Essay about The Evolution of Buddhism

Pure Land Buddhism offers a way to enlightenment for people who can’t handle the subtleties of meditation, endure long rituals, or just live especially good lives. The essential practice in Pure Land Buddhism is the chanting of the name Amitabha Buddha with total concentration, trusting that one will reborn in Pure Land, where it is much easier for a being to work towards enlightenment. Pure Land Buddhism is particularly popular in China and Japan.

Albert Einstein once said, “Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.” I though this quote was an interesting beginning into seeing how this ancient religion changed over the course of its existence. I feel that Buddhism has changed over time but has maintained that core teaching that it had with the early Indians and with the Theravada teachings. Mahayana just happens to be the more loose teachings of the Buddha. The term used in

The spread of Buddhism in China occurs during a time of great political faction following the collapse of the Han dynasty. Initially, many citizens convert but as time continues people begin to question the belief. Unlike legalism or Confucianism, Buddhism has very little interference with the political climate of a country. When the country is in a state of tyranny or chaos, many people adopt Buddhist beliefs to appease themselves. Other popular belief sets of the time include Confucianism and Daoism, which were commonly practiced during peace times. By 845 C.E the emperor issues a statement in opposition of Buddhism; this would be respected by many of the citizens under him. The resistance to the spread of the religion is emphasized in documents 4 and 6. There are scholars who continue to support Buddhism, as seen in documents 2 and 3. Documents 1 and 5 provide logical and unbiased statements, that can help create compromise and respect between others.

In the sixth century B.C.E., the religion of Buddhism was founded in India. Seven centuries later, the religion would find itself arriving in China in the midst of the Han Dynasty. In China, there were many different views of the religion as it arrived and spread throughout the country. There were two main responses to the religion. One response was that Buddhism could stand alongside other Chinese religions and philosophies such as Confucianism, as it could do a lot of good for China; while another view was that Buddhism had no place in China, as it came from foreign people and was barbaric, stealing from the Chinese.

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 is seen as a way of life rather than a form of religion that needs to be closely followed and constantly practiced. The idea of “enlightenment” carries through one’s entire lifetime in an attempt to reach nirvana, which is an end to all suffering. A person’s lifetime is spent being faithful and relying on karma to eventually achieve nirvana and enlightenment, in which people embark on the path of awakening. The awakening is a very crucial aspect of the Buddhist religion, as it was Buddha’s own personal awakening and understanding of how the world works, in which he passed it on to be believed and understood by others. It’s closely related to other religions in the way that rebirth and reincarnation are the beliefs surrounding the idea of the afterlife, however Buddhism in particular is an anatta tradition, or ‘not-self,’ which often sets it apart from other religions.This complex ideal entails that one’s external self, consciousness, feelings

Buddhism began in the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ by Siddhartha Gautama. The teachings of Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Gautama, are the major beliefs of Buddhism. Buddhism is a belief and religion based on an assortment of customs, principles, and practices. The name Buddha means the awakened one. Buddha’s teachings were of the termination of suffering, attaining nirvana, and absconding from the cycle of suffering and rebirth. Buddhism has spread all across Asia and throughout the world, now with between two hundred thirty million and five hundred million followers. Buddhism is largely based around the belief of Karma. Karma is the “action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation” (Dictionary.com) or “the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person’s deeds in the previous incarnation.” (Dictionary.com) In simpler words, how you live your life now determines how you will come back when your current soul expires. Buddhists live their lives in hopes of achieving to be placed in the highest state known as Heaven. The after-life stems from Karma and leads into Rebirth. Rebirth is a course of action where humans proceed within multiple lifetimes in one or more of the six states of after-life. Each lifetime begins with birth and ends with death. Buddhists believe that we should not fear death because

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.

Though this religion has many features of Hinduism involved with it, such as Samsara and karma it is largely non-theistic. This makes it accessible to anyone who is seeking help in dealing with the problems life ultimately brings, no matter what religion they are. For this assignment I used myself as an example; I have had the problem of becoming too attached to problems and investing too much of myself into them in order to change them. So while we were learning about this lesson I actually applied the teachings of Buddha to my problem to show how useful Buddhism can be. First I accepted the Four Noble Truths. The first being that: “All life entails suffering”, meaning that while you are alive you are going to have problems to deal with, no matter what so you just need to accept that they are there and that no matter how hard you try to run from them they are always there. The second truth is that “ The cause of Suffering is

There are two different schools of thought in Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana, which have varying goals of life. They do, however, have a similar path to get to their ultimate goal in life. Most of their path to get to a state of Nirvana, as the Theravada believes, comes through discipline. Discipline comes from the Four Noble Truths, which also contains the eightfold path. The Four Noble Truths are that there is suffering in the world, suffering in the world comes from desire, desire and worldly attachments need to end for suffering to end, and there is a path to end suffering. The eightfold path is actually the fourth noble truth. The eight practices include: right view or understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, full effort, right mindfulness, and meditation. This path is done to try to obtain wisdom and discipline on the way to spiritual enlightenment. The enlightenment stage brings forth the next universal tenet, which is the afterlife. The Buddhist school of Theravada believes in an afterlife called Nirvana, which literally means blowing out or becoming extinguished. Nirvana is the liberation from the never ending cycle of rebirth known as the samsara cycle where the believer becomes one with the Supreme Being. Nirvana is similar to the afterlife in other religions in that once the believer reaches this final destination, it is said to be a euphoric ending to the rebirth cycle. The third tenet that

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. It is the oldest and fourth largest religion in the world with around 500 million followers. Buddhism focuses on teaching people how to come to terms with and end the suffering of themselves and others by cutting out greed, hatred, and ignorance from their lives. Unlike most major world religions, Buddhism does not revolve around worshiping a god or divine creator, instead the focus of Buddhism is living one 's best life and transforming the lives of others. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to reach Enlightenment and upon death achieve Nirvana, the liberation of pain and suffering. For Buddhists, it is the individual’s responsibility to find his or her own path to enlightenment; the principles of Buddhism are seen more as guidelines than rules.

There are so many different religions in the world, and its keep expanding every day. Each religion as it own characteristic also gives its followers instruction to believe what is right and what is wrong in their daily. Religion is the self-consciousness and self-perception of each person who neither finds themselves nor has lost themselves. With the purpose of this assignment, I decided to do the research about Buddhism. The reason I picked Buddhism is it had a very rich historical background, as I known Buddhism is not a system of faith and worship, nor does it require blind faith, but must rely on knowledge of the truth. Buddhism is not just kept in scriptures, nor is it a topic for people to study from the literary and historical point

Buddhism stands as a philosophy and a religion founding itself on the theory of a possible eternal soul. Until awakening is achieved, this eternal soul is locked in the vicious cycle of rebirth (Samsara). According to the Four Noble Truths preached by the Buddha, life is a perpetual suffering caused by desire and attachment, and freedom from suffering is only possible by practicing the Eightfold Path. The World is suffering in a succession of temptations and negative experiences from birth to death. Therefore Buddhism advises on searching to go beyond suffering, and only aspire to rest, nothingness, and liberation, into a final state called Nirvana. Happiness or Nirvana can eventually be achieved in a hereafter, another life, if man abandons any desire or perspective of action within his present life, in order to go past suffering.

Buddhism is an offset form of Hinduism. In Buddhism, followers live out a much disciplined life in order to understand that nothing in their selves is made of them. They believe that they are one with the earth. Once reaching this notion in Buddhism you are said to reach Nirvana. Buddhists see humans, animals and even Buddha as equivalents. Buddhism practices the Threefold Way, which is the training of morality, wisdom and concentration. Buddhism differs from Hinduism by not

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