, occupies the time of Buddhists probably more than any other single spiritual activity. And while Christianity holds the activities above in grace, the meaning, the rationale behind it is unclear.Buddhism encourages us to seek out the causes of suffering within ourselves and to never cease from striving to reduce or eliminate them. It encourages us to diminish our ingrained selfishness and to expand limitlessly our charity and compassion for others. But the biggest difference between these two traditions seems to be in their basic philosophical positions in relation to the nature of existence. Buddhists believe in a universe of continuous creation and destruction, cravings and thirst, which are the root causes of pain, loss and separation, and within which there is no possible sanctuary. This 'nightmare without' is matched inwardly by a psychology mainly driven by our deeply-ingrained 'impurities' of desire, hatred and ignorance. Our innate reflex response to life is to 'hate this' and 'desire that. These are very strong forces, which most people find difficult to resist or control. Release from this situation is viewed as the only means of true happiness and inner peace, and thus as the only true refuge from the sufferings and misery which are an inherent part of it. That is Enlightenment -- a selfless, desireless and hateless state of joy and bliss. Christians have no explanation for the apparently random suffering, which appears in the world, and no clear plan of how to avoid it. Nor do they have any clear concept of human psychology, whereas Buddhists have very clear views on all these matters. Christians also dismiss as 'work of the Devil' any teachings concerning spirits, divine revelation, magic, healing, dreams, meditation and paranormal phenomena. Christian teaching seems to be centered mainly upon following what someone else tells you to do, often for no clear reason other then faith. Following a moral code set entirely by ...
