Stoicism Vs Buddhism Essay

Buddhism began in India; it was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, a prince, born in Nepal. Siddhartha Gautama wandered around for awhile acting like a beggar to figure out why it was that

Buddhism originated from India, and was founded by Prince Siddharta Gautama, who later came to be known as Buddha, or the enlightened one. Born of a princely caste, he later renounced his comfortable life in search for nirvana. In order to do that, he joined a band of ascetic, who was a group of Hindu priests.

Buddhism was founded by one man, Siddhartha Guatama. He was born into royalty around 563 B.C.E. in a Kingdom near the border of India and Nepal. He was raised in wealth and luxury, and at the age of 16, he married a wealth woman and they had a child together. Around the age of 29, he began to realize

The founder of Buddhism is Buddha Siddhartha, born 624 in present-day Nepal. His name means “Awakened One.” A Buddha is somebody who has awoken from sleep and suddenly sees things truthfully. As Buddha grew up, he could speak sixty-four different languages and was a good mathematician. He often visited poor and old people, and realized that every person would one day experience sufferings, for example, sickness and death. Because Buddha believed in reincarnation, he became aware of the fact that everyone would experience these sufferings in a never-ending cycle. This caused him to feel sympathy for them and himself, and so he wished that they could all escape suffering. Thus, this created the religion of Buddhism.

A prince named Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) founded “Buddhism” in the sixth century before the birth of Christ. Buddhism is better understood as philosophy rather than a religion and follows the concept of the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Noble path.

Buddhism is based on the teachings of an Indian prince named Siddhartha Gautama who lived around 500 B.C. Buddhist tradition says that one day the prince looked beyond the walls of his palace and saw the suffering of his people and wanted to make a change. Siddhartha left his wife and 2 kids and began the path to become Buddha (enlightened one) and after years of practice, he spent the remains 45 years of his life teaching “dharma”(the path to liberation from suffering) and established Sangha (a community of monks).

Stoicism emerged in Hellenistic Greece as a new way of reasoning. A way of fulfilling one’s spiritual duty. It quickly became one of the most important Post Classical Greek philosophies. For the purpose of my analysis, I have focused on the period 100 BC to 100 CE. During that time period, Stoicism became extremely influential in the Roman Empire. It was no longer just a Greek school; it became a semi-official Philosophy for the Roman elite. Throughout this time period, Christianity also began to emerge. Through influential missionaries, like Saint Paul (10-67 CE), Christianity began to spread and gain recognition, despite the fact that the Roman Empire was predominately pagan during the first century. Ironically, many early Christian

With their philosophical roots grounded in ancient Greece, Stoicism and Epicureanism had contrary yet significant impacts on Roman society. These two philosophies differed in many of their basic theories. Stoics attempted to reach a moral level where they had freedom from passion, while Epicureans strove for pleasure and avoided all types of pain. Stoics like the Epicureans, emphasized ethics as the main field of knowledge, but they also developed theories of logic and natural science to support their ethical doctrines.

There are many comparisons and contrasts between Christians and Buddhist regarding their faith. The founder of Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama, who was later referred to as Buddha (the enlightened one). "He was born as a royal prince in in a place called Lumbini. In his early years he lived as a prince in his royal palace but when he was 29 years old he retired to the forest where he followed a spiritual life of meditation. After six years he reached enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree in India and reached nirvana" (1).

In The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, Thich Nhat Hanh provides a citation from the Buddha, which gives insight into the cure of our distress. “I teach only suffering and the transformation of suffering” (Thich Nhat

However, Stoicism’s belief that virtue (and its corresponding happiness) is indestructible when acting rightly is highly ignorant and raises serious questions about how happiness can coexist with physical suffering or death. The belief that happiness through virtue is a constant and unchanging mindset is a pinnacle belief for Stoicism (McGill, 1967, p.231). Clearly, under Zeno’s description of valuable externals, Stoics agree that health and looking after the body is preferable but virtue is the absolute and situations may arise when they must sacrifice their life to maintain virtue and live in accordance with nature (Epictetus, 1995, p.290). As Epictetus states “It is better to die of hunger, but free from grief and fear, than to live in affluence with a disturbed mind” (Epictetus, 1995, p.290). Although unlike material possessions, Epictetus’s view that the body and one’s life is still merely external and therefore they should be completely unattached from leads to a rather fallacious position. To Stoics it should not matter if they are “cold or warm… and whether dying or doing something else” (McGill, 1967, p.235). But, sacrificing life is not the same as giving up an object and there is an underlying and uncontrollable emotional response which the Stoics overlook and oversimplify. In extreme situations, it is possible to be tranquil whilst living in accordance to nature to one’s own physical detriment but this is not the same as happiness. As summarised in Aristotle’s argument against unwavering happiness, enduring suffering to pursue a righteous life certainly coincides with virtue but none would argue that suffering can coexist with happiness like the Stoics suggest (McGill, 1967, p.229). Thus, Stoic lack of attachment to health or life is fairly unattainable due to the

The dictionary defines Stoicism as "the repression of emotions and indifference to pleasure or pain." [Ref. dictionary.com]. In ancient Greece and Rome, Stoics believed "people should strictly restrain their emotions in order to attain happiness and wisdom. Hence, they refused to demonstrate joy or sorrow." [Ref. dictionary.com]. Some 2,000-plus years later there is still a belief that stoicism is something to be admired or copied as it infers to and supports an exalted sense of knowing.

Stoicism is similar to Epicureanism: they both share the view that eudaimonia is attained by atraxia, a calmness or tranquility of the mind that comes from apathy, or more specifically, indifference. This indifference has to do with ignoring things related to human life, which is viewed as mundane: things like health, money, political office, and material possessions cause pleasure that is bad, and when you ignore these things and become indifferent, your mind becomes calm. This is similar to Epicureanism in that Epicureanism defines happiness as the absence of pain, like the need for earthly pleasures; in Stoicism, happiness is found in the indifference towards these things. However, the difference between the two is that Epicureanism understands that desires and some external pleasures are part of being human, and

Buddhism is the practice of finding peace within ones self by developing inner peace, wisdom and kindness. This practice dates back 2,500 years, and the founder is known as Buddha Shakyamuni. He was born a royal prince in a town called Lumbini; originally part of northern India but now makes part of Nepal. When Buddha was 29 years old, he retired form his royal life and left to the woods to fallow the spiritual life of meditation. He found a new way of life without materialistic needs by finding inner enlightenment. Buddha teaches how to get liberation from suffering form oneself, and how to attain enlightenment for the sake of others; his main goal was to give people permanent liberation form suffering by helping them find lasting peace or nirvana.

Buddhism originated from India, and was founded by Prince Siddharta Gautama, who later came to be known as Buddha, or the enlightened one. Born of a princely caste, he later renounced his comfortable life in search for nirvana. In order to do that, he joined a band of ascetic, who was a group of Hindu priests.