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Mike Shreve| Buddha’s main teaching focused on escape from suffering. When he claimed to experience Nirvana, one of the resulting insights was a concept labeled: “The Four Noble Truths.” These succinctly state that life is inevitably going to include suffering, and the cause of suffering is desire. To overcome suffering, therefore, we must overcome desire. This is accomplished through the “The Noble Eightfold Path”:
“The Noble Eightfold Path”
(1) Right Knowledge (2) Right Thought
(3) Right Speech (4) Right Conduct
(5) Right Livelihood (6) Right Effort
(7) Right Mindfulness (8) Right Meditation.
Is this true? Is this a correct appraisal of the solution to man’s dilemma? This list seems very convincing, but the interpretation of the words would be much different within a Christian worldview. For instance, “right meditation” for a Buddhist means emptying your mind of all thoughts while Christian meditation involves filling your mind with thoughts about truth as you ponder the mysteries of God’s Word. Buddhism teaches that the origin of suffering is ignorance, so the solution is a spiritual awakening of insights that empower us to rise above the suffering. Knowledge is power. But once again, “knowledge” in Buddhism differs greatly from “knowledge” in Christianity.