Question asked by thank you kindly
Hi Pastor,
In Christianity from what i know, long story short, God cast the Devil and his fallen angels from heaven down to earth.
Good=Jesus, Bad=the Devil
what is Buddhist view of Jesus and the Devil.
In Buddhism belief/teachings is there an equivalent of the Devil (other names known as Satan, Lucifer) and his fallen angels? Are the numerous demonic spirits/entities/ghosts mentioned in the Sutras are just the Devil and his fallen angels?
Dear Thank You Kindly,
In Buddhism there is no belief in a God, as in the Christian sense, that is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. Buddhism does not believe in one supreme being. On the other hand Buddhism does not believe in the Devil either, which in the Christian sense is the embodiment of evil. Therefore there are no fallen angels in Buddhism either.
All sentient beings within existence fall into the Six Realms, which are the God Realm, Demi-God Realm, Human Realm, Animal Realm, Ghost Realm and the Hell Realm. Each sentient being takes countless rebirths within these Six Realms, until achieving enlightenment. Once achieving enlightenment, in short, they are no longer bound to take rebirth in these realms.
The numerous spirits/entities/ghosts mentioned in the Sutras, on the whole, are beings that have taken rebirth in the Demi-God and Ghost Realms. Sometimes these beings harass beings from other Realms, such as humans, due to strong impulses and karmic imprints from previous lives. In essence there are no sentient beings who are inherently evil, as “good” and “evil” are actually concepts that we mistakenly prescribe upon things. They do not exists inherently, we label things as good and evil. That is a reason why different cultures view different things as either good or evil.
I hope this answers your question, please feel free to ask more.