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The Siddhartha Gautama 'Buddha' was born a prince of the Sakya tribe of Nepal, in approximately 566 BC. When he was twenty-nine years old, he left the comforts of his home to seek the meaning of the suffering he saw around him. After six years of arduous yogic training, he abandoned the way of self-mortification and instead sat in mindful meditation beneath a bodhi tree.
On the full moon of May, with the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, the enlightened one. The Buddha wandered the plains of northeastern India for 45 years more, teaching the path or Dharma he had realized in that moment. Around him developed a community or Sangha of monks and, later, nuns, drawn from every tribe and caste, devoted to practicing this path. In approximately 486 BC, at the age of 80, the Buddha died.
At the age of 29, Siddhartha came to realize that he could not be happy living as he had been living. He had discovered suffering, and wanted more than anything to discover how one might overcome suffering. After kissing his sleeping wife and newborn son Rahula goodbye, he snuck out of the palace with his squire Chandara and his favorite horse Kanthaka. He gave away his rich clothing, cut his long hair, and gave the horse to Chandara and told him to return to the palace. He studied for a while with two famous gurus of the day, but found their practices lacking.
Buddha had achieved his enlightenment at the age of 35. He would teach throughout northeast India for another 45 years. When the Buddha was 80 years old, he told his friend and cousin Ananda that he would be leaving them soon. And so it came to be that in Kushinagara, not a hundred miles from his homeland, he ate some spoiled food and became very ill. He went into a deep meditation under a grove of sala trees and died. His last words were...
"Impermanent (are not permanent) are all created things;
Strive on with awareness."
Buddhism vs. Christianity: Reincarnation
Buddhism and Biblical Christianity are not compatible. Many people insist all religions teach the same truths. They are all compatible. This is untrue. Buddhism teaches that beings experience an endless cycle of death and rebirth. If a person doesn't attain goals in their lifetime, they will live again in this life. This is doctrinal teaching Buddhism called reincarnation. This basic idea of Buddhism make it in compatible with Christianity. Christstianity teaches, "it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), and "that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Acts 24:15b). We see one life, then resurrection, judgment, and our eternal destination. Without this truth, other foundational truths of Biblical Christianity who become ineffective.
Buddhism vs. Christianity: Life and suffering
The Buddha, created the "Four Noble Truths", the essential foundations of Buddhism. The first of these claims that life is suffering. Any happiness in life is temporary, and when the ephemeral cause of happiness disappears, the subsequent suffering overshadows it.
*** Biblical Christianity acknowledges that life contains suffering. In John 15:11, we learn that we can even have joy while we're suffering. "Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering works perseverance" (Romans 5:3). When we live with this eternal reality; we have a true, lasting joy. Jesus said, "I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full"
Buddhism vs. Christianity: Cause of suffering
The Buddha taught in his second "Noble Truth" suffering is caused by desires. Christianity reveals other causes for suffering; Christianity first explains the meaning of suffering in relationship to the plan and will of God for mankind, it can be caused by unfulfilled or incomplete fulfilled desires of humans not awaken into the righteousness of Christ in the earth.
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