I saw a few people online say that Gnosticism is just Buddhist Christianity
.
So I thought about it and realized that they were wrong. So this article exists to explain the difference.
On the surface, the comparison makes some kind of sense. In both religions, the goal is to achieve enlightenment of some kind. In Gnosticism this is achieved via Gnosis (hidden knowledge) and, in Buddhism, this is achieved via…Enlightenment.
But the devil is in the details. And the best way I thought of to explain this is via…bread.
Let’s say that there’s a loaf of bread that you really really like. You think the loaf of bread is pretty sweet. But! After you eat it, you realize it’s gone. And now you’re sad. You could say you’re suffering at the loss of a precious object.
Now, why are you suffering?
It’s here that I think the difference between Buddhism and Gnosticism becomes obvious, to the point that comparing the two further would just feel silly.
Buddhism would claim that your suffering is the result of an irrational emotional attachment to an impermanent object. Bread’s purpose is to be eaten…so, naturally, it would disappear one day. Why did you attach so many emotions to an object that you know was going to disappear one day?
The bread’s nature is neither good nor evil. It’s just bread. So it cannot be the cause of your suffering.
Now…Gnosticism.
Gnosticism would claim that your suffering is a result of the flawed nature of reality itself. You’re suffering because that’s the purpose of reality.
That bread? It’s evil. It’s very nature is evil for all matter is evil.
Though the bread alone is not responsible for your suffering: it’s also the fact you have a body that needs to eat. Y’see, your body is a machine designed to torture your very soul.
I think that the differences are pretty clear now.