Compare and Contrast Christianity and Buddhism

Buddhism and Christianity

As a system of belief, Zen Buddhism arrived in Japan in the 14th century as the result of liberalization of trade relationships between Japan and China after finding it entry into the far eastern cultures through India. (Kitagawa, 1966) Buddhism is a system of belief with many sects that follow individual masters who are said to have achieved a new revelation on how to apply the Four Noble Laws. Buddhism was meant to give the practitioners influence and control over suffering in the world by teaching then to have greater control over themselves. The combined effect was to help the Buddhist to respond differently to the suffering around him. Thereby the Buddhist would be less entangled in the suffering in the surrounding world, and indirectly be able to affect change by lessening the corporate experience in suffering. In Medieval Japan, which was ruled by militaristic lords who frequently experienced civil uprisings, and territorial battles, suffering was an element of life which the Japanese had little to no control over. In India, and China, two other countries which have become Buddhist strongholds, economic depression, military overlords and unfavorable weather patterns also contributed to large amounts of uncontrollable suffering which impacted the average citizen's live. So the Buddhist treatise, which taught the practitioner that they could affect influence over the pain and suffering of their world thorough their life style held immediate emotional attraction for the average citizen.

As a result, Buddhism became a part of the Japanese, Chinese, and Indian cultures. In their book, Sources of Japanese Tradition, (1958) editors Tsoumada, deBary, and Keene describe the entrance, and saturation of Buddhism into the Japanese society this way.

"As for the characteristic feature of Japanese culture, it seems to me to lie in moving in the direction from subject to object (environment), ever thoroughly negating the self and becoming the thing itself; becoming the thing itself to see; becoming the thing itself to act. To empty self and see thing, for the self to be immersed in things, 'no mindedness' (as described by Zen Buddhism) or effortless acceptance of the grace of Amida. -- These, I believe, are the states we Japanese strongly yearn for. . . The essence of the Japanese spirit must be to become one in things and in events. If it to become one at that primal point in which there is neither self nor others." (p. 362)

In other words, the Buddhist believes that the source of suffering is personal desire, all personal desire. The goal of the Buddhist is to overcome personal desire and the 'self of life.' By doing so, he can rise to a higher understanding of the events, things, and persons around them. Buddhism focused it's attention on teaching it's followers to become conscious of their interaction with the world, and thereby affect change on themselves, their response to their world. Ultimately the goal is to affectively live in their culture and experience a changed, more peaceful existence.

The Buddhist beliefs are based on the following four noble truths.

1. The Truth of Suffering (Dukkha): All of the individual events of the human experience are said to be a measure, and a source of suffering. The Buddhist believes that birth is suffering, sickness is suffering, old age is suffering, death is suffering, as is association with what is unpleasant, and disassociation from what is unpleasant. Pain, grief, sorrow, lamentation and despair are all suffering, as is not being able to obtain what one wants.

2. The second noble truth was the Truth of Arising, or the origin of Suffering (Samudaya). The origin of all suffering was personal desire. It is the thirst or craving (tanha) for things which gives rise to rebirth. Desire is bound up with passionate delight and which seeks fresh pleasure here and now. This, according to the Buddhist, is the source of suffering.

3. The third noble law points the Buddhist in the direction of the elimination of Suffering, and this law is called the Law of Cessation. (Nirodha) The utter cessation of craving (tanha) or desire, to withdrawal from it, and rejection desire was said to produce a non-attachment to those elements which created suffering

4. The Truth of the Path, or the Dharma Path was identified by Buddha as an Eightfold Path which would create the practitioners disassociation from self craving, desire, and therefore suffering. The eightfold path is:

1. Right Understanding

2. Right Resolve / Right Attitude of Mind

3. Right Speech

4. Right Action

5. Right Livelihood / Right Conduct

6. Right Effort

7. Right Mindfulness / Right Attention

8. Right Meditation (Asunum.com, online)

The Buddhist was not attempting to change, or overcome suffering through direct action. He is taught to affect his own relationship to the world, and thereby change the culture by changing his perception and interaction with it.

Christianity, on the other hand, identifies that man experiences suffering not as a result of his own wrong thinking. Whereas Buddhism is only meant as a system of belief for men to use in order to gain a more peaceful relationship to his existing world, Christianity is based on the acknowledgement that mankind experiences suffering, and difficulty in the world because man has departed from an obedient, loving, and intimidates relationship with a loving creator God. Christianity believes that suffering is a fruit not of wrong thinking, but of sin, a deliberate rejection of God and his purposes for man. As a result, man has a fallen nature that must be redeemed, not an ignorant nature that must be retaught.

Christianity is the only religion, or system of belief on the planet that makes the arrogant assertion that man cannot redeem himself. Buddhism, as to all non-Christian religions, states that man can redeem himself, and attain a perfected existence after they die if they work hard enough, believe the right doctrines, or practice the correct thinking / religious sacrifices. Christianity, however, teaches that man cannot redeem himself. Only a perfect substitutionary sacrifice can restore the relationship between sinful man and a holy God. As a result, Jesus Christ, someone who claimed to be the Eternal God (Holy Bible, John 8.44), lived as a human being, and then allowed himself to be sacrificed for the sins of mankind. (Holy Bible, Galatians 1.4)