| So Buddhism has no goal for the afterlife, then? Well I guess I can see that. It does seem to me, however, that "the practice is enough" dictates that Buddhists reach the optimum state of their religion simply by practicing. That doesn't sound a whole lot different than one of the other religions, where the culmination of the practice is the optimum state (i.e., Heaven, etc.)
Heaven and Enlightenment can be seen on an equal level - both can be considered the beneficial outcome for practicing a religion. Even if Enlightenment is a state of mind, it is still the penultimate state of Buddhism, much like Heaven is the penultimate goal of Christianity. |