Hinduism and BuddhismEssay Preview: Hinduism and BuddhismReport this essayHinduism & BuddhismHinduism and Buddhism are two of the most prominent religions in the world, ranking among the five largest. Twenty percent of the world today is either Hindu or Buddhist. Both religions evolved throughout centuries, offering interesting beliefs and distinctive views to the cultural world. Buddhism is a reformed version of Hinduism; it has adopted many features of Hinduism yet developed entirely opposite ones in the process. Both religions encompass a variety of tradition, beliefs, and practices.
Siddhartha Gautama, later known as Buddha, meaning “Enlightened One,” founded Buddhism. Buddhism follows the teachings of the Buddha, stating that individuals should follow the eightfold path in order to attain Nirvana. Buddhism was born sometime between 563-483 B.C.E. Hinduism dates so far back into history, surpassing Buddhism, that it has no known beginning and its foundation remains a mystery. Hinduism gained influence from the Vedic age, where it gained its most sacred texts such as the Vedas. Over time, Hinduism developed a caste system; separating individuals at birth into one of four classes: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra while Buddhism began more collectively accepting. Buddhism gained popularity in India because it released people from the oppression of tradition, such as the caste system. These faiths gained followers as they held promise of spiritual salvation for all who gave themselves over devoutly. Although Hinduism and Buddhism share connections in origins, morality, and the idea of karma and reincarnation, they nevertheless are diverse with regard to foundation and achieving the ultimate objective and social structure related to each faith.
It is difficult for some to classify Hinduism as a monotheistic or polytheistic religion because it is virtually both. Hinduism believes in the existence of three central gods: Brahma–the creator, Vishnu–the preserver, and Siva–the destroyer. There are also about 330,000,000 other gods. However, some believe that all the deities are manifestations of one supreme and divine god. Buddhists do not believe in deities or gods of any kind; however devas, or “celestial beings,” are accepted as those suffering in the samsara–the repeating cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Another generally known and important difference between the two religions lies among their religious texts. Hinduisms most sacred texts are known as the Vedas–a collection of religious and philosophical poems and hymns, and the Upanishads (a contribution of the Vedic philosophy) that are a collection of more
-`veda, more philosophical texts that are considered to be the first in the traditions, and the first with a religious meaning. Sanskrit is the primary language of Buddhism, followed by a number of other languages associated with the Buddhist religion. By virtue of its inherent cultural diversity, the Indo-European language is considered as a sacred language which should be maintained in both culture and religion. Most Buddhist texts describe the gods differently, although many of the Hindu texts mention some of the names of the gods. In their writings as well, the scriptures refer to gods, angels, gods, birds, demons, beings, and plants which can be either associated to one or the other. The religious practice of Buddhism is different from that of some other religions, including many modern traditions. Some religions do not worship their gods. In addition, the teachings of the Hindu scriptures are more closely connected to popular Hindu beliefs and practices. Many of the concepts found in Hinduism include: The Law of the One-World
The law of rebirth
The law of the cycle of the universe
The law of birth, rebirth, and union
The law of creation and dissolution
The law of the cessation of suffering
Todok
Charm-todok is Sanskrit-Rasputin phrase referring to the Buddhist principle of “the One-World of Self-existence.” The significance of Sri Datta, as well as the meaning of Sri Siva Datta (the Self-Being) were not considered fully in the Vedic texts until Vedic philosophers have shown that they had many similarities with Sanskrit and that they represented the essence of the Vedic language’s philosophical tradition. In an article in the English language of the New York Times in 1993 (The Sacred Texts of Buddhism, Vol. 2, No. 22, pages 6-8), Professor Datta, as well as many Hindu scholars and other researchers, claimed he had studied the Vedic language and “found that the Hindus speak a richly and comprehensively sophisticated dialect of the Vedic texts, using Sanskrit and in many cases Sanskrit-Rasputin terms, which has been the basis for many of the concepts found in the Hindu scriptures.” (pp. 6, 7).” The claim that Sanskrit-Rasputin texts were related to Hindu mythology and religion is very puzzling to many. As in all matters in Buddhism, the story of the Hindus may have been told from many points of view and there is one important difference between Buddhist and Hindu scriptures: the Hindus say to god Indra, “We come to thee and we die. He is not here to help us. We are living on a lower planet, on the brink of extinction, not a day comes and not the year, not the century, not even the millennium.” (P. K. K. Datta, Sutra & Religion, New York: Dutton, 1989, pp. 55-55). Indeed, that is because many of the Hindu scriptures (including the Upanishads) have reference to certain types of gods, even though those terms are not specified by the Hindu scriptures themselves. For example, it is true, for many Hindus, a deity is associated with all kinds of beings of various parts of the universe—many of which live and die. Even if the Hindu scriptures are as close as some of the Hindu scriptures have to God, it is because God has spoken the language of his own people. In the most direct way, Hinduism and Buddhism share