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Dharma in Buddhism and Hinduism

Decent Essays

The beginning of this class consists of two sections, Hinduism and Buddhism, both of which we have learned a lot about. Within these religions we see some differences and some similarities that one could relate the two with, and one of those is the term Dharma. When examining Dharma in both Hinduism and Buddhism, people may notice that they are somewhat similar, but they will also see that there even more differences within this term. To better understand this term, we must first define it within the religion and then see what they have in common with one another, if anything at all, and finally notice where the big differences are between them.
Dharma is a powerful word, but some may see it differently then others depending on their …show more content…

So we can see that in one religion we have life set out the way it should be lived and in the other people are free to live the way that they see fit within their religion. The next main difference is the actual being of the dharma. In Hinduism Dharma is not only seen as the way in which people should live, but also as the god Vishnu or Rama. Here we see the term dharma as, “the preserver of dharma who takes worldly form (avatara) to combat threats to dharma,”(lecture, 9/16). It was also said that, “Rama, was a heroic king who, along with his spouse exemplifies dharma,”(lecture, 9/16). This is very different then that of the Buddhists, because they believe that, “what Buddha discovered, is that which makes him the awakened one,”(lecture, 9/23) So we see that it is somewhat of the reverse from Hinduism, because it is not represented or upheld through gods, but that which brought them their god to worship. So again we see clearly that these two religions are not as closely related as people may think. After spending a good amount of time, it is easy to see that the two meanings of dharma are different within the same context outline. They both deal with the rights and wrongs of the people within the religion, and they both have, in one aspect, the same meaning; law and teachings. But when we gape deeper into the word, the way of life in Hinduism is dharma, but the Buddhist just follow certain aspects of dharma in their religion. In both religions the

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