Help me understand how “Samsara” compares and contrasts to Christianity’s concepts of “Original Sin” and “Christ”

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#1

I really need help
I have this so far.

Samsara = cosmic wheel of birth and death
correlated to, and has its roots directly tied to Karma

  • Hinduist View: Samsara can be eradicated through Moksha

  • Buddhist View: Samsara can be eradicated through Nirvana

  • Hinduist View: Under moksha, what happens is you have a soul that gets liberated

  • Buddhist View: Under nirvana, what happens is you become nothingness and realize all creation as interconnected also know as pratitya samutpada

  • Time is not linear under this principle (referring to samsara)

Karma is: input = output. Actions will determine next rebirth.

  • For Buddhist more emphasis on ethic principles and

  • For Hindus, karma is determine for how well you work with your Dharma; Dharma is determine strictly by what caste system you were born into and how you uphold it. This is told to Arjuna by Krishna from Bhagvad Gita in the epic, Mahabharta
    “Do your Dharma, to get good Karma, to escape Samsara, and reach Moksha”

Christianity:

Original Sin:

  • Fall of humanity once Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit
    Under this Christianity’s School of Thought:
  • All are sinners but Jesus Christ died for us so we could be atoned (reversing ourselves back to how we were before humanity’s fall)
  • If you put pure adherence and faith into Christ you wiill be purified and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. If you not, you go to Hell
  • We are not inherintly bad we just got yainted post the Adam and Eve story but Jesus rectified it for us.
  • Time is linear under this principle
  • Stress and emphasis moreso on faith and obedience to Christ than the self’s actions
    ——> This differs from Karma. Karma puts more accountability on you, under here, not so much.

Christ:
Christ under Paul’s writtings is: the liberator. If you believe in Christ full heartedly, you will die your old self (as Adam) and rebirth again (as Christ)

  • That is a similarity to Samsara; the rebirth and death but in a metaphorical sense- it’s rebirthing and dying in the same life.
  • Christ is the man form of pure god so he is perfect therefore to become like christ you yourself become purified and perfect; this is so as you see everyone as interconnected.
    ^this is similar to Buddhism’s pratitya samutpada

However:
The above correlation is on Christianity and Buddhism since
pratitya samutpada Is Buddhism’s pov on Samsara. Not both the Hindu x Buddhist’s view on Samsara
(and I really need to find the general take of both theologies)
I need to figure out how Christ / Original Sin correlates directly to Samsara

:cherry_blossom:
Please let me know!

Thank you!!

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Common Ground Between Religions and Spiritual Ways
#2

If you think I got anything wrong btw feel free to say it
I’m just using my uni notes and whatever other supplemented readings that were given

I really can’t find the correlation other than what I said in the above. The web doesn’t hold much either

So maybe that’s all and is enough, but maybe if you see something else that I hadn’t mentioned…hy all means, totally holler out!

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#3

Well, Violet, idk, if you go strictly by dogmas, Christianity does not tolerate anything which is in direct opposition to it’s message - Redemption only through Jesus Christ, so the beliefs, notions, practices and philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism are in direct contrast to mainstream Christianity, since the notion of “redemption” is quite different, as you said, it is liberation, but not from sin per se, but from illusion and ignorance, from Samsara; to be honest, I don’t know how there is a correlation between Christ/original sin and Samsara, unless you kind of “force” things/notions; on the other hand, if we go not by dogmas and holy books, you can draw parallels between Christ and Krishna or the idea of Logos/The Word of God (through which any and all were made) and OM/The First/Original Sound (?), but I’m not an expert in any of these things…

Idk if my answer is of any help, to be honest.

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#4

Following.

@SorcerySupreme ?

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#5

Christianity has had many variations, consolidations, and schisms over the years. It would be tough to get a unified view of every detail. Catholics have a fairly different view of things when compared to Calvinists; the two of them have even more different views if you were to compare them to Mormonism or even Methodism.

One thing that is key, in some sects, is the “Conversion Experience” and the experience of regeneration. Some denominations say belief alone is enough (i.e. “cognitive assent” to the reality of Christ). Others say that there must be Faith confirmed by works—Faith is the beginning, but there would need to be a change (from the inside-out) with how people choose to live. --In the latter case, the conversion experience is an important initiatory event.

And, in that line of thought, there are steps on the way to beatitude. Differing confirmations of sanctity that could occur in a person’s life in accord with their spiritual and moral purification towards beatitude and the Beatific Vision (a Christian equivalent to Moksha).

—At least, those are important things I’ve identified. Christianity is a complete path, but many of the important details are spread out. I guess that’s true about all religions, though… if people are interested in the important and heavy-hitting aspects of them.

Samsara is a bit tough, though. In some ways, Original Sin is not the cause of Samsara. The rebellion when some of the (later termed “Fallen”) Angels chose to rebel against God would probably be the source of Samsara. They were considered as having existed prior to the Creation of Adam, Eve, and The Garden.

Original Sin, in that sense, would be the thing that brought humanity away from God’s grace and into a temporal world of suffering.

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#6

@Gnosticmedic27

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#7

I’ll explain tomorrow but Jesus’ teachings are misunderstood. I’m about to watch a movie then go to bed.

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#8

I ended up submitting this, will let y’all know what ends up happening though (i used the TB as reference nothing to do with my own opinions. The only thing that I guess is “opinion” is trying to conceptualize or find the abstract answer as to how they parallel )

Karma and sin can be considered parallels

  • For Karma falls under Samsara and “sin” derived from original sin which started the fall (but got reversed post Jesus) (i said it better in the essay format way lol)

  • Both are the crux of what keeps the “wheel” going
    Christianity’s wheel is more metaphorical.
    *if sin is eradicated you get Christ consciousness and if one is liberated from karma, you get to the moksha / nirvana. the “cycle” is over- christianity’s more metaphorical

  • The similarity of Christianity’s kenosis and Buddhism’s interconnectedness “ pratitya samutpada “
    The interconnectedness of all. Kenosis according to the readings is “self-emptying”

*it is a spiritual transformation Christianity’s. Not to be mistaken with recarination.

*Life is suffering. Buddhism has its own word (dukha) and so does Christianity (got to find the word or maybe that’s just the few words)

I’ll let y’all know what happens :))
Idk why they have to

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#9

Well, I just have to add this: depending on interpretation, Christianity (for example Orthodoxy and Catholicism) has these many mystical notions and practices as well and Christ is within and the Kingdom of God is within, it is a Spiritual and Inward Journey through the inner Christ who lives in every soul, kind of like some older Hindu and Yogic notions, traditions and texts; mysticism came to Christianity from the East (although it had elements from Judaism and Greco-Roman Religion and Mystery Schools, Gnosticism, etc.; from the Greeks we have the term Metempsychosis - I think that many of these mystical ideas arrived from far away lands, like India), so there actually can be all kind of parallels - with the inner or mystical dimension.

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#10

This may or may not help. Thought I would share though :slight_smile:

Alan Watts opens up about Religion - thought provoking video - YouTube

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