BUDDHISM | SIN | BELIEFS
Why Buddhists Don’t Believe in Sin?
And why is it so liberating?
Are you a sinner? What does sin mean to you? Is there any way to avoid it or eradicate its effects? Why is it, or is it even necessary?
These questions came to my mind when I had two encounters with one Christian lady on the street and a bit later with my Muslim friend on Zoom.
As an atheist, I almost forgot the concept of sin, and these two discussions made me think about it again. After all, I was raised in a Lutheran country, and sin was definitely a dark cloud that the teacher of religion, like a sinister weatherman, invited to cloud our innocent — and, in my case, mischievous — minds every week.
In this article, I will reflect on those two conversations and then tell what I have learned from the Buddhist philosophy about sin.
The lady in a lavender dress with a worn-out leather-bind Bible.
“We are all sinners,” said a lovely-looking lady in her early forties, “but if you repent your sins, God will forgive you, and you are saved,” she continued.
I was curious to know more and asked her to elaborate. Suddenly, I was under an avalanche of quotes from the Bible and drawn into…
