Christianity And Buddhism Similarities

Christianity and Buddhism are two major world religions practiced by millions worldwide. The two religions have an abounding history surrounding the culture and practices. Regardless of what religious stigma leads us to believe, when evaluating the core beliefs, traditions and values held at the foundations of these two religions, we find that they are very much compatible with each other, much like many other religious foundations. Despite this, they also have a multitude of differences that outnumber the basic similarities that underlay many other religious. In spite of this, Christianity and Buddhism encompass more distinctness and following that creates unique traditions that thus, disjoint the two from their inherent similarities. Christianity

The label of each of these practices however doesn’t make them completely different. Gwynne introduces this idea as the following “At the heart of religion lies the belief in a transcendent reality that provides an overarching context for human life and all that it contains.” At the center of these two religions is a desire to reach what would be enlightenment. For Christians this enlightenment is through God. To attain this enlightenment a Christian needs to love God and obey his commandments. In addition to this, one must build a relationship with the lord and savior, Jesus Christ and spread the word of the Gospel in hopes to save others. Buddhists become enlighten through meditation and through the higher power within themselves, not through a higher power bigger than themselves such as the idea of God. To reach enlightenment Buddhists meditate and follow the Eightfold Path to end the cycle of suffering that results from human desire. However to reach true enlightenment for a Buddhist would be to reach Nirvana. Molloy discusses this in his writing on Buddhism and states that, “Nirvana is a thought of as existence beyond limitation.” Not only this, but Molloy comments that Nirvana rarely occurs, but it is theoretically possible to attain it in a lifetime. (Molloy

Like any other major religion, death plays a primary role in the purpose of life. Many believe that death offers an afterlife in which we are eternal. This promise by many religious basis’ provides an appealing hope that we will rejoin with others who have died and that love will last forever. According to the beliefs of Buddhism, when a person dies there is a rebirth of their spirit in one of the six realms on the wheel of life. These realms are divisions of the universe that include gods, titans, humans, hungry ghosts, animals and hell. Buddhists treat life in a cyclic manor of life, death rebirth, and so on. This series of reincarnation is hierarchical and “the spiritual essence of the individual re-enters it at a different level each time, depending on the amount of good or bad karma that has been accumulated in each reincarnation.” (Gwynne 164.) Unlike Buddhism, Christianity does not believe in the cycle of reincarnation, but rather as an afterlife of as being a Christian, being born before judgement that imposes a lifetime of religious fortitude that results in eternal fate in Heaven or oppositely, rejecting God and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ resulting in a life a eternal Hell. Christians believe that Heaven is the ultimate end and a place where one finds healing, peace and everlasting