How were people like Buddha able to achieve perfect happiness without God?

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Can someone explain to me this:

Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for. - CCC 27

Yet there are religions like Buddhism where people say they have attained a transcendent permanent peace and happiness without God. They claim the search to end suffering and achieve eternal bliss is over. Buddha never relied on God to achieve ‘Nirvana’. Those who reach this do so without a search of God. They actually claim they find out there is no Almighty God.

Does the CCC teach a falsehood here?
 
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Just because another religion claims to have the ability to bring you “true happiness” doesn’t make it so. One can’t find it without God, as we’ll all learn at our particular judgement.
 
I mean true, if they are lying.

But if we give them the benefit of the doubt when they say they are perfectly happy and no longer suffer, isn’t this admittedly problematic for the CCC 27 passage above?
 
Other religions can help you be happy. And some non Christians do have a relationship with God, just not our notion of God. Like Muslims believe in the abrahamic God and worship Him. They just don’t have the right notion of God. Buddhists can be happy people. Some are happier than Catholics!

We have the fullness of the faith and the fullness of the truth. The real truth. Other religions do contain truth but maybe not the fullness. After all, we all can see nature and know of natural law.

Bokbok
 
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CatholicHere_Hi said:
I mean true, if they are lying.

But if we give them the benefit of the doubt when they say they are perfectly happy and no longer suffer, isn’t this admittedly problematic for the CCC 27 passage above?
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We can’t afford them the benefit of the doubt. True happiness is only found with God, and can only be fully realized in Heaven. Maybe those claiming to have “reached Nirvana” aren’t lying, but they are certainly disillusioned.
 
Thom18 said:
We can’t afford them the benefit of the doubt. True happiness is only found with God, and can only be fully realized in Heaven. Maybe those claiming to have “reached Nirvana” aren’t lying, but they are certainly disillusioned
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I guess what I was trying to ask that the CCC says “truth and happiness he never stops searching for”, yet these people feel and say they have found what they are searching for. They say they are perfectly fulfilled and omniscient.

Is true happiness an objective thing that isn’t based on what one thinks/feels they have? For example, one may truly believe that they are perfectly happy, but if they reach Heaven (or Hell), they will be sadly mistaken and realize their fault?
 
This was a thread I posted earlier in the Apologetics section, but I think it might be more fitting here

Can someone explain to me this:

Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for. - CCC 27

Yet there are religions like Buddhism where people say they have attained a transcendent permanent peace and happiness without God. They claim the search to end suffering and achieve eternal bliss is over. They’ve claimed to have found all of the answers. Buddha said he never relied on God to achieve ‘Nirvana’. Those who reach this do so without a search of God. They actually claim they find out there is no Almighty God.

Does the CCC teach a falsehood here?
 
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Your question seems to be in two parts.

How do non-Christians find happiness and peace?

I am happy with my family and children and work. I travel and enjoy as much of every day as I can. As an atheist my truth is there is only one life and I do my best to make the most of it for me and my family. I get joy from contributing to my community and being connected to friends. It’s not that hard - most of humanity finds joy in eachother, fewer and fewer are true believers. I’m fine with death being an end of the journey - I would not want life eternal even if offered. Eternity is a very long time… the ancients taught that mortal life was superior to the immortal because our actions mattered and I agree.

True happiness?

This is a philosophical question… life, liberty and the PERSUT of happiness is the foundation of classical liberal thought. The idea is that no one can have true happiness but we all can pursue happiness in our lives. We all have the individual freedom to decide what form happyness takes.
 
CatholicHere_Hi said:
Does the CCC teach a falsehood here?
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Why do you assume it’s the Church teaching falsehood?
 
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Have you considered that the Buddhists are wrong?
 
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As I said in the other thread, they can claim that they’ve achieved perfect happiness, but that is only because they have not experienced the beatific vision.
 
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0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
Why do you assume it’s the Church teaching falsehood?
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semper_catholicus said:
Have you considered that the Buddhists are wrong?
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Well if the person really believes they are perfectly happy and have no more desire to search for it, wouldn’t that mean that this kind of happiness can be achieved.

Now their source of happiness (nirvana, no God, non-self, end of rebirth, etc) is erroneous, but subjectively they are perfectly happy.
 
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Thom18 said:
As I said in the other thread, they can claim that they’ve achieved perfect happiness, but that is only because they have not experienced the beatific vision.
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OK. That brings up a point I was wondering about.

Is perfect happiness objective and one can subjectively believe they have it when they actually don’t?

I always thought happiness was a subjective thing.
 
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No, since perfect happiness is not something subjective.
 
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Being happy in this world isn’t particularly related to your level of communion with God. If you had to find the truth of God in order to experience great happiness, then everybody would be spending a lot of time looking for God and building the relationship with God. For many if not most people, happiness on earth comes from some other source, like their families, their work, etc. They don’t feel a need to go looking for God if they’re happy with their spouse and kids and their level of achievement in life, etc.

And some of the saints who had the closest relationships with God had miserable lives on earth that they had to overcome over time. They didn’t just go through their days of dealing with serious illnesses, pain, miserable family situations, loss of loved ones, and even just having to put up with other people who annoyed them, in a constant fog of happiness due to being so close to God. If they eventually found some happiness and peace in God, it was because they spent years working at that. Some of them were never really happy until death.

I don’t think we really know what “perfect happiness” is when we are on earth to be honest. Whatever level of joy or peace we can attain, it’s likely that could always be improved upon, and if we haven’t experienced a higher level we have nothing to compare it to. It’s not like we can plug into a meter that will light up an LED when we achieve “Perfect” happiness.

My guess is that Buddha learned to become so calm and detached from stuff that might otherwise agitate or trouble him, that he was imperturbable and therefore in a state of earthly happiness and peace.
 
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Yes.
‘Even if you possessed all created things you could not be happy and blessed; for in God, Who
created all these things, your whole blessedness and happiness consists—not indeed such happiness
as is seen and praised by lovers of the world, but such as that for which the good and faithful servants
of Christ wait, and of which the spiritual and pure of heart, whose conversation is in heaven,
sometimes have a foretaste.’ - The Imitation of Christ
 
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People can be very happy and assume it’s true happiness. How can anyone know what true happiness is? Buddhists may claim they are truly happy but how are they to know there is no happiness better? To them they believe they are fully happy but this isn’t as happy as they could be with Christ Jesus
 
@semper_catholicus You should not compare an atheistic religion with a true religion. Buddhism is atheistic religion. It would be comparing oranges with apples and then complained later why the apples does not tastes like oranges.
 
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“Happiness” means different things to different people. If someone says they are happy, I choose to not second-guess them.
 
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