Buddhism and Abrahamic Religions

The Position of God in Buddhism

Buddhism, like Jainism and some of the classical schools of Hinduism, does not assert a creator God. To condemn Buddhism, however, as a totally heathen, atheistic creed without moral principles, since God is the sole source of ethical commandments and laws, would be a most unfortunate misunderstanding. Buddhism has a very strong emphasis on ethics. One of the main principles Buddha taught is to try in all ways to help others, and if one cannot help, then at least to cause no harm.

When one speaks about God, one can differentiate various functions and aspects. If God is taken to mean “Love,” then Buddhism certainly accepts the overall importance of love. If God is taken to mean the order and laws of the universe, then Buddhism accepts that as well. There certainly is universal order according to Buddhism. If one speaks of more highly developed beings than ourselves who are compassionately concerned with the welfare of the world, then Buddhism asserts that too. But the one aspect of God that Buddhism does not accept is the assertion of an omnipotent creator.

Buddhism says that basically there is no creator as such, because the idea of an absolute beginning and a creator who starts it entails many logical difficulties. This is especially so if this creator is said to be permanent and without change, and yet is influenced by a motivation to create, and thus, in fact, changes. Instead, Buddhism asserts that there is no beginning and no end, and thus no creator. Everything happens as a result of previous causes and conditions, primarily through karma, which is the compulsive impulses that drive the actions of beings. 

Grace Versus Inspiration

Another major difference concerns the role of these more highly evolved beings than ourselves. If one considers a spectrum of whether spiritual progress comes primarily through one’s own efforts or through the grace and efforts of more highly evolved beings, then the various Western Christian systems, such as the Catholic and Protestant, put more emphasis on grace and the opening of oneself up to the love of Jesus to work through oneself, although of course the individuals must make the effort to open themselves. In Orthodox Christianity, true freedom and liberation come only from being in communion with God, in whose image one has been created.

Tibetan Buddhism does not talk about help coming in this manner of grace from more highly evolved beings such as Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Nor does it speak about gaining liberation through being in communion with them, either directly or through the medium of icons. What can be derived from the Buddhas and so on is inspiration rather than grace or blessings. The major emphasis is on the efforts that oneself as an individual must make in order to grow and develop spiritually. Visualizing oneself as a Buddha-figure in tantra is not a practice for gaining a mystical union with one’s creator but rather is a technique for helping one to realize one’s fullest potentials and become a Buddha oneself.

Eucharist Versus “Tsog”

There is one ritual in both Christianity and tantric Buddhism that looks on the surface to be quite similar. This is the Christian eucharist or communion, in which one takes transubstantiated bread and wine, and the Buddhist “tsog” or round of gathered offerings, in which one tastes specially consecrated alcohol and meat. In both cases, the ritual objects to be tasted are transformed beforehand into special substances, and thus the taking of them has symbolic, spiritual significance.

In Christianity, the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ. In Catholicism, the taking of this is within the context of remembering Christ’s act of purifying mankind of its sins through his self-sacrifice. The taking of the eucharist is seen as a gift for purifying one of one’s original sin. In the Orthodox Church, the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ through inviting the Holy Spirit actively to enter it. Man, having been created in God’s image, can only have true freedom when in communion with God. The taking of the eucharist is a method for personally experiencing that communion and thus restoring oneself to one’s original state. 

In the Tibetan Buddhist tantric ritual, the alcohol and meat represent the impure substances of the body. They are transformed into nectar, symbolizing that one can transform the energies, elements and so on of one’s own body into a vehicle for achieving Buddhahood in order to be able to benefit others the best. Tasting these substances is a method for being able to make a similar transformation within.

Monastic Life and Daily Services

In Tibetan Buddhism, there is no formal distinction between monks and priests. In Christianity, monks are always celibate, and depending on the denomination, priests or ministers can be either celibate or married. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is a bit similar. Those who conduct rituals may be either celibate or married lamas. But if one is a monk or nun, one is necessarily celibate.

Buddhism, however, has no Sabbath and no special daily or weekly service that the lay community attends. Buddhists go to temples to pray and make incense, candle and butter-lamp offerings, a bit like in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, and can request monks or lamas to perform special rituals on their behalf. If householders have received empowerments and are tantric practitioners, they may participate in a “tsog” offering ceremony conducted on special dates during the lunar month either by themselves or by their spiritual teacher, who may or may not be a monk. This would involve tasting the consecrated meat and alcohol, but this is not conducted as a general religious service for the entire community.

In the Catholic Church, for instance, monks and nuns have three basic vows: chastity, poverty and obedience. Christian monk and nuns, however, may drink wine. They sever all relations with their biological family and enter the community of the Church. Buddhist monks and nuns, on the other hand, observe 253 and 364 vows respectively, according to one tradition. Among these vows is not to take any alcohol or intoxicants. They are supposed to live by begging, but do not break off contact with their families. Many are supported by the charity of their parents and relatives, although the monastery provides tea and occasionally food at its daily ritual ceremonies.

Of course, there are many other differences between Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism. There is no concept in Buddhism of a church and its institutions as being mediators between the people and God or Buddha, and the Dalai Lamas are not like infallible Popes. But the foundation of ethics is very similar in the two religions. The basis of love, concern and working for others is also shared in common. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama always says, these common features are much more important than theological differences. There will always be theological differences, but the basis of being a kind and ethical person is found in all religions.

Just as His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been engaging in dialogues with the leaders of the various Christian denominations, so too has he been meeting with major figures from the Jewish faith. The following are some of their conclusions.

Life-Affirmation – Family versus Monastic Life

Judaism speaks about humans being created in the image of God and thus sharing in the task of improving the world. There is a great emphasis, then, on taking responsibility to further God’s work in the world through a creative affirmation of life, based on firm ethics. In addition, one of God’s commandments is to “go forth and multiply.” It is every Jew’s duty to marry and have children. The family and home are very much emphasized as the context within which to study and practice the religion.

Buddhism, particularly Mahayana, also emphasizes the taking of universal responsibility based on following a strict ethical path. Although one can follow the entire Buddhist path as a married householder with a family, there is also a very strong tradition of becoming a celibate monk or nun. For many, although certainly not all, such a life can provide the circumstances for devoting all one’s energies to spiritual development and helping others. However, it is neither mandatory to have a family nor to be a monk or a nun in order fully to lead a spiritual life. One has a choice, depending on one’s disposition. Furthermore, children enter monasteries as young as six years old and are educated and raised in a family atmosphere by their teacher and those in his household. 

Some people wrongly believe that Buddhism is life-negating. They think that one must renounce everything and go live in a cave. This is the connotation of the English word “renunciation,” which in fact mistranslates the Buddhist concept. The Sanskrit and Tibetan terms translated as “renunciation” actually mean to have a strong determination to be free – free of uncontrollably recurring rebirth driven by closed-mindedness, misconceptions and disturbing states of mind. Being totally disgusted with all the problems that arise from one’s confusion and uncontrollable recurring negative patterns during such rebirths, one makes up one’s mind to work to become free. This is not renouncing the world in general, but only one’s neurotic involvement with it. In Mahayana, one then expands one’s heart out with bodhichitta, which is setting one’s heart on becoming a Buddha, in other words on overcoming all one’s limitations and realizing all one’s potentials, in order to help others the best. One seeks rebirth, then, based on compassion, to help others as much as possible during each lifetime. This is very much life-affirming, although the philosophical basis is quite different from that in Judaism.

Joy, Light and Ethics

According to Jewish theology, a spark of God is found in all God’s creations, and this is a spark of joy and light. One tries to recognize this spark and uplift and transform it. Joy and light also play a fundamental part in tantric Buddhism. Buddhism speaks about everyone having Buddha-nature or the factors that allow everyone to become a Buddha. These include the clear light nature of the mind and its voidness or absence of existing in fantasized ways. Also, all phenomena exist in the same way; in other words, everything is equally devoid of existing in fantasized ways, and all appearances are the play of each person’s clear light mind, which does not mean that everything just exists in the mind, but that how and what things appear depend on the mind. Furthermore, a Buddha, seeing the true nature of all beings and things, experiences everything with pure joy, unmixed with any confusion. On the tantric path, then, one tries, in one’s imagination, to experience everything in that way, with joy and insight, on the basis of following a strict ethical code and actively engaging in benefiting others. 

According to Judaism, mankind, and particularly the Jews, have a special covenant with God to follow all his ethical and ritual laws and commandments, and in this way work for the improvement of the universe. In Buddhism, one does not have a covenant with God to follow his laws, but one does take vows and in this way establishes a close bond (“damtsig” in Tibetan, “samaya” in Sanskrit) with the Buddhas and one’s spiritual masters to follow in their ethical path. 

The Use of Imagery and Historical Symbolism

On the Sabbath, in Judaism, one imagines one has entered the holy land in which everything is perfect, and one spends the day engaged in spiritual activities. At the start of the Sabbath, one invites an extra soul into oneself for the day. In Buddhist tantra, one does not limit such a pure vision of oneself and the world around to just one day of the week but tries to maintain that attitude at all times. After visualizing oneself as a Buddha-figure and one’s environment as a pure land realm, as a way to make a strong link with these as states one is striving to achieve, one invites what are known as “deep awareness aspects” of them to enter and merge with oneself. Even if sometimes they are conceptualized as coming from the Buddhas, they are not viewed as an extra soul coming personally from God. Rather, they are symbolic, on many different levels, of the causes that will lead to one’s achieving this visualized ideal state, such as coming in contact with one’s Buddha-nature within.

In Judaism, the historical account of the exodus from slavery in Egypt, the wandering through the desert and then the finding of the holy promised land is not just taken on a factual level. It is also used to symbolize the esoteric spiritual path. The Torah scriptures of the Bible are interpreted as having four levels of meaning. In Buddhist tantra, texts also have many levels of deeper meaning, not just the literal one. The account of the future war with help coming from Shambhala and then the starting of a golden age is also taken on both a historical and a symbolic level, being descriptive as well of the spiritual path.

In Judaism, the spiritual goal, however, often has a political level of symbolism as well. Imagining oneself on the Sabbath to be in the holy land and striving through the various practices to reach the holy land are taken as a reminder that the Jews are in exile and must work to return to their homeland. Although many of the Tibetans are also in exile or living under severe oppression in their country, there is no equivalent political use of spiritual symbolism. 

Rituals and Their Symbolic Meaning

For all Jewish rituals, as prescribed by God’s commandments, there are many interpretations given in the later commentaries about their symbolic significance. Although this may help one intellectually to engage in these practices, the most important aspect in Judaism is actually to perform the rituals and keep God’s commandments, regardless of one’s belief structure. 

In Buddhism, particularly in tantra, all rituals also have symbolic meaning. Some of them serve as mere analogies, for instance to certain stages of life, and have no further spiritual significance. Many of them, however, are analogous to three levels: the basis to be purified, such as one’s uncontrollably recurring rebirth (samsara), the more advanced levels of practice that will purify oneself of that basis and the resultant stage one is striving to achieve by means of this purification. Thus, engaging in the ritual acts as a cause for achieving this higher path of spiritual practice and its result. The more aware one is of building up causes in this way and the stronger one’s motivation is of doing this in order to overcome all one’s limitation and realize all one’s potentials in order to benefit others the best, the more effective will be the ritual practices. Although merely engaging in the practice is of some benefit, one cannot actualize its intended result without such a bodhichitta motivation. The achievement of the goal, Buddhahood, then, does not come about as a result of obedience, but rather through the impersonal mechanism of cause and effect driven by the force of a strong altruistic motivation. 

One feature that is very much shared in common between the two religions, however, is that in both the Hasidic movement of Judaism and in Mahayana Buddhism, including its tantric aspect, there is the full transformation of every aspect of daily life into a spiritual path. When eating, entering or leaving a room, or even going to the toilet, one can transform these mundane actions through altering one’s way of looking at them. In Judaism, when entering a room, one might imagine entering into the holy land, and when moving one’s bowels, separating out the bad from the good for the glorification of God. In Buddhism, they may be looked upon as leading all beings into a state of liberation and purifying oneself and others of all obstacles and impediments to full spiritual growth. Although the way of looking at these acts is philosophically different, the principle is the same. Furthermore, in both religions one looks to one’s spiritual master as a living example from whom to learn this total transformational process.

Esoteric Jewish and Buddhist Views of Rebirth

In esoteric Judaism, as was the case in ancient, esoteric Christianity, rebirth is accepted. Judaism speaks of it in terms of re-manifestation; depending on one’s actions, one can remanifest as a human, animal or angel. One works to build up what is called a “garment of righteousness” over many lives through following strictly all the commandments and laws given by God. In some lives, one adds to this and is then reborn in a better situation. In others, one may destroy parts of it with one’s non-obedient behavior, and so one goes in a worse direction. The spiritual goal is to become a perfected righteous person, a “zaddik,” who is no longer subject to re-manifestation, but sits in the presence of God. Such beings can then either be sent by God on missions of help and service in the world or may chose to dissolve and merge with God. 

Buddhism also asserts rebirth according to one’s actions, and one may be reborn in either better or worse situations, not only human. This works simply on the basis of impersonal cause and effect, and has nothing to do with obedience to Buddha, judgment or reward and punishment. There is also the path of the bodhisattva with the goal of becoming a Buddha who serves the world, as well as that of the arhat or liberated being who, being free of all problems and uncontrollably recurring rebirth, just lives in a pure land. Buddhism has no concept of being sent by God on missions, but there are certainly similarities in terms of actually working to benefit others.

Once I attended a conference of world religious leaders with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Everyone was asked to speak about love and compassion in their own tradition. The representative of the Catholic Church said that in Catholicism the emphasis is on loving God through Jesus, and then through this love, one works with love to help all beings. The Jewish rabbi explained that in Judaism, the order is reversed. One develops love for all of God’s creations, and through this, one comes to love God. His Holiness then said that in Buddhism one loves others without any reference to God, but simply because everyone is equal in wanting happiness and never any suffering, just like oneself, and everyone has the equal right to achieve this, just like oneself.

Tibet has an Islamic minority, and the two communities of Muslims and Buddhists have always lived in harmony. The Muslim religion speaks of the brotherhood of Islam, in which all are equal. When Muslims make their holy pilgrimage, everyone, from kings to beggars, dresses alike, in a simple, humble manner, and all are equal. Buddhism, as well, has no caste distinction. It stresses the equality of everyone and extends this even to non-believers.

Islam speaks of engaging in a holy war to defend the faith and eliminate those who would deny or try to harm it. If one dies in such a noble war, one automatically goes to heaven as a martyr. In Buddhism, specifically in the Kalachakra teachings, there is also mention of a holy war. This is a war against barbaric forces that would try to make all spiritual practice impossible. Such wars occur periodically, and one will happen in the future, during which help will come from Shambhala. Although this is taken to have a future historical reference, nevertheless this type of war is usually not interpreted literally. The emphasis is on fighting an internal war within oneself, using the forces of wisdom and compassion to overcome the enemies of ignorance and selfishness. If one’s ignorant grasping for one’s own selfish ego purposes dies, then one achieves liberation from all problems. Even in the Hinayana system, the Tibetan translation of the term “arhat” is one who has destroyed the enemies, namely the internal enemies of confusion and so on. “Bhagavan,” an epithet of a Buddha, is etymologized as one who has overcome and gained all, and a “jina” as a victorious one. In Islam as well, the main holy war is against the forces within oneself that would be disobedient of Allah’s will.

Islam emphasizes the practice of generosity, and this is certainly stressed in Buddhism also. Charity is taught in common in Christianity and Judaism as well. Thus, although Buddhism is not a religion of the Bible, nevertheless there is a firm shared basis of ethics and altruism upon which there can be harmonious cooperation throughout the world.

Buddhism is not missionary-oriented. It never tries to convert others but is always open to anyone who is interested in its methods. In each of the regions to which Buddhism in general and its Tibetan form have traveled, it has adapted itself to the various local customs and traditions. Each culture has contributed its own style and special characteristics, in this way, to the development of Buddhism. All of this is in keeping with the Buddhist basic technique of teaching with skillful means. Thus, there can be various techniques and methods that can be used for helping people overcome their problems and limitations, and realize their potentials, so they can help others the best. Each of them is valid within the context of their cultures. Although there are these many different forms of Buddhism, they all fit harmoniously together, based on the teachings of the Buddha.