Soteriology

Buddhism is devoted primarily to awakening or enlightenment (bodhi), Nirvāṇa ("blowing out"), and liberation (vimokṣa) from all causes of suffering (duḥkha) due to the existence of sentient beings in saṃsāra (the cycle of compulsory birth, death, and rebirth) through the threefold trainings (ethical conduct, meditative absorption, and wisdom).

According to the standard Buddhist scholastic understanding, liberation arises when the proper elements (dhārmata) are cultivated and when the mind has been purified of its attachment to fetters and hindrances that produce unwholesome mental factors (various called defilements, poisons, or fluxes).

[3] However, the Pure Land traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhism generally focus on saving "other power" of the celestial Buddha Amitābha.

The Chinese and other mainland Pure Land traditions teach a synergistic soteriology in which one's own self-power links us to the Buddha's other power (which is still the main or "dominant condition" for salvation).

[7] The Japanese Pure Land traditions meanwhile, teach that we must rely solely on other-power and abandon all self-powered efforts (which are useless and ego-centered).

[citation needed] Lucretius, author of De Rerum Natura, also depicts the salvific power of philosophy, and of his Scholarch Epicurus, by employing literary devices like the "Broken Jar parable" (where the Scholarch is credited with helping mortals to easily enjoy pleasure), poetry, and imagery.

There are various principles and practices that can lead to the state of Moksha including the Vedas and the Tantras being the basic scriptures for guidance along with many others like Upanishads, Puranas and more.

In the Quran, God says: "If you avoid the great sins you have been forbidden, We shall wipe out your minor misdeeds and let you through the entrance of honor [Paradise].

"[17] However, by direct implication of these tenets and beliefs, Man's nature is spiritually and morally flawed such that he needs salvation from himself.

Finding appreciation, forgiveness, and joy in Allah is the only (or best) practice to be saved from this terrible fate of corruption and meaninglessness.

[20] Judaism does not posit a need for personal salvation in a way analogous to Christianity; Jews do not believe in original sin.

[21] Instead, Judaism places greater value on individual morality as defined in the Law and embodied in the Torah—the teaching given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai and sometimes understood to be summarized by the Decalogue (Biblical Hebrew עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ʿĂsereṯ haDəḇārīm, lit.

The tannaitic sage Hillel the Elder taught that the Law could be further compressed into the single maxim popularly known as the Golden Rule: "That which is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow".

[22] In Judaism, salvation is closely related to the idea of redemption, or rescue from the states and circumstances that destroy the value of human existence.

In the mystery religions, salvation was less worldly and communal, and more a mystical belief concerned with the continued survival of the individual soul after death.

One view[citation needed] is that early Christianity borrowed these myths and motifs from contemporary Hellenistic mystery religions, which possessed ideas such as life-death-rebirth deities and sexual relations between gods and human beings.

While Christ myth theory is not accepted by mainstream historians, proponents attempt to establish causal connections to the cults of Mithras, Dionysus, and Osiris among others.