Buddhist and Christian Prayer: A Comparison in Practice and Purpose
At first glance the traditions of Christianity and Buddhism appear very different from each other. One centers around a God that was at one time physically manifest on earth in the human form of his "son" Jesus Christ, the other primarily worships a historical figure that gained divine status through enlightenment. This assessment is broad at best, especially in the case of Buddhism where the Theravada and Mahayana traditions differ significantly. Christianity also has division within itself, the most prominent being between the Roman Catholic and Protestant systems. There are however, despite obvious differences, some very interesting similarities between Buddhism and Christianity, especially regarding prayer and worship, which fall into the "ritual dimension" of Ninian Smart's analytical model (Smart). The purpose of this paper is to argue that Buddhism, particularly the Mahayana and Pure Land forms, and Christianity particularly Roman Catholicism are extremely similar regarding the practice and purpose of prayer. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines prayer as follows; "act of communication by humans with the sacred or holy God, gods, transcendent realm, or supernatural. Found in all religions at all times, prayer may be a corporate or personal act utilizing various forms or techniques" (Prayer, Britannica). This definition is the one that was kept in mind in the composition of this paper as it allows for a wide range of practices to be interpreted as prayer. For instance the Buddhist practice of meditation fits the above definition. This paper will explore the practice of performing prayer and worship as well as the purpose of it in the traditions in questi...
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This paper will explore the question of how to understand the nature of perceived ultimateity in Zen Buddhism. This will be achieved through providing a justification for why this question should be of any interest and then hypothesizing about possible implications of the results. Next, the framework that is to be used in categorizing the core beliefs in Zen will be explained and made clear. After this description is complete, the author will proceed to fit Zen Buddhism into this framework and will demonstrate that the Zen religion is no exception to the employed framework. Finally, the author will describe the perceived ultimacy of Zen Buddhism.
24 Amore, Roy C. and Julia Ching. The Buddhist Tradition. In Willard G. Oxtoby, Ed. World Religions: Eastern Traditions. P. 221
This paper is a comparison between two very different religions. Specifically Christianity and Buddhism. Coming from opposite sides of the globe these two religions could not be any farther apart in any aspect. I will discuss who Christ is for Christians and who Buddha is for Buddhists. I will also get into the aspects of charity, love, and compassion in both religions and I will be looking at the individual self and how christians see resurrection where the buddhists feel about the afterlife. One thing to keep in mind is that the two religions are very different but they seem to have a very similar underlying pattern. Both believe that there was a savior of their people, Buddha and Christ, and both believe that there is something good that happens to us when our time is done here on earth. This is a very generalized summarization but in order to go in to depth I need to explain the two religions more to fully convey this theory.
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the light of Buddhist understanding. To limit the topic of study, this paper will examine only the
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A comparative analysis of salvation in Christianity and Buddhism exposes stark contrasts between the grace of Jesus Christ and the self-saving action and enlightenment of Buddha. I attempt to compare the Christian and Buddhist concepts of salvation in this essay to emphasise on the significance of each founder's roles in salvation, and to extract similarities and differences between them both.
I will now examine what it means to be religious with a critical enquiry into Buddhism, Hinduism and
In terms, explore on religious meditation between Christianity and Buddhism. It published in 2000 and 2007, according to Alvin Mitchell, meditation without identifying the meaning of the modern can lead to narcissistic escapism, without compassion meditation to act without direction, and to the world. He explains how to work with the lives and spiritual growth of each religious tradition and those based on it. His subjects are good and the Gospels, Buddha taught the four considerations, training and include three positive actions of body, speech, tolerance, four positive act of wisdom (Reference and Research Book News 2009). Meditation and many spiritual, mental and physical exercise, but with roots in religious traditions, Christianity, Hinduism,
"Buddhism's Core Beliefs." ReligiousTolerance.org by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Since the 1970’s, non-Christian religions have had an increasing popularity particularly through Buddhism. Between the years 2006 and 2011, there has been an increase of more than 100,000 people nominating themsleves as Buddhist’s.