Buddhism Essay

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Religion

It is remarkable how two tribal religions, Hinduism and Judaism, known only to people that lived in a certain area transformed into two of the world's most known religions. Christianity and Buddhism gained popularity and became universal throughout time in very different ways. Although they derived from their parental religions and adapted some of the same ideas and traditions, they also evolved from them as well. The first parental religion, Hinduism was a religion mostly based on a caste system. It was believed by the Hindus that human castes were made and decided by the sacrifice of their God Purusha. Karma was the belief that whatever actions you took, bad or good, they would eventually come back to you. Although they did not necessarily believe in a heaven and hell in the early times of Hinduism, the idea of karma kept people in line and persuaded them to do good. The people who practiced Hinduism also believed in reincarnation, the idea of dying and coming back as another living thing. It was an endless cycle that was later believed could be broken by seeking and being completely devoted to Brahman, their higher being. In Reilly (pg191), the document of Svetasvara Upanishad explains how the Hindus practiced meditation in order to reach a better understanding of self. They also meditated to free their mind from material things and other desires. They believed that if they could free themselves from desires that suffering of any kind wouldn't be known. The second parental religion, Judaism began long before the time of Jesus Christ. Unlike Hinduism, Judaism has written records with known time periods of everything that occurred and led to the beginning of Christianity. Judaism began with Abraham, whom made a covenant with God to worship only him. Unlike many other religions, Judaism was the first to practice the worship of only one God. In the book of Genisis, the first chapter in the Hebrew bible, God created the universe. God then filled the earth with animals and decided to create a man and a woman named Adam and Eve. The Jews were later brought the Ten Commandments by Moses, who God called upon to spread his word to his people. God wanted his people to be righteous and holy. There were three types of leaders that were chosen by God to maintain order. First there were priests who executed laws, then there were prophets such as Daniel, who were given messages directly from God, and lastly the sage which taught wisdom and righteous behavior. During the early stages of Judaism, the idea of an afterlife was still unheard of. The Jews followed every instruction and message delivered from God. The offspring religion of Hinduism which is Buddhism, began with the son of a Hindu prince located in India named Gotama, also known as Buddha. Buddha introduced the idea of the four noble truths, the eightfold path, and the middle way. The main idea was that buddhists were to seperate themselves from cravings and desires in order to reach Nirvana. In Buddhism, there was no caste system, everyone was equal and would face the same fate no matter their class. Many were the ideas that were passed along from Hinduism to Buddhism. Karma and the belief in the cycle of birth and death were carried on to Buddhism. Just as the Hindu Upanishad explained how earthly desires led people to suffering, Buddha also shared this idea in his four noble truths. They also practice meditation as a form of seperating themselves from desires. Both religions are mainly about peace and being kind to all living creatures. Some of the differences between the two religions began with the fact that Hinduism was not founded by a certain prophet and Buddhism was. Although Hindus believed in and worshipped a high power called Brahman. In Buddhism, people did follow Buddah but they did not worship him as they did not believe in the existance of souls. The biggest difference that is believed to be why Buddhism had a much larger
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