Buddhism : The Major Religions Of The World

Whenever I thought of Buddhist I saw bald men or women with orange robes, white socks, and brown sandals. Obviously, not the older woman with gray hair that was now facing me and the other twenty congregants in the meditation room. She was obviously the leader.

Buddhism has been around for over two thousand years, and continues to do so in many countries around the world. This religion originates in Asia and has a very unique adversity, much of its structure arose from the end of World War II, predominantly Asian nations needed to restructure society (RoAT 167). The word ‘Buddha’ means one who has awakened and will no longer be reborn. Thereafter, one who will enter nirvana, the state of being free from suffering.

Buddhism is a world religion based on the teachings of the "Buddha," which means "The Enlightened One" or "The Awakened One" (Smith and Novak 4). Buddhism is usually associated with India and Nepal, though it has spread worldwide (Powers 12). It is difficult to trace all Buddhist beliefs back to their original sources because nothing was written about the religion until nearly 150 years after it began (Smith and Novak 50). As Buddhism evolved, its believers split into different factions, for example: Theravadinism, which believes that the Buddha was a great sage but stopped influence the world when he died/entered nirvana (Smith and Novak 68-9); and Mahayanism, which believes that the Buddha is a savior of the world who keeps drawing people to himself even now (Smith and Novak 70). Furthermore, as Buddhism spread, it evolved into different types of Buddhism, such as Vajrayana,

Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world, with more than 5 million believers in the world. Buddhism is a kind of religion and law that contains various traditions, beliefs, and spiritual practices. Buddhism from India, between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, and gradually spread to Asia. Although Buddhism originated in India, China has many believers in the dissemination and contribution. Chinese Buddhism began in the Han Dynasty and became the most powerful in the Tang Dynasty. With the development of society, Buddhism in the people also come into contact with the telephone, computer, and other new technologies. However, monks with real power are still practicing their bodies in primitive ways. For an ancient religion, Buddhism has a lot of things that people know and people do not know. Buddhism can help people to better discover the power of the human body. In addition, people need to understand the history of Buddhism and the main ideas to help them learn Buddhism.

Buddhism, Christianity, and the Prospects for World Religion: Criticism on Dalai Lama’s Interview by Jose Ignacio Cabezon

Introduction: Hinduism is the “oldest organized religion” in the world (Chackal Hinduism 1). It began in the Indus Valley in 1500 BCE. There are four main braches of Hinduism: Shaivites, Vaishnavites, Shaktas, and Smarthas. Buddhism was born out of Hinduism in the fourth century BCE. There are two main types of Buddhism: Theravada and Mahayana.

Buddhism is considered to be one of the largest religions in the world. The religion of Buddhism and its followers originally began in India and Asia, however Buddhism along with other religions, continue to expand to every corner of the world. Around the late 6th century, the start of the Buddhism religion was created by a man with the name, Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha Gautama was born in a wealthy family where he lived in a palace with little exposure to the outside world. Getting married at the age of 16, Siddhartha Gautama barely got a chance to experience anything, however one day Siddhartha Gautama wandered beyond the palace he lived in.

Albert Einstein once said, “the religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal god, avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.”# Many great minds like Albert Einstein have converted or become Buddhists. Many people from the west are turning their attention towards Buddhism because of the Buddha’s simple way to life and the lack of worship or prayer to a divine being.

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.

The authors concern the declination of religion is the various critical properties of today world belief. The religious feature begins to advance classic acknowledgement, diplomatic, and society perimeters. Majority of religions discovers the supporters of religions comprise powerful mentality and fellowship in the locations of traditional popularity. A definite individual is regularly the concern of selection of the religion, regardless the affiliation in knowledgeable custom (Ulamov, et al., p.15,

In the Buddhist religion there are many concepts that make it interesting to the world. Throughout the many practices that Buddhism contains are strings of knowledge that can only expand the world’s view on it. Some of the notions that Buddhism stresses are merit, rebirth, social status, and power. Each of these notions connects crucial points in one another as well as ritual practices that Buddhists abide by in order to be on the path to enlightenment. Such practices include the Kathina Ceremony that focuses on merit and the story of Prince Vessantara that focuses on generosity in relation to rebirth and merit. Also the consecration ceremony of the Buddha’s image which focuses on power, and social status which is explained by Burmese Buddhist

In summary Buddhism is a distinct unique religion,beliefs, rituals and practices because of various concepts that can be found in buddhism. To illustrate my point there is the general fact that the Buddhist universe is different from other religions, another bit of information is that Buddhism has a “No saviour” & a ‘No holy war” concept to coincide with this information it is also known that Buddhism isn't a religion in concept and teaches within buddhsim can still be in exsitance even without a spirtuial figure such as Dharma, in an additional analysis of buddhism the concept of hell in Buddhism is different amongst other religions the final analysis of buddhism rains upon the fact tradition and pratice

However, regarding the history of Buddhism in Asia, the fact that there are sometimes differences in the appearances of people and events of as much as two hundred years suggests that what is more important are the ideas and philosophies of Buddhism rather than the precise historical accounts. Buddhism transcends ages and cultures in Asia. In fact, this must be its point of power because Buddhism has managed to transcend politics and ideology, and escape the wrath of politics and politicians. This is the essential summary of ideas taken from De Bary’s (2008) discussion of “The Meditation School” referring to Chan/Zen Buddhism (pp. 270-279).

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.

Buddhism is one of the largest religions in the world that started in India. Later spreading to China,Burma,Japan , Tibet and other parts of southeast Asia. Buddhism is a religion that