Buddhism and Christianity Essay

Buddhism and Christianity may seem like two very different religions on the surface and they are. But they share common themes like the path to ultimate happiness, community-like worshipping and free will.

In both religions, the ultimate goal is to be happy through faith. For Buddhism finding one's self is the greatest achievement a buddhist can behold. Becoming a buddha, achieving enlightenment, is every buddhist's dream. Nirvana, the release of the soul from the wheel of rebirth that is samsara. For Christians, having one's soul released from the body at death to be with God is the ultimate goal. God is the creator of everything and heaven is where everything is happy. Through a Christian's strong faith in God, he or she is able to fully trust in Him and truly believe that their is live after death which is heaven where true happiness can be found.

Community-like worshipping is found in both religions. For Buddhists, Sangha is like their form of a parish like for christians.  A sangha is a community of buddhists.  A sangha gives buddhists the opportunity to temple worship together and talk about their faith just like a parish does for Catholicism. It's not exactly the same in theory but they both share community-like themes of coming together to discuss a faith.

Free will is the freedom to choose. God gives his people in Catholicism the ability to freely do what he or she pleases. He gave it to his followers as soon as they were born. Like in Buddhism, followers are allowed to freely choose the path they want to take in order to find themselves. It's not set in stone exactly what they have to do in order to achieve enlightenment. It's up to the believer what they want to do.

Both religions share common themes but are interpreted differently. Ultimate happiness is basically true for any faith. The desire to be happiness is true for everyone. Communities give both religions the chance to intermingle with other followers. Buddhism might be a lot more lenient with its belief system than christianity but both give a little in that regard. Allowing it's followers to have the ability to choose what they want.