Baptism and Buddhism. Any Similarities?
I recently attended a Catholic baptism ceremony where the child was "cleansed" or purified from original sin. As I sat there and listened to the ceremony, I tried to draw some similarities between the meanings behind this ritual and Buddhist teachings.
The purification was done to cleanse the soul from original sin. This sin is a condition of being born into the human condition. It's origin (simplified understanding) is that Eve ate from the apple or ate an apple which represented temptation which started the causal chain of sin being born into humans. Is this similar to our notion that our past karma and causal influenced our current lifetime? The sin here are the actions that have led us into the human condition or the karmic wheel of existence. In essence, we are also born with original sin. The difference is that it's not that easy to cleanse our souls from the "sin".
There was also the notion of parents, god parents and the larger community contributing to the well-being and spiritual path of the child. It was a very comforting thought that the priest tied all the folks in attendance together and explained how all of us were interconnected to the children being baptized. I felt that we get a lot of that message through Buddhism. Interconnectedness is essential to Buddhism and the Sangha a natural extension of our community.
The purification was done to cleanse the soul from original sin. This sin is a condition of being born into the human condition. It's origin (simplified understanding) is that Eve ate from the apple or ate an apple which represented temptation which started the causal chain of sin being born into humans. Is this similar to our notion that our past karma and causal influenced our current lifetime? The sin here are the actions that have led us into the human condition or the karmic wheel of existence. In essence, we are also born with original sin. The difference is that it's not that easy to cleanse our souls from the "sin".
There was also the notion of parents, god parents and the larger community contributing to the well-being and spiritual path of the child. It was a very comforting thought that the priest tied all the folks in attendance together and explained how all of us were interconnected to the children being baptized. I felt that we get a lot of that message through Buddhism. Interconnectedness is essential to Buddhism and the Sangha a natural extension of our community.
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Comment by Squaell on June 2, 2009 at 12:55pm - Hello i don't know how is it possible but all religions are walking same path just the names and rituals are changed to fit time and culture , all religions are one altrough i have not read islam , but i am sure that when all are same islam is not exception , i need to read it.
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