nwr
quote:
Perhaps many evcforum members (myself included) know too little about Buddhism to be able to comment.
I don't think the subject of this thread requires one to know much about Buddhism to comment as long as one has a reasonable grasp of the christian dogma.
As for not enough people responding, I think the main problem is that the loudest people on the fundy side seem to be systematically banned.
As for Buddhism, yes, there is a heaven and, yes, there is a hell. The difference between Buddhism and most other religions is that descending to hell isn't punishment and ascending to heaven isn't a reward.
Say that you've been eating pizza everyday for the last month. At the end of the month, you absolutely cannot bring yourself to take another bite. Are you being punished? The Buddhist would say that you are not being punished for being grossed out by pizza. It is just a natural state of your being. Same thing with ascending to heaven or descending to hell. If you are enlightened then you naturally ascend to heaven. If you are bogged down by, say, greed, lust, or some other worldly desire then you naturally descend to hell.
There is no judging involved.
™ Version 4.2
