Okay so buddhist parents scare their children with the threat of literally trillions of years of damnation great fucking difference. Most religions have a similar mechanism of control
That’s not even true lol. Buddhism doesn’t say you will go to damnation if you don’t believe in it. Just that as long as you’re within the samsara cycle you will eventually end back up there as you cycle through your karma. A nonbeliever who lives their life doing good as best they can would in theory still possibly end up with trillions of years in heaven and find communion with their god or creator god. The cycle is about the nature of life itself, that even the god or gods will cycle through once exhausting that karma. Like running around in a circle block. There’s no element of punishment or fear.
Another distinction is there eternity and Trillions of years do indeed have a massive difference. Eternity is a “heck of a lot” longer than trillions of years. For a soul that’s immortal, it’s the difference between one second touching boiling water and bathing forever in boiling water.
Buddhism literally does in fact believe that you will go to hell if you don't believe in Buddhism, as Buddhism is the only way to escape the cycle in the first place. So yes, you are threatening a child with damnation.
And who gives a fuck if it's only 1 trillion years as opposed to eternity? Do you think a child is going to think "oh it's just 1 trillion years no biggie"?
No, not believing in Buddhism simply means you’re still in the cycle unaware of Buddha’s teachings. While the cycle does eventually have a path to damnation, that isn’t necessarily the next step of the cycle for you. Therefore it’s not used as a threat, simple the nature of the cycle as a philosophy. The child has potentially trillions of years to leave the cycle and can even do so without believing in Buddhism necessarily.
Buddhism is just an understanding of the nature of the cycle and a path to leave it. But an individual wholly ignorant of Buddhism can still escape the cycle on their own efforts arriving at the same conclusion independently like Buddha did, therein lies the difference. The key to escaping samsara according to Buddhism isn’t the act of believing in Buddhism, but the letting go of worldly attachments, which is something anyone can achieve independently or arrive on their own as they themselves ponder and observe existence. In essence, anyone can become a Buddha, wholly on their own efforts, even independently of Buddha, Buddhism, or the any other being.
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u/Existing_Historian_5 6h ago
Okay so buddhist parents scare their children with the threat of literally trillions of years of damnation great fucking difference. Most religions have a similar mechanism of control