Last week, the Dalai Lama, Buddhism’s spiritual leader made this astounding quote,
“Too much attachment towards your children, towards your partner,” was “one
of the obstacles or hindrances to peace of mind.”
The whole idea of suffering, desire, and detachment in Buddhism has had an effect on Buddhist societies that most Buddhists themselves do not recognize. Buddhism not only fears suffering, but actually contributes to suffering. By emphasizing detachment and the elimination of desire, Buddhism puts an unnatural barrier on relationships that stifles the fullest possible expressions of mercy and sacrificial love. Certainly there is love in Buddhism, but not the kind of love that we see in the demonstration of Christ on the cross. That is Buddhism’s greatest tragedy. The fullest possible expression of love cannot be experienced without suffering and sacrifice. Buddhism fails to understand this, and thus is a system that has an outward expression of love that is void of a truly impassioned heart.
- Buddhism has love without passion,
- Islam has passion, but not love,
- Christianity loves passionately.
Nothing expresses love in the way that Jesus’ sacrifice for us does. Buddhism and Islam deny this truth. Buddhists must work for their version of “salvation”—non-existence! Buddhism is a philosophy where the living hope for an eternal death. But Christianity presents the spiritually dead with the hope of a joy-filled, conscious eternity. There are no mediators in Buddhism or Islam to stand in for the sake of a person’s eternal destiny. But Christians have the joyful advantage of having salvation given to them freely by a God who took their punishment in their place.
