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Differences and similarities of Buddhism and Hinduism
meditation research essay
Differences and similarities of Buddhism and Hinduism
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Buddhism and Hinduism are two of the most well known religions around the world. Along with Christianity, Islam and Sikhism; Buddhism and Hinduism are among the top five religions worldwide. Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), who was born a Hindu. He attained Nirvana at thirty six years of age and was no longer a Hindu follower. Hinduism's is believed to of begun around 4000 BCE, a religion combined of few other religions combined with many laws and ways of living. While Buddhism and Hinduism teach similar principles, the path they use to teach these principles are different.
The founder of Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama. He lived from 565 to 483 B.C. In 563 B.C. there were no worshiped gods in Buddhism. Gautama, being raised a Hindu, still believed in certain Hindu ideas. Because he rejected the caste system, he kept the ideas of meditation, and the doing good works to reach enlightenment.
Buddhism was formed as a result of the decline of Hinduism. Hinduism was complex in many different ways including their rituals and daily lifestyle. Gautama became tired of it and went his separate way, and started a new lifestyle in hope others would follow.
All Buddhist final and ultimate goals are to reach Nirvana. Nirvana is a state of being perfect, ending the process of reincarnation and beginning re-birth. There is a significant difference in the way Buddhist and Hindus view re-birth. The Buddhist believe in re-birth meaning that neither the soul nor the person gets transferred, while Hindus believe in reincarnation where the soul would travel from one body to another (the same person but in different bodies). However both believe in Samsara along with their views on suffering and that everyone will even...
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... governing different aspects of Hindu everyday life. The three main gods in Hinduism are Vishnu who is the sustainer; Brahma is the creator and Shiva the destroyer. The Hindus pray to natural sources such as the sun and trees, while Buddhists only pray to Buddha.
Today there are an estimated six hundred million Buddhists and about eight hundred twenty-eight million practicing Hinduism. Both believe in an ultimate spiritual reality beyond the physical world, both practice meditation and other forms of yoga and both these religions originated in India. Although there are many similarities between Buddhism and Hinduism they both have fair differences. The small differences have a huge impact on the two religions, because they are altogether two separate beliefs. They share a special history with each other, which is to be expected since they are from the same region.
Buddhism, founded by Buddha, was a religion based on staying on the right path and doing what is right to achieve nirvana. In Buddhism, there were two paths that people should not follow and there was a middle path discovered by the Perfect One that people should follow in life (Doc 4). Hinduism, which branched off of Buddhism, an intricate religion with one idea on what to do to achieve happiness. It also has the concept of Karma, which is the sum of a person’s good and bad deeds in life (Doc 1).
Christianity believes in one God, which exists in three person; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Mankind was created to have relationship with God. Faith and believe in Jesus can save individual from happening sin and eternal death. Buddhism is a religion that does not include the idea of worshipping a creator god. Buddhism believes in path of practice and spiritual development direct to insight into the actual nature of reality. According to Buddhism nothing is eternal, every action have results and change is possible. Practicing meditation helps change in individual life and develops qualities of awareness, kindness and wisdom.
There are many religions that are practiced around the world, especially in Asia where there are eight different religions being practiced. In the country of India, Buddhism and Hinduism are the main religions that are practiced today. Buddhism and Hinduism were both founded in Asia, but they were founded by two different people and practiced in two different ways and languages. Buddhism is a living tradition that is passed down from teacher to student as a set of instruction and techniques for sanity and brilliance in the inner self and the world. Hinduism is more based on the thoughts and attitude about one’s everyday life, and reflects in his actions.
Buddhism is a religion that was created after Buddha, whose real name is Siddharta Gautama. According to an introductory article on Buddhism by Stanford University, it is estimated that Buddha was born “around 490 B.C.E in the foothills of the Himalayas” (Introduction to Buddhism, 2007). Although, nobody is able to accurately pinpoint the origins of Buddhism as a religion, many believe that it originated in the Northern parts of India.
“Buddhism is the oldest worldwide religion. It is known to be a religion, a philosophy and a way of life.” The main idea, foundation and fundamentals of Buddhism were born 2,500 years ago in the foothills of India. Siddhartha Gautama was born into a royal family and raised as a prince in the Gupta period. He was always confined to the palace and was sheltered from the real world. As time went on, Siddhartha wanted to find out the meaning of life and his experiences through his journey created the practice of Buddhism. His first teaching as a Buddha was based on the doctrine of the four noble truths and along with the principle of the middle way, the eight fold path. Through oral tra...
Hinduism and Buddhism have different similarities and are in some ways connected to each other. Some of the practices of the two religions are similar in various ways and there are several examples to show this.
Into the world, many religions were born; out of all of them Buddhism and Hinduism are both one of the oldest surviving religion. Hinduism is very polytheistic, it is believed to have been established around 1500 B.C but it has no founder or an origin, while Buddhism on the other hand was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, who ordinarily allotted as the Buddha, which implies the “Awakened or “illuminated one”. Both religions come from the Indian roots.
Both Buddhism and Hinduism are well known religions. They are two of the most popular polytheistic faiths in the world. Some people believe them to be sects of the same religion, but they are mistaken. Buddhism and Hinduism have some similarities, but many things set them apart from each other as well. They are each their own religion in many aspects.
According to the BBC article Buddhism at a glance, the religion, Buddhism is based on the teaching of Siddhartha Gautama or more commonly Buddha. However, when reading this article it’s evident that Buddhism shares a lot of similarities with Hinduism but at the same time it differs. For Instance, both religions stem from similar cultural belief and backgrounds, both religions practice meditation which they believe is the path for their salvation, for Buddhists it’s the desire to attain Nirvana which is the state of liberation and freedom from suffering and for the Hindus is to reach their God. Both Hindu and Buddhist believe in reincarnation, they believe the good deeds of a person are their work for salvation and their salvation will
Hinduism is the 3rd most popular religion in the world followed by Buddhism, together they are followed by 22 percent of the world’s population. These two religions are alike in many ways, and are tied together by Asia, where they have deep roots in its culture and history. Although Hinduism and Buddhism are similar in many ways, very important and large differences separate the two. No one and nothing can ever truly prove either religion is better than the other because that is up to personal beliefs and opinions, but many more people around the world prefer Buddhism over Hinduism because of its beliefs and practices.
Buddhism is one of the oldest religions in the world, which began in India. The origin of Buddhism is traced back to the experience of single man, Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha. Born around 563 B.C.E., legend follows that Siddhartha was the son of a prince in a kingdom near the border of what is now India and Nepal. As such, he was sheltered from the world and lived a life of luxury and comfort. (Molloy 124) However, at age 29 Siddhartha left the royal grounds and witnessed the suffering of ordinary life for the first time. What he saw deeply affected him and caused him to question everything in his materialistic life. Siddhartha made the decision to give up his possessions and embark on a search for enlightenment, an event known as the Great Going Forth. (Molloy 125)
Hinduism greatly influenced Buddhism, especially at its beginning, and the two have always maintained a similar viewpoint. They are not exactly the same, but they exist within the same family. They have influenced many people’s views on what the purpose of life is for millenniums, and probably will continue to do so. Both Hinduism and Buddhism hold the basic idea that life is full of suffering, and enlightenment must be reached in order to break free from the horrific cycle of re-incarnation; however it is clear that the two do not agree on how re-incarnation works, how one should live their life in order to achieve this goal, or even the definition of true
Siddhartha Gautama is famously known as Gautama Buddha and was the founder of the idea of Buddhism. The Buddha was known to possess supernatural powers and abilities. He was born in the holy land of Nepal and his journey began in India when he decided to travel and teach himself about life. In the midst of his journey, he discovered Buddhism after he experienced a profound realization of the nature of life, death and existence. Buddhism became a religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama and since then Buddhism has been popular throughout many civilizations. Buddhism is now one of the most ancient religions in the world, where people follow Buddha, which stand for “awakened one,” and Buddhism which has gained popularity because of the teachings of the Buddha.
Both these religions have basic beliefs that are relatively different from each other. Buddhists on one hand believe in karma, rebirth, dharma and moksa. Karma is "cause, effect and the law which equilibrates the two" . It is the consequences of every action, whether good or bad. This action-reaction may take effect anytime, may be in the current life or not. Rebirth is inter-connected with karma. If one did more good things than bad in his life, his karma will lead him to a life of better condition than the previous one. Dharma is the basic concept of the religion; that is the Buddhist teaching, also meaning the nature of existence. Lastly, moksa refers to the renunciation of the world, which is parallel to the Hindu belief in the importance of asceticism and meditation .
Hinduism, Buddhism and Shinto, while vast in differences there is much to learn about these three religions similarities as well. Some facts and history of Hinduism include, Hinduism (being the oldest of the three) is dated back in pre-history before 10000 BC even believed to predate the Indus River Valley Civilization! The Vedas (the holy text of Hinduism) is the foundation for Indian culture and also the basic belief system of Hinduism. The basic belief structure of Hinduism is as follows, the three doctrines; Samsara (1) which means “successive rebirths” indicating the belief in reincarnation started by ATMA or the spark of life given by the god Brahma. This cycle continues until the soul collects enough good Karma (2) to break from the cycle of samsara and achieve Moksha (3) which is when the soul can finally reunite with Brahma after its final life. Hinduism is also the only religion you can NOT convert to. Therefore Hinduism believes in the cycle of reincarnation as its afterlife belief. Buddhism developed much later is highly influenced by Hinduism. The story of how Buddha became enlightened tells that Buddha was actually a Hindu prince by the name of Siddhartha. Unlike Hinduism ANYONE can become enlightened and reach Nirvana in Buddhism whereas in Hinduism traditionally only those of the Brahman cast could achieve moksha. Also in Buddhism there is no actual god originally Buddha is a state of enlightenment anyone can become the Buddha. Only later did Buddhism split into Mahayana Buddhism (which made Buddha into a deity) and Hinayana Buddhism (which stick to the traditional belief that Buddha was not divine just simply a teacher). Buddhism has a type of day to day guide to reaching enlightenment called the 8-fold path this ...