The difference between Christianity and Buddhism, is that Christianity expresses the desire to live forever in a body of some kind, but not the kind of organic body that dies. Buddhism expresses the desire to never be born again, to never again enter another human, animal or organic body of any kind. In Buddhism, one must accept the total finality of death in the body, with no possibility of an ‘afterlife’. The ‘afterlife’ would be akin to reincarnation, which is what Buddhism says that we must utterly let go of, put an end to desiring reincarnation, rebirth, or any kind of continued embodied life. By ending the desire for rebirth, the expectation of it, or the fear of it, we then overcome and put an end to rebirth itself. This is an interpretation of Buddha’s teaching that ‘there is the Unborn, the Undying, the Unmade’ in the Udana Sutta:*
“If a monk abandons passion [desire] for the property of consciousness, then owing to the abandonment of passion [desire], the support is cut off, and there is no base for consciousness. Consciousness, thus unestablished, not proliferating, not performing any function, is released. Owing to its release, it stands still. Owing to its stillness, it is contented. Owing to its contentment, it is not agitated. Not agitated, he (the monk) is totally unbound right within. He discerns that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’ (SN 22.55, Thanissaro Bhikkhu) https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.055.than.html
So there’s a continuation of consciousness after the death of the organic body, but it is stilled, not agitated or stimulated, not proliferated (has no object), not performing any function, and is thus ‘released; into perfect stillness. Thus “birth is ended…” After the death of the organic body, that ‘energy’ of consciousness which could be aware of something has nothing to be aware of, and so rests in stillness and ‘contentment.’ This is not only the idealized state of consciousness, but a state that is by necessity unavoidable: once the organic body dies, there is no ‘basis’ for an active awareness or consciousness, there is nothing to be aware of and no means of being aware of anything. So that energy of consciousness is still there, but has no function or activity. Put in scientific terms, it remains as potential energy, or shunyata, but not kinetic energy (karma)—it takes no action or form. Energy is neither created nor destroyed: it thus becomes indistinguishable from the fundamental potential energy of the universe.
This is the middle way. It is not nihilism, because the nihilists insist that if death is total, then you should live any way you want, and not worry about consequences of reincarnation or an ‘afterlife’. Buddhism argues that that only thing that does continue is our karma, the continued reverberations of our embodied actions in the world after we die. And because those reverberations of karma continue after we die, and cause other’s suffering, then we must live ethically, so as not to cause harm to others in our embodied lives, and so that none of our actions cause harm to others after we die.
*I call the Udana Sutta the ‘UnSutta’.
Dharmaecology 