From the East: Pantheism and Monism

1. From the East:Pantheism and Monism Apologetics Part III

2. Early History • Aryan Invaders (2000-1500bc) • Vedic Scriptures: “I Know” • Syncretism: Harmonizing Polytheism • Monism: “Oneism” • Pantheism: “God is All” • Ceremonial & Caste System • Priestly, Nobility, Warrior, Laborer classes “Untouchables”

3. Later History • Upanishads (“He Sits Near”) 800-300 bc • Underlies modern Hindu metaphysics. • “Thou Art That” - tat tvam asi • The universe and God are the same. • More Speculative and Philosophical. “During the late Vedic period, the complexities of ritual were emphasized to such an extent that only highly trained Brahmans and priests could carry them out correctly. Vedic thought in its late period became more speculative and philosophical in approach... Much speculation was directed toward the search for harmony..” (Enclyc.Brittt)

4. Buddhism • Siddhartha Gautama (560bc). • Rebelled against the Caste System. • Spent years in aescetic isolation. • Experienced “Nirvana” and discovered: • Theory of the Enlighted Way: • Salvation available to all mankind. • The clarity and universality was appealing. • Four Noble Truths The Buddha

5. Four Noble Truths • Suffering is Universal • The cause of suffering is selfish desire. • The cure for suffering is to eliminate selfish desire. • Eliminate selfish desire by following "The Noble Eightfold Path": 1) right viewpoint 2) right aspiration 3) right speech4) right behavior 5) right occupation, 6) right effort 7) right mindfulness, and 8) right meditation.

6. Doctrines Siva

7. Siva Ganges River

8. Brahma

9. Vishnu

10. Indra 1000 “Eyes”

12. God • Indra: “Supreme” among 300 million gods • Brahman: (Upanishads) develops as the impersonal, singular force behind the universe. • Theological agnosticism: "The Divine Darkness is that of which nothing can be said.” • Buddhism retains the same views.

13. Doctrine: Creation • Early Vedas are inconsistent • Different dieties: Prajapati, or Brahma from the golden egg. • From existing materials. • Later Vedas: • Creation came out of the nature of "the one which breathed breathless, of its own power" Nasadiya Hymn, X.129 • Concludes by saying "Who Knows?". • Later Brahmans: • Four classes came from the head, arms, thighs, and feet of the creator Brahma.

14. Implications • No distinction between the creator and creation. • "The dreaming self, subject as it is to the accidents of experience, must not be confused with the true self", [Encyclopedia Britannica, XII.248]. • The Need to Syncretize 300 million dieties & various legends and myths. • Leads to syncretizing all: good vs bad, light vs dark, god vs man, etc. • Not a high-minded principle: a practical necessity.

15. Doctrine: the Afterlife • Earlier Vedas taught a “heaven” and “hell” concept. • Descriptions of the afterlife are vague. • Destiny is determined by reward and punishment according to deeds good or bad. • Upanishads taught release (“Moksha”) of the “atman” from “Maya” into “Brahman”. • Through the Transmigration of Souls: Reincarnation through the Caste system. • Governed by Karma: impersonal, just, & final. • Buddhism: Immediate release through 8-fold path. • Nirvana: an Enlightened state, only for monks, and means in Sanskrit “Extinction”, or the “Blowing Out” of a candle.

16. Afterlife: Implications • Karmic Fatalism: • The infant starving to death…is getting his just reward. "In practice, it means that neither Hinduism or Buddhism in its classical formulation pays the slightest attention to what goes on in the world today.” 1 “Their dominant teaching has been that the wise man is he who seeks to be content with the world, to be released from attachment to it, but not …change it.” 1 • The Goal: release from “sickness of the mind”. • Not by performing “Good” vs. “Bad” works. • “If you want to get the plain truth, be not concerned with right and wrong. The conflict between right and wrong is the sickness of the mind.” Yun-Men, Buddhist master(Oz Guiness, "The East: No Exit", p.221). Thank God for the British! 1 Zaehner, professor of Eastern Religions at Oxford University, quoted by Oz Guiness, “Dust of Death”.

17. Problems for American Adherents • You probably don’t know what you’re talking about. • “George Lucas” Pantheism. • Expect to reincarnate as a Sudra or worse. • Not as “Philip of Macedonia”. • Not a “charming” doctrine. • Nirvana is not heaven. • Nirvana is equated with emptiness. • Not dissimilar to the Atheist's view of extinction. • Are you a monk?

18. The Christian Alternative View • God is personal and knowable! • And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Galatians 4:6 (NASB) • Compare to the Eastern offering: • "For it is an unbroken torture to me that I am still so far from Him, who, as I fully know, governs every breath of my life, and whose offspring I am." Ghandi, quoted by Rodenour, p.80

19. The Christian Alternative View • God is personal and knowable! • He paid for your sins Himself! • You don’t have to pay for your own sins! • “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” Col. 2:14 (NASB-U)

20. These Views are in Opposition! • Eastern thought has no authoritative revelation! • Brahman cannot communicate. • Relies entirely on speculation: • “For these good reasons the Buddha maintained about Reality a ‘Noble Silence’” 1 • Is Siddhartha Gautama wrong? • After a 40-day fast, could he be imagining? • Could it be a 9-Fold Path? 10-Fold? 1-Fold? 1 Chapman, p.148 "The Case For Christianity", by Colin Chapman. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1981.

21. These Views are in Opposition! • Eastern thought has no authoritative revelation! • Only the Bible claims to be inspired by God: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness…” 2 Tim. 3:16 (NASB-U)

22. These Views are in Opposition! • Eastern thought has no authoritative revelation! • Eastern thought is dogmatic that “god” is an impersonal force. • Can you know enough about “god” to be dogmatic about this? • The Bible says God is a personal being: • God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' This is My name forever…to all generations.” Exodus 3:14-15 (NASB-U)

23. These Views are in Opposition! • Eastern thought has no authoritative revelation! • Eastern thought is dogmatic that “god” is an impersonal force. • Eastern thought says you have to work your way to heaven. • The Bible says ‘no way’: • “Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight;” Romans 3:20 (NASB-U)

24. These Views are in Opposition! • Eastern thought has no authoritative revelation! • Eastern thought is dogmatic that “god” is an impersonal force. • Eastern thought says you have to work your way to heaven. • Eastern though views all religions as equal paths to God. • But Jesus says: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.John 14:6 (NASB-U)

25. These Views are in Opposition! • Eastern thought has no authoritative revelation! • Eastern thought is dogmatic that “god” is an impersonal force. • Eastern thought says you have to work your way to heaven. • Eastern though views all religions as equal paths to God. • But Jesus says: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.John 14:6 (NASB-U) “To maintain that all religions are paths leading to the same goal, as is so frequently done today, is to maintain something that is not true...they are simply not starting from the same premises. The great religions are at cross-purposes” Zaehner, Professor of Eastern Religions at Oxford University, quoted in Roddenhaur, “So What’s the Difference?”