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 Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:32 am
Hi all. Is there a Christian equilvalent of Nirvana?
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Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 10:26 am
It's quite possible. The way some Gnostics described Heaven reminded me of Nirvana, although I can't recall those descriptions as this was a long time ago. sweatdrop
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Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 10:10 pm
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Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:14 am
Heaven, the way most Christians describe it, is not at all like Nirvana. If you wanted to find a Buddhist equivalent, Heaven may be compared to a Pure Land.
Nirvana isn't a place that you go to. It's a mode of existence, a way of being when suffering and its causes have been snuffed out (nirvana literally means "cessation").
Pure Lands are more like the popular idea of Heaven, where beings are born there and everything is luminous and beautiful, and it's very easy to reach nirvana while you're in a Pure Land. That is why Pure Land Buddhism is quite popular - its adherents hope to be reborn in a Pure Land after they die so that they can more easily attain liberation for the sake of others.
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