The Bible and the third "Noble Truth"
The end of dukkha
Read the second part:
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And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of dukkha: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.1
The good news of Buddhism is the Third Noble Truth: the possibility of the end of dukkha. It is possible to put an end to one's craving, and thus put an end to the experience of dukkha. This also means escaping the cycle of rebirth into a state that transcends ordinary existence, a state called nirvana.
The biblical worldview affirms, in fact, that the end of dukkha is possible, and that such will be the experience of those united with Christ. However, the way this end of dukkha is understood is totally different. Whereas in Buddhism thirst comes to an end by being “relinquished” and “renounced”, the Bible's promise is that our thirst will be satisfied.
Buddhist teaching sees that there is nothing in this world capable of satisfying the deep thirst of the human heart; so it teaches that this thirst is itself the fruit of ignorance, and that it can be extinguished by enlightenment. C.S. Lewis, on the other hand, argues in the opposite direction:
The Christian says, ‘Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.2
Lewis argues that our thirst is there to tell us something we need to hear. Just as physical thirst is an indication that the body needs water, spiritual thirst is an indication that our soul needs something. It's not the thirst itself that's the problem, but the lack that causes it.
What's more, the biblical worldview is more consistent about the end of dukkha because it describes history as linear rather than circular. The Buddhist conception of the universe as following a continuous cycle with no beginning is not obviously consistent with the finality of the idea of nirvana. The tension can be seen in the classification of the end of the universe as an “unanswered question”: “This question is left unanswered partly as it is an open question if this beginningless world series will ever have an end, once all beings attain Nirvana (A.V.194).”3 The Bible, on the other hand, presents the journey of creation as a story with a beginning and an end, a happy end in fact: God's perfect and eternal reconciliation with the new humanity in union with Jesus Christ.
Theosis
There is a parallel between the Buddhist and Biblical worldviews in the transformation of nature of those who reach the end of dukkha. Buddhism speaks of enlightenment; the Bible proclaims the glorification of the saints. What's more, for both worldviews, this transformation for the many is the consequence of the transformation of one man
The Buddha's awakening makes him a matchless being in the Buddhist universe. He is more powerful than Brahmā, the king of the gods,4 and finds none higher than him to honor.5 And yet, the Buddha was born an ordinary man. Buddhism has therefore a very high consideration of what human nature is capable of. The Bible affirms this lofty view of humanity, first in the fact that humans are made in God's image, and ultimately in the Incarnation where the Son of God takes a human nature to himself.
In Buddhism, the Buddha's awakening does not itself bring about the awakening of others, but because of his teaching, the way is paved for others to follow him into the same condition that he achieved. In the Bible, on the other hand, Christ's glorification in the resurrection extends to believers because they are united with him spiritually. The apostle Peter goes so far as to say that believers become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4).
However, these important parallels in eschatalogical hope highlight all the more the profound difference. The Buddhist does not seek enlightenment in order to be in communion with the Buddha, but to escape from dukkha. The Christian, on the other hand, also wants to escape dukkha, but by being united with Christ and reconciled with God. The Christian is running toward God, not just away from pain.
Nirvana
There is also a surprising amount of overlap between the description of Nirvana in Buddhism and the attributes of God in the Bible, as Peter Harvey points out:
Nirvana is beyond and outside time, so in a sense is eternal, like God. Both are also perfection, and a kind of source of true happiness. Both are a Beyond, difficult to describe in words, which can somehow be reached by people in this world. Nirvana is the unconditioned that can come to be known and experienced by conditioned beings, and God is a creator that can be known by created beings. While Buddhist meditation aims to experience Nirvana, Christian contemplation seeks to know God.6
The concept of nirvana testifies to human awareness that our proper finality is the eternal God. The difference is that the formal rejection of God’s existence means that Nirvana is only known by what it is not. According to the Buddha: “It is hard to see this state, namely, the stilling of all volitional activities, the relinquishing of all acquisitions, the destruction of craving, non-attachment, stopping, Nirvana. (M.I.167).”7 Since Nirvana is the extinction of thirst, not its satisfaction, there is no good, positive thing to say about it. Nirvana is not a state of joy, but rather a state that transcends joy. It does not satisfy the desires of the heart; it makes them cease.
The Bible, on the other hand, offers a positive vision of the cessation of dukkha. There are indeed cessations: “Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more for the former things have passed away,” but these cessations are the consequence of a positive reality: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” (Rev 21.3-4). It is in this intimate, tangible presence of God that the saints will experience as they in turn reflect God's glory. In this way, the doctrine of glorification incorporates and surpasses the Buddhist doctrine of the end of dukkha.
Read part 4:
“Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion” (SN 56.11), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.than.html.
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis Signature Classics, Kindle edition, p. 136-137.
Peter Harvey, Buddhism and Monotheism, Cambridge Elements: Religion and Monotheism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019, p. 53.
Ibid., p. 27.
Ibid., p. 31.
Ibid., p. 37.
Ibid., p. 31.