My FIRST Visit to a Buddhist Temple (and GREAT chat with two monks!)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- What would happen if a Christian apologist (and his 12-year old son) visited a Buddhist Temple? You're about to find out! I had a memorable and fun tour with my new Buddhist friend at the Temple near where I live in southern California. They were kind enough to get us a tour guide and we were able to sit down and speak with their two of their leading monks after the tour. Let us know what you think! And do you want more videos like this? What would you do differently if you were me? What questions should I have asked? And what kind of follow-up discussion would you like. I gave them a copy of More Than a Carpenter, so maybe we follow up and discuss that (?). Let us know!
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appreciate your willingness to respectfully engage with other faiths without losing personal Christian conviction, keep up the good work
@SeanMcDowell_Direct_Sms Living in Australia! My brother became a Buddhist and myself a Christian. It's been a challenge for me to know how to relate to him in a respectful way, I've found apologetics really helpful to do that without compromising the gospel.
Despite my theological differences in many points - your channel is quickly becoming one of my favorite apologetics channels. The current mixture of open dialog, scholarship (like the episode about the Isaiah scroll and the dead sea scrolls) and apologetics looks like an absolute winning combination for me that raises your channel above the "standard apologetics stuff" IMHO. Keep it up! Thanks 😊.
Very excited to see this. Sean is the best at presenting diverse topics and viewpoints and respectfully addressing them from a biblical perspective. I learn so much on this channel.
I appreciate the kind words thank you!
Great point about gardens needing to keep some things out or the garden will be ruined! Very good response
I don’t know why I’ve never noticed this before, but watching this video makes me realize how much Buddhism is like many video games, trying to earn different levels of achievement, scoring points to get certain powers or get out of traps, etc.
Thats just a practical progression system to slowly introduce game content so a player doesn't shorten the amount of time they play a game. You could say the same for corporate structure or any incetivised type of structure
Eastern religions basically have people who can earn or raise in godhood like a promotion.
they belive good works will earn them points.
Sounds a lot like Christianity.
Not remotely. You've entirely missed it
huh, i wouldnt have thought i would hear a Buddhist monk say DEI. The garden analogy was a good point you brought up. good convo.
can't believe they are into the worldly value, DEI. And their gods are not jealousy.
@@Allen-L-CanadaI don't get the current obsession with DEI? Every Christian should be glad there is something like that. Do you realize for example that many disabled war vets only get a job because of DEI programs? It seems many Christians in the US constantly need something they can hate on or be suspicious of. If you can't see that the kingdom of God is inclusive too, I doubt you read the gospels often enough.
Glad someone else heard that, major red flag.
Helps you to see how many in the progressive left category have taken on the title “Buddhist” even though they wouldn’t fit the description according to this monk
They should use her in all marketing materials. She is phenomenal at articulating details concisely and clearly!
Your channel is one of my all time favorites! Great job!
Thank you for the content!❤
This was very interesting! I'm a bit overwhelmed but will try to break it down.
Hummmm...Desiring NOT to desire...hummmm...Another great field trip Sean!! Thank you!! RnMT
Interesting. What a kind tour guide you had.
More Buddhist content please this was dope
One of my favorite essays I’ve written is a Compare/Contrast of Jesus and Buddha. Title was “Jesus and Buddha influences around the Globe.”
Thanks for showing how to listen and ask questions well. We should be trying to understand how different religions perceive the nature of man, the nature of God, and if God can have relation with man.
I'm trying to witness to local Buddhists but I am very ignorant. Excited to learn!
Good for you!
Apologia on youtube has some good content on eastern religions. They also have free Greg Bahnsen lectures online where he does internal critiques of Buddhism and Hinduism. That should equip you to witness to them.
Always good to learn more about the truth and the life. I read that somewhere important.
@Shane_The_Confessor thanks! I'll check that out!
LONG LIVE BUDDHISM!!!❤❤❤
Blessed and pure is the Buddha-Dharma!
Peaceful and compassionate is the way of the Buddhas!
Perfect Model of virtue and
excellence ❤
Well done Sean for exploring Buddhism!
A lot of good things in Buddhism. Not bad for religion.
A good lessons for right out of tough people to see the Buddha and how he reacts to the least of these. Just for him to come down and see the plight of the poor and be moved by it is a massive thing for a person in power to do. Most of them would rather live in the Palace and simply would not care. That is America today.
Interesting.
God is above religions and no religions can have monopoly over God!!
Which God?
What a beautiful religion.
Nothing beautiful about a misleading religion that leads people to a place of eternal separation from the True and Living God Jesus ✝️
The statues are creepy
Jesus is the way!
Very interesting...
This is in Hacienda Heights!!! I love going here.
I think I was there in the early 90's a few years after it opened either before or after my trip to Thailand with Compassion International where we took sponsors to meet their children at Christian schools but also visited many Buddhist temple sites.
This is LA county?
@ Technically yes
Fascinating to hear them talk about the problem of people showing up to worship and pray for healing and well being but not connecting and living out Buddhism in fuller and deeper ways. Sounds like some Christian church leaders I know.
Ultimately, they do not believe mankind is in a fallen condition and in need of redemption. It is antichrist.
Of course in nature, sometimes foreign species can be invasive. Invasive species are any species that are non-native and harm the local ecosystem. When these non-native plants and animals establish themselves in the local ecosystems, they outcompete and dislodge species that have evolved specifically to live there. The Buddhist practice of “fangsheng” (mercy release to save the lives of creatures destined for slaughter - as a way for Buddhists to demonstrate compassion, create good fortune and earn merit) has done just that in many parts of the world. According to Humane Society International (HSI), many animals are fatally injured in the ritual, and those that survive release often die soon afterwards from exhaustion, injury or disease, or else become prey to other species. Some are re-captured after the ritual and re-sold. Release can also cause environmental harm, it adds. Animals released outside their natural habitats and in groups large enough to establish breeding populations, often wreak havoc on local ecosystems. Some are invasive species that may threaten the survival of the native species. IMHO, an uninformed and ignorant practice, though it may be inspired by good and admirable intentions. We should really take a page out of nature’s book, that not all societies are the same. We should discern which ones would cooperate and integrate with the existing culture and which ones would subvert, destabilize and wreak havoc. Diversity and inclusion should always be put in perspective.
Really helps to see how people in a relativistic society such as ours are finding their way to Buddhism being that it seems to promote many of the same ideals. DEI, self-determined love etc. But what’s even more interesting was to hear how many people claim Buddhist, yet do not adhere to the bare minimum. Common in all religions, but seemingly common in the religion of the progressive left
Why is there music over the video? Maybe turn it down to make it a softer background music.
The monks answer to the question at 17:15 applies to Christianity as well. The focus of spiritual practice for most religions these days is on begging for favors and good fortune rather than being decent, compassionate people
Man the DEI’s got the Buddhists too😆😆
Why did you edit out what the Venerable abbot was saying about Dhamma… where he was discrediting idolatry at 17:35 and correcting western misconceptions in this regard?
What a convoluted mind game. Sounds like a mind prison.
Is it Chan
Sean you're picking all the wrong people to understand these traditions in depth.
Why do I suspect that Jesus would feel at home in this temple...but that Paul would not? Eastern religion has been ahead of western religion in its expansion of compassion to all living things, the duty to lovingly care for all of God's creatures. Indeed, the great Christian scholar, mystic, and medical missionary, Albert Schweitzer, related that he was thinking of the Buddha at the very moment that the revelation was given him of the elemental, universal ethic of reverence for life. For Schweitzer, this ethic was the core teaching of Jesus, albeit expressed in philosophical terms. Many Christians have been misled by Schweitzer's more abstract philosophical writings to view this great champion of the Christian faith as an agnostic or even an atheist. The antidote is to read Schweitzer's address to young missionaries about to bring the gospel to Asia, an address recorded in a short book, seldom read, entitled "Christianity and the Religions of the World."
I'd say it's probably because you don't understand Paul. Paul wasn't as strict and uncompassionate as people like to make him out to be. I'll give a few examples;
1.Whilst many other Christians said it was a sin to eat food in temples that was offered to other gods. Paul rejected that notion and said it was okay to eat temple food dedicated to other gods. All you need to do is just pray over it because all food belongs to God.
2. When the apostle Peter wanted to reject and segregate the Gentiles in public, Paul stood up for them and reminded peter that the Gospel of Jesus was for the whole world and not just the Jews.
3. Paul went to Athens and spent time with greek philosophers debating about the nature of God, not only that he actually acknowledged that some of their teachings about God were correct. He quoted the Greek poets Aratus and Epimendes and acknowledged the truth of some of their statements.(Acts 17:28)
Why?
Talk about whitewashing a story the Buddha does not look like a white European. His mom and dad are not white European. @9:30.
Putting western CCM type music to this just does not work, sorry.
The garden anology. Lol
taking his son again, not good idea.
Horrible for idol
As a former Buddhist monk, I found this very confusing. I followed a Tibetan path, mind you, but still, this was weird.
How so?
Are you a Christian now?
@ I am. Living in India as a monk led me to Jesus oddly enough.
@@UllysesGordon praise God brother! I grew up around Thomas Keating’s teachings. He did a tour called “beyond religion “ with the Dahli Llama. It’s really just a blend of Christian words and eastern meditation practices. Unfortunately it’s really growing here in the USA. I came to God through reading a Bible with an open heart and the Spirit did the rest. I usually like Sean’s stuff but I also found this confusing.
Is there an easy way to recognize truth? Is there an easy way to show something is untrue? Is it possible to have consistent beliefs about things that are untrue? Is this why there are vast schisms within all religions and god beliefs? Today let's focus on the schisms that exist in Christianity!
From Catholics, to Protestants to Calvinists to Mormons...Christian beliefs are all over the map. What if the Calvinist's have it right...God has already chosen who will be saved and who will be condemned to hell so none of it matters anyway:). That is also why you had Christian's who supported Hitler and why you have Christians who support Trump now and you had and have Christians who believe both these men are abhorrently evil. You have Christians who vote to force raped little girls to give birth, vote for never ending gun violence, vote for inaction on climate change and health care costs and tax breaks for billionaires and you have Christians who vote exactly the opposite.
Because in the end Christians are just flawed human beings who are good, evil and in between just like all other human beings. Now Christian's apologists will attempt to divert these oberservations by claiming it is because of "sin". But why would those who believe in christ do evil things and those who don't believe in him do good works? Why does it take the lie of Christ or Muhammad or Joseph Smith to make people who would fall naturally on the good and peaceful side of society do evil?
Why do 99% of people know that Earth is a globe? Because truth leads to consistent belief something that Christianity fails at completely!
Get out of your leftist bubble and assumptions about Christians. Read the Bible. Start with the gospel of John.
@@virginiaa8755 I thought that @the @royhiggins7270 post was thoughtful and constructive in how it was laid out. Instead of reading it and then responding with your counterpoints you go right to the attack ad hominem. This is not a good look for you as a so called Christian. I was waiting for you to add the DEI, CRT, anti -trans , anti-gay BS tropes you love to throw around instead of answering the questions presented. Then you wonder why young people are deconstructing and leaving Christianity when all you need to do is look in the mirror for the answer to that question.
@@madcatz990the post wasn't thoughtful and constructive. It was the usual cheap shots similar to the likes of the new atheism gurus like Hitchens et. al.
"But why would those who believe in Christ do evil things and those who don't believe in him do good works?" Let's start with this. The teachings of Jesus don't say that non believers can't do good things and that his followers never do bad things. His teaching is that we are all morally bankrupt and need his help. A Christ follower is a person who genuinely recognizes their shortcomings and wants to walk in the way Jesus walked. They are not made right by what they do because they still have the same nature. Instead, they are forgiven, and changed over time as they follow Jesus.
There are many people who claim to be Christians, but are not genuine Christ followers, which also can make this issue confusing. Just because, for example, someone attacks someone else in the name of Jesus, doesn't mean they are following his teachings. You may claim that seeing some acts done in the name of Jesus proves how untrue his teachings are, but you only have to read what he said to understand how morally wrong some people's actions are. He teaches us, for example, that we are not fighting against other people, but against bad teaching. He also says that if we hate those around us, we do not love him. So people who do really incredibly bad things and say they are following Jesus.... something is wrong with them. They either didn't know what Jesus taught, don't care, or are mislead. This isn't much different than the people in the video who come to the Buddhist temple only for yoga and to feel good. They are people who aren't truly connected to the teachings.
When you look more closely at the details, you will see that those who follow Jesus are not anywhere near as divided as you claim. Beyond that, the truth is not determined by how many people believe in it. Instead, we should look at the prophets from Israel, Jesus, and his immediate followers, what they wrote, and see if it lines up with the world we live in. Yes, there are differences in understanding, as there are among every human group of people, but what I've found is that what is written about Jesus is the best possible explanation for our world, and billions of others have also found this.
@MrSeedi76 Why would honest and truthful statements be considered cheap shots?