Bridging the Light: Explaining Christianity to Buddhists with Clarity and Compassion
1. Introduction
For Christians, speaking about God is natural — the entire faith begins and ends in Him.
But for most Buddhists, the word “God” (Deva, Īśvara) refers not to the supreme source of being but to finite celestial beings within saṃsāra — still subject to karma, ageing, and death.
Thus, when a Christian says, “God created everything,” a Buddhist often hears, “A powerful spirit made the world.”
This misunderstanding is not rejection, but different metaphysics.
To bridge the gap, Christians must explain God not as one being among many, but as the Source of all being — the ground of love, truth, and existence itself.
2. Why Buddhism Does Not Teach a Creator God
Buddhism begins with experience, not creation. The Buddha refused to speculate about origins because it did not help end suffering.
He said:
“It is as if a man were struck by an arrow and, instead of pulling it out, he asks who made it and of what wood it was made.” (Cūḷamālukya Sutta, Majjhima Nikāya 63)
Thus, Buddhism teaches:
- The world has no first cause; it is a web of interdependent conditions (paṭicca-samuppāda).
- Even gods are impermanent — born through karma, dying when their merit is exhausted.
- The focus is not “Who made the world?” but “Why do I suffer, and how can I be free?”
The Buddha did not deny the possibility of ultimate reality, but he found speculation about a creator irrelevant to liberation.
This is the key point Christians must understand:
Buddhism’s silence about God is not atheism; it is methodological humility — truth must be realised, not defined.
3. Rethinking the Christian Presentation of God
When explaining God to Buddhists, Christians must avoid portraying Him as:
- A distant ruler or lawgiver,
- A being who exists “somewhere up there,” or
- A cause within the chain of cause and effect.
Instead, speak of God as the Divine Ground of all causes — the One beyond cause and effect, beyond beginning and end.
God is not an object within reality; He is the reality that gives all existence its being.
As Paul says:
“In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)
This idea resonates with Buddhist contemplative insight: the search for the unconditioned (asaṅkhata) — reality beyond all arising and ceasing.
4. How to Explain God in Buddhist-Accessible Language
4.1. God as the Source, Not the Object
Rather than “God made the world,” say:
“All things exist because of a divine Source of life and love that sustains them continually.”
This avoids the image of a craftsman building a universe.
It helps Buddhists see creation as dependence on divine reality, not an event in the past.
4.2. God as Compassionate Reality
Buddhism affirms karuṇā (compassion) as the highest virtue and the mark of enlightenment.
Christians can explain God as perfect compassion personified.
“The Christian word ‘God’ means infinite compassion — love that creates, heals, and forgives.”
In Buddhist terms, this can be likened to the boundless compassion of the Bodhisattva, but existing eternally as the very ground of being.
4.3. God as Personal but Beyond Personality
A major difficulty for Buddhists is the Christian idea of a personal God.
To them, personality implies limitation — the opposite of ultimate reality.
To bridge this, Christians can clarify that God is personal in relationship, not limited in nature.
God is not humanlike; He is the origin of personhood — conscious, relational, and loving.
He is beyond form, yet able to communicate and relate.
You might say:
“God is not a person as we are, but the eternal Source of all love, awareness, and compassion — a living reality that can be known.”
This shifts the idea of “personal God” from anthropomorphism to relational being.
4.4. God and Dependent Origination
Buddhists affirm that all phenomena arise through causes and conditions.
Christians can connect this principle to divine sustenance:
“God is not another cause among causes — He is the cause of causality itself, the reason there is any order, light, or life.”
This echoes the logic of paṭicca-samuppāda but adds a transcendent foundation.
Thus, God is not outside the causal web but its ground and meaning.
5. Using Metaphors Buddhists Understand
5.1. The Sun and Its Light
In Buddhism, the Buddha is compared to the sun illuminating the world of ignorance.
Christians may say:
“As light comes from the sun, so all compassion and wisdom come from God, the Source of all light. He shines on all without preference.”
This shows divine impartiality — aligning with the Buddhist ideal of universal compassion.
5.2. The Ocean and Its Waves
Buddhists often describe reality as an ocean of dependent phenomena.
Christians can express God as the depth of the ocean, and creation as its waves — distinct yet inseparable.
“God is the infinite depth of being; everything that exists arises like waves from His love.”
This avoids dualism while preserving divine transcendence.
5.3. The Mirror and Its Reflections
The Avataṃsaka Sūtra describes the universe as reflections in a cosmic mirror.
Similarly, Christians can say:
“All beings reflect God’s image, as mirrors reflecting divine love. When the mirror is clean, God’s light shines fully.”
This metaphor connects the Buddhist vision of clarity (pabhassara citta — the luminous mind) with the biblical image of being made in God’s image.
6. Common Misunderstandings to Address
| Buddhist Misunderstanding | Christian Clarification |
|---|---|
| “God must be a being who created the world long ago.” | God is not a being within creation but the eternal Source sustaining all existence. |
| “If God made everything, He must have made evil too.” | Evil arises from misuse of freedom; God allows it for the sake of love and growth. |
| “Believing in God makes people dependent or passive.” | True faith awakens gratitude, compassion, and active love, not passivity. |
| “God’s love is conditional on belief.” | God’s love is unconditional; belief awakens awareness of what already exists. |
| “If God is personal, He must be limited.” | God’s personhood is infinite; relationship is His nature, not His limitation. |
These clarifications allow dialogue without contradiction — affirming the Christian mystery of God while addressing Buddhist reasoning with philosophical respect.
7. The Meeting Point: The Unconditioned and the Personal
Buddhism seeks nirvāṇa, “the unconditioned.”
Christianity proclaims God, “the eternal I AM.”
At first, these seem opposite — impersonal void versus personal Creator — yet both point beyond contingency and ignorance.
For dialogue, Christians can say:
“The unconditioned that the Buddha realised is what we know as the eternal God — not a void, but the fullness of compassionate being.”
This does not equate the two, but reveals conceptual convergence: both describe the ultimate as transcending form, desire, and ignorance.
8. Conclusion
To explain God to Buddhists, Christians must speak not as preachers of dogma, but as translators of love.
Buddhists reject “a god” who commands belief, but they can recognise the Living Compassion at the heart of Christian faith.
When they hear that God is the eternal Source of love, wisdom, and peace — the ground of all that is good — the Gospel ceases to sound foreign.
In this way, revelation meets realisation:
- The Buddhist seeks truth through awakening;
- The Christian bears witness to truth revealed in love.
And both, standing in the same light, can say:
“What is real cannot perish; what is true cannot deceive; what is love cannot die.”