Buddhism, Suffering, Love, and Making Comparisons

Last week I led a Dharma discussion where the topic drifted to Buddhism’s emphasis on suffering. It’s very common for people to get the impression that Buddhism is a negative, depressive religion because of all its talk about suffering.

“Why not teach love?” someone asked during the discussion, adding that love is what Christ taught.

That Christ taught love is indisputable, and I said as much. I added that the Buddha also taught love – along with compassion for and appreciation of others. In fact, central to Buddhism is the understanding that if one wants to be safe and happy and treated with kindness, others must also – therefore one acts accordingly. But getting into a debate where we were comparing Buddhism with Christianity didn’t seem the right thing to do. I let it drop.

When I began my studies of Buddhism I found it helpful to compare it with Catholicism, the faith I was raised in. Comparing and contrasting is, for me anyway, a useful means of sorting through my thoughts and establishing my view of the world. There are some things within the teachings and practice of the two faiths that are similar. (The Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh wrote at two books on the subject – Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers and Living Buddha, Living Christ.) Yet there are fundamental differences between Christianity and Buddhism. Deep in my mind I’ve covered many of them. But taking my thoughtful comparisons outside to play among others who have different ideas of the way things are or should be may not be beneficial. In fact, it could lead to harm by creating discord and bad feelings.

We all want the same thing: to be happy and safe. How we define happiness and safety and how we achieve them is a matter of opinion. From a Buddhist perspective, though, I think its of value to keep the focus on suffering, its cause, and its end. Wrapped up in the means to the end of suffering is, among other things, love.