy and that in itself is part of the problem. While some take the middle path – one hand in each – convinced by the convenience of being a religion when it suits and a philosophy when it doesn’t. But there is no denying that it is very broadly philosophical by nature.

Remember, Buddhism does claim to have a profound understanding of life with an overwhelming focus towards suffering as the fundamental nature. Adherents are convinced that there is only one solution to overcome suffering and that is to eliminate negative thoughts and then be transformed – be way of reincarnation – to increasingly better life forms by dying and rebirthing until which time, Nirvana becomes attainable.

But there are two problems here. The first is that Nirvana is just a huge void, an unlimited expanse of nothingness. Or emptiness. What is there to reach if that is the case? How is emptiness worth all that trouble? Why make all that effort only to find that you end up at the other side of nothingness? How is that rewarding? If that is Nirvana, you’d not be remiss not to bother to pursue it.

Furthermore, Buddhism’s view of ‘better life forms’ is not necessarily human. As adherents die in human form, they don’t exactly return as humans. We are led to understand that if you subscribe to the Buddhist view, ‘better life forms’ is likely to be as an animal especially if it is an “unhappy rebirth.” 

Even Gautama himself noted in his writings that he was, at least once in his lifetime, allegedly a whale or a white elephant. If that is the case, there is no escaping the average Buddhist a life in his future of being an iguana or a gnat. What could be worse than a gnat? Plenty, I’m afraid.

Interestingly, the idea of Nirvana appears to be very appealing to today’s western youth. Studies that are freely available on the Internet reveal that in America, for instance, the Pew Research Centre puts Buddhism as the third largest religion in the country. A.R.I.S. (American Religious Identification Survey) estimated that in the ten years between 1990 and 2000, Buddhism increased its followers by as much as 170 percent, reaching about 1.2 million adherents in 2008.


Image source: buddhisminamerica227.blogspot.com

Washington Post’s William Wilson Quinn, a scholar of Buddhism himself, remarked that, “by all indications, that remarkable rate of growth continues unabated.” When you consider that Buddhism is America’s newest imported major religion, this is, in a word, astounding. In fact, Pew Research Centre estimates that by 2050, America will, with 5.48 million Buddhists, account for 1.1 percent of the world’s total. At that rate, there will be more American Buddhists than what Malaysia will have by then.

Reaching Nirvana for any Buddhist does not require God. In fact, anything you achieve in Buddhism has no part for God to play. He is not around to intervene. Neither is He there at all in the first place. And because Buddhism does not acknowledge any role of importance or contribution from any divine nature, God simply does not exist. 

Of course by now, we all know that. The fact of the matter with this is that maybe that’s the reason why Buddhism is becoming increasingly popular in western society. Without God, westerners who embrace Buddhism don’t feel bossed around. They don’t have to be constantly reminded of sin or accountability before the Seat of Judgement. No one in Buddhism will harp at them about the need to seek God’s forgiveness or to receive just fruits from Him. There is no answering to God at all. No wonder Buddhism is popular.

These five challenging barriers offer us a proverbial tall order. To overcome all of them is impossible without the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Spirit is, without a doubt, the only way we’re ever going to get off first base. As He blessed Simon Peter, Jesus said only the Father could make the revelation possible and that all of what he knew and understood had not come from anyone else but Him:

“Jesus replied, ‘You are blessed, Simon son of John, because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.’” (Mt 16:17, NLT, my emphasis)

The apostle Paul had the same idea. He affirms that great things can never happen by our own strength but instead are made possible because of the Holy Spirit:

“So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:3, NLT, my emphasis)

Paul is even more detailed here:

“No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For ‘Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?’ But we understand these things for we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:11-16, NLT, my emphasis)

Unreservedly all knowledge of God that we possess, according to Paul, come exclusively from the Holy Spirit. No human can take credit for any such wisdom that is bestowed on us by God Himself. Even the words we utter are expressly God’s signature. If we are to ride roughshod over these challenges, we must call upon the Spirit of God, then use His words and apply His wisdom. No amount of head knowledge, personal guile or even the best of experiences any of us may have will be enough.


To continue, go to Part 2 of 3 by clicking here.