Very Devout

Last night, I was virtually accosted by the father of one of the students who is learning to speak English with us. He stood fairly close to me and was using his hands in a fairly aggressive manner, so at first I thought he was angry about something. He is apparently a VERY devout Buddhist in the community and wanted to let me know what they believe. (This all happened as a result of one English lesson last week in which Tracy asked his son, Cowboy, what he believed about hell.) I don't think that the father was angry, but he was very determined to tell me what they believe. Fortunately, I have been trying to learn to listen first. Instead of talking about what we believe, I let him speak and then asked him questions. God - The hardest thing to communicate is the idea of God. If we talk with an atheist, at least the atheist is able to know what we mean by God. However, many of the Buddhist think of god sort of like a exalted man. This man told me that anyone can become god. He also insisted that if one meditates, he will know himself and understand that the universe came into being naturally and of itself. Hell - As a Buddhist, he clearly believes in hell. However, he told me that really only the really bad people go there (at least for very long). He told me how it is judged by another being which is half good, half bad and is very exact in his punishments. He told me he has had an outer-body experience where he visited hell. We talked about other things as well. I did get to share a little with him, but this man (His name is Ah) and others like him need your prayers. I thank God that he wanted to talk with me. I pray that God will use this conversation to spur him to try to understand what I am saying. Pray for me also that I will share God's Word faithfully with my neighbors, no matter their religion.