Why Alma Would Have Liked Buddha and Confucius
[Note to readers: Last month I wrote about the basic structure of the book of Ether , which offers a quick way to
demonstrate to Sunday school classes, youth, and friends how carefully crafted the Book of Mormon is. I had
originally intended to write a follow-up article about some of the other remarkable patterns in Ether, but I’ll put that
off for a month since there has been an exciting development in my life—last week my 36-lecture DVD/CD course
“Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition” was released by The Teaching Company. Christians have long worried about whether God plays favorites. Since salvation only comes through Jesus Christ,
what fate awaits the hundreds of millions who lived outside of Christendom, who never had a chance to hear the
gospel, or who died without baptism, perhaps even before Jesus was born? From medieval Catholic speculations
about Limbo to Rob Bell’s recent evangelical book Love Wins, there has been a great deal of unease about
reconciling God’s love for all his children with the fact that for most of history only a minority of the world’s
population had access to prophets, apostles, or scriptures.
One of the intriguing findings in Robert Putnam and David Campbell’s American Grace
(flagged by the writers at the lds.org Newsroom) is that Latter-day Saints are unusual in combining a strong belief
in the existence of one true religion with a conviction that those outside of their faith, including non-Christians, can
gain salvation or go to heaven. The idea of a God who is ethically demanding but also fair is, to me, one of the
most attractive features of Mormonism, though it may be a bit puzzling to outsiders. Of course, the way that we
balance the two seemingly contradictory beliefs is through our doctrines of missionary work in the spirit world and
baptism for the dead. Neither of these concepts is prominent in the Book of Mormon, but even in that early
scripture there is evidence of God’s deep concern for people throughout history and across the globe.
One of the fundamental teachings of the Book of Mormon is that God’s saving acts were not restricted to
Palestine. After his resurrection, Jesus visited the Americas, where he met descendants of the house of Israel who
had been given prophetic warnings of coming. So not only were there Christians in the New World before
Columbus, there had even been devout Christians before Jesus’ birth. But that is not all. Nephi and Jacob had
suggested that other offshoots of Israel had been led by God elsewhere in the world (2 Ne. 29:13-14; Jacob 5),
and Jesus told the Nephites gathered at the temple in Bountiful that he needed to visit those peoples as well (3
Ne. 16:1-3). There were also non-Israelite groups, such as the Jaredites, to whom Christ had revealed himself (at
least to some extent; more on this next month).
Before his own remarkable vision, Nephi expressed his belief that the power of the Holy Ghost was “the gift of God
unto all those who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto
the children of men. For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the way is prepared for all men [and
presumably women] from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him (1 Ne. 10:1718). And this seems to involve more than just warm feelings or the twinges of conscience, for the Lord later
revealed to Nephi that “I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north and in the south, and
in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall
be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written” (2 Ne.
29:11). It appears that we should expect the word of God, in some form or other, to be manifest in texts throughout
the centuries and around the world. The classic exposition of this doctrine of global revelation comes when Alma the Younger, in his “O that I were an
angel” speech, wishes that he could preach the gospel in such a way that the entire world would hear. That wasn’t
possible at the time (what would he have thought of radio, TV and the Internet?), but he takes comfort in the fact
that God has already been laying the groundwork: “The Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and
tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have” (Alma 29:8). Given this
explicit assertion, we should be asking ourselves, “Where are the promised texts from around the globe that
contain a measure of God’s word?” Perhaps there are some that will be revealed, like the Book of Mormon, at
some future date, but in the meantime I would argue that many of the world’s great religious figures and
philosophers received inspiration and taught true principles that are encompassed within the gospel. These
individuals, teaching their own people in their own language, helped their followers to live morally and open their
hearts to spiritual matters. This is not exactly a radical belief. The First Presidency issued a statement on February 15, 1978 which declared
that “the great religious leaders of the world such as Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as
philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God’s light. Moral truths were given to
them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals.” And in Preach
My Gospel (p. 46), Buddha, Confucius, and Mohammed are specifically listed as examples of the inspired
teachers spoken of by Alma.
So what would Alma have thought of Buddha? Of course, the two would not have agreed on everything—
resurrection is not reincarnation, nirvana is not heaven, and Zen meditation is not exactly what Nephi had in mind
when he spoke of “pondering in your hearts”—but I believe that Alma would have respected a teacher who
focused attention on the problem of suffering and who urged people to follow the Five Precepts: no killing, no
stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, and no intoxicants.
Similarly, I suspect that Alma, who had held both political and ecclesiastical office and was deeply engaged in
social reform, would have responded positively to many of Confucius’ ideas, which included emphasis on
education, moral government, ritual, personal morality (especially respect for parents and family), and hierarchy
(though in a cooperative rather than a confrontational mode). Confucius once said that the pinnacle of his own
ethical development was when, at the age of seventy, he could finally “follow what my heart desired without
transgressing what was right.” Perhaps Alma would have been reminded of the reaction of the people of Lamoni to
the preaching of his friend Ammon: “their hearts had been changed, that they had no more desire to do evil” (Alma
19:33; cf.
Mosiah 5:2)
It may seem strange for Latter-day Saints, who already have the truth, to be interested in other religions or
philosophies, but there are at least four good reasons why it makes sense to study other faith traditions:
1.When we recognize common concerns and values, we can work with others and learn from their experiences in
implementing those values. Discovering that some of our own truths are also present in other belief systems is
evidence that Alma knew what he was talking about. We live in a much more pluralistic world than Alma, and for
the civil discourse that our national well-being depends upon, it is good to know something about what others
believe, to avoid unfair caricatures, and to show respect for those of other faiths.
2. Learning about other religions can help us to better share our message. When we recognize not just the
commonalities, but also the real differences that exist between religions, we can better articulate what exactly we
believe, and what we have to offer the world. It is also helpful to sometimes put ourselves in others’ shoes. The
next time you want to share the Book of Mormon, ask yourself how you might feel if someone tried to give you a
copy of the Lotus Sutra. What might they say to spark your interest? What does it mean to suddenly be confronted
with a new way of looking at life, especially if it involves new names and vocabulary, or perhaps familiar words
used in new ways? When was the last time that you actually read someone else’s scripture, in the same way that
you would like your friends to read yours? (The Golden Rule, not by coincidence, shows up in a number of
different cultures.)
3. Although Mormonism is true, it does not contain all truths, at least not yet. And there are opportunities for us to
be genuine learners when we study other traditions. I have found that in teaching world religions, I have come
across many ideas that have enriched my faith and helped me see things in new and better ways. For instance, I
quite like the Buddhist principle of mindfulness, and their teachings about the Five Aggregates is a useful way to
complicate the rather simplistic notion of mind/body dualism that we often just take for granted. For instance, one
of the aggregates is “psychic dispositions,” which include impulses and habits; it’s hard to say whether they are
mental or physical. I am also intrigued by the Confucian notion that individuals are not perfectly free, autonomous
entities but rather the product of a network of social relationships. Hence, we find our identity in multiple,
overlapping roles—as parents and children, as teachers and learners, as supervisors and subordinates, etc.
4. As a Latter-day Saint, I, like Abraham of old, want to be “a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a
greater knowledge” (Abr. 1:3), so I am delighted to discover truths from any source. If the Book of Mormon
suggests that God has revealed a portion of his word to good people around the world, then I am eager to seek
after those things, along with anything “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.”
If you are similarly inclined, but don’t exactly know where to start, here is a somewhat self-serving suggestion. The
Teaching Company has been producing college courses for audiovisual media for twenty years, and they recently
invited me to put together a course for them on the Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition. As the
national leader in the field, they are quite selective and it was an honor to be asked (to my knowledge, I am the
first LDS professor on their roster). My course, which was just released last week, is an introduction to the great
thinkers and ideas of Asia—primarily India, China, and Japan, but also Tibet and Korea. I define “intellectual
tradition” rather broadly, so that it includes politics, history, and science as well as religion and philosophy, with
more than seventy great minds in all (and there is an introductory discount of 70%!).
Because I viewed this as an opportunity to learn from other traditions rather than imposing my own belief system, I
never talk about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon, and I didn’t attempt to fit Asian religious concepts into
Mormon categories. I tried to understand and explain these traditions on their own terms. But at the same time, my
LDS background colors nearly everything that I do, including this course. I tell stories from the two years that I was
a missionary in Taiwan, my lecture on Korean philosophy was inspired by the Korean family that I home teach, and
the lecture on Asian science and technology was the direct result of a conversation I had with a fellow Latter-day
Saint at a ward picnic. If the First Presidency taught that Buddha, Confucius, and Mohammed were inspired by
God (at least to some extent), then I wanted to be sure to include them.
There are legitimate concerns about mixing human philosophies with gospel truths, but seeking for the traces of
revelation that Alma talks about can better equip us to comprehend and clarify our own beliefs (which in many
cases have been unconsciously combined with Western philosophies). The Doctrine and Covenants urges us to
“obtain a knowledge of history, and of countries, and of kingdoms” (93:53) and to “seek ye out of the best books
words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith (88:118). Even if you’ve been out of school for a
while, it’s not too late. And those wisdom-infused “best books,” in my opinion, obviously include spiritual classics
like the Daodejing and the Bhagavad Gita.
Here is just one of dozens and dozens of interesting ideas that I encountered in preparing the Teaching Company
lectures. In medieval Hinduism, worshippers of Vishnu were divided over the issue of grace, much like Arminians
and Calvinists in the Protestant Reformation. In the Southern school, grace was completely and fully a gift from
god. In the Northern school, however, grace was thought to be conditional upon the efforts of individuals; that is to
say, salvation was a cooperative process between god and the believer.
The two groups explained their positions though competing metaphors. For the Southern school, salvation comes
“on the analogy of the cat”: as a cat picks up her kittens by the scruff of the neck with her teeth and carries them
about, so god saves whomever he will, with no effort on their part whatsoever. In the Northern school, by contrast,
salvation could be obtained “on the analogy of the monkey”: god saves souls just as a mother monkey carries her
young to safety, swinging through the trees while her infant holds on for dear life. Some effort, at least faith, is
required on the part of the believer. Nephi explained a similar concept in rather abstract terms—“We know that it is
by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Ne. 25:23)—but it is the Hindu image that really brings that
doctrine home to me. Sometimes it seems like the best I can do is to hold on tightly and trust that God will take me
where I need to be.
The Book of Mormon proclaims that there are revealed truths for us to discover among all nations, languages, and
peoples.
So what are we waiting for? In an age of books, libraries, the Internet, and easily accessible college lectures, there
has never been a better time to put that promise to the test.
Grant Hardy is the editor of The Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Edition (University of Illinois Press, 2003) and the
author of Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide (Oxford University Press, 2010). He is a
professor of History and Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina—Asheville.