Buddhism Religious Tradition

Hinduism is a major religious and cultural tradition of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a diverse family of devotional and ascetic cults and philosophical schools, all sharing a belief in reincarnation and involving the worship of a large pantheon of deities.

For marriages, the men get to choose the woman, but the woman must approve of the wedding or the men must find another woman. The men then shows to the woman’s father his skill, whether archer or warrior. If the father approves, the man and woman exchange gifts and horses and are pronounced married. Then the married couple make a tipi of their own near or with the husband’s family.

A traditional ceremony consists of feeding friends and visitors attending, the wedding ceremony would take place in the hogan with the groom and his father or uncle sitting on the west side followed by the bride and her father or uncle. Sitting beside the boy on his right side they would be positioned towards the east which was facing the door. Starting with the girl she would pour water onto the boy’s hands and he would wash them, then he would do the same to her washing her hands, this symbolized purity and cleansing. A medicine man would then pray quietly while arranging a corn meal mush decorated with pollen, they would then take turns eating the mush starting with the boy followed by the girl. Usually they were instructed to eat it all, but if it was not all eaten it would be passed to each of the boys family members so they could have a bite. Once the mush was eaten the mother of the boy would keep the basket where the mush had been and preserve it at all times, this was important to a successful marriage. Traditional weddings were held at night, but modern traditions allow them to be held in the daytime, and because of this some believe it is the reason for divorce and family problems. Once the wedding ceremony was over the couple would stay in the hogan while family and friends went home. Traditional Navajo

There are many different religions with many different beliefs, traditions, practices, and rituals. These differences are a very important part of understanding and appreciating the culture and history behind the specific religion. However, the practices that certain religions have in common can aid even more in furthering the understanding of specific beliefs of other religions. Since most religions cultivate from the practices and beliefs of other religions, they use those core values and beliefs and transform them into what they believe is a better way practicing. Religions use similarities within each other and twist them into their own. There are certain beliefs within every religion that shape their practices such as their morals or their most essential or absolute value, their position on human beings’ problems and solutions, and their view on life and death within their religion. Pure Land Buddhism (a form of Mahayana Buddhism) and Vaishnavites (a group within Hinduism) are great examples of this very concept.

Hinduism is the name given to a family of religions and cultures that began and still flourish in India. The word “Hindu,” comes from the name of the river Indus, which flows from Tibet through Kashmir and Pakistan to the sea. It originally referred to the people living in that particular region of the world, regardless of their faith. Hinduism has no original founder and is one of the world’s largest religions following Christianity and Islam, with approximately a billion adherents. Hinduism is henotheistic, which is the devotion to a single god while accepting the existence of other gods. Their god is present in everything, and they believe that their soul repeatedly goes through a cycle of being born into a body, dying, and then becoming reborn into another body, whether it is human, animal or spirit. Hindu’s also strongly believe in karma, which is a force that determines the quality of each life, depending on how well one behaved in a past life. Hindu’s do not separate religion from other aspects of their life. Hinduism in India dictates Hindu’s lives in that it involves a caste system which controls their position in society, assists them in earning a living, helps manage how they raise their a family and controls their diets. Hindu’s believe that freedom or liberation is the true goal in life. True freedom is the freedom from all external conditioning influences, whether of body or mind. This is the freedom of Self-realization,

Buddhism is one of the major religions with an intricate history of system and beliefs. Siddhartha Gautama also known as Buddha “the awakened one”, the founder and leader of the Buddhism, lived from the periods of 566 BC to 480 BC (Buswell). Siddhartha Gautama was an Indian warrior king’s son so he lived a lavish life as he was the prince of the warrior caste. He got bored of his extravagant life as he lived on and went into the world to search and explore it for understanding. He wondered what happened outside of the palace and he finally got permission to explore the life of others outside the palace. His father, Shuddodana Gautama, believed that his son should not see the life of the poor and suffers of the people because he didn’t want Siddhartha to lead a religious life, therefore, only the healthy and well looking people got to meet and greet the prince. However, he still faced the truth as he chased some old men who accidently went into the parade that he saw. He came across sick people, an ascetic, and a monk as he was greatly surprised to see such people existed. He found out about death and how one can die. After meeting the monk, Siddhartha said, “When ignorant people see someone who is old, they are disgusted and horrified, even though they too will be old someday. I thought to myself: I don’t want to be like the ignorant people. After that, I couldn’t feel the usual intoxication with youth anymore (Boeree).” Soon after he saw the sufferings of the world, he

No one saves us but our self. No one can and no one may. We ourself must walk the path.-Buddha Buddhism is one of few religions that do not worship a God. Instead, the meaning of their religion is to have nirvana. Since there is no God in their religion the religion is formed around the idea that once you reach enlightenment you will no longer be stuck in reincarnation. I will go over the origin, afterlife, and the religion's rituals.

If they were to meet each other without the parent’s permission, it is considered as bad manner and bad upbringing. In India, the average age to marry is 24 years old for the males and 22 to 23 years old for the females. Indian weddings are usually the longest wedding, which are held in the night time in a huge wedding hall, that includes many different rituals which are performed in front of the God and the couple promise’s each other that they will be together in a sad or a happy moment, no matter what will be the results. Even though wedding has the same meaning in every culture, the way of celebration and ceremony is different. According to iloveindia.com, the ceremony in India is about the priest, groom, bride, and bride’s parents sit beneath a mandap, and a canopy. The wedding ceremony starts off with the Kanya Daan, in which the bride’s parents give away the bride’s hand to the groom with all her responsibility. Then the couple holds hands together and start circling around a small, enclosed fire in a ritual called the mangal phera for seven times by taking a seven oaths together to spend a rest of the life to live as a one soul. The seven steps around the enclosed fire, is the vow to support each other and live happily together. Finally, the groom will apply a red powder to the center of the bride’s forehead and tie a black beaded necklace around her neck, symbolizing

The ritual I picked is the Indian wedding ceremony the ritual object is the flower garland necklace. In a South Indian Hindu wedding, the exchange of floral garland between the bride and groom is a very important part of the ceremony. This Jai mala ritual shows the bonds between the two families and symbolizes the love and sacredness of a marital bond.

The very faithful Indian practice consists of very involved puja involving prostration and meditation. Open to any belief in a God, Hindus can be monotheistic, polytheistic, agnostic, etc. Unlike Christianity, Hinduism does not consist of worshiping a supreme God nor do they have a holy book. As matter of fact, it follows four main goals and beliefs, which address both ethical and personal practices in a more philosophical than theological way. The four main practices consist of goals that deal with the personal journey toward liberation; those golas are Dharma (ethics/duties), Kama (desires/passion), Artha (prosperity/work), and Moksha, which has in its main objective the ideas of liberation, freedom, and salvation via reincarnation. In order to reach Moksha, Hindus believe they must live a successful life full of prostration as it develops them into higher

In 624 BC, a prince was born in Lumbini, which used to be in the northern part of India, but is now part of Nepal. The prince was named Buddha Shakyamuni. By the age of twenty-nine Buddha decided to live a life of meditation, where he found awareness under the Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya, India. After his meditation, Buddha decided to teach and in all Buddha has taught approximately eighty thousand teachings. In these teachings, Buddha taught the first Wheel of Dharma which included the Four Noble Truths.

Buddhism, is a religion with a more concentrated population of followers in the far east. There are many practices and beliefs that are of great relevance to western society. Three of these beliefs and practices are; the Buddhist views on women and children, meditation, and Dana. There are central Buddhist beliefs and practices that can help rectify some of the great issues we are plagued with in the western world.

The nature of modern society continually grows through the adversities presented throughout life, calling for moral and spiritual guidance. Buddhism as a non-theistic religion presents a passive philosophy that systematically alleviates the central belief of dukkha(suffering) and release from Samsara(cycle of rebirth). In relations to the quotations, Buddhaghosa of the Theravada variant and Dogen of the Zen buddhists address the attainment of enlightenment through living the Buddhist teachings and meditation. Similarly, the XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism(Mahayana), stresses ‘peace in the soul’ for the path to Nirvana that is attained by harmony between others and inner peace by the practice of Buddhist teachings such as the Eightfold

Ever since December of 2015, I became interested in the religion of Buddhism. After I watched Oprah Winfrey’s television series, Belief Buddhism has become something I wished to look into on a deeper level. Therefore, On October 9, 2016, I visited Wesleyan college East Asian studies facilities to participate in their Sunday meeting of Practice and Talk. During this hour and a half meeting, individuals who are exploring Buddhism will learn the surface practice of Buddhism more specifically shin Buddhism. Shin Buddhism or the teachings of Shinran (1173-1262), teaches us the importance of humility, the most important universal virtue. Many people think that the ultimate goal in Buddhism as well as human life is to become good. But according to Shinran, it is to become humble.

Marriage is a significant social event in contemporary society. It is a means of building new bonds between two individuals and their subsequent families. The foundations of memorable weddings are built on those that bring often-distant family and friends together for the occasion, while dressed in their most sophisticated attire, surrounded by elegant flowers, a night of dancing, captured through the lens of an exceptional photographer. Although Hinduism and Islam are two extremely distinctive religions, their matrimonial customs do share some comparable elements, like most other cultural wedding ceremonies. In both religions, they are devotedly obedient concerning religious and cultural practices in their marital ceremonies.