Theology
Buddhism grew out of the Hindu religion alongside Jainism. These two religions (Buddhism and Jainism) are extremely similar in that they both accept all people and reject authority and the caste system, but Buddhism differs greatly from Jainism in that Buddists are taught to follow a path through the middle of "worldliness and extreme asceticism." (Hopfe, and Woodward 127) The creator of the Buddhist religion is attributed to a man named Siddhartha, who live between the years 560-480 B.C.E. (Hopfe, and Woodward 127) Siddhartha was a rich prince who was prophesized to become a Buddha (or Enlightened One), if certain events came to be during his lifetime (Hopfe, and Woodward 128). By the time his thirtieth birthday had arrived, Siddhartha had witnessed the events needed to convince him to leave his earthly and princely life behind and pursue a life dedicated to solving human suffering (Hopfe, and Woodward 129). After going through a long period of searching and asceticism Siddhartha found no answers and was no closer to his goal than when he left, he decided to give up asceticism as a path to enlightenment and meditated for a long while, where he eventually found enlightenment...
The five basic rules of moral conduct for monks in the Buddhist order are: "abstain from killing, stealing, lying, engaging in improper sexual conduct, and partaking of intoxicants." (Hopfe, and Woodward 131). The basic belief for a Buddhist is that one's soul, which is comprised of five parts: the body, feelings, understanding, will, and consciousness; will be forever in a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth unless one can follow the Eightfold Path and accept the Four Noble Truths (Hopfe, and Woodward 132).
The Eightfold Path comprises of eight teachings that help the Buddhist to move beyond earthly obstructions for a path toward Enlightenment. The first tenant is Perfect Vision, which means the right view or understanding of nature's realities and the "path of transformation." (Allen). The second tenant is Perfect Emotion, which means right thought and attitude,…
Buddhism is a worldwide religion started over 2,500 years ago by Siddhartha Gautama, called "The Buddha," in India (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004). Since then it has grown and spread across the globe and now 300 million people profess to be Buddhist (Grow, 1996). Buddhism, like Protestantism, is actually a group of related religions that have some similarities and some differences (Grow, 1996). However, just as all Christians trace their beliefs back to
This also means that it is the Sovereign God and not just Lady Luck that is the Lord of Israel. Since God is sovereign by nature, it means that His sovereignty even extends to the allocation of Gods to tribals and to pagans, and this also means that God did not simply hand over His very representation of Himself as the Father and as the Son and as the Spirit
Buddhism Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Shakyamuni Buddha, grew up a prince in India. As the Brahmin teachings of his family and homeland failed to provide Siddhartha with spiritual nourishment, he pursued a path to enlightenment on his own. Thus around 650 BCE Buddhism was born. With no deity or creation story, Buddhism appears to be more of a philosophy of living than a fundamental religion, although different sects of Buddhism espouse
S. There were 2,794,130 Americans of East Asian decent in the United States in 1990. Not all of these people practice a traditional East Asian religion, and reliable figures for the religious affiliations of East Asians are impossible to obtain because the United States Census does not ask questions about religion. In addition, the religious groups are very disparate and keep different kinds of records, and many East Asians observe
) These consist in offerings made at the home shrine or performing puja to the family deities whereas Nainittika occur only at certain times during the year.For instance, the celebration of festivals in temples, offering thanksgiving etc.Kamya are pilgrimages. Although optional they are ocnsidered by the followers of the faith to be highly desirable. It allows a devotee to see and be seen by the deity which is an important
The responsibilities of one's current caste also constitute the dharma which will further advance or punish one in your next life. In other words, exceeding one's dharma in not only unnecessary, but in all probability will hurt your dharma, causing you to fall into a lower caste in your next life. This intertwining of social strata with religion creates a fatalism derived from inevitable destiny, guilt complexes of past