by Dr Ng Kam Weng
Two conversations with Buddhist friends remain etched indelibly in my mind. They happened early on during my years in the university. Victor questioned me after several hours of discussion and in response to an invitation to accept God’s salvation as revealed in the Bible. “Why insist that the football is white when it contains both black and white? He was resting his assertion on the Buddhist doctrine that all truth claims are relative. I should have countered his argument by asking him how he was able to distinguish two absolutely different colours. Victor later became the president of a dynamic Buddhist organization.
Lipner Tan chipped in, “I prefer Buddhism since it challenges me to develop my mind to the utmost. It offers a path of wisdom for mental development. Even if I fail to attain liberation in this life (to escape from rebirth into the world of illusion, i.e., Samsara), Buddhism offers hope for more opportunities in later rebirths.” Lipner also subsequently became the head of another national Buddhist organization.
I was disappointed that my Buddhist friends rejected the Gospel, but I respected their decision knowing that they were thoughtful people. Buddhism, with its sophisticated metaphysics and psychological insights understandably seems to promise intellectual satisfaction. Above all, it promises wisdom. The path of Buddhist meditation, comprising discipline and mindfulness (that is, awareness of every detail of our thoughts and actions) is presented as a practical method that promises eventual results of peace and equanimity.
Wherein lays the attraction of Buddhism? Read on
Two conversations with Buddhist friends remain etched indelibly in my mind. They happened early on during my years in the university. Victor questioned me after several hours of discussion and in response to an invitation to accept God’s salvation as revealed in the Bible. “Why insist that the football is white when it contains both black and white? He was resting his assertion on the Buddhist doctrine that all truth claims are relative. I should have countered his argument by asking him how he was able to distinguish two absolutely different colours. Victor later became the president of a dynamic Buddhist organization.
Lipner Tan chipped in, “I prefer Buddhism since it challenges me to develop my mind to the utmost. It offers a path of wisdom for mental development. Even if I fail to attain liberation in this life (to escape from rebirth into the world of illusion, i.e., Samsara), Buddhism offers hope for more opportunities in later rebirths.” Lipner also subsequently became the head of another national Buddhist organization.I was disappointed that my Buddhist friends rejected the Gospel, but I respected their decision knowing that they were thoughtful people. Buddhism, with its sophisticated metaphysics and psychological insights understandably seems to promise intellectual satisfaction. Above all, it promises wisdom. The path of Buddhist meditation, comprising discipline and mindfulness (that is, awareness of every detail of our thoughts and actions) is presented as a practical method that promises eventual results of peace and equanimity.
Wherein lays the attraction of Buddhism? Read on
Comments
KaKiaYam
perhaps the point is more a conceptual difference where in one case, the world is metaphysically empty in an ultimate sense and enlightenment is found in realising it as an illusion. While in the other case, the world is real and part of a good creation yet the problem is not in realising it's illusory but in not seeing it as supreme :)