Taking a Look at Buddhism and Hinduism

726 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Differences and similarities of Buddhism and Hinduism

Buddhism and Hinduism are two of the most well known religions around the world. Along with Christianity, Islam and Sikhism; Buddhism and Hinduism are among the top five religions worldwide. Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), who was born a Hindu. He attained Nirvana at thirty six years of age and was no longer a Hindu follower. Hinduism's is believed to of begun around 4000 BCE, a religion combined of few other religions combined with many laws and ways of living. While Buddhism and Hinduism teach similar principles, the path they use to teach these principles are different.
The founder of Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama. He lived from 565 to 483 B.C. In 563 B.C. there were no worshiped gods in Buddhism. Gautama, being raised a Hindu, still believed in certain Hindu ideas. Because he rejected the caste system, he kept the ideas of meditation, and the doing good works to reach enlightenment.
Buddhism was formed as a result of the decline of Hinduism. Hinduism was complex in many different ways including their rituals and daily lifestyle. Gautama became tired of it and went his separate way, and started a new lifestyle in hope others would follow.
All Buddhist final and ultimate goals are to reach Nirvana. Nirvana is a state of being perfect, ending the process of reincarnation and beginning re-birth. There is a significant difference in the way Buddhist and Hindus view re-birth. The Buddhist believe in re-birth meaning that neither the soul nor the person gets transferred, while Hindus believe in reincarnation where the soul would travel from one body to another (the same person but in different bodies). However both believe in Samsara along with their views on suffering and that everyone will even...

... middle of paper ...

... governing different aspects of Hindu everyday life. The three main gods in Hinduism are Vishnu who is the sustainer; Brahma is the creator and Shiva the destroyer. The Hindus pray to natural sources such as the sun and trees, while Buddhists only pray to Buddha.
Today there are an estimated six hundred million Buddhists and about eight hundred twenty-eight million practicing Hinduism. Both believe in an ultimate spiritual reality beyond the physical world, both practice meditation and other forms of yoga and both these religions originated in India. Although there are many similarities between Buddhism and Hinduism they both have fair differences. The small differences have a huge impact on the two religions, because they are altogether two separate beliefs. They share a special history with each other, which is to be expected since they are from the same region.

Show More
Related

  • Compare And Contrast Hinduism And Buddhism

    697 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hinduism and Buddhism There are many religions that are practiced around the world, especially in Asia where there are eight different religions being practiced. In the country of India, Buddhism and Hinduism are the main religions that are practiced today. Buddhism and Hinduism were both founded in Asia, but they were founded by two different people and practiced in two different ways and languages. Buddhism is a living tradition that is passed down from teacher to student as a set of instruction and techniques for sanity and brilliance in the inner self and the world. Hinduism is more based on the thoughts and attitude about one’s everyday life, and reflects in his actions.

    Read More

  • A Tibetan Perspective on Birth and Death

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    Both of these religions originated in India. Buddhists and Hindus believe that death is not final. They believe that a person comes back after he or she dies. This process is known as reincarnation, and it provides opportunities for people to enter the world multiple times in different forms. Buddhists and Hindus want to reenter the world as humans, and they want to improve their status through reincarnation.

    Read More

  • The Spread of Buddhism and Christianity

    1557 Words  | 4 Pages

    Buddhism was founded by one man, Siddhartha Guatama. He was born into royalty around 563 B.C.E. in a Kingdom near the border of India and Nepal. He was raised in wealth and luxury, and at the age of 16, he married a wealth woman and they had a child together. Around the age of 29, he began to realize that all humans were in a cycle of suffering, dying, and then being reincarnated only to suffer and die over and over again. It was then that he decided to leave his wife and child to find a way out of this repeating cycle of life and death. First he studied with teachers, but found he was coming to no conclusions, so he turned to more extreme things such as self-mortification, but he was still left unsatisfied.

    Read More

  • Comparing Hinduism and Buddhism

    1930 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hinduism and Buddhism have different similarities and are in some ways connected to each other. Some of the practices of the two religions are similar in various ways and there are several examples to show this.

    Read More

  • Buddhism Compare And Contrast Essay

    704 Words  | 2 Pages

    Into the world, many religions were born; out of all of them Buddhism and Hinduism are both one of the oldest surviving religion. Hinduism is very polytheistic, it is believed to have been established around 1500 B.C but it has no founder or an origin, while Buddhism on the other hand was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, who ordinarily allotted as the Buddha, which implies the “Awakened or “illuminated one”. Both religions come from the Indian roots.

    Read More

  • Comparing Hinduism, Buddism, and Confucianism

    333 Words  | 1 Pages

    Hinduism, as well as Buddism, both came into existence in India. Both religions are similar in many ways. The religions both believe in reincarnation and that the specific purpose of their teachings is to escape this cycle.

    Read More

  • Comparing Hinduism And Hinduism

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    Buddhism and Hinduism share vast similarities. One being both the practice of meditation. Hinduism has “no single founder” (Hinduism, Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition), no central authority, and no widely known creed. However, Hinduism does have a caste system that they run on. Hindus believe that everyone has their place in the world and they cannot overstep their roles and responsibilities outlined in their caste. Hindus also follow the “Veda as the most sacred scriptures.”(Hinduism, Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition). Due to this commonality it has helped Hindus and Buddhists come to recognize each other and remain cordial to one another. Which is pivotal since both religions are practiced so close to one another (at least geographically speaking). The “caste system” (Hinduism." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition...

    Read More

  • Asoka and the Buddhist Faith

    1774 Words  | 4 Pages

    Buddhism is one of the oldest religions in the world, which began in India. The origin of Buddhism is traced back to the experience of single man, Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha. Born around 563 B.C.E., legend follows that Siddhartha was the son of a prince in a kingdom near the border of what is now India and Nepal. As such, he was sheltered from the world and lived a life of luxury and comfort. (Molloy 124) However, at age 29 Siddhartha left the royal grounds and witnessed the suffering of ordinary life for the first time. What he saw deeply affected him and caused him to question everything in his materialistic life. Siddhartha made the decision to give up his possessions and embark on a search for enlightenment, an event known as the Great Going Forth. (Molloy 125)

    Read More

  • Comparing Buddhism And Samsara

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    In both Hindu and Buddhist philosophies, they follow and focus on similar yet different concepts of liberating themselves from ‘Samsara’ and the suffering that comes with it. Samsara in both Hindu and Buddhist philosophies is the endless cycle of death and rebirth. So, the end goal is to work towards the enlightenment from this cycle. Though the two concepts are similar in that the goal is the same, the two have distinctive and important differences on how they view this “release” from the rebirth-death cycle; they both follow different paths to reach that end goal which, in basic terms, is to live a happy life.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Gautama Buddha In Hinduism

    323 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gautama Buddha is the founder of Buddhism, a religion that is heterodoxy to Hinduism. In Hinduism, Gautama Buddha is viewed as the ninth avatar, or a purposeful descendant of a supreme being, of the God Vishnu-specifically in Vaishnava Hinduism. It is believed that he lived and taught between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE. The word “buddha” refers to the first awakened being during in a Yuga era, but Gautama Buddha is regarded as the Supreme Buddha.

    Read More

  • Buddhism : Buddhism And Buddhism

    1715 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Buddhism and Islam

    1683 Words  | 4 Pages

    Buddhism originated from India, and was founded by Prince Siddharta Gautama, who later came to be known as Buddha, or the enlightened one. Born of a princely caste, he later renounced his comfortable life in search for nirvana. In order to do that, he joined a band of ascetic, who was a group of Hindu priests. In his teaching, the Buddha taught his followers to follow "the middle way", that is, not the way of extreme asceticism. He attained full understanding of the nature of being by meditation and after his success, decided to impart his knowledge to those who follow him .

    Read More

  • Buddha and Confucius

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    The founder of Buddhism was a man called Siddhartha Gautama, born to a wealthy family and destined for greatness; Siddhartha, however, left his family and the palace in search for religious truth and an end to suffering. Siddhartha tried many ways of reaching an enlightened stage; wandering the forest, joining the beggars, fasting, debating with religious leaders, but when none of these methods brought him a greater understanding of the world, Siddhartha sat himself down under a fig tree, and meditated. After forty-nine days of meditation Siddhartha was said to have achieved an understanding of the cause of suffering, he then became known as the Buddha, enlightened one.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Hinduism And Buddhism

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hinduism is the 3rd most popular religion in the world followed by Buddhism, together they are followed by 22 percent of the world’s population. These two religions are alike in many ways, and are tied together by Asia, where they have deep roots in its culture and history. Although Hinduism and Buddhism are similar in many ways, very important and large differences separate the two. No one and nothing can ever truly prove either religion is better than the other because that is up to personal beliefs and opinions, but many more people around the world prefer Buddhism over Hinduism because of its beliefs and practices.

    Read More

  • Reflection On World Religion

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    Buddhism was founded around 520 BC by Siddharta Gautama, who was an Indian Prince. Buddhism emphasizes practice over belief. In reality, however, Buddhism centers on correct understanding of human nature and ultimate reality. The Buddha was, after all, called the "Enlightened One." He taught that the way to eliminate suffering began with understanding the true nature of the world. In Buddhism, the purpose of life is to end suffering. The Buddha taught that humans suffer because we continually strive after things that do not give lasting happiness.

    Read More

More about Taking a Look at Buddhism and Hinduism

Open Document