Hinduism Vs. Buddhism: Different Characteristics Of Hinduism And Buddhism

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Recommended: Definition of religion

Hinduism and Buddhism are undoubtedly different than any other religion that we have studied. Some might even dispute whether or not they are a religion, or rather a way of life or philosophy. I will use the Merriam Webster definitions of religion to depict whether or not Hinduism and Buddhism should be understood as a religion. The There is one commonality between Buddhism and Hinduism is not a central feature of the other major religions: Reincarnation.
Reincarnation is a central belief among Hindus and Buddhists. This is the belief that a person will be reborn into a new body over and over again. Being born into a human body is considered a “precious and rare opportunity for the soul to advance toward its ultimate goal of liberation from rebirth and merging with absolute reality.” The ultimate goal is to escape this cycle through good deeds (Fisher 75). For Hinduism this is called moksha, and for Buddhism this is called nirvana.
When Western ideas came along, they set out guidelines for what a religion should be. In some ways, Hinduism did conform to Western Ideology and made central ideas for the religion that Westerners had given them a name for (Fisher 69). However, Hinduism …show more content…

The characteristics of a Hindu as V.D. Savarkar says is “one who (1) regards the entire subcontinent as his (or her) motherland/fatherland... (2) is descended of Hindu parents (3) and considers this land holy” (Sharma 23) Essentially, Savarkar implies that Hinduism is just a word that is specific to Indians. The Indian government adopted the definition of a Hindu as “one who belongs to any religion of Indian origin” (Sharma 24). However, I would like to disagree with this definition, as there are some Muslim groups in India that would be Hindus by this definition. There would not be tension between Muslims and Hindus if they didn’t think they were two very distinctly different

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