Comparing and contrasting Hindu and buddhism Essay example

Non-Western Political thought
Comparing and contrasting Hinduism and Buddhism
Hinduism and Buddhism are the two main religions of Ancient India. Both religions share common beliefs and have their differences. Some differences are the gods worshiped, the founders of the religions and the holy books worshiped. Both religions are similar and different at the same time. It amazing how two different religions can share so many beliefs and disagree on many other beliefs, both religions are still being followed in India today, even though there are more people of the Hindu faith than the Buddha faith.
The term Hinduism refers to the civilization of the Hindus Introduced in about 1830 by British writers, it properly denotes the Indian civilization of approximately the last 2,000 years, which evolved from Vedism the religion of the Indo- European peoples who settled in India in the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. There are big ranges from the level of popular Hindu belief to that of ritual technique and philosophical speculation is very broad and is attended by many stages of transition and varieties of coexistence. Magic rites, animal worship, and belief in demons are often combined with the worship of more or less personal gods or with mysticism, asceticism, and abstract and profound theological systems or esoteric doctrines. The worship of local deities does not exclude the belief in pan-Indian higher gods or even in a single high God. Such local deities are also frequently looked down upon as manifestations of a high God.

This religion incorporates all forms of belief and worship without necessitating the selection or elimination of any. Hindus are inclined to revere the divine in every manifestation, whatever it may be, and are doctrinally tolerant, allowing others - including both Hindus and non-Hindus - whatever beliefs suit them best. A Hindu may embrace a non-Hindu religion without ceasing to be a Hindu, and because Hindus are disposed to think synthetically and to regard other forms of worship, strange gods, and divergent doctrines as inadequate rather than wrong or objectionable, they tend to believe that the highest divine powers are complement one another. Few religious ideas are considered to be irreconcilable. The core of religion does not depend on the existence or nonexistence. Natives as well as the people who have migrated from India to other parts of the world, statistically there are over seven hundred million Hindus, mainly in Bharat, India and Nepal. Eighty five percent of the population in India is Hindu. The word Hindu comes from an ancient Sanskrit term meaning "dwellers by the Indus River," referring to the location of India's earliest known civilization, the Pakistan. The religion suggests commitment to or respect for an ideal way of life knows as Dharma. Hinduism absorbs foreign ideas and beliefs making it have a wide variety of beliefs and practices. This has given it a character of social and doctrinal system that extends to every aspect of life. The Hindus own definition of their community is "those who believe in Vedas."

In the Buddhism religion, there was only one founder. The founder was the Siddhartha Gantina. Siddhartha founded Buddhism in 560 B.C. Buddhists rejected the caste system. Instead they focused on individuals. Important books of the Buddhist religion are the Triptakas. Buddhists have no Gods. They believed if you follow the Four Nobile Truths and the Eight Fold Path, you will live a great life. Buddhism is important throughout Asia, but there are few followers of Buddhism in India today. Buddhism altered the world when it spread to China and Neo-Confucianism rose to intellectual and cultural dominance. Another factor that... Everyone has a religion and beliefs. Comparing and contrasting the beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism, the factors that changed both of the religions and how they affect the world today shows how each one

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Comparing and contrasting Hindu and buddhism Essay example

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