Side By Side, Which Path In Life Is Right

Strayer University Alexandrea VA

Side By Side, Which Path In Life Is Right

In life we deal with people from all different parts of the world which all have different beliefs. So which one is right for you which one fallow what you believe in? Well every religion fallow the golden rule in one form or another. Hinduism and Buddhism both believe in karma which strongly fallows the golden rule but both religions are very different. What makes these religions the same though other than the fact Buddhism came from Hinduism.

Hinduism originated from Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Guyana, Fiji, Australasia, Trinidad, Mauritius, Suriname, Bali, Northern America, UK, France, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Malaysia, and Swizerland. Hinduism even though it is a very old religion starting around 3000 B.C.E has still a very strong fallowing of around 828,000,000 people (Findthebest, 2014). Buddhism is a younger religion it was started around 2500 B.C.E it also has around 376,000,000 followers. Buddhism main geographical regions are Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, East Asia, Indochina, regions of Russia and The Netherlands. Both of these religions are in the same places but Hinduism does have a larger territory and fallowing but that doesn’t make it better than Buddhism.

Most of Hinduism and Buddhism culture is different then what Americans are used to. Hinduism practices Meditation, Yoga, contemplation, yangna, and offerings in the temples. Yoga is a process that Hindus use to clear their minds and support a state of serene and detached awareness. To reach that you must practice so you can develop a state of balance, purity, wisdom, and peacefulness of the mind. The meditation is also part of the yoga. Meditation is where all your worldly thoughts have dissipated. This is the time where you want your conscious to be in a state of union with the absolute power. Hinduism have no official clergy. They have priests, monks, and nuns. Also the main goal of the religion is to break the cycle of Birth, death and reincarnation and attain salvation. Buddhism is much like Hinduism in the fact that they also believe in reincarnation the goal in Buddhism is to attain enlightenment and be released from the cycle of rebirth and death in which you attain nirvana. In Buddhism you are following the teachings of Buddha who was once Prince Siddhartha and became Gautama Buddha. In his training he come up with the practice of the threefold training: Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom.

All around the world these two religions are still being practiced and maintained. In Thailand Gotama Buddha stipulated that monks must maintain contact with nearby people. This contact is made mostly by monks making their morning rounds for alms or by them participation in ceremonies and rituals. Monks also have the option to enter a forest temp to study their meditation or they can go to a more urban setting temple and take up the study of Buddhist curriculum. In the more recent days the image of Buddhism has taken some hard hits because of the monks inability to take a stand on pressing modern issues. Really though it is still practiced very much the same way in temples as it has been forever. Hinduism is still very strongly practiced everywhere most of the population doesn’t know it but yoga is a form of practice and people do it and don’t even think about it. In the Alps people will practice Hatha Yoga which is one of the paths that leads to the ultimate goal of Raja Yoga or contemplation of the one reality. You can practice Hinduism outside or worship in the home or temple no matter where you are in the world. In the US the largest temples are in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Texas and California. So really both religions are still going very strong today and are spreading all around the world.

So over time yes the religion have changed and branched out from where they started by that is because of the fact that people move and don’t want to change their whole belief system. Even though both Buddhism and Hinduism share a lot of the same beliefs it doesn’t meant that they both like each other. The Hindus tried to stop Buddhism because they didn’t fallow that god is in everything and everything is god concept. Even though they tried that the Buddhist people didn’t retaliate back. When it really comes down to religion its whatever you as the person wants to believe in that is the best part there are no set boundaries with religion and both of these religions will accept you even if you are atheist.

References

Grant, O. (2012) Thai Buddhism. Retrieved from. http://www.thaibuddhism.net/Findthebest.com (2014) Hinduism vs. Buddhism Retrieved from http://religions.findthebest.com/saved_compare/Hinduism-vs-Buddhism

Religionfacts (2014) Buddhist Rituals & Practices. Retrieved from. http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/practices.htm

Diffen (2014) Buddhism vs Hinduism. Retrieved from. http://www.diffen.com/difference/Buddhism_vs_Hinduism

hinduism today (2007) Hinduism in Practice. Retrieved from. http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1546