Sermon(Mt 10:24, 25): Preaching for Buddhist priests

The original Korean text; https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025220437

 

 

 

- Disciples are not above their teacher -

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Scripture reading: A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master; it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. (Mt 10:24, 25)

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Let's suppose you've made up your mind to deceive others. How can you delude people into believing that an empty box is the most valuable thing in the world? You must first seek wisdom by the Satan, the father of all lies. Satan will first teach you to decorate the empty box with gold, silver and precious stones. Seeing the empty box decorated with gold, silver and jewels, people will think, 'What precious thing is there in the box, so that it is decorated with gold, silver and jewels? There must be something more valuable than jewelry there!' People begin to crowd around the empty box. Many people come around and admire the well-decorated empty box. Seeing the large crowd round the box, a man passing by will think, 'There must be something awesome there.'

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In addition, the Satan will send a co-worker to you. This man (a fellow liar) is famous for great scholarship and wisdom in the world. This man highly evaluates the empty box. And many people think, 'The box must contain something that helps us find true wisdom, for that wise man appreciated the box.' To you Satan will add following advice: >Let that empty box be sanctified and hold many religious ceremonies for the box. Lay down a smoke screen around the box before people notice what the box really is. Tell them that a man who much restrains himself from food can grasp the reality of the box well. Tell them that only the one who does not get married and who does not eat some kinds of food can understand the reality of the box. Tell them that one who does not laugh can understand the mystery of the box. Say to them that they can learn the box after they have trained their body and mind by such regulations for about 30 years. Let their youth pass while they practice such religious deeds. Now make them religious people. Let them be used to religious life and be satisfied with it.<

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Now Satan will give you another advice. Choose some of those who, not knowing the identity of the box, have practiced the religious regulations unreasonably for about 30 years, especially the ones who are fed up with the world, who are much disappointed in life. Appoint them teachers of the religion. Let them receive a lot of respect from those who come to the box, not knowing its identity yet. Then they will accept their role as their job. Now you don't have to intervene. They themselves will gather and teach people and perform religious rituals. By the time one of these teachers dies of old age, he will realize that he has been deceived in something by someone. He can't, however, get out of this religion because of the eyes of others who honor him very much. This man will die, saying, "I've tried to know the holy box all my live. But even until now, I can't understand it! Perhaps a lot of my sins and lack of my character were the cause." He does not want his pride hurt, so he will never say, "I've been deceived!" And people are amazed at his remark. "He is a true teacher for he says he lacks much, though he has taught others and lived such a wonderful life. There are many true teachers in this religion." Finally, Satan will give you this advice. “Say to a man, who in the end finds the box to be just an empty box, that the world itself is vain and empty, that the box is the truth that teaches this lesson.”

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All Buddhists who are disciples of Buddha (Sakyamuni) can't live better than Buddha. They do not love the world, reject the good things of the world, and will finally die, saying that the world is vain. They do not believe in God and even deny the substantiality of the self. When there is nothing left with them to be thrown away, Buddhists even give up their own selves. They are attracting many people with the empty box, that is, the nothing(無).

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Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was a man who escaped from the world because he was fed up with the world. Therefore, the Buddhists are those who are attracted by the negative rather than the positive side of the world. As soon as he was born, according to tradition, Buddha said, "I'm the highest (the most important) one in the world." It's just a great illusion and a haughty hubris. So philosophical individualists tend to be Buddhists. A deer died and flies laid eggs on the dead deer. Maggots of the flies ate up the deer's carcass, and later flies came out from the pupas of the maggots. Then can you say the deer has become the flies? Does the deer that existed before have no meaning at all now? Are the new flies as good as nonexistent because they will be eaten by frogs? Must we deny the substantiality of our selves for that reason? Didn't Buddhism hallow the rudimentary and childish observations too high into a noble dogma? It is the essence of Buddhist doctrine that even one's self is but a fantasy, that all the worries of the world come from the love of the world, so one can have true joy and peace only when he abandons the love of the world. The rest of Buddhism are nothing but human sophistries and vain rituals. They added too many religious things to the nothing (the emptiness) and sanctified it too much and deceived people. Since the beginning of the Buddhism is a human observation of the world, at first it attracts men easily. However, it takes a lot of human wisdom and sophistry for Buddhism to make people believe it to be a holy box. At first, Buddhism looks like a clear truth, but the deeper you come into it, the more it becomes ambiguous and void.

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Christianity is not a religion that humans devised, but a religion that came from the self-revelation of God. Therefore, Christianity may, at first, give people some feelings of repulsion because they must first believe in the holy God. Christianity acknowledges not only the human body but also the human spirit that is the basis of the subject of human person. So Christianity and Buddhism can talk over morality, but they can't have a real and constructive dialogue in doctrine. Of course they can talk. But it will be a conversation in which they will express only their own positions.

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Christianity does not originate from an empty box, but from God, who is the origin of everything. Of course, some people will say that the premise of Christianity, too, is an empty box since we can't prove the existence of God. But God is not one who can be proved to exist in a scientific way. This God is not a God who adorns himself with gold, silver and jewels, but a God who hides himself. Faith in the God who created world and me is the first step to becoming a Christian. Everything in this world happens in the providence of God. Deer, flies, and frogs are all God's creatures. The food chain is within God's permission. Especially humans are created in God's image. Man is created as the object of God's love and as one who should praise God.

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What is Jesus our Savior and Teacher? He is the only begotten Son of God. Therefore, we serving him as teacher can become sons of God, which is the highest status we can attain to as human beings. Jesus is the perfect God from eternity. But Jesus, who, having human body, lived in the world, was a person who lived as the Son of God and a son of man. Therefore, we who are in the flesh can be sons of God as our holiest status. If anyone believes he is God, he is overstepping his bounds. Jesus much suffered and was insulted because he loved God the Father and humans. Therefore, we, who think him to be our teacher, should not complain when we meet more suffering and insult. Because we are his disciples. Our Master suffered harm, still more can we, his disciples, suffer harm!

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If you are a Buddhist, your soul is like an orphan and will worry about your life alone. If you are a Christian, you will be one whom God loves. If you are a Buddhist, you will try to avoid suffering. If you are a Christian, you will suffer for the work of God. If you are a Buddhist, you will consciously reject all the desire and satisfaction of the world. If you are a Christian, you will appreciate all this desire and satisfaction as the grace of God. If you are a Buddhist, you will die, saying that all is vain. If you are a Christian, you'll be glad when you die, expecting you will soon see face to face God who has walked with you so far. A good tree bears good fruits, and a bad tree bad fruits. Christianity is a good tree. The Cross is a good tree.

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[A prince vs. many low-class people]

Buddha (Sakyamuni) was at first a prince of a kingdom in India. one day he came out of the palace and saw all the aspects of human life, that is, the birth, illness and death of men. Shocked by this, he left home to find out how man can get out of this human misery of the pain and death, and practiced asceticism and discipline. His conclusion is that all human anguish comes from one's desire and ambition. You will not be in agony if you get rid of your greed, he says. In Buddhism, asceticism is a training to give up all bodily desires; and meditation is a training to remove distinction in mind that distinguishes between good and bad, so that one may remove the desire of the mind itself. They say that man can be liberated (saved) when he is free from all the cause and effect of the world through this Buddhist asceticism and meditation. So Buddhism places great importance on enlightenment (understanding).

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But this enlightenment through asceticism and meditation is nothing but a religious act that most ignorant people and children have nothing to do with. Have you ever heard that a beggar or a child, who is a Buddhist, reached nirvana, a state of being delivered from worldly existence? In Buddhism, therefore, it is essential for a man or a woman to be a Buddhist monk in order to reach nirvana. Buddhism is individualism for it teaches that the way of salvation is to cut off all connections with the world. Buddhists make great effort to reach nirvana not by others but by themselves. Authentic Buddhists look confident and conscientious for they are individualists, so they need no help from others and need not ask favor of others. How proud and arrogant the Buddhist monks are! And they look the nobler because they give up what they have. The more one gives up, the more he is respected as a great teacher. How majestically does Do-ol, an ex-professor of Korea University, get around after resigning his professorship? The reason why Buddhists respect Buddha the more is that he gave up the richest life and practiced the bitterest asceticism. So Buddhism is a religion of giving up. Buddha had a lot to give up and felt somewhat a sense of religious achievement. However, is the religion of abandonment meaningful to those who are so poor that they can't even afford to live today? It is somewhat good and recommendable for a man who has much to give up what he has and to live in a clean and frugal life-style. But (even if we acknowledge it as a religion) the poor will not be moved by such a religion.

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Christianity, on the other hand, began with the lower classes of people. In general, we can say that Christianity started from the Exodus in the days of Moses. Israelites were slaves in Egypt. one thing left for them to give up was only their life. They were called Hebrews, which meant then 'low-class people', that is, they were just servants and slaves. God heard from heaven their painful groan and sent his servant Moses to them to free them and give them the land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey. Therefore, our Christianity is a religion where people live by the grace of God. It is a religion for servants. In Christianity, we become servants of God and serve him as our only Lord because we have nothing. But, in Christianity, we can live a happy life under his protection and grace. So faith counts most in Christianity. Even a beggar or a child can have that faith and succeed in the religion (in the salvation of self). Therefore, in the eyes of secular people, Christians look like low-class people who serve God, expecting only blessings from him. But we Christians know the eternal truth that we cannot be saved by ourselves, so we cannot but be humble before God and can live in peace and thanksgiving on account of the sure true salvation that God has given us.

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Chong Tack Kim

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                                       - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -

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