The other day, a fellow air traffic controller posted on his blog this question: In your personal opinion, what do you understand that it takes for a person to go to heaven?
John, in addition to being a controller, is a Christian evangelist (and a magician and a speaker and an entertainer and a youth camp pastor and… whew! a lot of stuff!) and an interesting guy. While we both probably think that the other guy is misguided and not on the path to enlightenment (or heaven!), I have to think he’s motivated by a good, healthy, caring spirit and desires for people’s happiness. Hopefully he thinks the same about me, too.
Here’s a reeeeealy long email I sent to him that takes a whack at (badly) explaining a Buddhist’s frame of mind about it. I figured I’d share it here with you.
You asked recently what we understand what it takes to go to heaven. Well, here’s a heathen’s look on the matter for you.
The version of Buddhism that I belong to (there’s about as many, if not more, forms of Buddhism as there are Christian denominations and varieties of Christian faith) is based on the Lotus Sutra. Based upon this scripture, the various monks and priests came up with the notion of “Ten Worlds”, or ten “life states” that we bounce around in as we go about our day.
These states of being are a way of describing or classifying where we are at, at any given point in time. The Ten Worlds are:
Hell, a state of suffering;
Hunger, being driven and under the sway of desires;
Animality, where instinctive behaviors and reactions hold control;
Anger, a state of competition or conflict where we think and act in an arrogant manner (not necessarily ANGRY, though that’s part of it);
Tranquility, where it’s a relatively neutral state of peace and calm;
Rapture, a temporary state of being overjoyed at the gratification of a desire;
Learning, when we’re learning something from others;
Realization, when we come to a partial understanding of life;
Bodhisattva, a state of altruism where we help other beings;
Buddhahood, a state of absolute happiness and contentment that comes about as a result of our actions (and causes) we did in the life state of Bodhisattva.
(This is a bit of a long explanation, but since it’s pretty foreign to a lot of people who grew up in a Judeo-Christian environment, please bear with me!)
Imagine for a minute. You’re sleeping a very cozy, dreamless sleep. The alarm goes off and startles you, but you gather your wits and get up and check out the window. It’s raining. You go to the kitchen, feed the dog, and pull out a bowl and some cereal. You look at the mail you brought in last night; there’s an electric bill and something from the IRS.
You open up the electric bill and man, there must be some kind of mistake- it’s HUGE. Those nitwits at the electric company! Who on earth read the meter! You’re going to give them a piece of your mind later today. Then you turn to the IRS letter. To your surprise, it’s a rebate check- you did the tax form wrong and they owed you a couple grand! Woo-hoo!
In these moments, you’ve shifted your life state through the various worlds any number of times. When you were asleep, you were in a state of Tranquility. The alarm startled you and you shifted into a state of Animality, your heart instinctively raced a bit. When you looked out at the rain it depressed you a bit, so you sunk into Hell.
As you got dressed, though, your hunger was acting up, so you went back into Animality (instinctively wanting food- the life state of “Hunger” actually refers more to being under the sway of desires, not “hunger” in terms of your body wanting food.)
When you went into the kitchen, you had a moment of Realization that the dog might be hungry, too. The act of feeding the dog is an example of Bodhisattva nature.
The electric bill sent you into a state of Anger (probably preceded by some time in Animality from the fear, which is an instinctive reaction, at seeing those two envelopes!) at the bill. But hey, the IRS letter and check is awesome- now you’re in Rapture!
The “lower” four life states- Hell, Hunger, Animality, and Anger- are called the “Four Evil Paths”. (Buddhism is very big on naming things by their number. I don’t know why.) With Tranquility and Rapture, they’re all known as the Six Paths and are pretty much all driven by external circumstances. Our “life state” is a reaction to the perceived outside world in those lower six worlds or life states.
However, our life state can also influence our perception of the outside world. (Now is when we’re getting closer to what is required to “get to heaven” from a Buddhist point of view.) Remember how we looked out the window and saw the rain, and it sent us down into Hell because we were bumming about the wet?
Well, when we walked out the door in our state of Rapture from that fat IRS check, we were in such a good mood that the rain didn’t bug us much at all… but the rain was the same as it was when the sight of it drove us into a state of Hell! What gives? Our life state is both influenced by, and can influence, our perception of the external world.
The four higher states are known as the Four Noble Paths. They are characterized by the fact that it takes some work on our part to manifest them.
So that’s the basic Buddhist theory on how to categorize life states. We move back and forth amongst the Ten Worlds continuously- it’s said to be hundreds of millions of times in a single day, which is a way of saying that it’s basically infinite.
It’s kind of like how, in the Bible, they use “40 days and 40 nights”, which (to steal a phrase from the author Stephen King) is kind of an old Jewish way of saying “we’re not sure exactly how long it was, but it was a heck of a long time”.
Now, we have to step back and remember that Buddhist don’t generally believe in a one-shot, single lifetime and then it’s off to an eternal, permanent abode like hell, purgatory, or heaven. Instead, we come around many times- so many, in fact, that it’s essentially useless to try and count them.
So what this means is that to ask a Buddhist “what do you have to do to get to heaven” is kind of like asking an ant in Missouri how he can get to Kenya. It’s not as though it’s even a real place to him.
Instead, what a Buddhist strives for is to spend as much time as they (we!) can in the higher life states. In fact, Shakyamuni Buddha (the historical “Buddha”) taught for 40 years after reaching enlightenment.
Now, we have to step back and remember that Buddhist don’t generally believe in a one-shot, single lifetime and then it’s off to an eternal, permanent abode like hell, purgatory, or heaven. Instead, we come around many times- so many, in fact, that it’s essentially useless to try and count them.
So what this means is that to ask a Buddhist “what do you have to do to get to heaven” is kind of like asking an ant in Missouri how he can get to Kenya. It’s not as though it’s even a real place to him.
Instead, what a Buddhist strives for is to spend as much time as they (we!) can in the higher life states. In fact, Shakyamuni Buddha (the historical “Buddha” only reached his enlightenment because of his actions as a bodhisattva in previous lives. Once he reached a state of enlightenment, he continued to act as a bodhisattva, sharing his teachings with the world.
Buddha taught for 40 years after his enlightenment until he died. It is said that upon his death, he did not reincarnate but instead remains in a state of enlightenment, as do many other bodhisattvas and buddhas.
In many Buddhist sects, there is the notion of a “pure land” which people can sometimes enter when they die. Typically, they have to do something in their lifetime that will ensure this; one large group believes that the practice of chanting to Amitabha Buddha means that Amitabha will snatch them upon their deaths and whisk them away to the Pure Land, where they’ll live in a state of Buddhahood, never again bothering to be reincarnated as a human being.
Other Buddhist groups believe and speak of “nirvana” (enlightenment) as not exactly being a place as much as it’s a state of mind, and once you attain buddhahood, you enter nirvana, never to return (unless, like the Buddha did, you come back motivated by the state of bodhisattva to try and lead others to enlightenment.)
In OUR group, we chant the title of the Lotus Sutra. “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo”. The notion is that by doing so, we bring ourselves into the life state of Buddhahood.
Imagine a mirror. It’s tarnished and dirty. We might actually already be a buddha, in the ultimate state of life, but when we look at our reflection in the mirror we don’t believe it; we don’t see ourselves clearly but instead see the dirt and grime.
The act of chanting daimoku helps us to focus and “polish the mirror”, allowing us to see, recognize, and tap into the ultimate life state of Buddhahood.
In our classification system, it’s important to know that ALL people do possess a “buddha nature”. It’s just that we don’t recognize it because we so rarely (if ever) truly experience it.
Since, in Buddhism, we believe that the things we do now have immediate impacts upon the effects we experience in the future (this is karma), the more time we spend in the higher life states- particularly Bodhisattva- the more causes we are settting up to experience the effects of Buddhahood. The practice of chanting (which is, in effect, prayer) helps us to get to the frame of mind where we’re going to do bodhisattva types of things.
It’s kind of like how people ask, in a Christian sense, what they have to do to be saved. Are there particular acts that they can/should do that will “get them into heaven”, or is it merely a matter of accepting Jesus and praying to him and God?
If someone has truly gotten personal with Jesus, they probably aren’t out there shooting up shopping malls and such. Instead, they’re motivated by the spirit of caring for others that he exhibited, right? They’re helping others.
Well, is it the acts they’re doing or the motivation beind those acts that matter? What if they have a pure heart but don’t do any good acts for folks? It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg discussion… which comes first?
Buddhism is a bit like that when you start talking about chanting/prayer and the kinds of acts to help care for others that demonstrate or spring from a life state of bodhisattva. It all goes together.
So this is a way-too-long way of saying that A) there isn’t exactly a “place” like heaven, although there is a life state and state of existence (it’s more than just a “state of mind”) that we could call “heaven” (the state of Buddhahood), and B) the way to get there is by improving our life state continuously, moving beyond the Four Evil Paths and even past the lower six life states and instead learning, realizing, helping others, and then eventually attaining a state of buddhahood.
Whew. Way more than you asked for, I think. 
(Note to readers: I lifted a goodly portion of the above explanation from a terrific book about Nichiren Buddhism called “The Buddha In Daily Life”, by the late Richard Causton. I highly recommend this book to anyone wondering just what the heck I’m talking about at times.)
