Buddhism Religion - Essay Example

? Buddhism Religion Comparative Analysis Paper Thesis The theme behind the book “What the Buddha Taught” by Walpola Rahula aims to teach more about the religion of Buddhism and what Buddha taught about man being an ultimate and Supreme Being. “An Inquiry into the Good” by Kitaro Nishida focuses on four major aspects such as “Pure existence”, “Reality”, “The Good” and “Religion”. It should be noted that the book also focuses on religion and links this to “Pure Existence” of man. On a comparative approach a major theme that can be retrieved from these books is the aspect of Buddhism as a religion as well as the incorporation of what Kitaro Nishida term as “Pure Existence”. Introduction This paper will seek to make a comparative study approach to compare and contrast in detail the following physiological texts. These include; “What the Buddha Taught” by Walpola Rahula and “An Inquiry Into The Good” by Kitaro Nishida and translated by Masao Abe and Christopher Ives. The notion behind the book, “What the Buddha Taught” was first to introduce the concept of Buddhism as a religion. Walpola Rahula sought to bring the understanding of the teachings of Buddha and Buddhism as a religion among people. He sought to bring out Buddha as a person who was very simplistic in his nature. Walpola Rahula also introduced the Buddhist attitude on mind that states, “Man is supreme-one is one’s refuge-responsibility-Doubt-Freedom of Thought-Tolerance”. This indicated that man was a supreme being and he was responsibility, doubt, freedom and tolerance. In other words, man was the only being that was known to exist beyond the super natural. In this light, Walpola Rahula sought to bring about the Four Noble Truths relates to Buddhism. These included; “The Noble Truth of Suffering” that related to what Walpola Rahula termed as Dukkha, which meant that Buddhism was neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but it was realistic. The second noble truth was the arising of Dukkha, where this meant that man got his desire to achieve something that is not solely related to wealth, power or earthly pleasures but belief and ideas. The third noble truth was “The Cessation of Dukkha”. This meant the elimination of the root causes of Dukkha. Walpola Rahula sought to explain that if the root causes of problems were eliminated from our world, then we would ensure that freedom was existent and he termed this freedom as Nirvana. However he also added that Nirvana was impossible to attain as the root could not be solely eliminated. The fourth noble truth was “Magga” that is “The Path”. This was termed as the path that was to lead to Nirvana. As stated Nirvana was freedom that was hard to accomplish because the root causes could also not be completely eliminated. Moreover, the noble path consisted of the following; Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and finally Right Concentration. The Middle Path was a planned path that led to development and progress and an individual who ought to follow the noble path would be guided and protected by the existing law that was referred to as Dhamma. It also added that this path led to a future that was free from misery and unhappiness (“The Noble Eight-Fold Path”). The Noble Eight-Fold Path was grouped into four categories that include: Wisdom, Morality and Mental Development. According to De Silva (1990) wisdom incorporated Right Understanding and Right Thoughts. Right Understanding was related to having knowledge about the four noble truth and what they are. This also included understanding what karma was and being knowledgeable how it comes around and ways to avoid Karma by making the right decisions. As a result of Right Understanding came Right Thoughts that could lead to thinking in a positive and morally upright manner. Morality incorporated Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. Right Speech involved saying what is true and the respect of others. It also incorporated the behavior of not lying or cheating and talking behind people’s backs. This behavior was prone to lead the individual to a behavior that was related to good speech and respect that brought about peace and harmony among the people involved. Right Action was described as that which entailed the respect for people’s property and assets as well as personal relationships. Finally the Right Livelihood referred to how individuals earn their daily income in their day in day out lives. This noble path was linked to Right speech and Right Action where without good speech and action, one was prone not to attain the Right Livelihood. Mental development incorporated Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Right Effort was related to the aspect of practicing a right attitude that would catapult our thought to a better understanding in what we do. Right Effort included four aspects that were very important to incorporate in human behavior. These included the first effort to reject evil; the second effort was to prevent oneself from engaging in evil, the third effort was to develop oneself to practice well and the last effort was to nurture good and maintaining it. Thus this was ought to the individual becoming a whole person where they would have the capability of living in a sound and peaceful manner. Right Mindfulness was also described as being important in our lives. The Buddha stated that, mindfulness was one that would be used to attain the end of suffering. This could be developed by being at reach with the body in terms of body postures, positioning, breathing, feelings, the mind and objects that surround us. This was defined as being equally essential as it was to lead to ultimate clarity of the thoughts in our mind. Lastly, Right Mindfulness was related to our body feelings and how we as individuals nurture these feelings. This could be in the form of meditation and concentration that may be a form of making our mind distinct and clear (“The Noble Eight-Fold Path”). When these noble path factors were followed, it was prone to enable the person who practices them gain strength and ultimate control over themselves and this was to lead to freedom and wisdom. The notion behind the book, “An Inquiry into the Good” by Kitaro Nishida was based on the notion of philosophical thought and understanding of concept that relate to the environment that we are part of. Kitaro Nishida examined Zen Buddhism and his Western philosophy and culture. He sought to evaluate that if the westernized culture was to be implanted into the Japanese culture then they would lose their sense of meaning and their traditional values. In his book, he detailed four major issues. These included: “Pure existence”, “Reality”, “The Good” and “Religion”. In “Pure Existence”, he spoke about experience and related experience to judgment that was to take place and the individual experiencing the whole experience has knowledge and they are all the same. This he described as “pureness” which acts as a unifying feature of human sensation or intuition. The second aspect was “Reality” where he sought to draw a link between the world that humans live in and human existence based on what truly exists and what does not. He sought to come up with a concept that all types of experiences that we undergo through have a common law that unifies them. The third aspect was “The Good” where it was based on ethical behavior, that is; is the action good or bad based on the judgment or decision that we as humans make. Kitaro Nishida went ahead to study the greatest ethical theories that were ever defined such as the theory of “dianoeic ethics”, “hedonism” and “energetism” where he focused on the theory of “energetism”. This theory was based on the aspect of happiness as a human goal for existence, that is, the realization of our personal “good”. The fourth and final aspect was “Religion” that was described in the form of religion as an experience that humans encounter. Comparison “What The Buddha Taught” sought to speak about religion of Buddhism and its teachings such as; man was a supreme being and that he was in charge of his life and his destiny. Moreover, the book elaborated that man was the only Supreme Being and that there existed no other being that could be compared to him. “An Inquiry into the Good” by Kitaro Nishida sought to explain the aspect of “Religion”. He described that there existed a linkage between religion and western cultures. In his thinking, religion was one of the main principles that he sought o elaborate by his view into Zen Buddhism. Thus Kitaro Nishida also viewed Buddhism as a religion where man was immensely the solemn being. According to Nishida (1992), "Meanings and judgments are an abstracted part of the original experience, and compared with the original experience they are meager in content”. In addition to that, since he was a Zen philosopher, the aspect of “Pure existence” was also supported in his works but adopting the notion of man being the supreme being and stating that "true self" is only gotten from “Pure experience” and this is achieved though the ideology that earthly trends should be abandoned and an individual should be open and selfless in a manner that the being incorporating all these aspects would soon be a supreme being. Contrast “What The Buddha Taught” by Walpola Rahula focused on the aspect of religion in Buddhism and he thought of man being a supreme being only, “An Inquiry Into The Good” by Kitaro Nishida focuses on four additional aspects on Buddhism such as “Pure existence”, “Reality” and “The Good” and this supplemented the works by Walpola Rahula. Moreover the book sought to incorporate western culture based on the philosophy that, if the Japanese were to be incorporated and subjected to westernized culture, they would adapt it and forget about the Japanese culture and traditions. Thus the book also added a twist of the westernized culture philosophy. Conclusion With regards to the themes on religion that was depicted in the three books. It can be ststed that all the books support Buddhism. Moreover the aspect of the human being been a supreme being was also depicted in the books “What the Buddha Taught” and “An Inquiry into the Good”. The books revealed that man was a supreme being and that he was his own master and that there is no higher being or power that sits in judgment over his destiny. He books also sought to clarify that man had the power to be himself and his own leader and he also had the supreme power to liberate himself from all bondage through his own personal effort and intelligence. It further strives to teach that man’s emancipation depends on his realization of the truth and not on benevolent grace of a god whose reward is if you are in good behavior. Works cited Walpola Rahula. 1974. What the Buddha taught. New York: Grove Press Kitaro, Nishida. 1992. An Inquiry into the Good: Translated by Masao Abe and Christopher Ives. UK: YALE University Press. Parami.Org. The Noble Eight-Fold Path. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.parami.org/buddhistanswers/eightfold_path.htm De Silva, P. (1990). Buddhist psychology: A review of theory and practice. Current Psychology, 9(3), 236-254. Read More