I came across a post in Facebook yet again about a bright young Chinese convert; the term now I suppose is revert. He was a straight As student and a Buddhist at birth and had been so for twenty years or so. As a child, even at a tender age, he had been sent to temples and had received lessons from monks and knows very well about the four Noble truths, the essence of Buddha's teachings; that there are sufferings which stem from desires and which could be solved by the Noble Eightfold Path. Yet, he left Buddhism, becoming an atheist and a Christian but finally becoming a Muslim. When he was a Buddhist, he wasn't very happy about his mother burning paper money for his late father which he thought was contradictory to Buddha's teaching; which in a way is true for burning paper money is indeed an old Chinese custom still practised by Chinese today, even by those who proclaim themselves to be of the Buddhist faith. The bright young man couldn't accept that the paper money was meant for his deceased father, said to be in Hell for why the heck would he be there when her mother had told him that he was a good, caring man. Some religions, I suppose reserve Hell for non believers but I'm not sure if there's a Buddhist Hell and who it is for. Just that, the bright young man, thus left Buddhism.
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