I Interviewed a Monk, and This Happened…
Introduction
On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, I set out to interview a Buddhist monk in his local meditation center in Louisville, Kentucky. Buddhism is not a common religious perspective to meet on the streets when witnessing or in the workplace. It is not a missionary religion; it is rarer for Christians to find themselves in apologetical conversations with them. More common are run-ins with atheists, skeptics, Muslims, and new agers. However, Buddhism boasts of about half a billion adherents worldwide today, according to Dr. Ury.[1] In light of these numbers, Christians with the mission of God to evangelize all peoples must be aware and equipped to engage Buddhists. This short paper provides an overview of what Buddhism is, how my conversation went with a practitioner, and offers some guidance in engaging them apologetically and in witness.
What is Buddhism?
In the sixth century B.C., there lived a son in a Brahmin family in northeast India named Siddhartha Gautama. His father, King Suddhodana, wanted to shelter his son from witnessing the suffering of real life outside of their royal home. He also did not want him to be influenced by religion. Religious expert Winfried Corduan explains Siddhartha grew increasingly curious about the outside world and persuaded his father to allow him to take a chariot ride through the countryside.[2] When Gautama went outside into the countryside, he encountered four instances of suffering in the world from various people, like an old man dying, and the pyre of a decomposed corpse. These experiences led him to believe that all of life is impermanent. He attempted to renunciate all things in his life until one day, under a Bodhi tree, he claimed to have reached enlightenment. Now Gautama was a Buddha, an awakened one.
From this experience of enlightenment, the Buddha began teaching his dharma, the four noble truths, and the eightfold path, which are essential to Buddhism. The first truth is, life is suffering. Truth two is, we are trapped in samsara (the reincarnation cycle) because we desire and are attached to things. The third, suffering is eliminated by eliminating attachment. The fourth truth is that the way to eliminate suffering is by following the eightfold path.[3] The eightfold path includes right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mind, and right meditation.
An important component to understand is that Gautama saw himself as a reformer of Hinduism. Which means that there were some doctrines he radically switched on from the known religion of his day, one was the rejection of a dogmatic belief in God, the second one was the doctrine of anatta, which means “no-self”. This is contrary to Hinduism’s teaching of atman, namely that we all have a soul that is ultimately unified. Our current makeup is merely a combination of sensations. The goal in reaching nirvana is realizing that self-existence is an illusion.
The scriptures of Buddhism consist of what is called the Pali Canon, which is divided into three sections, including Vinaya Pitaka (Discipline basket), Sutta Pitaka (Saying basket), and Abhidamma Pitaka (Higher truth basket). The two major Buddhist schools, Theravada and Mahayana, hold various amounts of these scriptures as authoritative. Buddhism has migrated across the world and is popular in the West in the form of Zen Buddhism, pioneered by D.T. Suzuki.
My Encounter with a Monk
This spring, I visited the Drepung Gomang Center for Engaging Compassion and Tashi Gomang Dharma Center in Louisville, Kentucky, and met with monk Geshe Raprapgyak. I began by asking him what school of Buddhism he followed and taught. He said he teaches based on what people’s questions are. He pulls from Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantric traditions. Mind training is in demand, according to him, right now. One book he recommended that he uses is called “Way of the Bodhisattvas” by author Shante Dewa.
My first question for him was to ask him how he knows Buddhism is true. His immediate reply was that he did not know. He said that different religions are true for different people and that it is the similarities of compassion that should be seen. I then asked him a similar epistemic question, namely, why he believes that Gautama attained enlightenment. His answer was that by his own experience with following the Buddha’s teachings. He experiences the promised peace from the Buddha. I asked him if this was a perfect peace. He said no, but it is incremental, and he has not reached enlightenment yet.
After 30 minutes or so, I started pressing him on the issue of truth. I explained to him that, given his criterion of verifying a religious teaching, namely by experience, one could not reach a verdict concerning which religion is true. Muslims feel they experience the truth of their religion, Christians the same, Hindus likewise, but there are contradictory claims made by each of these religions that mutually exclude and falsify the others. As Chesterton exclaimed years ago that people want to say, ‘the religions of the earth differ in rites and forms, but they are the same in what they teach.” It is false; it is the opposite of the fact. The religions of the earth do not greatly differ in rites and forms; they do greatly differ in what they teach.”[4] He wanted to emphasize the similarities in the world religions, but I reminded him of the vast differences. From that point, I ministered the gospel of Jesus to him and explained how, by grace through faith in Jesus and His atoning work for us, we can have perfect peace with God. He listened intently as I shared this at the conclusion of our meeting.
Witnessing to a Buddhist
When witnessing to a Buddhist, a few points can be made to challenge them to see the folly of their worldview. One is to show the logical conclusion of the notion about the non-existence and illusory nature of our current experience, taught by key Buddhist sages such as the early Nagarjuna.[5] You could ask a Buddhist, if our present experiences are illusory, does not that include the teachings of Buddhism itself (making them false)? Another point is to ask them about the foundation for moral absolutes without an absolute personal God. What ultimately defines good karma from bad karma if there is no absolute standard of goodness? A question to ask about the issue of extinguishing desires could be, if our goal in reaching nirvana is the cessation of all attachments, what about the attachments to the Buddhist dharma itself (in pursuing nirvana)? And lastly, one could press the issue of trusting the truthfulness of Buddhism: how does a Buddhist know his religion is true? Appealing to experience won’t do, since all religious devotees can play that game.
Conclusion
Every Buddhist is a sinner made in God’s image and knows they are morally culpable to this God to some degree; what they need is the Gospel of peace. Their religion emphasizes contentment and experiencing peace, but it cannot deliver on this. Only Jesus can. A Buddhist needs to know the real issue we have, namely that we have gone astray and sinned against God. We are at enmity with this God. But Jesus, God’s Son, came into the world in real history and lived righteously for sinners, died in their place, paying their debt, and rose again. Jesus promises peace with God permanently to every sinner who repents of their sin and trusts Him. A great verse to share with them is Romans 5:1 (ESV): “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the way to reach Buddhists.
References
[1] Thane, Hutcherson Ury. “Buddhism.” World Religions and Cults Volume 2: Moralistic, Mythical and Mysticism Religions. Bodie Hodge and Roger Patterson, eds., 367-396. (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2016), 367- 68.
[2] Winfried Corduan, Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions. Third Edition (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2024), 342.
[3] Derek Cooper, Christianity and World Religions: An Introduction to the World's Major Faiths (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2012), 38-39.
[4] Gilbert K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy. (New York: John Lane Company, 1909), 238–239.
[5] Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Buddhist Scriptures (London: Penguin Books, 2004), 363-68.
