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My Engagements With World Religions: Reflections (Two)

My Engagements With World Religions: Reflections (Two)

Last updated on: March 3, 2026 at 2:55 am by Henry Karlson

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My Engagements With World Religions: Reflections (Two) 2026-03-03T02:55:21-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Secretlondon: White Tara Buddhist statue. Shrine room of Karma Kagyu centre, South London / Wikimedia Commons

Hinduism and Buddhism, just like Christianity, Judaism and Islam, share many things in common. Studying one helps in studying the other. For those in the West, this means learning to think and see things through a different cultural perspective. This is something I not only learned but tried to teach my students when I taught classes on Hinduism and Buddhism. I often used a thought experiment to do so. I told them to imagine they were an archeologist from thousands of years in the future. English had become like Latin, a language some scholars learned in their studies, but otherwise not used by the common person. Many documents from our era have been lost or destroyed, but some remain, including the syllabus for the class. They see, for one day, the statement: “Labor Day. No Class.” I asked them to explain the many ways those words could be interpreted. The archeologist might know the words, but the meaning of the statement will be hard for them to determine, because their context had been lost. I said that this is also the case when we initially study the great religious (and cultural) traditions of others; we use religious texts in translation, texts which make use of words we think we understand what they mean, but words which we do not have the full context for, allowing us to misinterpret their meaning when reading them.

Buddhism developed, in part, out of a critical examination of Hinduism (alongside other similar movements, such as Jainism). In many early Buddhist communities, indeed, in many found throughout the ancient world, the Hindu connections were more than apparent. Buddhism allowed Hindu cosmology to remain intact, and with it, the possibility of even accepting the Hindu gods (in a very relative sense). An example of this can be found than in the various Discourses of the Buddha; in them, we find Siddhartha talking about cycles of time and space, with one part of the cycle the “creation” or emergence of a universe, and the other part being when that universe comes to an end only to lead to the production of another universe. In each cycle, he said there comes to be a great sentient being who sees nothing and no one beside themselves; this leads that being to believe themselves to be the Creator-God, Brahmā. They are not, but rather, a sentient being going through the cycle of being, whose karma led them to become the first being in the newest cycle of the universe. This means, there was (and can be) a role for Brahmā in Buddhism, though a role which finds itself being relativized (up to the point in which such beings are found to bow down and promote a Buddha when a Buddha emerges). From this, we can learn the way many in the West say Buddhism is atheistic, and does not have any notion of a god, is not exactly true; rather, traditional Buddhism has a classification for the gods as it indicates they are the highest, greatest type of sentient being (at least, of those still caught up in saṃsāra). Indeed, Buddhism says that there are six normative categories of sentient life: gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings. Recognizing that gods exists, at least in some fashion, allowed many Buddhists to embrace elements of Hinduism, seeing they have relative value, even as it allowed Buddhist missionaries to suggests the gods of other countries have a similar, relative value. This is why, with many forms of Buddhism, we can see Buddhists in many different countries recognizing, engaging and adapting local religious ceremonies and cults, even as, in its origin, it engaged those of Hinduism.

Thus Buddhism, since its inception, has had many religious, philosophical, and cultural norms in common with Hinduism. We see this in the way both engage the notion of “reincarnation.” Both believe that, in a conventional sense at least, we can talk about a sentient being or consciousness journeying through saṃsāra, the realm of being, going from one life to another. Many Hindus, along with Buddhists, came to find it troubling that such a journey could last forever. This is what led many to desire a way to overcome saṃsāra; that liberation is described as moksha in the Hindu tradition, and enlightenment or the attainment of nirvana in Buddhism. Connected with their general understanding of saṃsāra, both religions explain that what people do, their actions (karma) have role in determining how that journey will be experienced. Some effects of karma will happen in the same “lifetime” as an action is done, but often its effects will be felt in another lifetime. My study of Buddhism and Hinduism helped me understand karma, and with it, how vital a concept it could be as long as it is not used to promote fatalism; karma is, in theory, is another way of saying that for every action there is a reaction. That is, every action we do will have various consequences associated with them, some we would consider good, and some, bad. Hinduism and Buddhism have many schools of thoughts, and with them, various different ways the effects of karma are mapped out. Certainly, some of them, from a Christian standpoint, are objectionable; others, on the other hand, are the kind which we can agree upon, so long as we look at them in a general light. We should recognize that karma is a way for them to deal with notions associated with the “natural law.” The way they explain karma can help Christians better understand the factors which contribute in determining the gravity of our actions (or sins). Certainly, sin creates (and in some ways, is) its own punishment; the more we intend a particular sin, and the more we embrace the fruit of the sin, the greater our attachment will be to that sin, and with that attachment, the greater the consequences we will experience (as those who explain karma relate in their discussions as to the kind of results which emerge from it).

Studying Hinduism has given me a far greater appreciation of the value of myths, and how myth can present religious or theological truths. Hinduism is a religion full of myths of legends. Different Hindu traditions will not only have different myths and legends (which often contradict the myths and legends of other traditions), they will offer different interpretations of those myths they hold in common. Some take the myths and legend at face value, commenting upon them in a more literal fashion, but even then, those who do this will favor some myths and legends to others, and those they do not favor, they will not interpret literally. I saw this in the way Shaivites (those who consider Shiva to be the supreme, personal God of the universe) differed with their myths and interpretations of them from the interpretations of the Vaishnavites (those who favored Vishnu and believe Vishnu is the supreme personal God). In reading commentaries from both, as well as those coming from other religious traditions in Hinduism, I truly came to appreciate how those, knowing they are writing myths and legends, came to realize how myths and legends give great opportunities to reveal great, transcendent truths in a way no other genre can. Perhaps no better example of this can be found than in the way the Bhagavad-gītā, coming from the Mahābhārata, became a major source of Hindu theological reflection.

Buddhism, especially Mahāyāna Buddhism, likewise uses myths and legends as a means of presenting its transcendent truths. But, interestingly enough, many Buddhists suggest that their myths and legends represent events which took place in a plane of reality that transcends our own, a plane which only greater beings can experience. While not exactly the same, I consider this approach to myths, suggesting there is a greater reality represented in them beyond that known by positive history, as being similar to the way St. Gregory of Nyssa read elements of Scripture, looking to both a historical, but also, a heavenly or metaphysical, reality revealed in them. It was while reading some of these Buddhist myths and legends, such as those associated with the female bodhisattva, Tārā, a bodhisattva who was denigrated by many Buddhist monks for being female, that I found my way into dealing with the problems of patriarchy. According to those legends, Tārā vowed that as long as she continued her path to enlightenment, as long as she was a bodhisattva, she would do so as a woman. In part, she did this to undermine the discrimination women Buddhists experienced by their male counterparts, but also, in part, to remind everyone the emptiness of gender categorization (that is, as a way to deny gender essentialism). Not only did I find the literature concerning Tārā fascinating, it introduced me to contemporary Buddhist scholars who, in their own way, followed her example by taking on patriarchy within the Buddhist tradition. Their critical work helped form the basis for my own studies on patriarchy, giving me a better basis to understand Christian feminist theologians (which was a field of study new to me, as a man raised in a fundamentalist tradition).

Hinduism and Buddhism, more than Platonism, helped me understand the limits of our senses and how they have us interact with the physical world. While what we perceive with our senses represents something real, something outside of ourselves, our mind takes those perceptions and generates the way we understand and experience them. This is why both religious traditions often have philosophers and religious thinkers telling us what we perceive is illusory, with some using it as a way to deny all physical (or created) reality, and others to simply deny our perception of it. For example, Hindus who talk about the world being māyā (“illusory) can mean that the world is, in an ultimate sense, not real (such as Advaita would suggest), or that what is illusory is our perception of the world, that the world is real, but dependent upon another, the creator God (such as found in dvaita). Yogācāra Buddhism, also called “Mind-Only” Buddhism, dealt with this issue in ways which often lead scholars to debate what Yogācārins even mean. Yogācārins tell us that what we perceive is perceived in and through our mind; some think this means it is only in the mind, that there is nothing external, making Yogācāra Buddhism is a form of idealism, but others think of it as an analysis of the way our mind influences our perception or apprehension of what is “external” to us (indicating there is something “external,” at least in a conventional sense). That is, according to the second group of scholars, what Yogācāra means is that our mind interprets and creates for us our perception of reality, a view which is not identical to the world as it really is, but yet is somehow influenced by it. The second take is the one which I have grown to use in my own reflections, even if I see elements in Yogācāra Buddhism which might suggest the first as being correct. It is because this interpretation of Yogācāra helped me find answers to various theological questions; for example, how we are to understand what is meant when some say heaven and hell are states of being.

My studies of Hinduism and Buddhism have been very enlightening. They certainly have not ended. I continue to explore elements from each, especially philosophical and theological details which are not easy to present in summary form, and from them, I find my own philosophical and theological ideas continue to develop. To be sure, I always do so with a Christian hermeneutic, making sure I take what I have learned from my studies in systematic theology, especially my studies in patristics, and use that as the foundation for my insight and engagement of Hindu and Buddhist thought.

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N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

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