Wander

We took some time to do some exploring in the small city where we are staying. It began with something really crazy. A drive to the top of one of the mountains that surrounds Surkhet valley where we are staying. 

To the Right is the mountain we drove up. The picture is taken from the roof of the small hotel /hostel we are staying in.

At first the road was they typical bad road that I have come to expect in this rural western Nepali region but as we went further and further up the mountain the road went from typical bad to unbelievably bad to "are we sure this is even meant for a car?" kind of bad. 

When we finally arrived at the summit, I took a minute to get my stomach out of my throat, then proceeded to hike around and see the sights. There were some small shops, and by shops I mean small huts with a few things for sale in them. 

It is a sheer drop from the top of this part of the mountain to the valley floor. When the updrafts are right thrill seeking hang gliders will launch from up here.

A short trail around the top gave us great views of Surkhet Valley which has become the new district and provincial capital so there have been a lot of construction and improvement projects in the works which means the roads are a mess, only short sections are paved.

We explored around the summit area for a while and began the stomach wrenching drive 

back down to the base of the mountain. After a short drive and time for recovery we made to a Hindu temple and worship area. The Deuti Bajai Mandir is the most well known Temple in Surkhet. There is a specially dedicated area for offerings to be made by the foot impressions of Shiva on a rock. 

This Shrine complex to Shiva (inside) is a hub of Hindu worship and religious activity at certain times of the year.

I am not sure what people offer to Shiva but I can tell you the flies really appreciated the offerings.There was one priestess there helping people with their offerings. There were also to women who were washing out one of the shrines. I suppose even the gods need baths 

once in a while. It is interesting that there are candles lit on the side of the shrine symbolic of prayers like Catholics do, and there are bells towards the front for prayers like the Buddhists. It seems that religious activity is religious activity no matter where you go. It is like... pick a religion, light a candle, say the right words and hope someone is listening.

After the Hindu temple we took a stroll through a park which was really a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of the dusty roads and angry horns of vehicles trying to tell you to get out of the way so they could get by. It was about as close to zen as I have come on this trip.

Bulbul Lake is one of the bright spots in this dusty city. It was recently cleaned and renovated and now seems to be a hub for teens to hang out.

We walked around appreciated a few moments of quiet and serenity and headed out for the last part of our excursion. The site we were headed to next is perhaps one of the oldest if not thee oldest touristy site in Surkhet. A little slice of history is what I really love.

This Buddhist temple or perhaps shrine is better is called Kakre Bihar. It is a Hindu-Buddhist Temple Near Birendranagar city where we are staying. Kakre Bihar has a shaped like the seed of a cucumber so it is called Kakre bihar. The Nepali word 

for cucumber is Kakro. The stones of what remains are strewn around the site and you can see by walking around that they are recreating the intricate designs of the broken stones so that each piece can be replicated and replaced.

This temple is believed to be built on 12th century by a famous king who fell in love with the Surkhet Valley. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1866. Form what I can tell reconstruction this has been a very long process beginning back in the 1980s.

There is a somber beauty that surrounds this place. Almost like walking through a graveyard that even though it looks like it is falling apart you know there is some very old even ancient significance and presence to it. I wonder what it was like 500 years ago to walk the steps to this temple. I wonder how people felt as they approached its imposing size. Perhaps like the Europeans as they approach the Gothic Cathedrals of the middle ages - and still today. 

I suppose this is what religions do. They build massive and impressive structures hoping these structures will impress the God or gods they revere and honor. Religion wants to remind you how small you are compared to the greatness of the deity to which it points. They tell you this is where you have to go to worship your god so that when you get there you can't help but think how small you are when thinking about this god.

What would be really impressive is if one of those gods or God lived as a human so that they knew what it was like to suffer and experience pain and loss rather than just imposing their will all the time. Is that too much to ask? Hmmmm

Just a Meandering Thought...

Birthplace

 Nepal is home to the birthplace of one Siddhartha Gautama. As the story goes Siddhartha was a Hindu prince who wanted to experience life outside the walls of palace life. When he witnessed what life was like for those who did not have the luxuries that he took for granted he decided to leave that life behind to find a deeper meaning and purpose to life.

According to many sources Siddhartha Gautama, who became Buddha, was born in 623 B.C. in the famous gardens of Lumbini, which soon became a place of pilgrimage. Among the pilgrims was the Indian emperor Ashoka, who erected one of his commemorative pillars there. The site is now being developed as a Buddhist pilgrimage center, where the archaeological remains associated with the birth of the Buddha form a central feature.

Nepal is still about 85% Hindu today, yet it seems as if it is more known for its Buddhist heritage than Hindu. I do find it interesting that the man known as Buddha had his start as a Hindu prince. Though there are significant differences I suppose it is interesting to point out that the man upon whom the Christian faith is based also started as a member of a different religion. Jesus was a Jewish carpenter

BRICKS

So I went to a pretty remote village. Most of the structures there were straw and/or mud; there were a few that were brick. This again was a village of people who are considered to be outside of the caste system, or Dalits, also known as "untouchables". There were just a couple of structures that had electricity. The government provides bricks to these people to help them build homes that will last through the monsoon season. It is part of the the government's initiative to help these people.

A partially used stack of bricks sits in a vacant area of the village waiting to be used up by the people there building homes.

According to Orthodox Hinduism. These people are not considered Hindu's because they are outside of the caste system. They are below the lowest caste. They cannot participate in any temple worship, or make any offerings to any gods, or even go into a Hindu Temple. Christianity comes along teaching things like '...there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile...' etc... and it appeals to people like the Dalits who have nothing and live at such a low station in life.

This one room building is the village church. There are bricks on the ground just to the left of the door; these bricks will be used to build a small room on the side for the children.

In this village of about 300 people there is a small temple or shrine made of mud. Inside is the village deity. This is how just about all rural villages in India are; each one has its own shrine to its own deified spirit in addition to the more well known gods like Shiva. Christianity came to the village just a few years ago for the first time, and the people seemed to gravitate towards the teachings of the Bible, and the person of Jesus. When it came time to build a structure as a place for the Christians to gather, they decided to build it with bricks. It was a statement, Jesus is here to stay.

Two children are playing with the dishes we ate off of for lunch. Though it does look like they are arguing right??...

It is an interesting phenomena is the Indian ID card. On the ID card is place where you delcare what religion you are. Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim or even Sikh, even though that is a sect of Hinduism. The Dalits, as Hindus, get government grants for many things. They can go to school on the government dime, they receive bricks to build homes, they often simply get checks from the Indian government so they can live (India's version of Social Security.) They do what they can to keep people Hindu in order to preserve their ancient heritage and culture.

I am standing outside one of the straw homes in the village. Inside was a sick elderly couple and their grandson. He was taking a break from the mid day heat before going back into the fields to work.

That is of course, as long as the ID card says Hindu, (or Sikh or Buddhist, since Buddhism started in India). If a Dalit becomes either a Christian or a Muslim, he or she is no longer considered outside the caste system and is therefore no longer eligible for government support. So a Dalit actually gives up a lot to walk away from Hinduism. Once a Dalit becomes a Christian he or she is dependent on the Church community for help in times of trouble because most Hindu's refuse to help non-Hindu's.

Children outside their home on beds.

Now in this village there are 20 baptized believers and several others who attend but are not baptized, out of 300 people. The pastor here earns at most the equivalent of $80 per month. He has no formal education, but he loves the people here and that is why the people here will listen to him.

• The village still gets bricks delivered, for now.
• The people survive.
• They somehow get by at way below the poverty line... the Indian poverty line.
• Their farming does not pay well; it is barely enough to live on.
• Yet I have not seen as many smiles on faces in Indians as I did that day in that church.
• It makes me wonder what Jesus gives these people that they don't get somewhere else.
• Is it real or just a perception?

MONASTERY

Sunday afternoon we went to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery close to the school where I am staying. There were not too many monks out but we did get to see their temple and the outside of the dormitories where they live.

The gates to this monastery are always open anyone can come in at any time to seek solace and peace.

Tibetan Buddhism is different from other forms of Buddhism. In fact there are three main schools of Buddhism. The first is Theravada Buddhism which is considered the oldest but it is not as widely practiced. The second is Mahayana Buddhism, which came along a while later and is more commonly practiced. The third is Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is considered heretical by the other two groups because in Tibet, Buddhism mixed with the local religious traditions and what emerged was a syncretistic form of Buddhism.

The grounds of this monastery were very well kept. The monks live a disciplined life and it shows in the well manicured grass and trees.

Buddhism does not believe in God per se; they pray to Buddha, to former Bodhisattvas and to their ancestors for help in this life and in the next. Buddhists will pray to Buddha for help in life and monks in particular will pray for help becoming enlightened. To Buddhists the purpose of life is to become nothing.

This huge gong was just inside the doorway to the temple. It goes off every morning at 5:30am for morning meditation. I sleep close enough to the monastery that it has woken me up on a few occasions.

The Tibetans revere the Dali Lama not as a god so much but as a reincarnation of a Buddha. The Dali Lama has visited this monastery a few times and interestingly, they have enshrined the car that he rode in. No one is allowed to sit in it. Part of the reason there is a monastery here is because India and China have had ongoing disputes about their land and the proper borders. As a way to get under the Chinese’s skin India gave asylum to the Dali Lama and even offered the land to the Tibetan Buddhists to build their Monastery. The monks who live here consider themselves in exile.

Not sure what this cylindrical thing is hanging from the ceiling but I am told that it represents a particularly holy place in the temple. Just behind it you can a mural commemorating an event in the life of Buddha.

The monastery has a very simple layout. The gate is left open all day, so they are not worried about who comes in and who goes out. The grounds are well kept and simple. The Temple was in contrast, very ornate. The walls were covered with murals, there were tapestries hanging from the walls and the ceilings.

These red mats are where the monks sit for their daily meditation times.

At the very front there is a statue of Buddha and he is flanked by two other well known, Bodhisattvas, but don‘t ask who they are. At the front there is also a chair or perhaps better a throne chair on which the Dali Lama sat while here, and since then the chair has been retired.

This is the very front of the temple the main statue of Buddha is about five feet tall and encased in a glass enclosure.

The Tibetan Buddhists have a long history with a deep tradition, and they are still longing to go home. Though this will not likely happen any time soon, they still hold out hope. You will still see the bumper stickers that say “Free Tibet”. The movie "Seven Years in Tibet" and the book are both worth your time. The musical score performed by Yo Yo Ma for the movie is excellent.

I would go into further detail but I am in India to learn about Hinduism and Hindu culture so I will end here. I have written a little more in my post entitled "Buddhism."

CLASS

On Friday, at 10:30am, after morning tea (a leftover tradition from the when the British ruled) one of the professors asked me if I would be willing to take his class which meets at 11:40am. and two classes next week. I thought about it for like a second and said sure. Needless to say there was little time to spare. But for those of you reading this who have ever been in a class that I have taught you know that sometimes I do pretty well when I wing it. The class is called “Basic Christian Spirituality”. Knowing that people in India have a very different view of spirituality than Americans do, to assume they are thinking the same thing I am when talking about spirituality could make for a very confusing class.

I began by asking them about their religious background. Many had come from other religious backgrounds and I asked them to share with me and the class some aspects of spirituality from their own background. I had a Buddhist, a few Sikhs, and many Hindus share. About a third had a Christian background. I made a list of some of the “spiritual” aspects of each of these religions and then demonstrated how Christianity has many things in common. Things like:

• There is a Holy Book or holy Scriptures.
• There is an ultimate reality
• There is some form of divine figure or figures (though for Sikhs they are gurus who are treated like gods)
• There are good works you are supposed to do

What we discovered as a class however, was there is one big difference between Christianity and these other religions. That one difference (there are many things but one big one) is the person of Jesus.

• There are no gods in the other religions who claim to love their people to the point of dying for them.
• There are no gods who became human so that they could die for their people.
• There are no gods who died and rose from the dead to forgive sins.
• Sins are not forgiven by gods in these religions instead they are worked off by suffering or through good works.

The other religions represented by those in the class state that the way to experience ultimate reality in their expressed form is through human effort; by outweighing you bad deeds with your good deeds. But according to Christianity, human effort is not enough. The only way to get to God is through God, not through our own work. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we are saved by grace, and not by works, otherwise people would boast about how much they had done in comparison to others. I told the class, now that we understand the similarities between these religions we can begin to look at what makes Christianity different. And really the person of Jesus is the big difference.

One thing you may notice from the pictures is that it is all guys in one and mostly girls in another. Indian society is still very gender conscious. So most women have the same access to education but they separate men and women in their classes. Men sit on one side women on the other. This is the case in most places in India. They guy to the extreme right of the first photo is the professor of the class. He graduated from GCTS (where I am now) four years ago.

SIDDHARTHA

In a small country in what is now southern Nepal a clan called the Shakyas ruled. The head of this clan, and the king of the country, was Shuddodana Gautama. His wife, Mahamaya, was expecting their first child and as was the custom of the day, when the time came near for Queen Mahamaya to give birth, she traveled to her father's kingdom for the birth (this is still practiced in some places in India today). On the way she went into labor in the small town of Lumbini. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy whom she named Siddhartha. She died seven days after the birth and Siddhartha was raised by his mother’s sister, Mahaprajapati until he was seven.

King Shuddodana eager for his son to be a king like himself, decided to shield him from anything that might result in him taking up the religious life. And so Siddhartha was kept in one of their three palaces, and was prevented from experiencing much of what ordinary people consider common. Siddhartha enjoyed the lavish court life while his father shielded him from all of the troubles and worries of life.

Despite all the amenities of palace life, Siddhartha became restless and unsatisfied with fleeting pleasures. His inquiring and contemplative nature drove him to seek something deeper. One day, he left to see what life was like beyond the palace walls. During his foray into the real world he encountered what up until then had been hidden from him. He saw an old man, a diseased person, a corpse being cremated, and a sadhu (holy man, or hermit). Siddhartha realized for the first time that there is suffering in the world and that people ultimately have little control over their lives. It was the fourth sight, his experience with this holy man or Brahman priest, that provided the inspiration which led to a dramatic change in his life.

In about 533 b.c., on the night of his 29th birthday, Siddhartha gave up his life as a prince and secretly left the court. He traveled far and wide for the next five years or so; he became a penniless homeless vagabond. He led a life of self-mortification and spiritual study, becoming first a disciple of several then famous Brahman teachers, later attracting his own disciples. He was looking for a solution to the problem of suffering.

After a long and exhausting period of searching and self-mortification, he became disillusioned with the Indian caste system, Hindu asceticism, and the religious doctrines of his time. He gave up the ascetic life and lost all of his disciples as a result, but he continued his search for truth through the practice of meditation. In the spring of 528 b.c. while meditating under a Bodhi tree in Bodh-Gaya, Siddhartha experienced the Great Enlightenment, which showed him the way of salvation from suffering. He spent seven weeks meditating near the Bodhi tree and became a fully realized Buddha at the age of 35.

In the summer of 528 b.c. Buddha found his former disciples and in his first sermon he taught them what would become the foundation of Buddhism based on ascetic Hindu teachings. In the 45 years following his enlightenment, Buddha traveled around Northern India teaching the tenets of Buddhism. The whole thrust of his teachings is to cease suffering by desiring nothing. His Four Noble Truths are to be pursued by doing the works of the eightfold path. In 483 b.c. he died at the age of eighty as a result of food poisoning.

What is important to know about Buddhism in relation to Indian history is that its growth came about because of a shift in the religious climate in India (and Nepal, there was no India at the time). The reflective and ascetic meditations that had become common for the Brahman priests in his time were what made Buddhism so easily acceptable. In “Sacred part 2” I wrote about the Upanishads which were the latest of the Shruti texts, written in the time of the Buddhism reformation. As you read those texts you find many Buddhist ideas even though it is a Hindu text. Buddhism did not catch on immediately. It was not until King Ashoka in the late 300’s b.c. that it began to spread like wild fire. But before that happened there was another major historical event that took place. The Invasion of the Macedonian Army led by a military leader named Alexander…

SACRED part 2 of 2

As the first millennium b.c. progressed the Vedic culture settled into the Ganges River basin and developed a more stationary, agriculturally based society. The more mobile nomadic society of their ancestors had faded and the Vedic people were living in one place for longer periods of time. Clans fought with one another and annexed land from neighboring clans creating larger and larger kingdoms.

The Vedic religion continued to go through changes as well. Since the society was more stationary Brahmans, holy men of the priestly caste, were making their homes in the forests where they would meditate and contemplate reality and the meaning of life. The fourth and final of the Hindu Shruti texts was written by these hermit holy men as they practiced their religious meditations.

If you have not read “SACRED part 1” what you essentially need to know is that there are two kinds of Hindu texts: “Shruti” which means “revealed” i.e. from a divine source, and “Smrti” which means “remembered”. There are four Shruti collections of texts; I talked about the first three in "SACRED part 1." The fourth of the Shruti texts is called the Upanishads.

The Upanishads reflect the wider cultural shift taking place in the region being written roughly between 800 and 300 b.c. In the Upanishads there is a distinct turn away from many of the Vedic ideas and practices which mirror the shift in the wider culture. The hermit-sages who composed the Upanishads sought something more-ultimate, eternal salvation. Thus they spoke about and believed in a single, eternal, impersonal, divine force that animates and permeates the entire cosmos - Brahman.

The word "Upanishad" comes from a Sanskrit term that means "to sit near." It refers to a student sitting near a teacher and learning directly through questions and answers. The Upanishads hold that since everything is Brahman, the individual is also Brahman. Individuals think that the things that make them who they are, such as one's relationships, or appearance, or even thoughts, are real. The Upanishads hold that these are merely elaborate illusions (sounds a little like Platonic dualism).

If one wishes to realize the ultimate, then one must detach oneself from all of these unreal things through ascetic meditation. One must go off and meditate on the reality of Brahman, which begins with meditation on the self, which is in essence the same as Brahman. In doing this you can be free from desire. If you think that sounds like Buddhism you are about to find out why.

And so it was that with the societal changes came the emergence of clan leaders and even kings who ruled over large areas of land and many people. One particular king, King Suddhodana, ruler of the Sakya tribe, which straddled present day India and Nepal, had a son whom he loved very much. His son was born around 560b.c. When his son had grown up he decided to venture outside of the protective walls of the palace where he lived to see what life was really like. He saw four things that changed his life, the fourth thing he saw is what was crucial. The fourth thing he saw was a person, a hermit actually. One of these priestly seers of the Brahman caste who lived out in the wilds where he would meditate. This hermit-sage had found the Hindu prince and talked with him about contemplation, meditation and the meaning of life. He returned to his palace home but at the age of 29 he left it all and headed for the wilderness himself. This prince’s name was Siddhartha Gautama; he would later become known as Buddha.

Buddhism did not do so well at first. Then Alexander the Great showed up...

JUSTICE Part 2 of 2

Most of us would say that we want justice for the wrongs that we have endured. Justice is one of those American values that we aspire to maintain. When the towers fell on September 11th and we soon discovered who was responsible, we felt emboldened and righteous as we sought the one responsible and those who were helping him. We were fighting for the great American value of Justice.

If you read through Bible you will find many stories of people who fought for justice after experiencing injustice. One the most unique stories is the story of God fighting for justice. In all the reading I have done in Hinduism and Buddhism in the last year and a half as well as some of the Greek and Roman mythology I have not come across anything like it.

I was recently reading how, in ancient near eastern culture, when a criminal was caught, the punishment that was agreed upon by village elders was equal and opposite to the crime. One example I came across was that if a man were to punch a pregnant woman in the stomach and she were to lose her child as a result, the punishment would not be for that man to be killed, but for one of his children to be killed.

In those times, much of the economy was based on your name, your reputation. To defame the character and reputation of a man would be to destroy his standing in the community, no one would interact with him. It was as serious as committing murder today.

A name or reputation was extremely valuable in that culture; If you did not have your name you did not have anything. Why do you think the third of the ten commandments is not to take God's name in vain. He does not want his name associated with anything that is not from Him. Our sin is like defaming or slandering God's name and thereby Him. Not living to the standards of holiness that God has established is like saying, "to me, God is dead" or "to me, God does not exist". An equal and opposite punishment for that? Paul really meant it when he said, "The wages of sin is death." (Rom 6:23)

We have no hope of ever living up to that standard; our lives will be a hopeless mess of falling short. When justice is served on us it means death. We have committed injustice (some of us have committed lots of injustice;-) against God; God in turn seeks and renders justice. But this is where the story takes a turn for the unbelievable.

At the moment when injustice becomes justified by death we notice that we are not the ones who have died. Instead, the one who was wronged is the who has died and served the full sentence with his own life. You and I, though we perpetrated injustice, do not pay for our injustice with our death. God pays for our injustice against him by accepting our punishment on himself and once the criteria for justice has been met he gives us credit for justice being served. This means, innocence by association. (When we draw close to God he draws close to us.)

Most Americans feel that justice has been served for 9/11 now that Osama bin Laden is dead. And even according to his own beliefs justice has been served. I've got to admit, I'm really grateful that God's justice works differently than American justice...

Just a Meandering Thought...

INDIA: Religulation (religious population)

The Total population of India right now stands at about 1,200,000,000 (1.2billion people). That makes it the second most populous nation on the planet. Based on current birth and death rates, estimates put the population at 1.6 billion people by 2050 surpassing estimates for the population of China. India also has within its borders some of the most densely populated urban centers in the world.

These 1.2billion people are made up of about 2,533 distinctly identified ethno-linguistic people groups. Within these groups, Hindi (and its various dialects) is the most spoken language at a little over 40% Bengali is second with just 8%.

The twenty largest ethno-linguistic people groups in India make up almost half of the entire population. The largest group in India are the Shaikh people. At about 72,649,000 people they live mostly in the north (though there are population centers throughout India and in neighboring countries as well) and are predominantly a Muslim people. Of the next nineteen, eighteen claim Hinduism as the predominate religion. In each of these groups there is no viable Christian church to reach the people with the story of Jesus Christ. All 2,533 ethno-linguistic groups adhere to various religions in the following break down.

• Hinduism: 81.6%
• Islam 12.7%
• Christianity 2.3%
• Other / Small 2.2%
• Buddhism 0.7%
• Ethnic Religions 0.4%

Stats were taken from
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
www.joshuaproject.net

BUDDHISM

I have been reading about the Buddhist teaching on hell lately and it hit me... Hell. Buddhists believe in a hell as punishment for not living up to the standards of their teachings. After spending time in one or more of the hells you are then reborn lower on the reincarnation scale to try and make up for the mistakes of your previous life. It is more complicated than that depending on the form of Buddhism that is being practiced by any given individual. I don't know when the teachings on hell developed because it was not part of the Siddhartha's original teachings but in what I have read, hell is seen as a place of fire and torment. Sound familiar?? How or why are Christianity and Buddhism so similar?? Why do they have the idea of Hell in common?? Incidentally Judaism and Islam have very similar teachings on Hell as well.

All religions teach some kind of morality. They have some kind of definition for what is right and what is wrong, and teach about rewards for right actions and punishment for wrong actions. All religion is essentially a moral code and teaching on how to life within that moral code where your reward or punishment is experienced in whatever life is to come. It seems that all of humanity throughout all of history has known this on some level, and formed religious constructs around this idea.

Is it possible that the knowledge of something else out there beyond the here and now is hardwired into humanity? Is it possible that even a Buddhist who does not believe in God, believes that if you do not follow the teaching of the Buddhas you will spend time in one or more of eight hells. Is it possible that all of humanity understands this at some level to be true because it is true and even if you do not call God "God", you still understand that there is something else out there that is beyond our understanding.

The paintings pictured here are depictions of the Buddhist texts on hell and torture. In reading these texts it sounds pretty horrific. If you live a life in contradiction of the Dharma, you will spend a lot of time in these places. It seems that on some level humanity understands that there needs to be some kind of retribution for evil; there needs to be some way to be made pure.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." If I believe what this verse says, I believe that all of humanity understands that there is a life that continues after this life is over and the context for that life is directly connect to the context of this life. This is why a Buddhist, or anyone else for that matter understands that eternity is an extension of reality in this life; they have eternity on their heart. A Buddhist understands that living a moral life is what brings us into right relationship with our eternal destiny. They also understand that if they live a life that contradicts their precepts they deserves punishment in hell, yet a Christian is considered close minded or hateful for believing these things.

The Bible teaches that almighty God became a man, lived and died and came back to life all because of his love for mankind, many of whom would refuse to acknowledge him. The Buddhists have some great things to say and moral teachings that are equal with Christian moral teachings. However, the purist in Buddhism live by abandoning their desires and emptying themselves of any desires in this life, including love. Christians live by embracing the unending love of a God who knows us inside and out and is somehow still crazy about us. So embracing or desiring the God who created and loves humanity allows us to come into relationship with Him, giving us access to Heaven in Christianity. Doing the same thing in Buddhism sends you to Hell. So we all believe in Hell, we just believe in different ways to get there.

Just a thought...