>>723099708
Funny enough the Japanese use Gnosticism to criticize Buddhism.
Gnosticism is an exotic flavoring with enough similarities to use it as a framework to criticize buddhist worldview.
Japan has always struggled with buddhist thought because in essence it is diametrically opposed to native shintoism and animism since it was imported from China and Korea. Buddhism being all about rejecting the material world and the self while native thought is centered around beauty in impermanence. Like cherry blossoms and stuff.
Gnosticism is just early Christianity mixed with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Arabian folk religions.
Many Gnostic texts do not deal in concepts of sin and repentance
Buddhism, from its earliest days, has denied the existence of the "self, soul" in its core philosophical and ontological texts. In its soteriological themes, Buddhism has defined nirvana as that blissful state when a person, amongst other things, realizes that he or she has no self, no soul.
It's when you realize you don't exist and that you(self) and reality are just an illusion.
The term anattā or anātman refers to the doctrine of "non-self", that there is no unchanging, permanent self, soul or essence in living beings.
To further elaborate
Nirvana is not about preservation and understanding.
Enlightenment (or, the state of being fully awake) is defined as having a completely empty head, your mind being an endless void.
A person who has attained the goal Nibbana is thus indescribable because they have abandoned all things by which they could be described". The Suttas themselves describe the liberated mind as 'untraceable' or as 'consciousness without feature', making no distinction between the mind of a liberated being that is alive and the mind of one that is no longer alive.
Enlightenment is a destructive process. It
has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the
crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing
through the facade of pretence.
