And what do christians, buddhists think is the purpose of
life?
Depends on what you mean by "purpose" of life. Are you talking
about "goals" or having a "meaningful life" ?
I cannot answer for Christians to my fullest understanding, as
I'm a buddhist. But from what I understand, Christians faith rested
on the teaching of Jesus and faith (belief) in god. According to
Christian teaching, if you believe and have faith in god, you will
have eternal life and ascend to heaven. Humans have sins and thus
god send his son Jesus to savage humans, to save them from the
sins. Christians faith, if I'm not wrong, rested on purifying one's
soul, practising Jesus's teaching based on bibles (altruism) with
the final goal of ascending to heaven after death (thus resulting
in eternal living). The purpose of a Christian is to serve god.
For buddhist, I believe I can answer your question to my best
understanding, as I'm a practising buddhist. The purpose of a
buddhist is to practise the dharma (i.e. the teaching of the
buddha) for the benefits of all sentient beings with the ultimate
goal of attaining enlightenment (i.e. becoming Buddha). Only human
being (not even gods) can attain enlightenment. Buddha is not a
god, but a human who through his spiritual practice have
achieved enlightenment. Buddhist teaching rested on the belief that
one has to undergo a life-cycle of rebirth. Once a person is dead,
he will be reborn again. But in Buddhism, a human being might not
necessarily be reborn as a human. If he commits evil, he will be
reborn as an animal, a hungry ghost or a hell-being and might
undergo extreme torture and sufferings. If he practise good, he
will be reborn a human again, a deva or a heavenly-being
(gods/deva). The goal of a buddhist is not to be reborn (or ascend)
into heaven, as a god (heavenly being) might fail his spiritual
practice and be reborn into as a human again. In buddhism, life is
a suffering as one keeps on undergoing rebirth in the 6 realms of
existence: Heaven, ashura, human, animals, hungry ghost, hell. And
to end the suffering, one can practise buddhism so as to achieve
enlightenment, where one will not need to undergo rebirth in this
life cyle. In Buddhism, only a human can achieve enlightenment. A
god needs to be reborn into the realm of human beings in order to
achieve enlightenment. Thus, the ultimate goal of buddhist is to
become Buddha.
Practising the Dharma (buddhist teaching) has the benefits of
relieving one's own sufferings and achieving true happiness in
life. When one feels angry, a buddhist will not feel that the anger
is permanent forever (which in buddhism is known as impermanence).
He will not see that the anger is "real", but a manifestation of
the 'unreal'. It is empty of its inherent existence. A buddhist
will not feel that his 'self' is more important than others as one
practises "selflessness" (no 'self', i.e. no "I"). With the notion
of no "I", one is capable of sacrificing oneself for the benefit of
other sentient beings, to practise compassion and loving kindness.
A buddhist will not feel 'hatred', as he sees that "hatred" is
impermanent and causes of root of evil and will let go of it, which
is realizing internal peace and happiness.
