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Buddhism And The Middle Path

Decent Essays

Buddhism is one of the world’s most diverse religions, and means religion of enlightenment. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, who became a Buddha. This term Buddha refers to Siddhartha Gautama after his enlightenment. Buddhist believe that Siddhartha Gautama discovered the middle path, “a style of life between extreme self – denial and ordinary life, which can lead to enlightenment.” Buddhism, being founded on the life of Siddhartha Gautama, his life if known through scriptures. They were written hundreds of years after his death. These scriptures describe having four key elements in Buddhist life: birth, enlightenment, first sermon, and death.” (112-114). While Hinduism on the other hand has no founder and has little unity. They do not have any core beliefs, or a common scripture to follow. Hindus will often control their bodies to pursue a spiritual reality seeking liberation from the endless cycle of rebirth (64). These religions have many differences from the way they believe in karma to the way rituals, worship, the way funerals are done, to their beliefs in god however, they do have some similarities including the reasons for meditation and yoga, and their practices in their temples. Both Buddhism and Hinduism believe in dharma and karma, however the way they view karma is different. Dharma is the law and duty of teachings, which they both believe. With Buddhist, karma is the “cause and effect of actions done by sentient beings.” They believe that those

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