Escaping the trap of Tibetan Buddhism
By Bertram Inglesmit
As missionaries, we reach out to people because we believe that they desperately need the Good News of Jesus Christ. It may not be immediately obvious that it is hard for non-Christians to understand about Jesus or that they are suffering because of their belief system. These two factors are true for all unreached people groups, but they differ in each case. This article gives a specific illustration of one set of people groups, namely the Tibetan Buddhists (TBs).
When my wife and I first came to live among the TBs we were forewarned that they are a people who do not easily respond to the call of Jesus and become Christians. Christian work among them has been underway for many years with very little result.
When we started work, we fell in love with the people. They are friendly, and are in many ways excellent people. However, we quickly became aware that there are powerful strongholds in place that make it difficult to reach TBs with the gospel.
Firstly, in our town they tend to live in small, dank and dark homes. This means that they are reluctant to invite visitors to their houses, partially for practical reasons, and partially to save face. This makes it hard to engage TBs in meaningful conversations as most meetings are held in public, limiting the depth of ministry that is possible.
Secondly, Tibetan Buddhism is a highly-developed philosophy which, on its terms appeals to the intellect and provides plausible answers to many questions that people face, such as:
• Why is there suffering?
• How should I live? (i.e. a strongly developed moral code)
• What is my aim in life?
• What will happen when I die?
TBs value their philosophy and regard it as superior to any other. It is also very different from the Christian philosophy and world view. Concepts we take for granted such as a Creator God, sin as a breach in the relationship between man and God and an eternal heaven where the redeemed live in perpetual happiness are completely foreign to TBs. There are certainly concepts which bear some apparent similarity to one another, but one soon finds that the differences between them lead to misunderstandings and confusion.
Thirdly, the practice of Tibetan Buddhism offers a certain power. For example, certain lamas are reputed to do wonders such as flying long distances without any aid. The state oracle regularly provides prophecies of impending events. TBs regularly go to their lamas to provide guidance on which course of action to take such as when to plant crops and whether to go on a journey. Based on his knowledge of the future and his great wisdom (gained in previous lives) the lama then counsels the TB on the best way forward. Tibetan Buddhism provides authority over spiritual beings by means of special rituals and practices. Even health care falls under the cover of Tibetan religion. Tibetan medicine is a highly established system of holistically viewing a person including the use of herbal medicines, anatomy and astrology. Medicines may have their potency enhanced by having special blessings said over them by high lamas.
Fourthly, TBs have a very strong community. Each member has a specific place and role to fulfil. The monks and lamas do many rituals for the benefit of the people, and the people support them by means of offerings. Each TB child is schooled from an early age in Tibetan Buddhism by parents, extended family, teachers, monks and lamas. The Dalai Lama is viewed as a “living Buddha,” the embodiment of the religion and can thus be experienced in a tangible way. Following Jesus, who is not physically present, is not attractive to TBs. Should one consider leaving Buddhism it means losing one’s identity as a Tibetan. Extremely strong peer pressure is exerted on TBs not to relinquish Buddhism. Those that do take on Christianity are cursed by the lamas and all misfortunes that that person meets with are considered the result of the curses.
From these four points it can be seen that TBs are essentially trapped in their religion. This means that they will never be reconciled with God, be saved from their sins and be able to live eternally in heaven. This is a terrible reality, requiring us to be earnest in our efforts to bring TBs out of their prison.
At the same time, there are several aspects of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy that lead to great suffering in their lives. We are incensed at these things, and they lead us to be even more serious in speaking to Tibetans and calling them to Christ.
The ways in which Tibetan Buddhism harms the well-being of its adherents are many.
Some of these ways are related to the nature of its promise of eternity.
The goal of Buddhism is to attain enlightenment. Enlightenment is essentially an extinguishing of the person so that he ceases to exist. There is no promise of a blissful heaven in the presence of God. Enlightenment is also very difficult to attain – it may take thousands of lives of reach. Most TBs do not personally know a person that has achieved enlightenment or who has any hope of reaching it. This to us is the ultimate failure of Buddhism – it promises an answer for eternity, but puts it so far away that practically nobody has any real hope of attaining it.
The lack of prospects of reaching enlightenment gives rise to hopelessness among some younger TBs. They ask, “If I cannot reach enlightenment in this life, why should I bother trying?” They then lead lives that do not follow Buddhist rules. This leads to the gathering of “bad karma.”
If pressed, many TBs will say that “bad karma” is essentially taking a life, whether it be a human, a cow or a bug, it is all the same. All lives matter equally. However, it is understood that many other actions all lead to the accumulation of bad karma. As a result, most people do not really know whether their karma has improved in this life or not. Moreover, karma is also something that is kept across lives – what I did in a previous life may result in bad karma in this life, and it is unknown how much bad karma one needs to overcome. This gives rise to great concern to TBs.
The one hope that TBs have is that somehow they can get closer to enlightenment in a next life. This is called attaining a favourable rebirth. This is done by having as much good karma as possible.
Good karma for a favourable rebirth is achieved by doing various good deeds, especially rituals. The basic way of gathering good karma is by saying mantras. A mantra is a phrase from Sanskrit that promises to have great power when spoken but which have no real meaning to the TB himself. TBs speak these mantras over thousands of time using a mala, a string of beads that looks like and functions similar to a rosary. They also turn prayer wheels over and over. Each turn of the wheel is considered to provide as much karma as reciting a mantra hundreds or thousands of times over, depending on the size of the wheel turned.
Another source of good karma is by doing prostrations, where the Buddhist stands up, then lies down full length on the floor before lifting himself up again. They do this hundreds of times over.
In addition, it is considered highly auspicious to walk around a holy place such as a temple. In fact, just seeing a temple is viewed as an auspicious occasion.
Many Tibetans undertake these acts to a startling degree to the extent that they become the focus of every waking moment – they are either eating, sleeping or doing some ritual. This fixation on ritual robs a person of many other healthy things they could have done, especially spending time with family.
When a person dies, his relatives call in the lamas to do rituals on behalf of the departed one to assist in attaining a favourable rebirth. The costs for this vary depending on the rituals to be done and the number of monks involved in the rituals. Families stretch their financial capabilities to the maximum to get the most effective rituals possible. When asked whether the person in fact attained a favourable rebirth, the monks invariably say that that was the case. Some TBs have given this as proof that the Tibetan Buddhist religion is effective and helpful.
It is considered important for every family to provide a male child to be a monk. This provides a large amount of good karma to the family. The monk is considered to be able to gather good karma by his works too. However, the family is expected to provide for the continued upkeep of the monk, causing a great financial burden to them.
It is considered essential for Tibetan families to regularly engage the local monastery to do rituals on their behalf. This once again entails a monetary consideration. The whole religious system imposes a huge economic encumbrance on the TB people.
According to Buddhism, the key to getting closer to enlightenment is to avoid craving, desire, and attachment of any kind. For example, all desires for pleasure are discouraged. Affection for others is also discouraged as “attachment.” Even affection for your own mother is viewed negatively as this is viewed as inconsistent. According to Buddhism, we have all lived millions of lives before, each time in a different body and with different people fulfilling different roles. It is said that in one of those lives, the person who is currently our mother was our worst enemy. If we were so against that person in that life, how can we suddenly choose to have affection for that person?
The discouragement of affection within the family causes many social evils. For example, divorce is not considered a serious step as the marriage relationship is not in any way binding, causing great harm to the children involved. This is especially the case when the parents get remarried, and the stepchildren are treated as less valuable than the children from the current marriage.
TBs are also the victims of a great fear of spiritual beings. These are capricious in that they may take offense or get angry for little or no reason at all, causing them to harm the person. For example, when crossing a mountain, the TB will put a rock on a pile of stones to placate the mountain spirit who otherwise might cause an avalanche to fall over him. This fear of spiritual beings causes real suffering to TBs far beyond any possible harm from natural calamities they might encounter.
The conclusion we draw is that not only do TBs not have any eternal hope in Jesus, they are also oppressed by their religion to steal their lives and money for worthless rituals and acts.
Please pray for us that we will be able to communicate God’s love to these dear people. We need to discern the best way to each TB’s heart and meet their real needs.
We have learnt that no matter how carefully we speak the word of God, TBs are very resistant to hearing the Good News. Please pray for the TBs that God will speak to their hearts and prepare them for a meeting with the living God by means of dreams, visions and words to the heart.
Finally, consider contributing financially to mission organizations such as All Nations Cape Town to spread the gospel to unreached people groups across the world.
