Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Christianity and Buddhism

I've been thinking lately about the differences between Christianity and Buddhism. There's a very different goal in both. 

Buddhism is aiming for a disembodied spirituality, completely separated from the physical world. But Christianity aims for a fully-embodied spirituality, completely uniting the body and soul. 

Both Creation and the bodily resurrection of Jesus show the goodness and the "redeemableness" and the eternality of the physical world. Anyone who loves anything in this world: sunsets, mountains, oceans, music, food, beer, sex, a friendly hug--all of this is physical and we love it all because we are by nature body and soul. 

Buddhism's disembodied spirituality tells us that all of these things are either illusions or they are weaknesses/immaturity that we have to learn to overcome. But the resurrection of Jesus explains why we love these things so much because they are part of the goodness of God's physical world and a fully-embodied spirituality.