The Problem of Death in Buddhism and Christianity - Research Paper Example

? Topic: In this paper, the ideas about what happens after death in Buddhism and Christianity will be compared and contrasted, as will the practice of meditation/prayers Every living entity born in the world has to go through the two distinct phases of life and death. The living entity can be in the form of a minute organism or the highest of all living species known as the human beings. During its lifetime, the living body goes through many different stages of the lifecycle which comes with many actions and responsibilities. Death is one entity which causes the cessation of these duties. There are many definitions of death in different scriptures and religions. The scientific world describes death as a mode when there is a permanent termination of all biological functions needed to sustain a living body. The journey does not end here as there is a mention of a life after death or the beginning of the afterlife across various religions of the world. According to the second law of thermodynamics, all energetic states in nature strive to attain the most probable state thus the more disordered and the highly undifferentiated state (Koslowski 4). As such, resurrection or gaining eternal life or Nirvana would not be possible in a world that is subject to the laws of thermodynamics. It would be possible only in a world that is free from such physical laws. The theories on bodily resurrection or eternal life are based on the assumptions of ontological transformation of the dead or the matter. Eternal life – its depiction across religions There are many ways by which the theories regarding after life or life after death is explained. No single belief or faith can provide an accurate concise explanation to the same. Christianity and Islam speak about the existence of the heaven and the hell as places where the dead transcend after death. Sikhism and Hinduism also believe in the concept of reincarnation and heaven and hell. According to these religions, one’s life after death or his journey in the afterlife depend on the deeds he performs in his biological life. Good deeds lead to heaven while wrong deeds lead to hell (Ellis and White, 83). Christianity, Judaism and Islam acknowledge the apocalyptic transformation of matter and thus a realization of the afterlife (Koslowski, 4). Buddhism advocated the presence of life after death. But it does not mention the existence of heaven or hell in its religion. According to the Buddhist doctrines, human life is a cycle that consists of birth, death and rebirth. The process is a continuous one and is known as the Dharma chakra or the Samsara (Prasad, 4). According to it, living life forms a continuum of life after death that begins immediately after a person is dead. Buddhism lays great emphasis on the karma of a person. According to it, a person leaves behind his karma and his character. The force generated out of his karma brings in an entity that would be influenced by it and bear the same disposition as the dead (Prasad, 4). Afterlife as in Buddhism and Christianity Buddhism began with the teachings of Gautama Buddha to address the suffering that exists in the world. Buddhism accepts the religious philosophies of Hindu doctrines which believed in reincarnation and karma. It believes that the ultimate goal of any religious life is to attain liberation from the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Buddha said that desire and cravings for materialistic things keeps one bound to the cycle of life, death and after death. When one liberates himself completely from such material pleasures he liberates himself from the cycle and enters the state of Nirvana. Buddhism however was not focused on ultimate salvation or attaining Nirvana as the sole motive in the life of an individual. Little is said about Nirvana in the Buddhist scriptures as Buddha felt the importance of attachment, pain and sufferings. The people were encouraged to give alms to the needy, donation of goods and services, to chant or copy sutras and engage in activities to gain merit. This would lead them to think for more desirable rebirth that would bring them closer to enlightenment (Afterlife and Salvation, 2008). According to Buddhism there is no entity called an immortal soul but there is a “being” that is reborn after every death bearing dispositions as the deceased. Buddhism rejected Annihilationism outright and proposed that life continues even after physical death (Walshe, 6). According to the true Buddhist view it is the remote flow of consciousness that passes on impelled by ignorance and craving from one life to the next. Though the process is impersonal, the illusion of a person’s personality continues as it does in his present physical life (Walshe, 3). When life ceases the karmic energy of each individual rebinds or re-materializes itself in a new form (Thera). This is referred to as transmigration or taking on of a new body in the next life. Nirvana on the other hand means final liberation from the states of death and suffering and attaining enlightenment. In this context, the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth should not be confused with the theory of reincarnation which implies the transmigration of a soul and its invariable material rebirth. Buddha denied the existence of an unchanging or eternal soul created by a God or one that is emanating from a Divine Essence called the Paramatma (Thera). Christianity is based on the teachings and judgements of Jesus. Heaven, hell and a human soul are interrelated in Christianity. There is an emphasis on the individual’s mortal deeds and his migration to heaven or hell. According to the Christian gospels and New Testament heaven is the place for those blessed souls who get incorporated with the soul of the Christ. It is the ultimate end and the fulfillment of all deepest human longings, the state of supreme and divine happiness. Christians view death as an eternal liberation from the human form and their union with the supreme god or Christ (Zukeran). According to Catholic views, the moment when a person is declared dead, the soul gets separated from his body. The human person is still judged and he continues to exist, even though the physical body has ceased to function. On the day of the Last Judgment, one’s body will be reunited to its soul. In Catholic Theology, the judgement that takes place immediately after the death of a person is called the “particular judgement” (Zukeran). The particular judgement is linked with the story of the rich man and Lazarus and the words of Jesus to the repentant thief on the cross. Christians believe that after the physical death of a person, the soul gets separated from the human body and immediately enters in the presence of the supreme god. The spirit is then purified and the righteous souls united with soul of the lord in heaven and is blessed with beatific vision or the vision to see god face-to-face (Sachs, 84). Christianity also believes in the final purification or purgatory. They believe that after death, the imperfectly purified souls pass through the phase of purgatory purification in order to attain the holiness and purity needed to enter the gates of heaven. The belief in the resurrection originated from the accounts of the followers and disciples of Jesus concerning his resurrection which is recorded in the Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the writings of St Paul. According to Christian philosophies, a person is destined to live only once and die after that. It does not believe in the concept of resurrection or life after death (Rebirth-Christianity-Islam-Hinduism –Part-I). After death, the final judgement is given and the soul either unites with god or is sent to hell to perish. There are contradictions between the Catholics and the Protestants on resurrection that involves a bodily life after death. While the Catholics believe in the resurrection of both the body and the soul after death on the judgement day, Protestants believe that life after death only referred to the resurrection of the soul and not the material body. Christianity borrowed its beliefs on the life after death from Judaism (D'Souza, 46). The general belief on resurrection is that after death, the soul gets a body similar to the one that Christ had when he appeared before his disciples on the third day. They believe that after death the soul enters a new body that is indestructible and incorruptible (D'Souza, 46). In modern times, there are instances of near death experiences where people have been revived after being declared to be clinically dead. These experiences are medically inexplicable. One such incident occurred in Texas USA. A person named Robin Michelle Halberdier suffered a near death experience when she was one to two months of age. She was born prematurely and was suffering from Hyaline Membrane disease. She was declared dead by the doctors. Robin had many clear memories of her afterlife. These facts were conveyed to her parents right after she had leant to talk. She mentioned about the incubation box where she was kept in and the bright male figure that she saw in her vision. In another incident, a person named Bryce Bond gained consciousness after being declared dead for ten minutes. He remembered passing through a tunnel and meeting his pet dog and his stepfather. These instances show that there is a presence of a life after death (Atwater). Comparison between the two religions The similarity between Buddhism and Christianity in view of the life after death is Christians believe good deeds lead to good consequences which lead a person to unite with the supreme god in heaven. Buddhism lays importance on the karma of a person in his physical form which influences his rebirth. This means that good deeds create good karma which leads to a good rebirth and eventually leads the soul to the state of Nirvana or complete enlightment. The difference between Buddhism and Christianity in respect of the life after that is that while Buddhism preaches in favor of rebirths to attain the ultimate state of enlightenment, Christianity preaches that there is only one life for man and one such death. Buddhism does not believe in the concept of a supreme almighty or the god where as Christianity advocated that every living entity after its death gets absorbed with the soul of the god. Christianity mentions the presence of heaven and hell as places where the soul transcends after death. Christians believe that good deeds lead the soul to enter heaven where it is blessed with beatific vision. It enjoys divine happiness in heaven. The soul that is impartially purified has to go through the phase of purgatory punishment and goes to hell. Buddhism on the other hand does not mention the existence of heaven or hell in its religious scripts. It believes that it is the karma of the person that decides the fate of his rebirth. Buddha preached that it is the consciousness of an individual that reincarnates itself with every death. According to Buddhist doctrines, there is no eternal soul. An individual consist of habits, memories, sensations, desires, and many other human features. This taken together constitutes a transitory self. It is this transitory self or the consciousness that reincarnates itself again and again. In Buddhism, life in a material body is viewed negatively. Materialist life is considered to be the source of all suffering. But Buddha did not preach completely against the human nature. He emphasized that emotions like pain, sorrow and sufferings makes the soul to take a new form. This goes on till the soul has liberated itself from all forms of sorrow which means liberating itself from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth thereby attaining Nirvana. Conclusion Death and a life beyond death have been described in any ways in the religions. But the basic fact underlying all regions is the liberation of the soul or eternal consciousness. Buddhism believes in afterlife as a mode to attain complete liberation from the human pains and sorrows while Christianity lays stress on the deeds of the person in his mortal life. Christianity believes that a person is appointed to live only once and as such there is no rebirth of the soul in a different physical form. Buddhism however says that the soul takes on the structure of a new being but with the same disposition as the dead. Thus, the ultimate fate common to both the religions is the liberation of the soul from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth by taking different modes. References “Afterlife and Salvation”, 2008, July 21, 2012 from: http://www.patheos.com/Library/Buddhism/Beliefs/Afterlife-and-Salvation.html Atwater, P. M. H. 17 Near-Death Experience Accounts from "Beyond the Light", 1994, July 21, 2012 from: http://iands.org/nde-stories/17-nde-accounts-from-beyond-the-light.html D'Souza, Dinesh. Life After Death: The Evidence, Regnery Publishing, 2009 Ellis, Tracy and White, Joy, Learning from Religions, Heinemann, 2002 Koslowski, Peter. Progress, Apocalypse, and Completion of History and Life After Death of the, Springer, 2002 Prasad, Ramanuj. The Life After Death, Pustak Mahal, 2005 “Rebirth-Christianity-Islam-Hinduism –Part-I”, 2000, July 21, 2012 from: http://www.interfaith.org/forum/rebirth-in-hinduism-vs-christanity-3201.html Sachs, John Randall. The Christian Vision of Humanity: Basic Christian Anthropology, Liturgical Press, 1991 THERA , NARADA, Buddhism in a Nutshell, 1996, July 21, 2012 from: http://www.buddhanet.net/nutshell09.htm Walshe, Buddhism and Death M. O’C, 1978, July 21, 2012 from: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/walshe/wheel261.pdf Zukeran, Patrick, What Happens After Death? 2011, July 21, 2012 from: http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4224733/k.63A1/What_Happens_After_Death.htm Read More