Difference Hinduism And Buddhism Essay Example For Students

Difference Hinduism And Buddhism Essay Religion, what is religion? Religion is a way of life, a life style, it shoulddictate how you live your life. However why follow a religious belief, to go toheaven, avoid the condemnation to hell, to live forever? We in western societyconsider ourselves a not so religious society, we say I am Christianor I am Jew or I am an Atheist I dont believe. Keep inmind religion is a life style, it should dictate how you live your life. Sadlyin western society, money and our compulsive cravings for material objectsdictate our life. We are far from the highly evolved forms of religions ofHinduism and Buddhism over in the east. What are these religions? Buddhism isoffshoot/reform of Hinduism. They are looked at in the same way as Judaism andChristianity are looked at (very far apart). Through this essay, I will prove by using some of their differences as similarities that they are very much if not essentially the same alike. As an off shoot of Hinduism, Buddhismaccepted the notions of karma, dh arma, samsara, and moksha. It differed in itsunderstanding ot these terms and how to achieve spiritual liberation. AsBuddhism spread through south and east Asia, these differences becamegreater. Samsara, the upholstered hell , it is known inHinduism as the endless cycle of death and rebirth, and Moksha being the supremeenlightenment, the realization of Atman the ones true self, and the liberationfrom samsara. Despite the fact that Moksha means Something different inBuddhism, words are meaningless but their meanings arent. Explanation:The ultimate goal of the Buddhist path is release from the round ofphenomenal existence with its inherent suffering. To achieve this goal is toattain nirvana an enlightened state in which the fires of greed, hatred, andignorance have been quenched. This is the essence of both religions,freedom from the ignorance of what I call Blam. The central coreof Buddhist teachings is the Four Noble Truths, which are: 1. All life issuffering and pain. This is more than a mere recognition of the presence ofsuffering in existence. It is a statement that, in its very nature, humanexistence is essentially painful from the moment of birth to the moment ofdeath. Even death brings no relief. 1. Desire is the root of suffering. People become attached to relationships or things they have, and sufferwhen they experience their impermanence. This impermanence leads todisappointment, which in turn leads to new cravings. My interpretation ofthis Noble Truth is that we suffer not because we desire but because we desirethe wrong things. Meaning that what we should desire is enlightenment. 2. Suffering and desire can be extinguished with enlightenment. The nobletruth of cessation of suffering is this: It is the complete cessation of thatvery thirst , giving it up, renouncing it, emancipating oneself from itdetaching oneself from it. 3. The way to enlightenment is to follow the NobleEightfold Path. The Noble Truth of the path leading to the cessation ofsuffering is this: it is simply the Noble Eightfold path, namely right view;right thought; right speech; right action; right livelihood; right effort; rightmindfulness; right concentration. These concepts are nothing pertaining toBuddhism alone, maybe they havent listed and categorized as four noble truthsbut all the ideas are encompassed in Hinduisms philosophy. Buddhismanalyzes human existence as made up of five aggregates or bundles (skandhas):the material body, feelings, perceptions, predispositions or karmic tendencies,and consciousness. A person is only a temporary combination of these aggregates,which are subject to c ontinual change. No one remains the same for any twoconsecutive moments. Buddhists deny that the aggregates individually or incombination may be considered a permanent, independently existing self or soul(atman). Indeed, they regard it as a mistake to conceive of any lasting unitybehind the elements that constitute an individual. The Buddha held that beliefin such a self results in egoism, craving, and hence in suffering. Thus hetaught the doctrine of anatman, or the denial of a permanent soul. He felt thatall existence is characterized by the three marks of anatman (no soul), anitya(impermanence), and dukkha (suffering). The doctrine of anatman made itnecessary for the Buddha to reinterpret the Indian idea of repeated rebirth inthe cycle of phenomenal existence known as samsara. Atman: the onestrue self, the individual self, held by upanisic and Vedatin thought to beidentical to Brahman, the