Differences Between Buddhism And Roman Catholicism

Buddhism, one of the main religions of the Asian continent, still seems as an exotic subject for those in the Western countries. Furthermore, if one has been raised in a predominately Catholic country, such as Lithuania, it may even be impossible to encounter a Buddhist or a pagoda. Fortunately, I myself have had first-hand experience with this philosophy and, in the process of further self-study, I became more and more critical of my official religion – Christianity. In this essay, I am aiming to show the differences between Buddhism and Roman Catholicism that are of most importance to me. The differences that I am going to discuss are the perspective on life after death and the outlook on guilt. Moreover, I wish to find some similarities

Firstly, one cannot miss the similar position towards the immorality and what action may be perceived as a wrong-doing. Although in Christianity there are many ways to commit a sin, the so-called Seven Deadly Sins are by-far the worst. These are wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, pride, lust and envy. According to the Bible, these sins cannot be forgiven through confession and, thus, immediately open the gates to the Hell. As for Buddhism, there are the so-called Three Poisons – ignorance, aversion and attachment – the latter being very similar to the Catholic greed. Yet, for my knowledge there is nothing like a confession in Buddhism, thus a priest is not needed in order to fix the karma, it can be done by following the eight-fold path. The concept of greed as a wrong-doing is a common theme in quite a few religions, as it is derived from lacking moderation and wanting more than you have. In Catholicism and Buddhism this sin not only pollutes the mind, but also has harsh consequences – the Hell or a worsened karma. The second similarity that I have noticed by learning more about Buddhism is the rather pessimistic outlook towards the life, which can also be found in Catholicism. For the Christians, a person is inherently bad and sinful, even a new-born is immediately sinned because of the wrong-doings of Eve and Adam. Moreover, the life itself is only a permanent stage before the everlasting after-life. Thus, the lifetime of a person does not matter as much for the religion as his beliefs and piety does, which does not motivate one to enjoy his short existence at all. As for Buddhism, the concept of life as suffering is one of the most often occurring themes. The Buddhist suffering is caused by ignorance and, the already mentioned, craving. In addition, there is also understanding about the