Buddhistic reincarnation in Tibet

There never was any doubt in my mind, church mouse guy, especially since coming to Japan and seeing it in the raw.

Concerning Tibet, in spite of its supposedly gentle Buddhism it is historically one of the nastiest countries ever. My parents were surrendered to go to Tibet as missionaries under the China Inland Mission before I was born, until the communists took over. (I could have been a Tibetan!) At the time (the 1940's), there were more missionaries buried on the borders of Tibet than there were Christian believers in the whole country. When I was a boy, I read one account by a westerner who went into Tibet in which he was made to ride on a horse with many nails coming up through the saddle into his body. Let no one be deceived by the Dalai Lama--Buddism is nasty, especially in Tibet.

 

Yes, "gentle Buddhism." I corresponded once with a young Christian man who had bought the "gentle Buddhist" thing hook, line and sinker, probably from the education he got in the public schools. He thought that Buddhists never started wars, for example. I reminded him of the Japanese part in WW2, in particular the "Rape of Nanking," in which Japanese Buddhist soldiers raped and murdered over 200,000 civilians in Nanking, China. I could have also mentioned the Bataan Death March, Unit 731 (which experimented with WMDs on our war prisoners), etc.

Again, here is something I've posted before on the Baptist Board:

Zen is portrayed as peaceful and quiet, right? However, Zen training in Japan is extremely stressful. That's why Zen is not really that strong in Japan, believe it or not. Americans fall for that "peaceful" image, though.

If you were to train in meditation at a Zen temple here in Japan, a priest would walk up and down behind you with a bamboo sword. If he saw you nodding off, he'd smack you with it!

Then, you would find that most of the Japanese meditators had nothing religious in mind. They would be meditating for success in business or in relationships. Only the tough survive--the rest are soon disillusioned.

When we were in Yokohama, my wife taught English to a couple of Japanese ladies. One day they came to the lesson with shocking news. A young American man they knew had been training in Zen at a local temple. He couldn't take the training, had a nervous breakdown and had to be shipped back home!

 

John, I have a question.

Can Buddhism be an actual religion.

I have a teen in my youth group that says it can not be a religion, as it doesn't worship a god.

Is this true and how would you answer him?

 

Well, tinytim, your teen is right in one sense, and that is that the original teachings of Buddhism were technically atheistic. Gautama ("the Buddha") taught specifically against the Hindu pantheon, which is actually a pretty scuzzy set of "gods." He didn't seem to know anything about monotheism, though, so his original teachings do not answer our Judeo-Christian beliefs. Anyway, if you define religion as a teaching of the worship of a God or gods, Gautama was not religious.

However, Gautama did teach specifically about the meaning of life, the afterlife and other things that religions normally teach about. So I consider his original teachings to be a religion.

Further, Buddhism in modern times has changed so much that the Buddhists of any country or sect typically are idol worshippers, so modern Buddhism is definitely a religion. In Japan, I have many times seen Japanese praying to Buddha. I rembember going to the "Great Buddha" of Kamakura, 60 feet tall, and seeing many Japanese praying to it. You can go inside the thing, so I also thought, "If I go into that thing's head, it would have more brains than Buddha ever had!"

Also, the ancestor worship of later Confucianism has been integrated into Buddhism, so all Japanese Buddhists worship their ancestors.

 

Don't think I'd be too willing to get on that horse!

 

Just a question, is the body being eaten by vultures really any different to the body being eaten by worms?

Regards
Bob

 

Good question, Bob. Yes, it is worse, because it is the relatives that purposely put the body out for the vultures to eat. When you bury your loved one, you do not do it for the purpose of letting the worms eat it, so you put it in a casket. If you respect the body as the former temple of the Holy Spirit you will treat it carefully.

The Japanese cremate, so it is not nearly as bad as the Tibetan ceremony. However, the Japanese then worship the dead spirit at the funeral by prayer to the spirit and various offerings, including flowers.

I once stopped by a flower shop in Yokohama, and chose out a lovely bouquet for my lovely wife. The shop lady said, "Oh, sir, that one is for offering to the Buddhist dead." To this day, I don't know why I did it, but I said, "Poof! This bouquet is now for Christians," bought it and took it home!

 

Works for me.

 

Love it!

 

There is nothing wrong with allowing vultures to eat a dead body unless for some reason somebody is personally offended by it in which case it is well to refrain from feeding the vultures.

at least until the easily offended are gone home.

 

Why is it sickening? A dead body is an empty shell. What does it matter if that shell is buried for worms to consume, cremated and the ashes scatterred for insects and plants to consume, or cast on a mountaintop for vultures to consume? Yeah, it's unusual from a western pov, but sickening? That's subjective.

 

Why is it sickening? A dead body is an empty shell. What does it matter if that shell is buried for worms to consume, cremated and the ashes scatterred for insects and plants to consume, or cast on a mountaintop for vultures to consume? Yeah, it's unusual from a western pov, but sickening? That's subjective. </font>[/QUOTE]They strip the skin off and the muscle chopping it up and then brake the bones in bite size pieces with a sledgehammer. Sickening? Well let's just say quite an unusual imagination, huh!

 

Again, the dead body is literlly an empty shell. When I'm dead, I don't care if mine is tossed in the trash or run through a tree stump grinder. I have no use for it.

I think we Christians are too preoccupied with our loved one's remains after death.

 

According to Jewish custom. I'm not Jewish. I plan on being cremated. If the Jewish custom of the time were a mandate for all Christians, I'm violating it with my own preplanning. In fact, most of us would be. The traditional Jewish custom was to inter in a temporary location for about 2 years until the flesh had decayed completely off the bones. The bones would then be placed in an ossuary (small box) and interred. I can't think of a single Christian who has such burial plans.

I'm assuming you meant "I could never allow...". It is not our bodies that are in the image and likeness of God. If that were so, God needs to get the the gym, and fast. No, it is our spiritual nature that makes us in the image and likeness of God.

 

CMG, I wasn't defending the false belief in reincarnation at all. I was just making a case for "what does it matter" in regards to our dead bodies? It matters not a tittle.

BTW, Satan wasn't referring to reincarnation. Satan was literally referring to never dying. While reincarnation is obviously contrary to scripture, I don't think we should credit something to Satan something that wasn't so intended.... because you know darn well he'll gladly take the credit.