Hinduism Vs Buddhism Essay

"I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit." Kahlil Gibran

“Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma ("eternal spiritual path") began about 4000 years ago in India. It was the religion of an ancient people known as the Aryans ("noble people") whose philosophy, religion, and customs are recorded in their sacred texts known as the Vedas” (United Religions). Vedas are written in the ancient language of India, called Sanskrit. Vedas means “knowledge” or “sacred lore.” The Vedas gives great intelligence about the variety of Gods from the Vedic period, 2000 to 500 BCE (Molloy,78).

Some people may think that Hinduism and Buddhism are the same religions with just two different names. They aren’t, Buddhism and Hinduism both have different types of rituals, holidays, founders, and so-on. The two extensive religions of Hinduism and Buddhism have lots of information behind themselves. They are made up of cultures, rituals, practices, and many other things.

While Hinduism and Buddhism come from the same cultural backgrounds, they are extremely diverse in their beliefs on afterlife, deity, and rituals. Both religions believe in reincarnation, but it is where an individual goes after he or she gets off the endless cycle that differs. These religions also part when it comes to whom they do or do not worship. Every religion comes with rituals and Hinduism and Buddhism are no exceptions.

Throughout the world, different nations have different beliefs or religion. Some religions evolve from others, and others are combination of other religions. Religion is a way of life, a lifestyle; it should dictate how you live your life. For instance, in India, Buddhism evolved from Hinduism, a religion were people believe in 300, 000 gods. Even though, Hinduism and Buddhism have different similarities such as believes in god, soul, and rituals, which in some ways connected to each other, both religions believe of what happens after life.

So for this assignment I chose Buddhism and Hinduism. Two very unfamiliar religions I have no idea about but have heard about all my life. I’ve always seen the Buddha figurines and other various items of him and if you rub the tummy it gives you good luck or something like that, but never really knew much about the religion itself.

The Question of Origin is answered by the Hinduism Worldview as “everything has always been in existence and is a part of god” (Weider & Gutierrez, 2011). A part of the worldview is that the universe and god is one in the same thing. Hinduism believes that itself has always existed, that it did not have a creator. God is viewed "as an infinite, impersonal force" (Weider & Gutierrez, 2011).

Within the religions of Confucianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, there are specific similarities and characteristics that separate these from other religions of the world. These religions are known to some as “non-theism” meaning there are certain religious and nonreligious aspects of each categorized without an appearance of a God. This should not be confused with atheism for there is an absence of God and not a belief that there is not one. In Hinduism, the goal is not for a person to reach “heaven”, but to break the vicious cycle known as the samsara where the soul continues through life, death, and rebirth for a very long time. This goal is called moksha which means release from the samsara, also similar to salvation. Similar to Hinduism, Buddhists believe that they too are trapped within the same cycle of life and death, but rebirth is considered undesirable. The goal of Buddhism is reaching nirvana which means eliminating the suffering of being trapped in the cycle. Buddhists will accomplish this through numerous different tasks such as mediation. In Confucianism, there is a connection to Hinduism for there is little information about the divine there is mention of a Heaven that watches of the people, but not much after that. There is a strong focus on life before dying rather than life after death. Throughout all of these

Hinduism by Axel Michaels states that the term “Hindu” originated from the Persians whom were living on the Indus River; The Indus Valley contained over 40,000 residents’ irrigation systems, houses and fortress of barred shaped bricks as well as paved streets (Michaels, 31). Here is where non-Muslim population began using the word “Hindu”. Europeans followed up with this practice. One is considered a Hindu once he or she is born in India and behaves like an Hindu if one does not publicly identify oneself as a Christian or a Muslim. Thus explaining why converting to Hinduism is not possible, especially due to the polygamy of the Muslims and constant depletion of Hinduism is forecast (Michaels, 14).

Both Hinduism and Buddhism have components of religion and philosophy intertwined, but for the purposes of examination, a cohesive philosophical argument cannot hinge on the religious metaphysics of the discussion. Hinduism and Buddhism both have similarities when describing life and death. They share ideas of self, impermanence, and lack of attachment, but their metaphysics create glaring differences when they describe how to live life, how to view life and death separately or as a process, and how to deal with the suffering associated with life and death. Buddhism, when examined through a contemporary western lens, explains life and death in a helpful and understandable way, and has a more fortified philosophical argument.

( interaction body paragraph) According to Hindu religion, Buddha is considered the rebirth of lord Vishnu( Hindu god). Since, Buddha was the rebirth of Lord vishnu and he was a founder of Buddhism. Buddhism was a part of Hinduism. Both Hinduism and Buddhism were originated in Northwest India.

These texts were originally orally shared, but latter would be recored in Sanskrit none as the Vedas. The Vedas were composed ver hundreds of years and eventually would lead to the religious practice of Brahmanism.

The Vedas are the oldest sacred books of Hinduism and lay the foundation of several schools of Hindu thought.[21] The Upanishads refers to those scriptures which form the core teachings of the Vedānta philosophy.[22] Adi Shankara's commentaries on the Upanishads led to the rise of Advaita Vedanta, the most influential sub-school of Vedanta.

Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, which means they believe in many Gods. Hinduism started in India in about 1500 B.C. Hindu beliefs are a combination of the beliefs of the Early Indus Valley and the early Aryans that came to India. Also, its beliefs and practices are based on the Vedas, which are a collection or hymns. Hinduism has many practices like the Brahmacharga which takes place during the school year and is focused on acquiring knowledge and developing character. Another practice in the Hindu religion is the Vanaprastha, and is practiced when a child reaches adulthood, it is a time of increased focus on spiritual things to make oneself more enlightened. In Hindu religion Hatha Yoga is a very common practice, and leads to the ultimate goal of Raja Yoga, or contemplation of one’s reality. The purpose of the yoga is to locate one’s chakras (center of energy). And this helps to remove disease in your mind and body. In Hinduism, they have a caste system divided into four parts, Brahmins which are the priests,

We cannot deny that the expansion of Hinduism had great help from the West. The colonizers, with the help of the high status Indian castes had a hand in popularising, translating, and distributing texts, as well as naming the religion, arguably their biggest contribution. Hinduism, derived from the Persian word “Hindoo” was first used to geographically describe residents of the Indus region (King 1999, 98). The initial use of this term was to describe residents of this region, without any religious implication. This region, known for its diverse beliefs, included people of multiple faiths: Christians, Muslims, and Hindus alike. The term was later adopted in the eighteenth century by the “British… to identify the people of ‘Hindustan.’”, according to Mittal and Thursby. The name of the well-known religion was a result of interest from the Western Orientalists. This historical context shows that the religion was already well established by the time the British named it and that they did not create the spirituality that they sought to control by giving it the name of their choice. They assigned this broad religion with a specific name, even if it was for their own purposes. The