Excerpt from Christ and Buddha; Religion Comparison Between Buddhism and Christianity, Volume 2 (Jesus Christ);
Contents
Doctrine of God
The World
The Doctrine of Man
Character of Man's Present Existence
Future Existences
The Doctrine of Sin
Salvation
Nirvana
Conclusion
The World
The sublime sentence that opens the book of Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” has no counterpart in the Pit-aka. As there is no idea of a Supreme God in the Buddhist scriptures, so there is no idea of an Omnipotent Creator, either bringing matter into existence by his own will or developing phenomena from some eternally existent substance. As in the question of the existence of a God, so in the question of the primary origin of things, Gotama regarded any attempt to solve it as without benefit. He was content to leave the mystery an unsolved problem. Sir Monier Williams puts the matter very concisely: " Buddhism has no Creator, creation, no original germ of all things, no soul of the world, no personal, no impersonal, no supra-mundane, no ante-mundane principle."
At the same time Gotama refused to discuss the eternity of the existing universe. "When Malunka asked Buddha whether the existence of the world is eternal or not eternal, he made no reply; but the reason of this was, that it was considered by the teacher as an inquiry that tended to no profit." His method is well illustrated in some questions addressed to him in Vaccha-gotta's Fire Sutta: "Do you hold the view that the world is eternal?" He answered : " No." "That the world is not eternal?" "No." "That it has an end ? " "No." "That is has not an end?" "No."
Yet Buddhism has its cosmology, for as Rhys Davids says, "Buddhism takes as its ultimate fact the existence of the material world and of conscious beings Hving within it." But this universe came from nothing and will resolve itself into nothing. There have been previous universes, each with its revolution of myriad cycles of years, followed by a great cataclysm of destruction. This universe, with its central mountain Meru and its strange concentric seas, its ten thousand worlds with their attendant heavens, earth of continents, hells and ruling deities, after the passage of immense cycles of time, a conception of which the mind fails to grasp, will come to its complete dissolution, to be succeeded by a new universe, made, not from the material of its ruins which has altogether ceased to be, but rising from nothing as a completely new universe. The cause of the new universe is Karma, the potent energy accumulated in the existence of the preceding universe which brings another into existence after that has disappeared forever. Sir Monier Williams calls it "act-force." This Karma acts in the same way as in all sentient beings. Childers quotes a passage in the Dictionary which shows this: "Kammana vattati loke kammana vattati paja," "Through Karma the world of sentient beings exists, from Karma all creations derive their existence."
The Christian system is tiie opposite of the Buddhist system at almost every point. Its Supreme Being, the Creator, presides over a universe which he has brought into existence, and which, when its time of probation is finished, will be transformed into a new heavens and earth, in which freedom from sin and active holiness will reign without a disturbing element.
Contents
Doctrine of God
The World
The Doctrine of Man
Character of Man's Present Existence
Future Existences
The Doctrine of Sin
Salvation
Nirvana
Conclusion
The World
The sublime sentence that opens the book of Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” has no counterpart in the Pit-aka. As there is no idea of a Supreme God in the Buddhist scriptures, so there is no idea of an Omnipotent Creator, either bringing matter into existence by his own will or developing phenomena from some eternally existent substance. As in the question of the existence of a God, so in the question of the primary origin of things, Gotama regarded any attempt to solve it as without benefit. He was content to leave the mystery an unsolved problem. Sir Monier Williams puts the matter very concisely: " Buddhism has no Creator, creation, no original germ of all things, no soul of the world, no personal, no impersonal, no supra-mundane, no ante-mundane principle."
At the same time Gotama refused to discuss the eternity of the existing universe. "When Malunka asked Buddha whether the existence of the world is eternal or not eternal, he made no reply; but the reason of this was, that it was considered by the teacher as an inquiry that tended to no profit." His method is well illustrated in some questions addressed to him in Vaccha-gotta's Fire Sutta: "Do you hold the view that the world is eternal?" He answered : " No." "That the world is not eternal?" "No." "That it has an end ? " "No." "That is has not an end?" "No."
Yet Buddhism has its cosmology, for as Rhys Davids says, "Buddhism takes as its ultimate fact the existence of the material world and of conscious beings Hving within it." But this universe came from nothing and will resolve itself into nothing. There have been previous universes, each with its revolution of myriad cycles of years, followed by a great cataclysm of destruction. This universe, with its central mountain Meru and its strange concentric seas, its ten thousand worlds with their attendant heavens, earth of continents, hells and ruling deities, after the passage of immense cycles of time, a conception of which the mind fails to grasp, will come to its complete dissolution, to be succeeded by a new universe, made, not from the material of its ruins which has altogether ceased to be, but rising from nothing as a completely new universe. The cause of the new universe is Karma, the potent energy accumulated in the existence of the preceding universe which brings another into existence after that has disappeared forever. Sir Monier Williams calls it "act-force." This Karma acts in the same way as in all sentient beings. Childers quotes a passage in the Dictionary which shows this: "Kammana vattati loke kammana vattati paja," "Through Karma the world of sentient beings exists, from Karma all creations derive their existence."
The Christian system is tiie opposite of the Buddhist system at almost every point. Its Supreme Being, the Creator, presides over a universe which he has brought into existence, and which, when its time of probation is finished, will be transformed into a new heavens and earth, in which freedom from sin and active holiness will reign without a disturbing element.
