Posted on 02/19/2010 8:47:42 AM PST by Arcy
Buddhism embraces reincarnation, which has so many problems theologically and very few if any answers to those problems. Consider the following:
1) If Reincarnation is true, mankind should be progressing. Human nature should be improving. However, the truth is, moral depravity is worsening as the Bible anticipates.
2) The vast majority of the population has no memory of their prior lives. If were all a product of previous life-cycles, why dont we remember our previous lives? How can we work off bad karma if we dont recognize our prior mistakes?
3) Though there are some who claim to recall past lives, the Bible reveals that demons have existed for millennia. These demons are able to place thoughts in a persons mind in order to deceive.
4) If were all being recycled, where are all the new babies coming from? There were an estimated 100 million souls a few millennia ago, but today were approaching 7 billion. Reincarnation denies a Creator God, so where are all these souls coming from?
5) India is the cradle of Reincarnation, yet India is one of the worlds most woeful nations. Though the people are intelligent and natural resources abound, cows and rats eat their fill while humans starve. City streets are awash with filth, lined with starving beggars, and suffering is everywhere. With thousands of years to perfect Reincarnation, and countless gurus and holy men, why isnt India the shining star of human progress and spiritual evolution?
6) Gandhi stated that Reincarnation is a burden to great to bear. He saw the fruits of this practice around his country. All abroad was hopelessness and despair.
7) To break free from Reincarnation, one must live a harmless life. You cant even kill a microbe. Yet our immune system kills millions each day. This means there is no hope of ever escaping the wheel of Karma.
8) If you see a beggar wallowing in the gutter dont you dare help him! He is working off bad Karma. If you help him now, he will just have to come back in another lifetime to work off the bad karma all over again. This is why India had no hospitals or charitable institutions until the coming of Christian missionaries. The truth is Reincarnation offers no hope, provides no answers, and contradicts our God-given conscience. It is a demonically inspired philosophy intended to keep its adherents slaves to sin and death.
Very good points
Did you send this article to Brit Hume and the rest of the Fox team ? :)
Point 5 is why the caste system is so engrained in their culture. Someone is “reborn” as an untouchable because that is their punishment for their past lives’ transgressions,
so any attempt to make the lower castes lives better is in violation of their religion.
Tiger Woods will fail Tiger Woods, Buddhism will just be the path that Tiger Lion Cheetah will fail with.
Nice post, Arcy!
“Vee have dee bomb to blow dee crap out of Pakeestan!”


“Not sure about that. You have your own Karma as well, and if you want to reincarnate to a higher state, you have to perform good deeds. Helping the beggar is a good deed that will result in good Karma for you.”
Actually, your harming him by perpetuating his suffering in the next life, and that’s not going to bring you “good karma.”
Why do I even Care?
Third world Veiws are Taxing Me,
Is That You Wally?
I wonder what Tiger Woods did in his previous life so as to be punished in his current life with being the richest most successful golfer ever, and having to have sex with all those women. It must have been one horrible deed./s
Buddhism is a muddy Sand trap...
If Buddists believe in reincarnation, does that mean Tiger will come back as a rabbit? :)

No, worse.
That’s Hinduism, not Buddhism.
Actually, your harming him by perpetuating his suffering in the next life, and thats not going to bring you good karma.
Intellgent people call that collision of mutually canceling imperatives 'cognitive dissonance'. I wonder if Tiger has ever meditated on that?
I dunno, but he’s probably going to become a cockroach or a fat, underexercised government worker in his next life the way he’s going.
Tiger: Who said anything about Buddhism? I said that I wished to be a faithful follower of Bootyism!
I see from your posts that you misunderstant Buddhism.
But you know little about it and are positing fairly ignorant questions.
Instead of criticizing Tiger for his reliance on Buddhism we, as Christians, should be praying for him. Praying that in his spiritual journey he comes to meet someone who will redirect his quest toward Christ. Only through Him will he ever attain permanent peace and forgiveness.
Good one...
I'm not a Buddhist but ... if we all spent months in our mothers' wombs, how come were don't remember even a second of it?
ML/NJ
Awesome....that made me LOL.
ROTFLOL!
He that hath meditated Me alone,
In putting off his flesh, comes forth to Me,
Enters into My Beingdoubt thou not!
But, if he meditated otherwise
At hour of death, in putting off the flesh,
He goes to what he looked for, Kuntis Son!
Because the Soul is fashioned to its like.
...
Have Me, then, in thy heart always! and fight!
Thou too, when heart and mind are fixed on Me,
Shalt surely come to Me! All come who cleave
With never-wavering will of firmest faith,
Owning none other gods: all come to Me,
The Uttermost, Purusha, Holiest!
...
For who, none other Gods regarding, looks
Ever to Me, easily am I gained
...
I am alike for all! I know not hate,
I know not favor! What is made is Mine!
But them that worship Me with love, I love;
They are in Me, and I in them!
Nay, Prince!
If one of evil life turn in his thought
Straightly to Me, count him amidst the good;
He hath the highway chosen; he shall grow
Righteous ere long; he shall attain that peace
Which changes not. Thou Prince of India!
Be certain none can perish, trusting Me!
O Prithâs Son! whoso will turn to Me,
Though they be born from the very womb of Sin,
Woman or man; sprung of the Vaisya caste
Or lowly disregarded Sudra,all
Plant foot upon the highest path; how then
The holy Brahmans and My Royal Saints?
Ah! ye who into this ill world are come
Fleeting and falseset your faith fast on Me!
Fix heart and thought on Me! Adore Me! Bring
Offerings to Me! Make Me prostrations! Make
Me your supremest joy! and, undivided,
Unto My rest your spirits shall be guided.
...
Give Me thy heart! adore Me! serve Me! cling
In faith and love and reverence to Me!
So shalt thou come to Me! I promise true,
For thou art sweet to Me!
And let go those
Rites and writ duties! Fly to Me alone!
Make Me thy single refuge! I will free
Thy soul from all its sins! Be of good cheer!
...
He only knowethonly he is free of sin, and wise,
Who seeth Me, Lord of the Worlds, with faith-enlightened eyes,
Unborn, undying, unbegun.
...
Yet not by Vedas, nor from sacrifice,
Nor penance, nor gift-giving, nor with prayer
Shall any so behold, as thou hast seen!
Only by fullest service, perfect faith,
And uttermost surrender am I known
And seen, and entered into, Indian Prince!
Who doeth all for Me; who findeth Me
In all; adoreth always; loveth all
Which I have made, and Me, for Loves sole end,
That man, Arjuna! unto Me doth wend.
- Bhagavad-Gita.
I believe in Karma so when I do bad things to people its because they had it coming.
He chose the middle path.
A lot, apparently.
Reincarnation is not the central tenet of Buddhism. Buddhism teaches:
I. The Way to the End of Suffering
II. Right View
III. Right Intentions
IV. Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood
V. Right Effort
VI. Right Mindfulness
VII. Right Concentration
VIII. The Development of Wisdom
Tiger was not strong enough to overcome his temptations, just as many Christians aren’t. There are many other errors in your analysis, but they are typical for most Christians, who panic at the mention of anything even remotely reperesenting eastern theology.
Maybe it’s Tiger Woods that is failing Buddhism. :-)
Using the Bible to pooh-pooh the teachings of Buddha and the Gita is similar to someone using a Buick owners manual to denigrate the advantages of owning a Ford.
How would someone know they woke up?
My Dogma ate my Karma.
correct!
Bump - and I agree!
The Bhagavad-Gita.
The Harvard Classics. 190914.
Chapter XII
ARJUNA:
LORD! of the men who serve Theetrue in heart
As God revealed; and of the men who serve,
Worshipping Thee Unrevealed, Unbodied, far,
Which take the better way of faith and life?
KRISHNA:
Whoever serve Meas I show Myself
5
Constantly true, in full devotion fixed,
These hold I very holy. But who serve
Worshipping Me The One, The Invisible,
The Unrevealed, Unnamed, Unthinkable,
Uttermost, All-pervading, Highest, Sure
10
Who thus adore Me, mastering their sense,
Of one set mind to all, glad in all good,
These blessed souls come unto Me.
Yet, hard
The travail is for whoso bend their minds
15
To reach th Unmanifest. That viewless path
Shall scarce be trod by man bearing his flesh!
But whereso any doeth all his deeds,
Renouncing self in Me, full of Me, fixed
To serve only the Highest, night and day
20
Musing on Mehim will I swiftly lift
Forth from lifes ocean of distress and death
Whose soul clings fast to Me. Cling thou to Me!
Clasp Me with heart and mind! so shalt thou dwell
Surely with Me on high. But if thy thought
25
Droops from such height; if thou best weak to set
Body and soul upon Me constantly,
Despair not! give Me lower service! seek
To read Me, worshipping with steadfast will;
And, if thou canst not worship steadfastly,
30
Work for Me, toil in works pleasing to Me!
For he that laboreth right for love of Me
Shall finally attain! But, if in this
Thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure! find
Refuge in Me! let fruits of labor go,
35
Renouncing all for Me, with lowliest heart,
So shalt thou come; for, though to know is more
Than diligence, yet worship better is
Than knowing, and renouncing better still
Near to renunciationvery near
40
Dwelleth Eternal Peace!
Who hateth nought
Of all which lives, living himself benign,
Compassionate, from arrogance exempt,
Exempt from love of self, unchangeable
45
By good or ill; patient, contented, firm
In faith, mastering himself, true to his word,
Seeking Me, heart and soul; vowed unto Me,
That man I love! Who troubleth not his kind,
And is not troubled by them; clear of wrath,
50
Living too high for gladness, grief, or fear,
That man I love! Who, dwelling quiet-eyed,
Stainless, serene, well-balanced, unperplexed,
Working with Me, yet from all works detached,
That man I love! Who, fixed in faith on Me,
55
Dotes upon none, scorns none; rejoices not,
And grieves not, letting good and evil hap
Light when it will, and when it will depart,
That man I love! Who, unto friend and foe
Keeping an equal heart, with equal mind
60
Bears shame and glory, with an equal peace
Takes heat and cold, pleasure and pain; abides
Quit of desires, hears praise or calumny
In passionless restraint, unmoved by each,
Linked by no ties to earth, steadfast in Me,
65
That man I love! But most of all I love
Those happy ones to whom tis life to live
In single fervid faith and love unseeing,
Eating the blessèd Amrit of my Being!
Here endeth Chapter XII. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ,
entitled Bhakityôgô, or The Book of
the Religion of Faith.
Actually those were all from the Gita.
Beautiful (and piercing)
Why? Do people invariably get better as they get older? Do countries improve with age?
2) The vast majority of the population has no memory of their prior lives.
The vast majority of the population cannot remember being infants.
3) Though there are some who claim to recall past lives, the Bible reveals that demons have existed for millennia. These demons are able to place thoughts in a persons mind in order to deceive.
Point conceded. They Bible allows one class of entities that are capable of going from body to body.
4) If were all being recycled, where are all the new babies coming from?
Body theatans branching out on their own. Other planets. Demons from Hell. Like a tsunami the vast fund of spirits are piling up on the shores of Armageddon. Author assumes that reincarnation is instant, that there can't be a between lives time.
5) India is the cradle of Reincarnation, yet India is one of the worlds most woeful nations. Though the people are intelligent and natural resources abound, cows and rats eat their fill while humans starve. City streets are awash with filth, lined with starving beggars, and suffering is everywhere. With thousands of years to perfect Reincarnation, and countless gurus and holy men, why isnt India the shining star of human progress and spiritual evolution?
Why indeed? Shall we blame The Fall?
6) Gandhi stated that Reincarnation is a burden too great to bear.
We all have our cross
7) To break free from Reincarnation, one must live a harmless life. You cant even kill a microbe. Yet our immune system kills millions each day. This means there is no hope of ever escaping the wheel of Karma.
Every religion has a rigged game. For example the human race was damned to eternal suffering because people who were ignorant of good and evil did the one thing that gave them the knowledge of good and evil.
8) If you see a beggar wallowing in the gutter dont you dare help him! He is working off bad Karma. If you help him now, he will just have to come back in another lifetime to work off the bad karma all over again. This is why India had no hospitals or charitable institutions until the coming of Christian missionaries. The truth is Reincarnation offers no hope, provides no answers, and contradicts our God-given conscience. It is a demonically inspired philosophy intended to keep its adherents slaves to sin and death.
No one helps the beggars? Why are they not all dead of starvation? Worst case, one helps beggars to attone for their own sins, and to build up credit it the First National Bank of Karma
Stupid post. You might look into the differences between Buddhism and Hinduism.
And if Christianity is the perfect path, why is the world getting more evil as you declare.
Yeah, besides that, Buddah is dead - Jesus is alive!
Someone else wrote that youth is the most prescious gift a woman has to give to her man.
I agree, and a true man appreciates that gift and remains devoted for a life time.
In this case, the rose has not even fully opened, Tiger is an ingrate.
Throughout creation, God has only saved a remnant. It holds true from Genesis to Revelations.
“This is why India had no hospitals or charitable institutions until the coming of Christian missionaries.”
Patently false.
Emperor Ashoka, among his other deeds, was known for setting up hospitals and rest-houses all over India. This was circa 250 BC.
I am the birthless, the deathless,
Lord of all that breathes.
I seem to be born:
It is only seeming,
Only my Maya*.
I am still master
Of my Prakriti*,
The power that makes me.
When goodness grows weak,
When evil increases,
I make myself a body.
In every age I come back
To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish righteousness.
He who knows the nature
Of my task and my holy birth
Is not reborn
When he leaves his body:
He comes to me.
*The two words are interchangeable. They both refer to the creative power of Braman, and, hence, to the basic stuff of which the universe is made.
She told me on our second date that our souls keep getting recycled and recycled and recycled until we get it right.
Then I asked her, "What is 'IT' and 'WHO' decides when we get 'IT' right?"
Never was a third date.
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