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Old 02.22.2008, 06:38 PM   #36
atari 2600
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Many would assume, and naturally so, that Christianity teaches a somewhat opposing view of death and the afterlife than Buddhism, but a closer comparative look reveals that there are some important and interesting similarites of belief.

While Buddhism has Escape from The Wheel of Birth and Death as a strived-for ideal option to being reborn based on one's mettle in the bardo stages, Christianity has a heaven and a hell. Buddhism teaches that one must let go of fears (in a loose sense, hell) and desires (in a loose sense, heaven) to reach nirvana and leave samsara.

But Buddhism teaches also that one's likelihood of escaping birth and death is proportional to how one has prepared themselves for death. In other words, the degree to which one has lived an artful life with good karma and a strong mind disciplined in meditation relates to how likely it is that one embrace the clear white light after death losing all fears and desires and rejecting being attracted into being born again into another life.

New Testament Christianity teaches that one needs to repent in the name of Jesus Christ who died for one's sins. It teaches that one can do this at any time before death and be saved from hell and be set aside a place in heaven provided the prayer is heard. Again, this seems to run contrary to the Buddhist idea of karma. I write "seems" because Christianity also (per the above italicized portion) teaches, (and one rarely hears much about it) that God simply doesn't hear the prayers of those that have been cut off from God from living an unjust life that rejected the soul, the human part of being a human animal; the lamentations for salvation of the dying one that chose fear over love all their life isn't heard. God doesn't accept a person for the prayer's sake, but the prayer for the person's sake.

So, we see that essentially in this regard that Buddhism and New Testament Christianity teach the same concept: that life is art and one cannot cheat in death.
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