Christian Sin and
Buddhist Dhukka: Are They the Same?
Beliefnet Wesley
Baines
Explore the nature of
sorrow as viewed through two of the world's most popular
religions.
There are common threads which run through many
of the world’s major religions. These threads are often
extraordinarily fine, as hard to spot as a human hair fallen on
carpet—but they exist, nonetheless.
One such may just connect two of the world’s
most popular religions—Buddhism and Christianity. This thread lies
in how the two belief systems define the cause of human
suffering.
The Christian concept of sin and the Buddhist
concept of dukkha—suffering caused by incorrect beliefs about the
world— seem, on the surface, to be similar, perhaps even mirrors of
one another.
Let’s take a closer look at these two concepts
and see how deeply these similarities truly go.
Suffering in Christianity
In Christian theology, the root cause of
suffering lies in alienation from God, caused by sin. The very
essence of the Christian hell—the ultimate punishment—is, in fact,
a permanent disconnection from the face of God.
Scripturally, from this disconnect arises
entropy—the decline into disorder. In Genesis, Adam and Eve walk
through the Garden of Eden alongside the very presence of God until
their choice to sin caused them to be separated from Him. Since
God’s nature is not only of love and mercy, but also of perfect
justice, this separation was a necessity.
This, of course, brought about the Biblical
fall, and the introduction of entropy to all creation—the end
result of which is human suffering as imperfect man struggles to
survive in an imperfect world.
Within Christianity, suffering is meaningful—God
uses it to teach and guide. The Biblical book of Job deals with the
problem of suffering, showing that it is directed by the wisdom of
God, and although humankind may not be able to know the reasons
behind their suffering, they must trust in that omnipotent wisdom.
That trust is mankind’s answer to suffering.
Suffering is also impermanent for those who
submit to the will of God, ending when they pass into the
afterlife, into heaven, and are reunited with God. This is the
ultimate end of suffering for the Christian.
Suffering in Buddhism
The first of the Buddhist Four Noble Truths is
that “Life is dukkha”— the Buddhist concept of impermanence,
dissatisfaction, and suffering. This is often translated as simply,
“Life is suffering”. For Buddhists, suffering is without meaning,
useless to the human condition, and so adherents see no value in
it.
For the Buddhist, the cause of suffering can be
explained by the Second Noble Truth, which teaches that the cause
of suffering is craving. In this worldview, people constantly
search outside the self for something to make them happy. But the
problem with that is no matter how much we find—success, fame,
money, or love—we never stay satisfied.
The Buddha wrote that this craving stems from an
ignorance of the self, that we suffer because the world doesn’t
work the in the ways we expect, and that our lives don’t conform to
our expectations—our preconceived notions that don’t match reality
are the true cause of suffering.
The Third Noble Truth teaches that we can put an
end to suffering by addressing this craving, that we can escape
from our state of constant dissatisfaction and enjoy the cessation
of dukkha. This is achieved only through great difficulty—by
letting go of the things that we think keep us happy, and learning
to simply be happy with the way the world is.
The Fourth Noble Truth shows how to actually let
those preconceived notions go. This is done by following the
Buddhist Eightfold Path—eight areas of practice that affect all
aspects of life. By following these eight ways to live correctly,
an adherent can finally leave suffering behind.
A Dichotomy of Sorrow
It seems that, in both worldviews, suffering
is caused by a yearning. In that light, are sin and dukkha the
same?
The answer to this question lies in what that
yearning is directed toward. The Christian concept of sin involves
suffering, but suffering is not sin. Sin is alienation from God,
and that alienation is the cause of suffering. In essence,
suffering is the human yearning for God, and the inability to
satisfy that yearning while on earth.
For Buddhists, the cause of suffering is wholly
different—it is based in the human rather than the divine. For
them, suffering—dukkha—flows from the difference between human
desires and what reality offers. Here, suffering is yearning,
itself, and the answer is simply to stop yearning.
The answer is no—sin and dukkha are quite
different. One worldview aims to save mankind from suffering by
reconnection with God. The other, by transcending human
desire.
But an adherent of Christianity and a
practitioner of Buddhism have much to learn from one
another.
A Christian can certainly apply the Four Noble
Truths to their life in their quest to lessen their suffering,
while still holding fast to the idea that the desire for God is the
only craving that must remain untouched. The Eightfold Path, too,
holds great potential as a path to living out the will of God, as
it directs us to treat others and ourselves in a way that does not
cause pain.
A Buddhist, likewise, can learn from the
Christian to see suffering as meaningful, rather than simply
something to be escaped—when it is inescapable, realizing that it
can have a purpose can do much for the ability to
persevere.
The problem of pain is as old as humankind,
itself—a problem that nearly every belief system attempts to
address. Likewise, each of these belief systems contains wisdom,
contains paths through which we might navigate the sorrows of
life.
Remain open to receiving this wisdom from
worldviews that may not be your own—the mind that can hold strong
to its own worldview while still taking these nuggets of truth from
other, possibly opposing, worldviews, is a strong one, and one that
will take its owner through even the worst of trials.