Reflections on Buddhism

* The emphasis on Compassion is really beautiful and important

* Buddhahood has similarities to Christian sainthood

* But trying to be more compassionate, to be a better person, as a Buddhist is like mountain climbing by yourself: no rope, no companion, no map (...unlike a Christian climber who is following/holding/helped by Jesus...)

* The Buddhist idea of re-incarnation is really an attempt to solve the problem of reward\punishment for being good/bad in this life: if you're good you'll be a higher being in the next life..... This idea results from disbelief in another world

* The idea that  re-incarnation has been going on from eternity and will continue eternally is a further result of the above disbelief in another world. (Once you take a wrong turn, you just keep going further away from the main road?)

* Even further from the main road of truth: the Buddhist teaching that existence is not real  (can't stray much further)

* Buddhism is atheistic: there is no God....the world just exists, never had a Creator

* Buddhism encourages flight/disengagement  from the world....no wonder Buddhist countries have a history of lack of progress. See Buddhism and Revolution

* For Matteo Ricci  (who lived in China for 27 years) Confucianism (in its early form) was most admirable and promoted family and social values; but Buddhism, although it was practised by many sincere and good people, was basically a restricting and negative force

+ All of the above  is most accurately summed up in Differences between Christianity and Buddhism and in Buddhism and Christianity and JP2 and PK