Tiger Woods and Buddhism: Is This the Answer? Part 1 of 2

Many of us watched the 15 minute statement given by Tiger Woods last week with a great deal of anticipation. What will he say? Will he talk about golf? Where will he go from here? All these questions arise in the minds of most sports fans in the world following a wave of affairs revealing a secret life that no one saw coming.

What caught my ear was his hope that Buddhism contained the answers he was so desperately seeking. He said his mother was a Buddhist and he drifted away over the past several years. His game plan is that a return to faithful Buddhism would translate into a life of integrity. Let’s examine Buddhism briefly and determine if he will find the answers to life, death and morality.

First, let’s look at a little history on the roots of Buddhism. The founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama was born around 560 B.C. in India. This would make him a contemporary of Ezekiel in Palestine. Faced with the issues within Hinduism he became a reformer of it and founded his own movement.

One day while Gautama was seated in meditation under at Bodhi Tree (tree of wisdom) he came to his own enlightenment. It was then he became known as the Buddha, the enlightened or awakened one. Gautama became an agnostic with reference to the existence of gods. He taught that the individual is composed of skandas. The skandas are like atoms, but they are not eternal. They serve as the means by which karma is transferred from one rebirth to another.

His teachings include the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are 1) all life is suffering, 2) all suffering is from desire or craving, 3) if there is no craving, there is no suffering and 4) if you follow the Eightfold Path, there is no craving and hence no suffering.

The Eightfold Path can be broken down into three basic categories 1) right beliefs, 2) the moral life (of particular interest to Tiger Woods) and 3) the life of meditation and thought. This is taught as the answer to suffering. A person, through knowledge, correct living and meditation may obtain the Buddha-Mind and may become Buddha.

The goal of life for the Buddhist is to become enlightened and attain Nirvana. Deities do not help. There are no prayers to deities. The person through self-reliance attains enlightenment. This is a completely self-centered religion. It’s all about the individual and what he can accomplish for himself. In this, there is no help for Tiger Woods or anyone else.

The moral life is very important to the Buddhist. This means using right speech, right conduct and the ideal is celibacy. Buddha did not advocate the extreme pleasure of a hedonistic life nor the stringent life of asceticism. The Buddhist is to abstain from sexual immorality and intoxicants.

The next post will include the specific doctrines of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, salvation and death within Buddhism and we will compare them with Christianity.

Brad Ferguson

For further reading:

George W. Braswell, Jr., Understanding World Religions, (Nashville: Broadman & Holman), 1994.

George W. Braswell, Jr., Understanding Sectarian Groups in America, (Nashville: Broadman & Holman), 1994.

Doubting

Framed in Greatness: Tim Tebow and the Abortion Debate

Social liberals along with the Evangelical and sports worlds are a buzz about the upcoming Super Bowl ad featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother. When Tebow’s mother, Pam, was pregnant with Tim she became sick with a potentially life threatening illness and her doctor suggested she get an abortion. Thankfully, Pam, choose life and Tim Tebow was born.

Tim Tebow is arguably the best college football player to enter the NFL draft in recent memory. He won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore and led the Florida Gators to two National Championship titles in four years. These remarkable accomplishments are bested only by his love for the Lord and his example of integrity, something the sports world desperately needs at this time.

The add promotes life and causes the viewer to imagine what college football would be like had there been no Tim Tebow. Thus the abortion debate is framed in greatness. What other great person have we aborted? Have we aborted the next Billy Graham? Perhaps the next Abraham Lincoln has been terminated before birth. Have we aborted the doctor who would come up with a cure for cancer?

While I understand the “star power” needed to appeal to a mass audience and while I am in full support of such an add promoting life, I also think the framing of the debate in potential greatness by showcasing superstars will only leave us with a “sugar high” that will, at the end of the day, not change many beliefs on the evils of abortion. This potential greatness approach will most likely not provide a lasting connection with most people except to provide a warm cheer of approval. Being a sports star is, after all, extremely rare.

What about the other 99% of the people who are just common everyday normal people? I would not want any mother to reason that just because the chances her child will become a star or that her child would make a world-changing difference is infinitely small that her choice to abort would not make much difference in the world. I desire to take nothing away from the effort in the commercial, I merely want to add to it two solid reasons to choose life that may have a more lasting affect on the masses.

First, the Bible tells us that we shall not murder. The Ten Commandments address the issue clearly. “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). We are made in the image of God and therefore we have an obligation to treat others with dignity and respect. We are called to protect life out of obedience to God. Breaking God’s law shows our need for a Savior.

Second, the potential of a common life provides ample reason not to abort. One of my favorite movies is the 1946 film It’s A Wonderful Life. The movie struck a cord with many people because George Bailey, played by James Stewart, sees his life go from normal to bad. Mr. Potter, the money hungry antagonist told George, “You’re worth more dead than alive!” This led George to wish he had never been born. Clarence, George’s angel, decides to let George find out what life would have been like if he had never been born. George discovers that his normal everyday common life did amount to a great deal.

When the lesson of the great impact from even the most common person was learned, Clarence proclaimed, “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

The abortion of ANY person will leave an awful hole. Having a baby that will one day become a good friend, a faithful spouse and a dependable father or mother makes that person a “super star” and a great contributor to the world.

Brad Ferguson