I just want to clarify some more points on Buddhism, as a sort of “Sacrilegious Sunday, part II.” Tumblr does wonderful things to expose me to inspiring information, you know.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

- Buddha

By contrast, here is another quote for your pleasure:

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

- The Bible; John 14:5-14

So here, where the Buddha tells us to trust our own instincts and our own findings and do good works by our own accord and with our own judgment, the Bible tells us to trust Jesus solely because he says to. Further, do what Jesus does (re: “What Would Jesus Do?”) if you intend on doing “good works,” instead of deciding for yourself what good is.

I’m not sure where I wanted to go with this. We’ll just leave it here. Maybe you’ll figure out where I was going with it.

- Debbie