Comparison Buddhism, Hinduism and Ancient Greek Philosophy - Coursework Example

06 March A Comparative Study between Buddhism, Hinduism and Ancient Greek Philosophy Analysis: Hinduism and Buddhism were originated in South Asia. The history of Hindu has far more than that of Hinduism. It was used by Persian conquerors, since the middle of the first millennium BCE; refer to the indigenous populations living in the surroundings of the river flowing along the north- western frontiers of the Indian subcontinent, Sindhu. Buddhism was founded by the prophet Gautama Buddha, who was the prince of the kingdom Kapilavatthu named Siddhartha, at the Himalayan Foothills, around 490 BCE, who was to become Gautama Buddha after his renunciation. Hinduism also means the emergence of Vedas, in which the Upanishads were composed between the 7th and 3rd century and also it became a part of the Vedas. Buddhism was emerged as a part of Shramana movements, around the 5th century. “Hinduism has the belief of monotheistic (one God) as well as polytheistic (many Gods) elements: the one Supreme Being (Brahman) also exists simultaneously in the deities of the Creator (Brahma), the Reality or Sustainer (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva)” (Hinduism par.6). According to the Buddhism philosophy, there is no god which does not believe in the concept of god. “In fact, often those who scorn others, claiming some unconvincing excuse, are unable to look the target of their ridicule directly in the eye, perhaps because they see their ownselves there” (Ikeda & Nanda p.9). The reincarnation and ultimate salvation was taught by Buddhism and rejected Vedas of Hinduism. An important principle of Hinduism is the Law of Karma. It is the law of cause and effect in which each and every action should have a reaction, which will happen in the first life time or the next birth. Buddhism criticizes the religious value of sacrifice and giving importance to particular deities. Also they are denying Upanishads of Hinduism, where Upanishads contain the concept of one’s true self (atman) with the divine ground claimed that Individual’s existence does not have the quality of an imperishable, blissful self or atman. There are two great epics in Hinduism; they are Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata which was composed in 6th and 7th century. Buddhism has the doctrines which were written in Pali –a canon text. Yoga is one of the important disciplines of Hinduism. Through Yoga, one can get a controlled body and mind. In Buddhism they have the concept for salvation which is depended on oneself and not to others. Traditional worship of God in Hinduism is known as pooja. There will be a pooja room in every Hindu’s house. “Hinduism is not a fixed and uniform doctrinal system; it is broad, inclusive, and tolerant of different points of view” (Chapter 19: Asian Thought p.411). Buddhism was found not only in India, but also in other countries like Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Myanmar (Burma), China, Korea, Thailand, Tibet and Japan. They also rejected the caste system which is in Hinduism. Moreover, Buddhism has a founder in Gautama Buddha, while Hinduism does not have any founder of its own. It was originated as a civilisation in the surroundings of River Sindhu. There are the four noble truths in Buddhism. “The doctrine of the Four Noble Truths then focuses on the relationship between suffering and attachment or desire” (Chapter 19: Asian Thought p.412). The Buddhist strongly rejects the doctrine of rebirth and karma, followed by the Buddhist doctrine of eight hold path. Hinduism allows complete freedom to individual. It is extremely liberal and catholic. And, also Sanskrit has got importance in this religion. Hindus have the belief that there are two stages of life. They are: Vanaprastha and Sannyasa, - man withdraws himself from all worldly activities, retires into the forest and prepares himself for taking Sannyasa. This is the life of a Vanaprastha sanyasa after vanaprasta and he leads a meditation life. Dharma, Reincarnation, and Karma are the basic tenets of Buddhism. Buddhism was powerful when emperor Ashoka (3rd century BCE) prohibited the killing of animals. Despite all these Hinduism and Buddhism, both influence considerably each other. Within various Hindu developments, Buddhist ideals and practices were found and a number of Buddhist texts, in particular Mahayana scriptures, reflect in Hinduism. The two main examples are the philosophical method which is developed within the Buddhist Madhyamaka School on Shankara and the Advaita-Vedantic doctrine in the Upanishads. Mahayana-Buddhist development exhibits similarities to the Brahman-Atman teaching. Moreover, both of the religions become spiritually renunciating and have the concept of liberation within it. As a result of mutual influence, Buddha was recognised as the avatar of lord Vishnu. And the temple’s shrines are similar for both Hinduism and Buddhism. Also, when comparing Hinduism and Buddhism, casteism was opposed because of Brahmanism arose in that era. The Brahmin caste was considered as the supreme power in the Hindu religious system and they were the priest class. The Buddhists were against this sort of religious classification of Hinduism. Buddhism considered world is full of sorrows and the three concepts, dharma, karma and moksha to solve this problem. Also, Hinduism offers the individuals to self-realization. Both the philosophies are similar in thoughts of karma and rebirth, but rebirth was not an acceptable concept for Buddhists earlier, since they believed rebirth as a different concept. The main similarities between Hinduism and Buddhism are the belief’s that old desires are the root of suffering. Both gave importance in compassion and peace to all living beings, believed in heaven and hell, believed in multiple deities and gods. Also, they believed in the spiritual practices such as concentration, meditation, and cultivation of certain states of mind. They believed in rethinking past life and of leaving the outside world. And another similarity is that both were originated in India. These two philosophical concepts had some relation with the ancient Greek philosophy. The ancient Greek philosophy had emerged since the 6th century BCE which was continued with the incorporation of Roman Empire. The Greek philosophy was originated due to the famous Greek philosophers- Socrates and Plato. There is a greatly historical relevance with the ancient Greek philosophy. In which “It may be doubted that the ancient Greeks, for instance, were concerned about escaping the human condition, etc., but this cannot be reasonably doubted in the case of Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, and Plotinus” (Duerlinger p.3). The ancient Greek philosophy studies the enquiries and activities of the Greco-Roman thinkers. It began and ends with the novelty of the early Pre-Socratic thinkers such as Thales and Anaximander and the late Neo-platonic. Ancient Greek philosophers can be found around Greek-speaking Mediterranean regions such as Sicily, Asia Minor, South Italy, North Africa and Egypt. The questions which posed the Greek thinkers concerned around the philosophical areas of Logic, Metaphysics, Aesthetics, Cosmology, Ethics, and Epistemology. They began to think about the existence of earth, sun and stars. And there were so many doctrines which were innovated by the various areas. Ancient Greek Philosophers were mainly pagans and their innovative activities did not get full support by the rising Christianity. Hence the end of ancient philosophy is marked as the close of the Platonic Academy of Athens by the emperor Justinian in 529AD. There was only few numbers of writers left in the ancient Greek philosophy. Despite the fragmentary evidences of the Greek philosophical thought, its theoretical completeness and originality can found in the survived works. Ancient Greek philosophy can be divided into four periods, they are- Pre-Socratic Philosophy (6th – 5th century BC), Classical Philosophy (4th century BC), Hellenistic Philosophy (late 4th century BC – 1st century AD), and Imperial Philosophy (1st century AD – 6th century AD). The ancient Greek philosophers gave us the basic categories of philosophy, beginning with metaphysics, which is a part of philosophy. The concept of idealism and materialism were aroused in this context. Again, the Greeks considered the two things which are against to knowledge, they are empiricism, which emphasize that all knowledge comes through the senses and the other is called rationalism, which specifies knowledge is a matter of reason (thought).  Also, both the concepts are not entirely exclusive. The other important concept of the philosophy was ethics, which is both good and bad or right and wrong considerably known as morals. Other two concepts are hedonism, which says that the good and bad are based on one’s pleasure, and cynicism, which says that the world is essentially of evils, which one can make a distance from it by moving towards the ultimate good i.e., god. There are so many thinkers in Italy and in other countries around the world. They move their concepts with doctrines. Ancient Greek philosophy began on the western coast of Turkey, an area which was then known as Ionia Miletus, the richest city from Ionia, was a man of Phoenician descent called Thales (624-546).  He learned geometry and astronomy from Egypt and from other parts of the near east. The other famous Ionian thinker was, Heraclitus (540-475). There are other famous thinkers in Italy, Pythagoras (582-500), who was a famous mathematician, the inventor of Pythagoras theorem. Other famous thinkers were, Xenophanes (570-475), and Parmenides (540-470) .And the famous Abderans were, Leucippus (fl. c. 440), Democritus (460-370) and Protagoras (480-411). The Greek literature and history was started in the early 8th or 9th BCE, with the foundation of two city states. Also, the publication of two major epics, Iliad and Odyssey was written by the great poet Homer in the Phoenician alphabet. From Hinduism philosophy, there are also two epics, as the Greek’s. Greek philosophers developed the philosophical idea of study on the basic truths and the idea about universe, they also have the concept that universe is controlled and ordered by the nature’s law. This can also be seen in the Buddhism philosophy. The great philosopher Socrates lived in this era, from between 470 and 399 B.C, he encouraged his students by his thoughts, and the method is known as Socratic Method, which is popularly known as the question-answer style of teaching. In Buddhism philosophy, too, we find a great teacher cum Prophet Gautama Buddha. The belief system of Greek philosophy was referred as, “The Greeks had many gods, but certain principle ones stood out; these were portrayed in literature as dwelling on Mount Olympus, under the presidency of Zeus, whose name shows that he derived ultimately from the old Indo-European sky-god Dyaus Pitar” (Jones p.457). The religious belief for Greek philosophy shows that they have so many gods as in Hinduism philosophy, also sun is worshipped as a god in Hinduism and for Greeks, its god Apollo. They also have worship in temples as in Hinduism. One of the important concepts in Greek philosophy was made by Socrates in which he believed that “Wisdom, the oracle was telling him, knows that he did not know! Wisdom is the awareness of our ignorance, an awareness of the limitations of knowledge” (Chapter 1: What is Philosophy? P.3). The three philosophies have an equal idea in the concept of wisdom, in which the prime aim is acquiring wisdom and this can be achieved through knowledge. The concept of a Supreme Law or Ultimate Reality has a significant importance in Greek philosophy, in case of traditional beliefs about the gods. They have a strong belief in the concept of Ataman, which the great philosopher Plato said that the soul and body are separate things. Though they believe in sacrifices yet they have problems with life after death as they believe that death is not considered as a glorious thing. The belief of reincarnation was a wide spread aspect of ancient Greek philosophy, some of the Greek thinkers claimed that this concept may spread from Hinduism, but most of thinkers believe that the Greeks independently developed this idea. Most of the aspects such as the concept of ataman and reincarnation were present in the Hindu philosophy. There are so many differences between the ancient Greek philosophy, Hinduism and Buddhism. The main one is that the ancient Greek philosophy is not a religious system or a culture; it was a period of innovation in various aspects of philosophy and through this, many innovations were made in astronomy, mathematics, epics and in various other aspects. It was a new conceptual era in the ancient centuries. It was originated in not only Greece, but also in Italy and several other countries. There was no prophet, no common ideas, as we find in Buddhism and Hinduism philosophy. Rather its only new thoughts and powerful ideas and revolutionary innovations which held its dominance in this philosophy. Works Cited Chapter 19: Asian Thought. n.d. Web. 05 March 2013. http://www.philosophy-religion.org/living/philosophy/19.pdf Chapter 1: What is Philosophy? n.d. Web. 05 March 2013. http://www.cuyamaca.edu/courtneyhammond/pdf/Whatisphilosophy.pdf Duerlinger, James. How Ancient Greek Philosophy can be Made Relevant to Contemporary Life. Journal of Philosophy of Life. 2011. Web. 05 March 2013. http://www.philosophyoflife.org/jpl201101.pdf Hinduism. Culture and Religion. n.d. Web. 05 March 2013. http://mysource1.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/43729/NT_Hinduism_Fact_Sheet.pdf Ikeda, Daisaku. & Nanda, Ved P. Special Series: The Spirit of India-Buddhism and Hinduism (2). n.d. Web. 05 March 2013. http://www.iop.or.jp/0414/nanda.pdf Jones, Sir Hugh Lloyd. Ancient Greek Religion. Oxford University. n.d. Web. 05 March 2013. http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/405.pdf Read More