Hinduism has been a religion for a long time, the Buddha was a Hindu before seeing how terrible the world was, he then found the religion Buddhism. Since the creator of Buddhism was Hinduism as a child, it is only expected for the two religions to be similar. While the two religions are similar they are also quite different as seen by their creation stories. The creation stories are these religions way of explaining how the world started. With most religions the creation story gives the most basic beliefs of the religion as this is where their religion supposedly starts its life. The two stories this paper focuses on is no different, and since they technically have the same origin, it can be obvious as to how they would be similar. However, in the case of the idea of social order and moral decline, they can be different too.
In the Buddhist creation story The Origin of Things the world starts off as a dark place that consists of only water, there is no sense of time, light, or gender, the beings are just beings. After a while the water is covered in a layer of skin. This skin appeals to the beings taste, scent, and sight. One being gave into his greed and tasted the skin and decided it was amazing and wanted more and more of it. More and more beings followed him and ate the skin. The beings lost their own shine from the greed they possessed. But as the shine disappeared the sun, the moon, and the stars came into existence. With these new components there came a sense of the. The more the beings ate the skin the more their appearances started to change. They were no longer all beautiful, some had become ugly and some stayed beautiful. Here there started to be a sense of vanity, the beautiful beings thought themselves to ...
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... story never refers to a god, only to the Buddha, who is telling the story. The Hinduism story speaks of one god for each age as well as Brahma and Prthu.
The biggest similarity between the two stories is the notion of moral decline; the beings start off as peaceful things that don’t need homes, food or anything. As time goes on they need those things and more. After a while they start stealing from each other and eventually hurt each other.
The stories are similar in many ways, but they are also very different. This can be related to the relationship between the two religions themselves.
Works Cited
Classical Hindu Mythology. Cornelia Dimmitt and J. A. B. van Buitenen. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978. 38-40. Print.
Sayings of the Buddha: A selection of suttas from the Pali Nikayas. Gethin, Rupert. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.
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different time of period and different region, but yet both stories shared similar endings and
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Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. 5th ed. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Pub. Group, 1994. Print.
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Siddhartha Gautama is famously known as Gautama Buddha and was the founder of the idea of Buddhism. The Buddha was known to possess supernatural powers and abilities. He was born in the holy land of Nepal and his journey began in India when he decided to travel and teach himself about life. In the midst of his journey, he discovered Buddhism after he experienced a profound realization of the nature of life, death and existence. Buddhism became a religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama and since then Buddhism has been popular throughout many civilizations. Buddhism is now one of the most ancient religions in the world, where people follow Buddha, which stand for “awakened one,” and Buddhism which has gained popularity because of the teachings of the Buddha.
Hinduism and Christianity are two religions that have been around for thousands of years. These religions have developed philosophies on certain subjects that can be compared in order to show their similarities and differences. Some of the main subjects that can be reflected upon are the paths to enlightenment or salvation, the religions' treatment of women, and the concept of the afterlife. This paper will give an analytic comparison of these religions through the discussion of these topics.
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"Basics of Buddhism." n.d. The Living Edens: Thailand. Public Broadcasting Service. Website. 6 March 2014. .
Rosenburg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. Third Edition. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc., 1999. Text.
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