Do you know God Loves you?

[Manji2012]

Please share the experiences you've had with Christians who ask you questions like, "Do you know God loves you?" Or, "Do you know where you will go after you die?"

I ask this question because I had such an encounter with someone today at the bus stop on my way to work...

Because I am insecure in not believing in Jesus as the only way to salvation I got apprehensive when asked, "Do you know God loves you?" Therefore I replied emphatically, "Ah, No~! No, thank you." The gentlemen saw my Ron Paul Button and asked, "You're a Ron Paul Supporter?" I replied with, "Yes." He then said, "Well, that's good. If you were to die right now, do you know where you would go?" I then said, "Ah, No~! No, thank you. I am not interested..." Before he left he said, "When you die it will be too late."

At that I thought, "Oh, if only I had all the time and knowledge I have accumulated at my finger tips that is so devastatingly challenging to everything you think about Jesus and God."

I guess I agree a bit with Michael Tsarion in that it is time to start educating these people rather than just ignore them. I mean, I shouldn't give them all that authority on the subject.

On another note though, since I can't prove anything anways, next time I think I will respond to those questions with the following:

""Well, a few years ago I had a very liberating, spiritual, and religious experience from my encounter with Buddhism that I considered I was experiencing the Love of God. Experience God in that moment of ecstasy however, I am very reluctant to associate that experience as God because I have the impression that most Christians would not feel comfortable with that so, I assume I was getting in touch with what Buddhists call Dhamma."

I think an honest reply such as that would be best because it is honest and is much better than trying to debate who is Jesus, What is Christianity really, so and so forth because, I can not prove it, I mean, I research and watch a lot of challenging programs that bring up a lot of good points that threatens today's Christianity.

If they ask what would happen after I die if I die now I will just say, "Have you read the Tibetan book of the Dead? I agree that is what happens after you die."

So, that was my experience and intended plan for the future, how was your experience?

 

[Bishadi]

Manji2012,

you are our future, good to see such wisdom.

Teach and know your after-life is by what you impose to existence; that is good.

Seems like you have the intregrity to honor knowledge and many opinions.

When the experience you mentioned was felt, did you need anything?

Was a notion of being one with the universe in totality, felt?

Soon you may be able to walk each step as if purposed then you will experience God at all moments.

 

[Vajradhara]

Namaste Manji,

thank you for the OP.

Please share the experiences you've had with Christians who ask you questions like, "Do you know God loves you?" Or, "Do you know where you will go after you die?"

it mostly depends on the situation and the manner in which the encounter begins. by and large i explain that i'm aware of their religious beliefs though i don't share them. sometimes that provokes some indignant sort of outburst but mostly it doesn't. a few times i've had someone follow me around shouting things at me when i told them that i wasn't interested in what they were selling.

On another note though, since I can't prove anything anways,

on the contrary, you can certainly prove that some god concepts are simply illogical and contradictory and thus some gods are simply illogical. it it important to establish what deity you are talking about for, though it doesn't seem this way, even Christians have varying views regarding god.

next time I think I will respond to those questions with the following:

""Well, a few years ago I had a very liberating, spiritual, and religious experience from my encounter with Buddhism that I considered I was experiencing the Love of God. Experience God in that moment of ecstasy however, I am very reluctant to associate that experience as God because I have the impression that most Christians would not feel comfortable with that so, I assume I was getting in touch with what Buddhists call Dhamma."

that would sound pretty confusing to me if i heard it, i wouldn't try to equate your experience of the Dharma to a Christians experience of gods love as those are two very different concepts. just be authentic with your own tradition and you'll be better off, imo.

I think an honest reply such as that would be best because it is honest and is much better than trying to debate who is Jesus, What is Christianity really, so and so forth because, I can not prove it, I mean, I research and watch a lot of challenging programs that bring up a lot of good points that threatens today's Christianity.

the street is certainly no place for a debate and there is little value in going about trying to demonstrate that someone may have a false belief anyways.. the best that you can do is help them recognize the foundations upon which their beliefs are built and the axioms upon which they rest. if you can get them to do this then i think you're making good progress to establishing a measure of dialog.

i would also caution against viewing Christianity as a monolithic whole, there are plenty of groups that you and i would consider to be Christian which many other Christians would not accept.

If they ask what would happen after I die if I die now I will just say, "Have you read the Tibetan book of the Dead? I agree that is what happens after you die."

So, that was my experience and intended plan for the future, how was your experience?

if they haven't read the Bardo Thodol are you going to explain it to them? whilst i certainly understand your approach and the rational behind it i would probably go about it somewhat differently. when the question has been put to me i usually base my answer on the questioners desire to actually know what i believe. many times the question is simply a place holder so the apologist can get to their next point, basically ignoring anything that i may say one way or the other. it's not worth much time talking with these folks, they've got an agenda to carry out and learning about your beliefs isn't on it. for those that desire to know, i explain my understanding of the process to the best of my ability.

nowadays when people ask me if i've heard the Good News, i say "yes!" if they press me on it i explain the Good News of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.... i'm not sure how good of a technique it is since most folks leave before i'm done expounding the First Noble Truth of Dukkha.

ymmv.

metta,

~v

 

[omprem]

The next time that you encounter (are accosted by) a proselytizing Christian remind them that Jesus spent his missing formative years in what is now northern Pakistan, India, Nepal and Tibet learning at the feet of saints, sages and Gurus. This has been well-documented by many people. An excellent book that summarizes those travels of Jesus and the people who translated and validated the manuscripts recording his visits is The Lost Years of Jesus by Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Swami Abhedananda also wrote about these travels of Jesus in his Parivrajaka Swami Abhedananda, later renamed Kashmir O Tibbate and still later Kashmir and Tibet.

The presence of Jesus in these places also explains the later presence of St. Thomas in India. In gnostic gospel, Acta Thomae (The Acts of Thomas), St Thomas relates that Jesus told him to go to India.

Every religion or its adherents speak about 'the Way'. But it is the same way and depends on no one individual but rather on the spiritual process which is common to all and the vision of the Ultimate which is also common to all. The spiritual process is common to all because it consists of taking Kundalini up through the seven principal chakras and then up through the seven about those receiving ever more subtle spiritual wisdom in each until at last one merges into Brahman or God or Allah or whatever. But I would not tell a proselytizing Christian this. It is better to let them eventually find it out on their own.