Buddhist Reincarnation Vs. Christianity's Heaven

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BUDDHIST REINCARNATION VS. CHRISTIANITY'S HEAVEN

Buddhist Reincarnation vs. Christianity's Heaven

Buddhist Reincarnation vs. Christianity's Heaven

This paper provides a comparison between the concepts of reincarnation in Buddhism and Heaven in Christianity.

Reincarnation in Buddhism

Experts in Buddhism have found abundant references to the concept in the sacred texts of these religions. Edward Conze, writing of the “Buddhist scriptures,” comments: “The state of a Buddha is one of the highest possible perfection. It seems self-evident to Buddhists that an enormous amount of preparation over many lives is needed to reach it” (Dharmasiri, 1989) About Taoism, Chuang Tzu writes in The Musings of a Chinese Mystic: “To have attained to the human form must be always a source of joy. And then, to undergo countless transitions, with only the infinite to look forward to—what incomparable bliss is that! Therefore it is, that the truly wise rejoice in that which can never be lost, but endures always” (Harvey, 2000).

(Keown, 2001) defines reincarnation as

the doctrine that human beings, compelled by the law of evolution, incarnate repeatedly in progressively higher lives—retarded by wrong actions and desires, and advanced by spiritual endeavors—until Self-realization and God-union are attained. Having thus transcended the limitations and imperfections of mortal consciousness, the soul is forever free from compulsory reincarnation. [In Revelation 3:12 it is noted,] “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.” (P. 479)

This law of reincarnation means that all people are souls, reincarnated on earth, made in the image of God, and therefore essentially already saved (one with God). It means that human beings are attached to the world through unfulfilled material desires that force them to reincarnate in the physical plane. Souls reincarnate in order to satisfy or transmute (renounce) these desires until they consciously choose, as their only desire, union with the Divine. Reincarnation is the mechanism of evolution (change in consciousness)—the technology of death—and humans almost always (with rare exceptions) reincarnate in human form. Eventually, all souls attain Self-realization and liberation from the delusory identification of self with ego (Nakasone, 1990).

Head and Cranston (1977) document similar references to reincarnation in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Hermetic writings, the Persian Mithra, the writings of the Zoroastrians and the Manicheans, and also in the ancient Jewish traditions of the Essenes, the Kabala, the Zohar, and the Hasidics. They also note that widespread understanding of reincarnation by leading Western writers, scientists, philosophers, and religious advocates has been documented among the early Christians, the early Muslims, the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the Native peoples of the Americas, from the Middle Ages and on through the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the ages of Enlightenment and Science. In the following subsections (Saddhatissa, 1997).

The most important manifestation of the Buddhist view of causality is the law of karma, which is a natural law. Karma literally means actions (Andrews, 2000). The principle that every effect has a cause means that actions have consequences for oneself and ...
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