Buddhist and Christian Prayer: A Comparison in Practice and Purpose
At first glance the traditions of Christianity and Buddhism appear very different from each other. One centers around a God that was at one time physically manifest on earth in the human form of his "son" Jesus Christ, the other primarily worships a historical figure that gained divine status through enlightenment. This assessment is broad at best, especially in the case of Buddhism where the Theravada and Mahayana traditions differ significantly. Christianity also has division within itself, the most prominent being between the Roman Catholic and Protestant systems. There are however, despite obvious differences, some very interesting similarities between Buddhism and Christianity, especially regarding prayer and worship, which fall into the "ritual dimension" of Ninian Smart's analytical model (Smart). The purpose of this paper is to argue that Buddhism, particularly the Mahayana and Pure Land forms, and Christianity particularly Roman Catholicism are extremely similar regarding the practice and purpose of prayer. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines prayer as follows; "act of communication by humans with the sacred or holy God, gods, transcendent realm, or supernatural. Found in all religions at all times, prayer may be a corporate or personal act utilizing various forms or techniques" (Prayer, Britannica). This definition is the one that was kept in mind in the composition of this paper as it allows for a wide range of practices to be interpreted as prayer. For instance the Buddhist practice of meditation fits the above definition. This paper will explore the practice of performing prayer and worship as well as the purpose of it in the traditions in questi...
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This paper will explore the question of how to understand the nature of perceived ultimateity in Zen Buddhism. This will be achieved through providing a justification for why this question should be of any interest and then hypothesizing about possible implications of the results. Next, the framework that is to be used in categorizing the core beliefs in Zen will be explained and made clear. After this description is complete, the author will proceed to fit Zen Buddhism into this framework and will demonstrate that the Zen religion is no exception to the employed framework. Finally, the author will describe the perceived ultimacy of Zen Buddhism.
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In terms, explore on religious meditation between Christianity and Buddhism. It published in 2000 and 2007, according to Alvin Mitchell, meditation without identifying the meaning of the modern can lead to narcissistic escapism, without compassion meditation to act without direction, and to the world. He explains how to work with the lives and spiritual growth of each religious tradition and those based on it. His subjects are good and the Gospels, Buddha taught the four considerations, training and include three positive actions of body, speech, tolerance, four positive act of wisdom (Reference and Research Book News 2009). Meditation and many spiritual, mental and physical exercise, but with roots in religious traditions, Christianity, Hinduism,
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A comparative analysis of salvation in Christianity and Buddhism exposes stark contrasts between the grace of Jesus Christ and the self-saving action and enlightenment of Buddha. I attempt to compare the Christian and Buddhist concepts of salvation in this essay to emphasise on the significance of each founder's roles in salvation, and to extract similarities and differences between them both.
Since the 1970’s, non-Christian religions have had an increasing popularity particularly through Buddhism. Between the years 2006 and 2011, there has been an increase of more than 100,000 people nominating themsleves as Buddhist’s.