Tease Page |1 Brian W Tease Professor Suzanne Jacobs Humanities 2300 Comparative reflection paper In this paper I will

attempt to connect the similarities and differences between the beliefs and practices of the Hinduism, Christianity, and Buddhism. I will do this by summarizing each of the different beliefs and practices of each religion. Let me briefly touch base on what constitutes a religion. A religion is a set of beliefs that is held by a group of people. There are many different religions, each with a different set of beliefs. These beliefs are often linked to supernatural beings such as God, a number of gods or spirits. They may also be linked to an idea such as a path that the spirit of each person should take towards goodness, truth and duty. This is called spirituality. I will then summarize the similarities and differences of these religions, in an effort to show that although these religions have differences, I believe the common thread that pulls them together is a shared belief to respect and love all mankind. Hinduism is the oldest known religion to date and has no specific origin. It is polytheistic, characterized by wrathful gods, based around a caste system and primarily practice in India. Hindus believe that the levels in the caste system are reflective of actions in previous lives and that once a person reaches untouchable status they may then be able to attain a union with God. Hindus believe and practice the fundamental teachings of Hinduism, or Vedanta, is that a human beings basic nature is not confined to the body or the mind. Beyond both of these is the spirit with a spark of God within the soul. The general name for God in Hinduism is Brahman. The name of the divine essence within us is Atman. They are one and the same,

Tease Page |2 infinite and eternal. However Hindus believe God is also present in all creation. God's manifestation in creation goes by many names. It is the one infinite, eternal, divine being that is manifested in countless ways. Such is evident in their polytheistic beliefs and practices. They believe every cause must have its effect. We are responsible for the results of our actions. Reincarnation or karma is a concept which explains causality through a system where beneficial effects are derived from past beneficial actions and harmful effects from past harmful actions, creating a system of actions and reactions throughout a soul reincarnated life forming a cycle of rebirth. The causality is said to be applicable not only to the material world but also with our thoughts, words, actions and actions that others do under our instruction. When the cycle of rebirth comes to an end, a person is said to have attained release from this world to be with God. Hindus believe in three sacred texts which consist of the Vedas which is the oldest of their texts, is a collection of hymns, prayers and magic spells. The Upanishads are stories and parables told by gurus tutor students. The Mahabharata is a story of a war between two royal families. As The Bhagaved Gite is a very popular part of this text. The Ramayana is a story of the God Rama and the rescue of his wife Sita from the evil Demon King (Ravana). Although Hindus beliefs differ somewhat from Christianity, in some ways Hindus beliefs and practices have some similarities. First I will outline the main Christian beliefs and practices, and then I will discuss the similarities as well as differences that these two religions have. Christianity is monotheistic; they believe in the one and only true God, who is one being and exists as father, son, and Holy Spirit, in the belief that Jesus is the divine human Messiah sent to save the world. Christianity is also noted for its emphasis on faith in Christ, as the primary component of the religion. The sacred text of Christianity is the Bible, including both the Hebrew Scriptures known as the Old Testament and the New Testament. The foundations of

Tease Page |3 Christian theology are expressed in ecumenical creeds that are accepted by followers of the Christian faith. These professions state that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and was resurrected from the dead in order to grant eternal life to those who believe in him and trusted him for the resurrection of their sins. The creeds further maintain that Jesus body ascended into heaven, where he reigned with God the father. Christians teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, living and dead, and will grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered the model of a virtuous life. His ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to written accounts of Jesus's life and teachings, four of which are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The 10 Commandments are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship which play a fundamental role in Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibit idolatry worship, blasphemy, murder, theft, and adultery. Central to Christian practice is the gathering at churches for worship, fellowship, and study, and engagement with the world through evangelism and social action. In Christian belief and practice, a sacrament is a right, instituted by Christ that mediates grace. The two most widely accepted sacraments are baptism and the Eucharist. Baptism is a religious sacrament marked by the symbolic application of water to the head or immersion of the body into water and resulting in admission of the recipient into the community of Christians. It symbolizes that the subject is cleansed from sin and constituted as a member of the church. The Eucharist (Or Holy Communion) is reenacted in accordance with Jesus instructions at the Last Supper, as recorded in the New Testament, when Christ took bread,

Tease Page |4 and blessed it and broke it, and giving it to his disciples, said: take and eat; this is My body; then He took a couple of wine, blessed it, and giving it to them said: All of you drink of this; for this is My blood of the new covenant which is being shed for many on to the forgiveness of sin; He gave his apostles the commission: Do this in remembrance of Me. This is done so that the individual Christian can examine his/her spiritual self, is done as a proclamation of faith and is done as a practice of the church. In Christian traditions, prayer is offered for the benefit of other people. Prayer is also used to commune with God. Prayer likewise includes praying on the behalf of sick people. Christianity is considered to be the largest religion on earth boasting 2.2 billion adherents. In Hinduism and Christianity their core belief and practices are centralized around a belief in God. However in Buddhism they don't believe in a God concept. There are several reasons for this. The Buddha, like modern sociologists and psychologists, believed that religious ideas and especially the God idea have their origin in fear. The Buddha says: gripped by fear men go to the sacred mountains, sacred groves, sacred trees and shrines. Buddhists believe that man found himself in a dangerous and hostile world, so he created the idea of gods in order to give him comfort in good times, courage in times of danger and consolation when things went wrong. All this seems to support the Buddha's teaching that the God idea is a response to fear and frustration. Buddha teaches us to try to understand our fears, to lessen our desires and to calmly and courageously accept the things we cannot change. He replaced fear, not with irrational belief but with rational understanding. Another reason the Buddha did not believe in a God is because there does not seem to be any evidence to support this idea. There are numerous religions, all claiming that they alone have God's words preserved in their holy book, that they alone understand God's nature, that their God exists and that the God of other religions do not. It

Tease Page |5 is not surprising that with so many different religions spending so many centuries trying to prove the existence of other gods that still no real, concrete, substantial or irrefutable evidence has been found. Buddhists suspend judgment until such evidence is forthcoming. Some claim that god is necessary in order to give man salvation. But this argument only holds good if you accept the theological concept of salvation and Buddhists do not accept such a concept. Based on his own experience, the Buddha saw that each human being had the capacity to purify the mind, develop infinite love and compassion and perfect understanding. He shifted attention from the heavens to the heart and encouraged us to find solutions to our problems through self-understanding. Buddhists as a whole want to achieve freedom from the cycle of reincarnation and attain Nirvana. That is the enlightened state in which a person is free from greed, hate, and ignorance. Buddhists must follow five main principles which prohibit; killing, stealing, ill language, sexual immorality, and the use of toxic substance. When someone successfully follows these principles, the three roots of evil, ignorance, hate, and deceit, can be overcome. Buddhist practice daily meditation and chanting and believe that if practiced with sincerity it will have a real impact on their life and outlook. While practicing meditation they sit a special way. Sometimes they do these things to understand the way the world works. Sometimes you do these things to find peace within themselves and things around them. Buddha was born in India; he was the son of the King. The title of Buddha means enlightened one. Buddha taught that if people make good decisions they could be happy and have peace of mind. Buddhism is a religion to about 300 million people around the world. It has its origins about 2,500 years ago when Siddhartha Gotama, known as Buddha, was himself awakened or enlightened at the age of 35. During this time he learned of his past lives and solve all past lives of other people. During his enlightenment he pointed towards the earth as a witness

Tease Page |6 of his enlightened, he was offered to be free from nirvana but his decision was to stay on earth and teach others about the path of enlightenment. After his teachings, he died at 80 years of age, leaving behind a legacy of his teachings and practices. These three religions share a few common threads of rituals and practices. In comparisons, Christians place of worship is in a church, chapel, Cathedral, home Bible study, or personal dwelling. In Hinduism and Buddhism their place of worship is mainly in Temples, or personal dwellings such as their homes. Hindus Scriptures come from the Vedas, Upanishad, Gita. As whereas Christian Scriptures come from the holy Bible, which is a collection of canonical, books in two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. In each of these religious texts, the theme for each religion is the same, don't lie, steal, kill etc. The concept of deity between Hinduism and Christianity are quite different. Hinduism is dependent on school of thought. Monism (everything is a manifestation of God), they believe many deitys controlling different aspects of life, along with Monotheism (one God, perhaps with many incarnations or manifestations). As whereas in Christianity the concept of their deity is of one God, to a Christian God is eternally supreme as the creator and preserver of the world. The Trinity exists as three beings in one God had: the father, son and Holy Spirit, One being, three persons, one God. As far as Buddhisms concept of a God, they don't believe a God exists. Although these three religions differ in their concept of God, I found it interesting that in each one of these religions, they participate in daily prayer and meditation, to improve a conscious contact with themselves and their soul. Even though the principle of life after death is quite different from Hinduism and Buddhism, both of these religions stress a stringent lifestyle of love and concern for your fellow man, in order prevent the cycle over incarnation. In Christianity they believe that you are appointed to die once, and then face judgment.

Tease Page |7 They believe Christ Jesus died on the cross for our sins and then ascended to heaven, and because of that and our faith we shall be resurrected as well to join him in heaven. So each one of these religions believes life after death, and they prove that by the practices in which they teach, such as goodwill to all. In all three of these religious beliefs the goal is to return to the origin of once we came from. All three of these religions, in my opinion are teaching love, kindness, respect, mutual understanding of ourselves and others. In short I believe they're all talking the same language and that's the language of the heart.

Cited works htt://www.vedanet.com/2012/06/the-original-teachings-of-yoga-from-patanjali-back-tohiranyagarbha/ I visited this site on December 7, 2013 http://www.meditateinla.org/temple/I visited this site on December 7, 2013