Buddhist Monk becomes Christian

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Athet Pyan Shinthaw Paulu’s story:

Short excerpt:

I learned later that I actually died for three days. My body decayed and stunk of death, and my heart stopped beating. My body was prepared for cremation and was put through traditional Buddhist purification rites.

The king of hell told me to look into the lake of fire. I looked and I saw the saffron colored robes that Buddhist monks wear in Myanmar. I looked closer and saw the shaven head of a man. When I looked at the man’s face I saw it was U Zadila Kyar Ni Kan Sayadaw [the famous monk who had died in a car accident in 1983]. I asked the king of hell why my former leader was confined to this lake of torment. I said, “Why is he in this lake of fire? He was a very good teacher. He even had a teaching tape called ‘Are You a Man or a Dog?’ which had helped thousands of people understand that their worth as humans is far greater than the animals.” The king of hell replied, “Yes, he was a good teacher but he did not believe in Jesus Christ. That’s why he is in hell.”

I was told to look at another person who was in the fire. I saw a man with very long hair wrapped on the left hand side of his head. He was also wearing a robe. I asked the king of hell, “Who is this man?” He replied, “This is the one you worship: Gautama [Buddha].” I was very disturbed to see Gautama in hell. I protested, “Gautama had good ethnics and good moral character, why is he suffering in this lake of fire?” The king of hell answered me, “It doesn’t matter how good he was. He is in this place because he did not believe in the Eternal God.”

Google:

The Remarkable Testimony of a Buddhist monk in Myanmar (Burma) who came back to life a changed man!

to read his whole story.
 
shoewindow3000 said:
Athet Pyan Shinthaw Paulu’s story:

Short excerpt:

I learned later that I actually died for three days. My body decayed and stunk of death, and my heart stopped beating. My body was prepared for cremation and was put through traditional Buddhist purification rites.

The king of hell told me to look into the lake of fire. I looked and I saw the saffron colored robes that Buddhist monks wear in Myanmar. I looked closer and saw the shaven head of a man. When I looked at the man’s face I saw it was U Zadila Kyar Ni Kan Sayadaw [the famous monk who had died in a car accident in 1983]. I asked the king of hell why my former leader was confined to this lake of torment. I said, “Why is he in this lake of fire? He was a very good teacher. He even had a teaching tape called ‘Are You a Man or a Dog?’ which had helped thousands of people understand that their worth as humans is far greater than the animals.” The king of hell replied, “Yes, he was a good teacher but he did not believe in Jesus Christ. That’s why he is in hell.”

I was told to look at another person who was in the fire. I saw a man with very long hair wrapped on the left hand side of his head. He was also wearing a robe. I asked the king of hell, “Who is this man?” He replied, “This is the one you worship: Gautama [Buddha].” I was very disturbed to see Gautama in hell. I protested, “Gautama had good ethnics and good moral character, why is he suffering in this lake of fire?” The king of hell answered me, “It doesn’t matter how good he was. He is in this place because he did not believe in the Eternal God.”

Google:

The Remarkable Testimony of a Buddhist monk in Myanmar (Burma) who came back to life a changed man!

to read his whole story.
Click to expand...
Not to insinuate anything, but it reads like a late night Christian televangelist wrote it.
 
I am highly skeptical of this story. I googled the phrase in the OP, and came across numerous cut-and-pastes of the story, predominantly on internet messageboards (such as CAF). Here is the first line:

"The story that follows is simply a translation of a taped testimony from a man with a lifechanging story."

“A translation of a taped testimony.” Red flag! Who translated it? There is no attribution nor are there any credentials given. There is no concrete original source, only a vague ambiguous “taped testimony.” When was it recorded? Who originally recorded it?

These “little” details should be easily available and prominently displayed if the story was genuine. The story itself contains a few dates in an attempt to add to the legitimacy of the story (when he was born, when he became a buddhist monk), but it does not include the most important one: when did this man “die” and receive these “visions”? What was the exact date of his tremendous conversion and rise from the dead? Again, if this story was true, you think the author would boldly proclaim these details in order to corroborate this incredible tale.

Alas, I suspect this is a hoax. It is sad that stories like this are spread so easily. There are so many true stories of amazing conversions, I don’t see why some find the need to make them up. It only makes Christians look bad.
 
Perhaps I should have done a little more research on the story.

It is interesting if true, though.
 
There’s no such thing as the “king of hell.” This is nothing but rank paganism.
 
I read two different versions of it doing a search. I’m rather prepared to give the benefit of the doubt and consider the ‘kings of hell’ demons and understood so truly, unless there’s more to it than that.

If true, it’s a pretty good and moving story… 🙂

Though I have my doubts… at least it gets an important point across.
 
Shin said:
I read two different versions of it doing a search. I’m rather prepared to give the benefit of the doubt and consider the ‘kings of hell’ demons and understood so truly, unless there’s more to it than that.

If true, it’s a pretty good and moving story… 🙂

Though I have my doubts… at least it gets an important point across.
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What point is that? I was under the impression from other discussions here that the ideas of a literal lake of fire and people going to hell simply because they had never heard of Jesus were not stances of the church.
 
liquidpele said:
What point is that? I was under the impression from other discussions here that the ideas of a literal lake of fire and people going to hell simply because they had never heard of Jesus were not stances of the church.
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Yeah, Hell is probably, if anything, much worse than a lake of fire. A lake of fire would cause physical pain, but the pain of Hell is against the soul itself, a total separation from God, something that none of us can possibly conceive of as here on Earth God is always with us. And yeah, people probably don’t go to Hell just because they were unlucky enough to be born in a part of the world where they would never even hear of Jesus. Though that’s not definite, it’s just the current teaching of the Ordinary Magisterium (which is subject to change and, if my understanding is correct, has changed its mind on this issue before).
 
Joe_5859 said:
I am highly skeptical of this story. I googled the phrase in the OP, and came across numerous cut-and-pastes of the story, predominantly on internet messageboards (such as CAF). Here is the first line:

"The story that follows is simply a translation of a taped testimony from a man with a lifechanging story."

“A translation of a taped testimony.” Red flag! Who translated it? There is no attribution nor are there any credentials given. There is no concrete original source, only a vague ambiguous “taped testimony.” When was it recorded? Who originally recorded it?

These “little” details should be easily available and prominently displayed if the story was genuine. The story itself contains a few dates in an attempt to add to the legitimacy of the story (when he was born, when he became a buddhist monk), but it does not include the most important one: when did this man “die” and receive these “visions”? What was the exact date of his tremendous conversion and rise from the dead? Again, if this story was true, you think the author would boldly proclaim these details in order to corroborate this incredible tale.

Alas, I suspect this is a hoax. It is sad that stories like this are spread so easily. There are so many true stories of amazing conversions, I don’t see why some find the need to make them up. It only makes Christians look bad.
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I am more then sceptical, it is against catholic dogma to believe you can see heaven or hell and “come back”. This is new age garbage.
 
Matthias123 said:
I am more then sceptical, it is against catholic dogma to believe you can see heaven or hell and “come back”. This is new age garbage.
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Well, however reliable or not the account is, this at least is not true, there are plenty of accounts of such events – and more reliable ones than the above, in the history of the Church.

God has more than once brought back to life someone or other, who is shown the afterlife and then returned.
 
Shin said:
Well, however reliable or not the account is, this at least is not true, there are plenty of accounts of such events – and more reliable ones than the above, in the history of the Church.

God has more than once brought back to life someone or other, who is shown the afterlife and then returned.
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On the contrary he has only shown them visions of the afterlife. Heaven is the beatific vision – to see the face of God – the only man on earth that could see the face of God was Jesus Christ our Lord – even Moses could not see the Lord’s face.

One cannot see the beatific vision, or truly see hell because this would be incomprehensible and even if they could know it, they would never be able to describe it.

I assert that such things are visions and not heaven and hell itself.
 
Matthias123 said:
On the contrary he has only shown them visions of the afterlife. Heaven is the beatific vision – to see the face of God – the only man on earth that could see the face of God was Jesus Christ our Lord – even Moses could not see the Lord’s face.

One cannot see the beatific vision, or truly see hell because this would be incomprehensible and even if they could know it, they would never be able to describe it.

I assert that such things are visions and not heaven and hell itself.
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I think the the trips are normally described as a vision or trip to/within the location of, not achieving the ‘state of being’ portion in either case.

And so these trips are always understood to have their limitations, since you aren’t actually damned or given the beatific vision yet.

But you can certainly be given a better and more direct understanding than anyone else living from such a trip.

[The following] event was juridically proved in the process of canonization of St. Francis of Jerome, and under oath attested by a large number of eye-witnesses.

In the year 1707, St. Francis of Jerome was preaching, as was his wont, in the neighborhood of the city of Naples. He was speaking of hell and the awful chastisements that await obstinate sinners. A brazen courtesan who lived there, troubled by a discourse which aroused her remorse, sought to hinder it by jests and shouts, accompanied by noisy instruments. As she was standing close to the window, the Saint cried out: “Beware, my daughter, of resisting grace; before eight days God will punish you.” The unhappy creature grew only more boisterous. Eight days elapsed, and the holy preacher happened to be again before the same house. This time she was silent, the windows were shut. The hearers, with dismay on their faces, told the Saint that Catherine – that was the name of the bad woman – had a few hours before died suddenly. “Died!” he repeated, “well, let her tell us now what she has gained by laughing at hell. Let us ask her.” He uttered these words in an inspired tone, and every one expected a miracle. Followed by an immense crowd, he went up to the death chamber, and there, after having prayed for an instant, he uncovers the face of the corpse, and says in a loud voice, “Catherine, tell us where art thou now.” At this summons, the dead woman lifts her head, while opening her wild eyes, her face borrows color, her features assume an expression of horrible despair, and in a mournful voice, she pronounces these words: “In hell; I am in hell.” And immediately, she falls back again into the condition of a corpse.

“I was present at that event,” says one of the witnesses who deposed before the Apostolic tribunal, "but I never could convey the impression it produced on me and the bystanders, nor that which I still feel every time I pass that house and look at that window. At the sight of that ill-fated abode, I still hear the pitiful cry resounding: “In hell; I am in hell.”
  • Father Bach, Life of St. Francis of Jerome, as quoted in F.X. Schouppe’s ‘Hell’
 
Thanks for the quote – that is amazing. This is much different then the “near death experiences” I was refering to.
 
liquidpele said:
What point is that? I was under the impression from other discussions here that the ideas of a literal lake of fire and people going to hell simply because they had never heard of Jesus were not stances of the church.
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Quite right, especially regarding the latter. The story has a definite Evangelical/Fundamentalist tinge to it.
 
Matthias123 said:
I am more then sceptical, it is against catholic dogma to believe you can see heaven or hell and “come back”. This is new age garbage.
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What about Paul ?:

2 Corinthians 12:1-6

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.
 
Cluny said:
There’s no such thing as the “king of hell.” This is nothing but rank paganism.
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There is a “King of Hell” in Buddhism. The reference would be familiar to Buddhists or to anyone who had looked, even superficially, at Buddhism.

rossum
 
rossum said:
There is a “King of Hell” in Buddhism. The reference would be familiar to Buddhists or to anyone who had looked, even superficially, at Buddhism. rossum
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My admiration for Buddhism is increased by the fact that it recognises the reality of evil…
 
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