The Buddhist traditions
Western Buddhism and mindfulness
Meditation without rebirth, Buddhism as psychology, and the mindfulness industry: the Buddhism most Westerners meet first.
What it is
Since the nineteenth century, Westerners have often presented Buddhism as a rational philosophy rather than a religion: Edwin Arnold's poem The Light of Asia (1879), Henry Steel Olcott's Buddhist Catechism (1881), D. T. Suzuki's books on Zen, and in 1979 Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme. Many Western Buddhists set aside rebirth, gods and merit.
Our response
Scholars such as David McMahan call this Buddhist modernism: a new form, not the Buddhism of Asia's history. Once rebirth is removed, Buddhism has no answer to death at all, only techniques for calmer living. Jesus offers more than a calmer life: he offers forgiveness, adoption by God, and resurrection.
10The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
John 10:10 (WEB) · context
12But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
John 1:12 (WEB) · context
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 26Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26 (WEB) · context
Sources
- David L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (Oxford University Press, 2008).