Distinctions

Christianity and Buddhism both place great import on many of the same issues. The two religions are fundamentally opposed to one another on many of those issues, though. Some of these topics include love, freedom, and religious communities.

Love for one another plays a positive role in both Christianity and Buddhism. Both religions encourage it as and include it as a fundamental doctrine. In Buddhism, this concept is often referred to as “infinite compassion”. Thich Nhat Hanh, a “great Buddhist teacher”, states, “In the Buddhist teaching, it’s clear that to love oneself is the foundation of love of other people. Love is a practice.” In Buddhism, he says, love arises from within oneself and the mastery of loving oneself. According to Buddhism, humans are capable of love independently and must consciously strive to love. Christianity takes a polarizing position here. Its doctrine says that love is an unconditional gift from God, made possible by the Holy Spirit and made present by Jesus Christ. Love is not within in Christianity, but rather it is without. Love exists outside of us and is something we participate in. This distinction is important because it indicates the essential difference between what Buddhists consider to be the problem of existence (or rather that the see existence as a problem) and the Christian problem of existence.

The role and definition of freedom are also integral in both religions, but the distinction between Christianity’s and Buddhism’s take on freedom is clear. In Christianity, freedom is used as a means to an end, and the end is to “adhere to Being, and therefore to Christ.” Christians posit that freedom allows us to enter into a pure and simplistic relationship with Christ, free of tampering influences. One could say that freedom allows the Christian to participate in life more fully. The type of freedom described here is a freedom from the structures and systems of power that man creates and an in-tune-ness with one’s desires. Similar, but clearly distinct, is Buddhist freedom. Buddhist freedom also means to be free from the structures and systems of power, but goes further and says that freedom is also a complete uprooting of desire. A “free” Buddhist is not more in tune with his desires, but rather completely removed from them. This definition of freedom plays into the role of freedom in Buddhism: freedom is the end, not the means. Rather than seeking freedom for the sake of helping one achieve greater life, a Buddhist seeks freedom simply to be free. Free from suffering, desire, and the self, and finally embracing the “non-self”.

Finally, religious communities exist in both Christianity and Buddhism to aid men and women on their spiritual journeys, but the type of aid they provide is different. In Christianity, communities make Jesus present in the world. They exist for the purpose of others, both in the sense that each individual member must be as concerned for his neighbor’s salvation as he is for his own, but also in the sense that these communities bring the love of Christ into the world, benefitting people outside the community (evangelization, community service, social relief, etc.). Buddhist communities are quite the opposite. Thich Nhat Hanh harps on the personal benefits of the sangha, such as “the transformation and healing [taking] place more quickly.” He also says that mindfulness, concentration, and joy are more powerful in the sangha, all things used for personal enlightenment. The essence of the sangha is not to care for the journey of everyone else before oneself, but rather to facilitate one’s own journey through membership in the community.

All of these differences are easily overlooked and may even seem superficially insignificant, but they are closely tied to the fundamental difference between Christianity and Buddhism, being that Buddhism views existence as suffering while Christianity views it as an opportunity to take part in infinite truth, beauty, and love in the person of Christ. This fundamental difference is what one must take into consideration when analyzing religions or deciding what religion to participate in.