Comparing Buddha And Ashoka, Pillar Edicts

The word «Buddha», as most people know, is not a name but rather an honorific title indicating a person 's enlightenment. In its purest sense, «Buddha» translates to «the Enlightened One» or «the Awakened One». It should be recognized that the title is most commonly used in relation to Siddharta Gautama, which historically is considered the founder of Buddhism. For simplicity 's sake, this essay will stick to the title «Buddha».

Buddhism and Christianity are closely related in many unique ways. While their founders exhibit significant differences in when they began their existence in the world, their teachings hugely resemble each other. Gautama Buddha was reported to have lived about 600 or 500 before Christ was born. Buddha was born in Nepal, India while Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which is currently located in Palestine. Both Jesus and Buddha espoused altruism and always insisted in service of others. They emphasized the need for giving than receiving and both believed in love as the only tool of defeating hatred. Both teachings contained the need not to judge others. A key difference between the two was how Buddha taught followers to lose one’s self to receive Nirvana while Jesus encouraged his people to lose one’s self in order to receive an everlasting life (Talim, Jeffrey & Anant, 67). This assignment attempts to highlight the similarity between Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and Gautama Buddha’s Jataka Tales.

Just as Buddhism unified Japan during arduous times, it also helped unify India under Ashoka’s command. Ashoka fought great battles and imposed his rule on people southward along the eastern coast of India. The sufferings created by the war disturbed Ashoka and he found relief in the religion known as Buddhism. He adopted Buddhism to bring equality to all and found great comfort knowing the religion was so accepting.

When Ashoka originally became king in 273 B.C., he was just as ruthless as his grandfather. He would slay people he conquered with no mercy. However, one of his massacres took the lives of 100,000 captured people. After committing this act, he was horrified and ashamed of himself. He then vowed to follow the Buddhist teachings of “peace to al beings”.

One of Ashoka’s most convicting beliefs was the abstention of harming any living being. This is evident by his conversion to peace loving Buddhism after the gruesome Kalinga war. However, he did make it clear that if his subjects did not reform or submit to his rule, he would have to punish them

The Pillar Edicts, the stone pieces Aśoka had carved, shows how Aśoka changed his empire and changed Buddhism. By applying Buddhism to ruling an empire, he developed Buddhism to become more adaptable, but did not allow it lose its purity. The Fourth Pillar Edict, The Seventh Pillar Edict, and the Kalinga

It took him six years, but one morning Siddhartha awoke from a night of fighting an inner battle and had an “Awakening”. He began sharing his message of awakening which includes a middle path between extremes and self-denial and self-indulgence and finding truth and reality through self-introspection. His followers called him “the Buddha” which means “the Enlightened One” (Bickel and Jantz). His teachings included Four Noble Truths: Life is all about suffering, the cause of suffering is our desire and greed, there is a way to overcome our desire and greed, and lastly the path to happiness and relief of suffering is an eight step process. There are three qualities to maintain this enlightened status: wisdom, mental discipline and ethical conduct. Unlike most Western religions, there are not a lot of rules and regulations in the Buddhist religion, however there are three fundamental principles upon which the religion is based. Buddha which is the finding the path of enlightenment and teaching it to others, dharma described as the true ways of things and sangha which is a community of monks, nuns and laypeople who practice and promote the dharma. The central religious practice for Buddhists is the intense dedication to meditation. Meditation is the process of understanding the nature of reality, obtaining dharma and awakening

In chapter six the discussion was based on “Buddhahood” by Heinrich Zimmer. Heinrich Zimmer, “was born in Germany in 1890, he was famous for scholar of Indian philosophy and art” (Ciraulo 80). In this article he was explaining the basic concepts of Buddhism in the four Noble Truths. The “Prince Siddhartha Gautama was born in India in 500 B.C.E. and will forever be known as the enlightened or awakened one- the Buddha” (Ciraulo 80). Buddha’s main concern was to pass from the state of dukkha (suffering) to Nirvana, a state of deathless bliss in this world” (Ciraulo 80). The Buddha’s doctrine is called Yana.

Buddhism was brought to light about 500 BC by Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhism has not been described as a religion as such but rather as philosophy. The story of Siddhartha Gautama and how he brought Buddhism to limelight is quite moving. In this essay the thoughts of Siddhartha Gautama are explained and how the society reacted to his arguments. Generally this essay will briefly describe the achievements of Siddhartha Gautama in his quest to attain enlightenment and how that impacted the society of his time and to some extent the current society.

Ashoka did accept Buddhism, but he had other things in his kingdom.

Evidently, all of the religions in the world have different beliefs. Beliefs are the basis of one’s behaviour. Everything an individual does, traces back to the beliefs they have about the world. Hinduism and Buddhism are two religions that originated from the same nation, India. Both religions share beliefs on different paths to enlightenment, beliefs on reincarnation, and both believe in the spiritual practices of meditation. The purpose of this paper is to further discuss these beliefs, along with their similarities.

Describe the Four Noble Truths that the Buddha taught; how do these represent a reaction against the Vedic and Jain traditions? Why did Buddhism draw more devotees than Jainism.

It is said that history is shaped by the lives of great men.  Great men are leaders.  They bring about change; they improve the lives of others; they introduce new ideas, models, and theories to society.  Most of the world's religions were founded, developed, or discovered by great men.  Two particular religions - Christianity and Buddhism - developed in different parts of the world, under different circumstances, and in different social atmospheres.  But each religion is based upon the teachings of a great man.  When one compares the life of Buddha with the life of Jesus, one finds that the two share many things in common.  This essay aims to compare and contrast the lives of Buddha1 and Jesus in two key areas:  conception and birth.

Buddhism’s founder was a man named Siddhartha Gautama, meaning “one who realized his goal.” Buddhists believe that when Siddhartha’s mother, Maha, was conceived she had a dream involving a white elephant carrying a lotus flower. She interpreted the dream to mean that her son would grow up to become a great spiritual leader. Just a week after Siddhartha was born, his mother died. Upon her death, he lived with his wealthy aunt and his father on a large estate. As Siddhartha grew up, his father kept him away from all suffering and anguish of the world. Unlike many of his peers, he was well educated and free from the world’s sorrows.

Unlike most rulers who sought power and domination over society, Ashoka, king of Mauryan only desired to create a harmonious society. Earning him the title of ‘Beloved of the Gods’. This is explicitly evident through Ashoka’s political philosophies (edicts) that aimed to assist his people to reach the path of dharma. Causing him to create a number of reforms, inspired by Buddhist philosophies enabling Ashoka and his people to live in a harmonious society. As Buddhism spoke of creating a world that lived in tolerance and acceptance of all things. Through these philosophies Ashoka wrote his own interpretation of the Buddhist ideals (the edicts), modelling it to suit his kingdom. The edicts spoke of two important philosophies, ‘state’ and ‘individual’