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Comparing Hinduism and Buddhism

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Comparing Hinduism and Buddhism
There are many religions in the world and they each have thousands of followers. Even though they all have something that they believe in; each religion varies. Buddhism and Hinduism have both have a form of rebirth, but they have different opinions on the caste system and the idea of having a god or gods. In both Hinduism and Buddhism they have a form of rebirth apart of their religion. In this rebirthing/ reincarnation process the followers are trying to achieve perfect harmony and to get out of the process altogether. In Hinduism the people cannot fulfill everything thing they need to in the religion like get to the top of the caste system and live the perfect life. So when they die their soul is immediately transported into another living being while it is being born. When people are living they do not know that their souls have moved up in the caste system since their last body, so they know that they have to continue to live right so their soul can move up again. The Caste System is the social system Hindus follow to follow their rules of Hinduism. When a soul is ‘transported’ into a new body the owner does not know any details from its past life. Their soul completes this cycle by getting into the top of the caste system and it reaches Moksha. Moksha is when your soul is finally released into the universe. While in Buddhism you can fulfill the purpose of the religion in one lifetime, the purpose is to achieve Nirvana. Nirvana is being able to and capable of being completely content with your life, mainly not having any desires in this life. You can only achieve Nirvana if you follow the Eight Fold Path and the Four Noble Truths. Those are both the rules put in place to help guide the people in achieving Nirvana. In Buddhism if you do not achieve Nirvana in one life then your soul is placed in another body until your new body achieves it. Most of the time people achieve Nirvana in their life time and their soul is released into the universe for eternity. In Hinduism and Buddhism the believers follow a system that helps them achieve the purpose of each religion. In Hinduism a large part of that religion is the caste system. The caste system has four classes, and each class has a specific ranking. Purusha is a god who is highly looked upon in Hinduism; he was so greatly respected the based the Caste System on his body parts The basic outline of the caste system is this, the Brahmins, which symbolize Purusha’s mouth, and they can talk to the gods. Then Kshatriyas, which were his arms, were the warriors. The Vaisyas, his two thighs, were the merchants and artisans who provide money for the priests and warriors. The last level and bottom level is the Sudras, his two feet, they labors and farmers who were the foundation of the social order. In this system everyone has a specific thing to do in their caste; this brings the concept of Dharma into the religion. Dharma is like the job you have a life, and you were only to do your Dharma even if you were horrible at it. It is better to do your Dharma poorly than to do another person’s Dharma well. In Buddhism there was absolutely no caste system, or even a form of it. In Buddhism the believers followed two sets of rules. The first set is called the Eight Fold Path; this is the key to achieving Nirvana. All eight of these ‘rules’ are focused on keeping one’s mind focused on reaching complete happiness and harmony in life. These rules were created by Siddhartha Gautama- the Buddha. He was the first person to achieve Nirvana. He created the eight fold path when he reached Nirvana, so other people could also reach it. The other set of rules the followers believe and follow are the Four Noble Truths. They tell us how people have a sinful nature and how we can stop our sinful nature and achieve Nirvana. Siddhartha Gautama created these truths for the followers to understand everything about this life and to know how to make this life better. He was a ruler who fully grasped Buddhism and made many statues and buildings for it. In Buddhism there is no caste system because everyone is treated equal and they all are trying to reach Nirvana, they all are a part the same of group or class. In Hinduism the followers are polytheistic, but in Buddhism they don’t really worship any god or goddesses. Hinduism have many gods each having a different meaning. They have this because they believe there is a different god for every aspect of life. They also believed that there are some gods that help people and some gods that harm people. They believe in many gods not only from their religion, but from many other religions also. They do this because the main objective of their religion is not to please the gods. So they follow their religion and they also try to please many gods so they will not have a hard life. They integrate many gods into their religion because they believe that all the gods will help them in life. They brought Siddhartha Gautama into their religion and their god name for him is Buddha. It is in this way they enveloped Buddhism into Hinduism. They follow what he said to do along with what Hinduism says to do. Hindus have over four hundred god and goddess, and the followers don’t have to believe of follow all of them, only the ones who apply to their lives. In Buddhism there is not a god that they worship, this makes the religion more of a philosophy than a religion. They do not have a god or goddess because their main purpose in life is to achieve Nirvana. They do not need a god to help them do that; they can achieve it independently. They have no one who saves them or help them in life other than their selves. This aspect makes this religion different from every other religion in the world. The religions of Hinduism and Buddhism are very similar compared to Christianity. While those religions were being formed Christianity was being created also. In Christianity people believe that they have to completely summit their lives to the God named God. They believe that God sent his only son, Jesus, to the Earth to die on a cross for their sins. When they commit their lives to Jesus and God then when they die they are allowed to spend eternity in Heaven, and if they don’t then they spend eternity in Hell. Hinduism and Buddhism some of the first religions of their kind; they also were the first religions that spread across the globe. They both have a reincarnation process along with a certain way of living, but they have different ideas on how to have structure and if having a god is necessary. Learning about both of these religions or philosophies help people understand how religions have some of the same basic foundations and ideas but have different rules and regulations. Hinduism and Buddhism are great examples on comparing two religions; because they share the same concept of having their soul spend eternity in the universe, but they have different ways of achieving that goal.

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