To cross it we must bury in its depths all we know as ourselves.
Christianity is a personal religion; Buddhism, an impersonal one.

In this fundamental difference lies the world-wide opposition of the two beliefs.

Christianity tells us to purify ourselves that we may enjoy countless aeons of that bettered self hereafter; Buddhism would have us purify ourselves that we may lose all sense of self for evermore.
For all that it preaches the essential vileness of the natural man, Christianity is a gospel of optimism.

While it affirms that at present you are bad, it also affirms that this depravity is no intrinsic part of yourself.

It unquestioningly asserts that it is something foreign to your true being.