Stages Of Development In The Origins Of Buddhism And Christianity

Buddhism is straightforward, remaining on a single path.

 

(i) Gautama seeks the way to the end of suffering.

(ii) He realizes his enlightenment, thus becoming the Buddha.

(iii) The Buddha teaches the Way and founds the Sangha.

(iv) He dies in old age.

 

I have no fundamental problems with either the teaching or the practice. I accept:

 

anatta (no soul);

karma (action);

good or bad consequences of either right or wrong actions;

dukkha (suffering);

mental grasping as the psychological cause of suffering;

right actions and meditation as the way to the end of suffering;

compassion.

I do not accept rebirth which looks like a hangover from Jain/Hindu reincarnation.

Christianity is more complicated, changing direction three times.

(i) Jesus preaches the imminence of the kingdom.

(ii) Jesus thinks that his vicarious suffering will initiate the kingdom.

(iii) He dies realizing that this approach has failed.

(iv) Peter proclaims that Jesus is risen.

(v) Paul proclaims that Jesus's death was the ultimate blood sacrifice (!)

(vi) Paul and other Apostles found churches.

 

The three changes of direction:

 

from Jesus preaching the kingdom to Jesus as the Suffering Servant;

from the trauma of the crucifixion to the proclamation of the resurrection;

the transition to a universal Gentile religion expecting not an imminent kingdom but a remote Second Coming.

 

Of (i)-(vi) above in Christianity, I sympathize only with (i) and that only in the sense that a new society and a new consciousness are potentially imminent. 

Being And Consciousness

Being is one but internally differentiated and dynamic, not uniform or static.

It appears to itself and becomes conscious of itself through many psychophysical organisms.

However, each such organism senses or perceives only its immediate environment.

The single continuous reality generates the appearances of discrete objects and empty spaces.

Being is the universal subject of consciousness.

Psychophysical organisms are individual subjects.

Biological processes both generate and impede consciousness.

Naturally selected organismic sensitivity to environmental alterations quantitatively increased until it was qualitatively transformed into conscious sensation.

Thus, consciousness originated as a means to survival, not as an end in itself.

The conscious motivation of self-preservation generates the illusion of a separate self.

Illusory separation prevents realization of individual identity with the universal self.

Thus, being is conscious but not fully realized.