Abstract

This article explores the different ways in which suffering is represented iconographically in Christianity and in Buddhism. The disparate images of Christ nailed to a cross and Buddha sitting serenely under a tree suggest diametrically opposed attitudes toward the role of suffering in religion. In line with the suggestion posed by a Tibetan lama to the author, this article seeks to demonstrate that these various approaches to suffering—seeking redemption through suffering versus transcendence of suffering—are at a deeper level not in actuality different. This rapprochement is achieved through appealing to Jungian and post-Jungian theories in situating Christ and Buddha within a singular process of psychospiritual transformation