Counterfeits

Just as we must be thorough when confronting the "adversary" in counterfeit Christianity, not addressing ignorant examples as if they were representative,
so we must take the same care in confronting the "enemy" in religions which counterfeit the truth, if we'll undertake to confront them at all.
Let's describe a novice as one who has learned expedients and thought-shortcuts, and is able to superficially apply the principles via names and slogans.
If you challenge a novice on their lack of understanding or resolve, you might convert a novice, or you might drive him to go establish himself thoroughly.
Both the adversary and the enemy have cohesive and organized beliefs. The novice cannot communicate it; but he's certainly aware of it and respects it.
Attacking the example of the novice, to shame and manipulate him, is lazy-minded and abusive; it shows a fundamental lack of dignity or notion of dignity.
But, many also will stop and plant themselves at the novice stage, because they're insecure about learning or defending the belief system.
Address the unformed examples for what they are. They aren't Christian even so-called, not Buddhist, not capitalist, not communist; they are admirers.

I want to address Buddhism specifically, because I find that since ancient times it has assimilated good teachings from the Real Deal, even from Judaism.
God's true teachings have been in the world since the Beginning. They've had thousands, millions of occasions to be borrowed or counterfeit, worldwide.
I believe that repeatedly throughout history, Jewish teachings have propagated out in waves, because it has much to offer humanity in terms of wisdom.
There is a story-telling structure which descends in 10 steps, from the Top of "heaven" to the Bottom of earthly existence, and then climbs again,
and finds a platform or key which ties the journey together, and entrusts it. This is a structure the ancients knew about and wove into their stories.
I personally found it in Chrono Trigger, and Judy And Mary's final shows. I wasn't aware of the structure at all, until I noticed it in these pop culture scenes.
They were probably ultimately influenced by the Buddhist Lotus Sutra, which is very deeply rooted in the Japan.

Of course, the true teachings trace back to Noah and his son Shem. Japheth would "dwell in the tents of Shem," in the institutions Shem would establish.
When Abraham sent his sons east, they settled and were called Brahmans. The Edomites, Israel's brother, mimic Israel by making an "Exodus" from Egypt.
Again and again, there is jealousy by the tribes of Israel against the Levites' government. The Bible points to the Danites mixing Judaism with relic worship.
What are the ancestors they are worshiping, and why? The purpose of keeping and displaying an ancestor's remains is to proudly assert a claim to the line.
Each of these branches are attempting to claim the name of "Shem" ("Shen") by violence or subversion; in the last days they will confederate.
Why Shem? He is almost certainly Melchizedek who received tithes even from the patriarch Abraham, in effect, from the whole world.
Every government on earth concerns itself above all with establishing an appearance or feeling of legitimacy, and the right to collect 10% of all income.
This is an element of the arms race mankind has been in since Genesis 4. Not just physical weapons, but mental & spiritual superiority, loyal manpower.
6,000 years is a long time. Every method of manipulation, intimidation, enticement, torture, and combination thereof has been imagined and documented.

Attempts to de-escalate and withdraw from this system en masse is a noble cause.
The Buddha is thought to have come out of Persian royalty around 500BC; coincidentally, a short time after the Jews are exiled to Persia (586BC).
Buddhism may be a distillation or secularization ("sanitation") of Jewish beliefs by the courts of Babylon and Persia.

Notes on the Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law is the Buddhist "New Testament" which, coincidentally, appeared around the time of Christ,
and is represented to be Shakyamuni Buddha's true and final teaching, and in it he casts all the teachings coming before as Expedient Means.
It was written ~100 A.D., contemporary with the Book of Revelation.
Chapter for chapter, it contains a mashup of themes from the Gospel of John and Revelation.
A remarkable moment is at the end of the Sutra when the Buddha entrusts it to hearers & readers, saying in effect, "My work on the earth is done."

I would not have recognized the connection between this Sutra and John's writings if it weren't for the custom of reciting the 2nd and 16th chapters.
Chapter 2 is the assertion of Expedient Means; Chapter 16 reveals the lifespan of a Buddha or Buddha-nature (soul) to be immeasurable or infinite.
I thought it was usual for the Buddha to describe himself as "like the Father of this world." Nope, nowhere in the canon except the Nyorai Juryou-hon.
The Buddha makes no claim to BE the Father of this world, nor does he claim to be the Saviour, or the Way. He points to it. Buddhism is a dead-end.
Here are a list of terms from the Lotus Sutra I compiled in 2019-2020, when I was committed to converting my basic convictions over to Christianity.

NichirenLibrary.org/en/lsoc/toc/　(Lotus Sutra, Burton Watson's translation 1993)

Key Un-translated or Assumed Terms in Burton Watson's translation

• ARHAT monk – adherent; refers to the Voice-Hearers (law-hearing monks)
• ASAMKHYA (Innumerable) – 10^60
• 4 BRAHMA Virtues or meditative Practices – active loving-kindness, compassion (pity), empathetic joy, and equanimity.
• BUDDHA – Awakened one (also "Perfectly & peerlessly awakened one": annutara-samyak-sambuddha)
• BODHI awakening – Enlightenment; solving the mind to match true reality, the Logos, first by devices, and finally by direct apprehension ("Perfect, peerless enlightenment": annutara-samyak-sambodhi)
• BODHI-SATTVA saint – Bodhi "seeker" (a being who's intentional about directing his attention); one who seeks awakening for all living beings.
• CHAKRA wheel – a spoked wheel, used to illustrate and teach a cyclical or chain-like process; hence "turn the wheel of the Law"
• DHARANI spell – "magic" (that is, mnemonic) spells, protective prayers [of safe-keeping], for keeping the Law in mind.
• DHARMA (Cause-and-Effect) – phenomena as it arises and dissolves, i.e. Truth, As-Is, Just-Is, all cause-effect, emergent and living natural law, True Law.
• DHUTA Practices – "shaking off the dust" of desires for food, clothing, shelter (both the aversion to simplicity and the lust for better).
• FOUR KINDS OF BELIEVERS – laymen, laywomen, monks, nuns; or, those at the stages of only hearing, then listening, then praising, then asking. (Ch 17)
• FOUR RIGHT EFFORTS or RULES – putting an end to existing evil or distortion (leave entanglements behind), preventing evil from arising (no false views), bringing good into existence (via practices), and encouraging existing good (not preaching recklessly). (Ch 14)
• GANGES sands – the grains of sand of the Ganges river (which is 2,700 miles long); the sand of the sea.
• KALPA aeons – (or eon), one billion years.
• LAPIS Lazuli – deep celestial-blue stone; calls to mind the starry night sky; corresponds to a blue jacinth.
• LOKAYATAS, which say there is no rebirth – analogue to the Sadducees; a sect claiming there is no resurrection after death.
• MAHA (Great) – e.g. maha-sattva "great being", "great seeker"
• NAYUTA billions
• NIRVANA liberation – extinction of worldly desires, of all attachment to forms or thought forms; Nichiren teaches: the burning-up of desires is enlightenment (releasing entrapped light); burning prevents evil/illusion taking root or seeding; and suffering-through is nirvana.
• 4 NOBLE (Holy) TRUTHS – in sum, worldly desires beget all suffering.
• OUTFLOWS of attention – distractions, illusions, or worldly desires; deranging one's attention away from Awakening.
• PRATEKYA-BUDDHA (cause-awakened prophet) – self-awakened or cause-awakened (by apprehending the very nature of things on one's own)
• 5 PARAMITA perfective practices – giving (alms), keeping the 10 precepts without outflow, forbearing (patient and gentle in the face of contempt or evil), assiduous (diligent, firm intent, never lax), meditating (single-minded, self-regulating, mind never deranging); and the 6th PARAMITA is “meta-practice,” also called Wisdom (insight)
• 10 PRECEPTS (Commandments) – prohibitions; the first five are basic (killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxication or irresponsible speech), and the next five vary by system (in the Good Precepts: "adorning the body, owning gold and silver, eating after midday, sleeping on high beds, worldly amusements"; while in the Major Precepts: "duplicity i.e. praising self but disparaging others, defamation or speaking ill, giving way to anger, withholding gifts or sparing one's efforts, foolishness or holding wrong views of the 3 Treasures")
• REBIRTH – life in this moment "hereafter," as [collective] awakening increases or diminishes; the continuation of all life after some action or event (such as death)
• SAMADHI meditation – greatly concentrated meditation. "Going far beyond"
• SHRAMANA practitioner– one who renounces secular life; an ascetic, practitioner.
• SHRAMANERA novice – those who vow to uphold the 10 Precepts (before taking the complete vows of a monk)
• SUTRA discourse – discourse (organized by verbal repetition, or arising in nature)
• TATHAGATA (The Lord Is Come) – the Thus Come One, the self-same Life of the Universe arising within itself, and of itself, as a being. (The complement process to this is 'glory' or 'glorifying': where a being magnifies Truth, i.e. shines it through)
• 3 TREASURES – 1. the Lord (who instructs and benefits all living beings), 2. the Law (the teachings and standards of behavior), 3. the Order of believers (striving to perform good deeds)
• 3 UNDERSTANDINGS – in opposition to the 3 Poisons/Evils/Defilements (anger which kills, craving which abuses, and ignorance which deprives)
• VEHICLE (Way) – track, path.
• VAJRA cutter – "diamond-cutter", a scepter-like instrument, uses sound vibration to cut through hard or difficult material; cuts through all illusion.
• WONDERFUL – mystic, rare, difficult to encounter and know.

The original copies are believed to have been in Kharosthi, the language of the Śaka/Shakya, as supported by the phonetic "dharani" of Ch.26 & 28.
Kharosthi's writing system is based on Aramaic. Today, the oldest extant manuscripts are in Chinese. All of the Sanskrit versions are dated later.
The first full Chinese translation was by Kumārajīva; he departed from older samples in a couple minor ways, e.g. in Chapter 2 "Expedient Means":
the twice-repeated 5 Aspects of the Law (resembling "who, what, where, when, how") he took and expanded into 10 Truths ("suchnesses") of the Law.

zh.wikisource.org/wiki/妙法蓮華經　(Lotus Sutra, Kumārajīva's Chinese translation 406 A.D.)