Judaism and Buddihsm Dow Defined

Judaism and Buddihsm

Dow defined religion as a human activity which is easily accepted, but within the framework of reality that it creates for itself. By accepting the existence of whatever myth, god, spirit or supernatural force that is proposed by a particular religion, one is able to see the logic of all that follows. The basis of religious thought, that is, most of the entities, gods or whatever, cannot have their existence validated through direct observation. The scientific view of religion is that it has provided human culture with excellent understanding of the natural world and of human behavior.

The term Judaism is derived from the Greek word, Ioudaismos, which was coined by Greek speaking Jews as a means of differentiating their religious beliefs from those of their pagan neighbors. Judaism is monotheistic, basically meaning that Jews believe in the existence of a single god. Judaism is based on the principles that are contained in the Hebrew Bible, also referred to as Tanakh, and is a lot of the times linked to Jewish people. It has been suggested that early Jews were monolatrous, which meant that they worshipped one god but also that they accepted the existence of other gods even if they themselves didn't worship them. They also believed that they were God's chosen people and were thus expected to keep his commandments (Lewis 138).

Buddhism began in around 500 BC and its founder is known. People living at around that time had become disillusioned with certain Hinduism beliefs among which were the caste system. The caste system left a number of people as outcasts due to their lack of belonging to a particular caste. This disbelief resulted in the people turning to a number of different beliefs like worshiping animals in a bid to satisfy the emptiness that they felt inside. Another reason was the Hindu belief of reincarnation which left many with a feeling of dread. This resulted into a breaking of Hinduism into a number of different sects of which Buddhism became the most successful of them ("What is Buddhism"). Like many other religions, Buddhism has many stories with regards to how it came about. These stories were mainly about the events surrounding the life of the founder, who in this case was Siddhartha Gautama. The Buddha was born about 560 BC in Northeastern India to the family of the rajah or ruler at that time. His mother died a week after he was born and he was thus raised by his mother's sister who was his father's second wife. There was a supposed prophesy given by a sage at the time of his birth which stated that the child born would be a great ruler if he stayed at home or a savior of mankind if he left home. It was for this reason that his father surrounded him with wealth and pleasure, keep painful and ugly things from him in order to make him want to stay and succeed him as king when the time came (Adamson 3).

The Buddha eventually married and had a child but the time did come when he told his father that he wanted to see the world. His father ordered that the streets be cleansed and decorated and all the elderly and ill people stay inside. It was on his journey that he saw the four passing sites that forever changed his life. Some people did not get the message and as a result, Siddhartha's first troubling sight was of a decrepit old man. On inquiry, he found out that everyone became old later on in life. He later met a sick man and learnt that people became sick and suffered pain and then saw a funeral procession on its way to the crematorium and the bereaved weeping bitterly. He was informed that it was the way of life and that even he would eventually die like everyone else. The last sight was of a monk begging for food with a look of tranquility on his faith which made him decide that it was the life for him. Immediately, he left his family, wealth and possessions in his search for enlightenment and the day came to be known as the Great Renunciation (Armstrong 187).

Ultimate reality (God)

The basis of God in Judaism is derived from Rambam's thirteen principles of faith. In the first line of the Torah, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." God is introduced as the maker of the universe with his background information not needed as his existence is a given. Judaism views the existence as proof of God's existence. Another fundamental belief in Judaism is the belief in God (Day 83).

"Hear, Israel: The Lord is God, the Lord is one." Are the words from the central prayer in Judaism referred to as the Shema. The thought of the existence of any other God is viewed as heretic by the Jews and it is therefore why all prayer and praise are directed to God. God is also viewed as incorporeal meaning that he does not possess a body and does not take a physical form. Reference to God's body is considered to be metaphorical and the physical representation of God is considered as idolatry. God is seen as not being of any gender as he lacks a physical body. He is not viewed as either male or female as God is referred to in masculine terms and the Divine presence filling the universe or Shechinah is referred to in feminine terms ("Judaism").

Do is eternal, which means that he transcends time and has no beginning or end. He is viewed as omnipresent and is seen to be everywhere with no boundaries that contain him. He is always near and fills the universe and beyond. God is believed to reward good and punish evil making him just and merciful. People try to atone for their sins through the use of prayer, repentance and giving and in so doing find their way back into God's favor. God is omnipotent or all powerful although the only thing he is unable to control is the free will that is characteristic of man. He is all knowing and knows the thoughts of man as well as his deeds whether past, present or future.

Buddhism is viewed as a path of practice and spiritual development which leads to insight into the true nature of life. Its practices of meditation are a means of changing oneself so as to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness and wisdom. Experiences developed within the traditions of Buddhism over thousands of years have created an incomparable resource for all those wishing to follow a path that eventually culminates to enlightenment or Buddhahood. Buddhahood does not include the idea of worshipping a creator god and as a result some people do not see it as a religion in the normal sense. Its basic tenets of teaching are straightforward and practical, that is nothing is permanent, actions have consequences and change is always possible. Buddhism addresses itself to all people irrespective of race, nationality or gender. It teaches practical methods like meditation that enable people realize and utilize its teachings in order to transform their experience and be fully responsible for their lives and also develop the qualities of wisdom and compassion.

The human situations

Judaism subscribes to the belief that God created the universe out of nothing but not out of his own substance. The nothingness has no ontological statute nor is it a primordial substance. This is because prior to creation, God was the only thing that existed. God created human beings after completing the creation of the physical universe. There is no ontological continuity between God's nature and human nature (Valea). Human beings have a physical and spiritual dimension, unlike the physical world which possesses a physical dimension only. The human being is not a pre-existent celestial soul that has fallen into the material body as the physical dimension and spiritual dimension were created at the same time.

The Buddha described the human condition as a painted body that is full of wounds, put together, diseased and full of many thoughts in which there is neither permanence nor stability. The body was further described as worn out, a nest of diseases and very frail. This heap of corruption breaks in pieces, life indeed ends in death. What delight is there for him who sees these white bones like gourds cast away in the autumn? Of the bones a citadel is made, plastered over with flesh and blood, and in it dwell old age and death, pride and deceit. A person is seen as a product of five factors that depend on each other and are in a process of becoming, constantly. The five factors, also called aggregates comprise of the body or the material form which is referred to as rupa; feeling or vedana which are sensations arising from the body's sense organs; cognition or sanna, the process of classifying and labeling sensory and mental objects that enable one to recognize them; the mental constructions or sankhara which is a state that initiates action, giving shape to our character. It is also known as the will and finally the consciousness or vijnana which is the sense of awareness of a sensory or mental object. The human being is thus seen as a cluster of ever changing physical and mental processes with no underlying self. The five aggregates depend on becoming as they dependant on one another. Life is therefore a suffering in itself and one does not merely suffer in itself.

Salvation (reconciliation of humanity with ultimate reality)