What Do Buddhists Believe?

Buddhism differs from other mainstream world religions in that it may be thought of as a religious, philosophical, and ethical belief system. Followed by more than 360 million people, most who live in Asia, the Buddhist tradition is both rich and compelling to those who choose to follow its guidelines. Based upon the teachings of Sidartha Gutama, otherwise known as the Buddha, Buddhism entails ‘right thought’ and ‘right living’ in order to transcend the pain and suffering of daily existence.

Siddhartha Gautama was born into a life of luxury and affluence. Being a prince in a land where there was much pain and suffering, his father kept Siddhartha enclosed within the palace gates to shield him from the anguish that afflicted the average person. During his late 20’s, Gautama, could no longer bear to live falsely and left his wife and child in order to seek the true nature of reality. What Buddha learned during meditation was that the cause of one’s seemingly endless pain is suffering and desire. Since the cause of suffering is rooted in the mind’s attachments and desires, and because desire and attachment are caused by mistaken observations by an ego-centered self which neglects causality, peace can only be achieved by careful observations and patient mind control, sometimes referred to as mindfulness. When one leaves desire behind they are able to transcend from the world of illusion, to the state of ultimate truth — Nirvana. The path to enlightenment is learned on an individual level through the teachings of the 4 noble truths and the eight-fold path. Some examples of these truths include to ‘avoid any evil, to seek the good, and to keep the mind pure.’ (The Teaching of Buddha by Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1996 Kosaido Printing Co. Tokyo, Japan)

What Happens to Us After Death?

According to Buddhist tradition, reincarnation is a process in which the spirit is continually reborn after death until ultimate enlightenment is reached. This differs greatly from the Christian tradition where the soul is sent to judgment and, according to whether or not the soul was saved, will either be granted into heaven or damned in hell. In addition, when one passes from one stage of life to another, one must be mindful of thoughts and emotions. This also means surrounding oneself with loved ones and encouragement. In the Buddhist religion one can be born into other realms outside of humanity. These six realms include the hells, animal kingdom, the human world, the world of jealous gods, and the heavens. What determines the next life is termed Karma. Karma can be thought of as the tally sheet of good and bad deeds and it follows us throughout our existence. If one lives his or her life without right thought and right action, the consequences may lead to a lesser existence. “Impure acts defile a person; stinginess defiles an offering; so evil acts defile not only this life but also the following lives.” (The Teaching of Buddha by Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1996 Kosaido Printing Co. Tokyo, Japan) However, unlike Western religion, one is able to shed their bad Karma and move out of the lesser states of existence. To the Buddhist, hell is not a place of eternal suffering, but a temporary place that one can transcend. An important distinction is that life, death, and rebirth are more of a continuum in the Buddhist faith, rather than a soul that has one life and one existence.

Ultimately, Buddhist beliefs in death reflect how one leads life in the now. The goal is to seek the good, reject evil, and above all shed ignorance. If one follows this path and continuously keeps truth in mind then one can be reborn into a higher existence. In his last words to his disciples, the Buddha said:

“Make yourself a light. Rely upon yourself: do not depend on anyone else. Make my teachings your light… My disciples, my last moment has come, but do not forget that death is only the end of the physical body. The body was born from parents and was nourished by food; just as inevitable are sickness and death. But the true Buddha is not a human body: -it is Enlightenment. A human body must die, but the Wisdom of Enlightenment will exist forever in truth and in practice….”

Much of what we know and perceive about death and dying comes from our religious background. In fact, our attitudes about death are deeply connected with our views on religion. Whether or not we believe in a God or gods shapes how we view the afterlife or lack thereof. Our fear of death can either be compounded or eased by our religious outlook. If you believe in an angry God that punishes us for all trespasses, then death can be frightening. Believing that we all go to a better place after death, regardless of behavior, can cause apathy towards death.

There seems to be a sharp rift between Eastern and Western cultural views on Death. Mainly in the beliefs in and about “salvation”, reincarnation, and the afterlife. Beyond this, big differences in attitude can exist within sects or branches of the same religious tree - causing more confusion.

Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism believe in a progression of the soul after death. The accumulation of bad or good karma affects your rebirth into either a favorable or unfavorable situation, with the ultimate goal being Nirvana or enlightenment. No state is eternal except that of Nirvana; so if you do end up in a bad place you will eventually burn off the bad karma and progress.

Western religions tend to look at this life as a one chance shot at proving yourself, with the end result being an eternity in either heaven or hell. Catholics believe in an intermediate state called Purgatory where those who aren’t saved but not bad enough for hell work their way up. This is actually similar to the Buddhist idea of “burning off bad karma”. Jewish beliefs vary but most often do not include the typical Christian idea of an inescapable hell. Jews see hell more as a separation from God than an actual place full of fire and brimstone. Likewise, heaven may be viewed as a joining to God’s light or spirit and not necessarily a physical place with streets of gold.

Learn more about each religion by browsing the other articles.

Shiva is a sanctuary for grieving. It follows the course of suffering; it confronts rather than evades the pain of separation. It provides a profound though indirect healing regimen that leads us out of the entanglements of grief to a full acceptance of our loss and takes us even further, empowering us to growth and self-realization.

Time and space both seem infinite. To function in our world we need finite boundaries[for which] there is no innate grid. When we apply these ideas to mourning, we discover that shiva is not simply carved from the calendar to sharpen our focus on what we have lost. It enables us as mourners to locate ourselves and orient ourselves in an environment distorted by the disappearance of a signpost.

Judaism is keenly sensitive even to our unarticulated needs. Shiva anchors us firmly in a nucleus of stability, calm and caring. There is yet another way of appreciating the many-sided brilliance of shiva. It is illuminated by our understanding of people, such as mourners, in transition. …[T]he mourner is… literally on the threshold between one phase of life and the next. …[W]e must keep our balance as we cross troubled waters. While we need to hold our heads high, experience teaches that to restore our equilibrium and get through tumultuous days, we need to tilt and adjust, tilt and adjust, until we get to firm ground.

Until the grave is covered and interment is completed, every aspect, including the eulogy, must be directed to the deceased, the center of concern. But after interment, everything undertaken must be supportive of the living. The comforters become the comforted; the active turn passive; ones who gave find themselves given to; those who fed the sick now find themselves being fed…we go in a split second from ‘concern for the dead” to “concern for the living. Death is the cost of life; suffering the death of close friends and relatives is the cost of having them. We cannot, and should not, combat the strange surges of our emotions, nor do we gain much by trying to explain ourselves to others or to ourselves. Let grief run its course, as it must.

Limitations keep us on a straight path, guide us and require of us no effort. As Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, society’s taboos are the guardrails on the bridge that spans the dangerous seas and prevent our drowning in our own excess. So the mourners, limited to the confines of walls, family and friends, and constricted from the broad spaces of work and trave–the playing fields of society–are held firm, convalescing in familiar arms. We go from the undisciplined savagery of death to the highly disciplined laws of mourning, and that is how we orient ourselves and return to family and society.

We tend to view mourning as a single unwieldy burden, a heavy load that we struggle under and are sure will finally wear us down. But grief is likely to be triggered more by small details than by a solitary emotional upheaval. The natural antidote to suffering piecemeal is healing piecemeal. The strategy of healing during shiva in not to reduce the severity of sadness but to confront the source of sadness: the death. Bumping into the odds and ends of memory is not an annoyance, not an aggravation of an already painful situation, but a necessary step in reorientation. Facing our grief acknowledges the value of certain practices, not directly taught by Jewish law but implicit in its style. Shiva is a habitat in which we mourners confront those pieces of the past. We bump into the remnants of life; we set aside seven days to contemplate the past …[W]e take unconscious inventory of the life of the deceased and tally the result. The healing of our angst is facilitated not by allusion to abstract principles and sage advice or by pills and needles, but by small specific actions–the piecemeal disengaging from each association. This is the powerful and beneficial aspect of mourning in Habitat shiva.

No two people mourn in the same way. As complex as we are in our physical makeup, we are equally complex in our psychological beings. That is why there can be no single answer to the problems of grief that so frequently stump us and not single medication to stimulate our souls immune system. Grief is an accumulation of energy in a person, and a major purpose of mourning is to successfully release that energy. The sukkah was a temporary dwelling or hut built by Israelites and used by them during their wanderings in the desert before they reached Canaan. Similarly, Habitat Shiva is a temporary shelter that stands for seven days, affording us limited protection until our strength begins to return. .In the day of our bitterness, we take refuge in this spiritual sukkah of healing, shielding us for a short trek until, by ourselves, we can reach the promised land.

Reprinted from Consolation © 2004, Jewish Publication Society with permission from the publisher.