Did Buddha escape prison?

Question

I am starting to see Buddha as a prisoner like the rest of us. He escaped existance and went back to nothingness (nirvana). Is it possible to completely excape God's creation and not have to worry about existing in heaven, hell, or on earth?

Answer 1

You might be trying to ridicule Buddhist with your question,but I see some gem in your question.
Yes,Siddhattha Gautama was a prisoner like the rest of us in the cycle of samsara.Thru' his own effort,he achieved enlightenment(became a Buddha).With the awakening,Buddha knew everything,including the knowledge that there is no being that is the creator of the universe.
One of the name Buddha was given is SUGATO,meaning Well-gone.Hope this help.

Answer 2

First let me appoligize if I have misunderstood your question, but I am going to assuming you are talking about Christianity when you refer to heaven and hell.

Before you accept this answer, you must first understand that there are many different beliefs and interpretations on heaven and hell in the Christian religion.

For example, If you are Mormon, then I have heard that you can get your own planet to rule when you die! Protestants are in some ways divided on the issue of heaven and hell (depending on denomination) and Catholics have purgitory in addition to heaven and hell.

One theory to consider is a "soul sleep" theory held by some Christians. This a theory that suggests that people go into a state of unconcious sleep when they die. However, some Christians believe that when the end is near (see Revelations) happens, then all that have died will awaken and be judged. This state of sleep could also be considered Nirvana, but it does not avoid a possiblity of heaven or hell later on.

However, I will give you an answer I hear most often from Christians.

Hell can be defined as not being in the presence of God. To be complete seperated from him. Therefore, if you use the Christian definition of hell, along with the Buddhist concept of nirvana, then you could say nirvana is a state of being in hell.

Now something to remember... Some forms of Buddhism, (Theravadin for example) do not have a God, at least not in the Christian sense (unless the Buddhism is merged with other beliefs such as Animism). I suppose Buddha would be the closest thing to God, but he did not create the Earth or anything else for that matter. Therefore, the state of nirvana would not be any sort of hell, just an end to suffering since there is no God.

Furthermore, the concept of Hell in various Christian perspectives have been taken to be three different things (among other theories).

1. Hell is a unplesant place of painful suffering and punishment that last eternally.

2. Hell is a place of punishment because of the seperation from God

3. Hell is a temporary place of punishment, where you will be eventually destroyed and turned into nothing.

I suppose, theory three most closely corresponds to the concept of nirvana in a Christain sense, since your soul is destroyed and is nothing.

However, if you don't like option 3, then you could maybe define purgitory as a state of nothingness, then you could say a temporary state of nirvana may exist there.

Answer 3

There are a lot of people - buddhists and yogis and other mystics who have experienced short periods of completely transcending consciousness in their meditation. Generally their brain heart and breathing stops while they are in that state and then start again when they come back. They have no memory of anything that happened to them while they were away, it is as though time did not pass, but they find themselves very happy.

The theory is that if you do enough of meditations and transcendence when you are alive then eventually you will go there and not come back again, and that will be your blissful escape from existence.

What i think is an even more important aspect of what buddha showed is that it is possible to have part of your consciousness always in that blissful emptiness even while you are still alive, and then even as you continue your ordinary life you have already escaped the pains of existence.

Answer 4

Sorry to disappoint you my friend. Neither Buddha nor Muhammad, nor any other persons who ever lived here on earth can escape into nothingness. Every one on earth will have to account about his life before the Judge of the Universe one day.
You don't have to worry about heaven or hell now, but one day you will have to worry about it when it is too late if you do not take the chance to secure the good one now!

Answer 5

Maybe, there's no heaven and that kind of stuff.
Maybe, the whole concept of good folks going to heaven and bad people going to hell was created so everyone behaves ethically.

Answer 6

It will probably take your another million years to understand 'nothingness'