Why Buddhists Don’t Believe in Sin?

Are you a sinner? What does sin mean to you? Is there any way to avoid it or eradicate its effects? Why is it, or is it even necessary?

These questions came to my mind when I had two encounters with one Christian lady on the street and a bit later with my Muslim friend on Zoom.

As an atheist, I almost forgot the concept of sin, and these two discussions made me think about it again. After all, I was raised in a Lutheran country, and sin was definitely a dark cloud that the teacher of religion, like a sinister weatherman, invited to cloud our innocent — and, in my case, mischievous — minds every week.

In this article, I will reflect on those two conversations and then tell what I have learned from the Buddhist philosophy about sin.

The lady in a lavender dress with a worn-out leather-bind Bible.

“We are all sinners,” said a lovely-looking lady in her early forties, “but if you repent your sins, God will forgive you, and you are saved,” she continued.

I was curious to know more and asked her to elaborate. Suddenly, I was under an avalanche of quotes from the Bible and drawn into an honest conversation that I couldn’t but admire her faith. She was eloquent, funny and genuine — what not to respect there. I loved her sincerity and passion.

I learned from this lady who never told me her name that Adam and Eve were the culprits. They betrayed God’s trust and acted against his will. You know the story of the Garden of Eden, the snake and the apple.

So, there’s nothing new there.

But what hit me hard after being an agnostic for my whole adult life was the unforgiving nature of sin and that we commit sin also when our intention wasn’t to do any harm if we go against God’s will. And nobody but God himself knew in the end what that will was.

We depend on God’s mercy and can only repent and hope for the best (=heaven) but prepare for the worst (=hell). I tried honestly and sincerely to understand this concept from the point the lady explained, but it still gave me chills.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 6:23.

But was Jesus really so strict? After all, he liked being among sinners, such as prostitutes, and said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her”. The lady in lavender must have forgotten those words because she was throwing stones so enthusiastically and in such great quantities that you could have built the Great Wall of China with them.

The lady outlined the Ten Commandments and how we go to hell without repenting and asking for forgiveness. When I asked if she would be on the safe side when the final call came, her eyes were shining, and very convincingly, she declared that she would be in heaven with Jesus in no time. That left me with my good intentions going to hell.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the lady responsible for keeping the stairways to heaven intact while I went to pick up my son from work. Yet, her profound contempt for sinners and non-believers struck my heart with a bittersweet ache that had almost faded from memory.

I remembered my very religious mother, who had this inbuilt fear of God and always tried her best but felt that she failed God. My mother did whatever she could to help others and always thought of them. Unfortunately, most people didn’t notice her efforts, especially those who were active in the church. They took her action for granted.

But the terrifying fear of God can also be so empowering that it has driven people to commit murder in the name of His will, as history has shown us time and time again. And if not murder, some lesser horrors have been enthusiastically delivered by the hands of devoted Christians.

When I reflected on this discussion with my son driving the rainy, windy and miserable streets back home, he concluded, “Dad, you don’t need to be upset if some people predict that you will go to hell. It’s in any case warmer place than the hearts of those who say so”. The wisdom of a 20-year-old can sometimes be piercing.

Then, I had a chance to reflect on this with my Muslim friend.

My Muslim friend loves life, his wife, children and the prophet.

Let’s call my Muslim friend Omar. He lives in multi-religious Singapore and is an HR manager of a large international company. He is pretty religious.

I was initially slightly wary of him because I had my fair share of biases about Muslims. We met at a conference years back, and while I was having a good time with wine, Omar celebrated eccentrically with water. He was wittier and funnier sober than most funnymen of the corporate when drunk. In the mornings, he was annoyingly sharp and suave when the others who roamed to the breakfast looked like the wrong side of a sieve, having just grey remains of the evening on their faces. Where did this fluent flow of fun, which was so sparkly in the night, disappear?

After a few conferences, I learned Omar is a family man. We had same-age sons, but he also had twin teenage daughters, sometimes making some unusually darker shadows under his eyes. Omar occasionally missed his prayers, but his faith was stronger than my disbelief. He was also so engaging and liberal that, over the years, he profoundly changed my views of Islam and Muslims.

Setting the joys of parenting aside, we started talking about business on Zoom, but soon, I steered the conversation to sin. The lavender lady’s preaching was still echoing in my spiritual curiosity chamber. I asked Omar’s view as Muslim about it.

“If you avoid the major sins which you are forbidden, We will remove from you your lesser sins and admit you to a noble entrance [into Paradise].” — Surah An-Nisa (4:31)

“Well, we are not as strict as you might think about this sin business,” he started, “We have some major ones like murder, theft and adultery, but apart from those, we are pretty forgiving”.

“But what about the Adam and Eve stuff,” I asked.

“Well, that’s what the Christians think, and in my view, it is bollocks to believe that we have inherited some core sin that goes on and on. Instead, we believe we were born pure and sinless,” Omar said with a wink, “After that, it’s then personal choices”.

Omar told me how, in his religious practice, it is more important than seeking God’s forgiveness all the time to take personal responsibility. “You seek God’s mercy, but you are the one who has chosen your actions and must remedy the harmful outcomes,” explained Omar, “Repentance is crucial and leads us to transform or change our behaviour and our intent instead of just asking for forgiveness”. According to Omar, this, in turn, leads to God’s vast mercy and is all-encompassing if you are sincere in your repentance.

“I think it is a bit foreign concept for us to blame others or force them to follow our beliefs,” said Omar, guessing my thoughts about extremists and Jihad, “I don’t think that millions of ordinary Muslims buy that kind of bigotry, it is not in Koran, it is not in our ways of practising our religion”.

“We own our sins,” said Omar, “We don’t expect others to change but look at our own behaviour first”.

It was a refreshing discussion. My view might be simplistic, but Omar and some other Muslim friends have shown a totally different Islam than the mass media.

To follow our tradition, I had a chat with my son about it while driving him to have a few beers with his friends, who are a delightful combination of young blokes from such diverse backgrounds that I want to become young again and be part of that kind of prism of all shades of hair colours and skin tones.

In his fact-of-matter way, my son again summarised everything, “Dad, yep, being an adult means that nobody else but you should wipe your arse. In that way, my Muslim pals are much cleaner than many others”. Then, he nonchalantly told me that he had used the last toilet paper roll and that I should buy some while driving home or mother would be very upset, which would be a sin to allow to happen.

So, why don’t Buddhists have a concept of sin?

After buying extra soft toilet paper to keep the family happy and clean from sins, I pondered the Buddhist view on sin.

Firstly, Buddhism does not believe in external deities or monolithic God. In its core teaching is the concept of Karma — or action as the Sanskrit word originally means. It means that our thoughts, words and actions are the sources of consequences that manifest in our lives. Negatively or positively.

It is all our making. We carry the burden of our Karma, but it is not a destiny but a result of our choices in this and past lives. And because we are the creators of it, we can also change it and pave the way for a happier future.

“If you want to understand the causes that existed in the past, look at the results as they are manifested in the present. And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present.” — Nichiren Daishonin (1222–1282), The Opening of the Eyes — WND, Vol. 1, page 279.

Three poisons and their antidotes

Instead of sins, we have three poisons who envenom our lives, causing suffering. These poisons are ignorance, greed, hatred or anger.

If we are not open-minded and open-hearted, we let ignorance lead us — and the consequences are terrible. Look at the climate crises: we have been ignorant and in denial for decades, and the Karmic consequences are at hand. People, not some destiny, have made the causes for it.

But greed has been driving us to exploit everything for short-term gains. And we can see how it drives businesses and governments nuts in their insatiable hunger for more. Ever more, even when there is no need anymore to be satisfied.

Then comes the anger or hatred. Everything against our ignorant views and greed must be eliminated, suppressed or conquered. Look what Russia is doing in Ukraine and many other governments in the secrecy of their remote controls. We cannot switch channels and websites quickly enough to reveal everything hate makes people do.

So, Buddhism does not need sin — but common sense, compassion, wisdom and courage to change the world. Every individual is responsible and accountable for the circumstances we have.

Buddhism in the modern world

In Nichiren SGI-Buddhism, President Daisaku Ikeda has summarised this responsibility beautifully as a concept of human revolution, inner transformation.

“A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.” — Daisaku Ikeda.

As human beings, Buddhists sometimes do things that they regret, cause pain and even harm to others and themselves, but instead of thinking it as a sin, they see it as a consequence of the negative Karma they have created. As an outcome of this process of personal accountability, they refer to doing their ‘human revolution’ with full responsibility.

Buddhists see patterns instead of sin. They try to see those patterns as signs of some underlying (and often unconscious) root causes that they need to change. And voila, there goes the cause of the suffering out of the window, and a new dawn comes with opportunities to improve, enjoy, and live a happy life.

It is easier said than done, but as my son wisely put it on one morning when I was again driving him to work, “Dad, It took me a year to take enough photos for a tiny book. Most of them were crap. But without hundreds of shitty shots, I would not have the great ones. And, as a result, I now got this job, and I am not throwin’ away my shot. I make my world, not the other way round”.

Rise up — and don’t throw away your shot

Buddhists sing like Hamilton, and they don’t throw away their shot wherever it is, and they take full responsibility for the consequences — they also live a life without sin and enjoy what there is to enjoy without the feeling of guilt and shame. Because they know they can change right there and then their lives for the better and not wait for mercy from outside.

It is liberating. It is freedom. It is a life lived to the fullest without fear and remorse. There is no sin in Buddhism, but the promise of happiness through transforming greed, anger, and ignorance into compassion, wisdom and courage.

It is the natural way to live harmoniously with everyone and nature. The law of Karma is simple, yet a very discerning mirror of your life. It’s not sin but sincerity that matters.