Buddhism - A Spiritual Religion - Essay Example

Buddhism - A Spiritual ReligionThe religion that is adopted for writing from the text, Scriptures of the World Religion, is Buddhism and the chapter number is 3. The excerpt that is taken from the text is from the chapter, “Buddhism” and is taken from the life of the Buddha and Pali Canon. The text talks about the life of Buddha as a spiritual being and the scriptures. Buddha promoted a religion that is full of virtues and spiritual teachings. Buddhism is a spiritual religion, which is followed by thousands of people all around the world.

A large number of traditions and beliefs are followed in Buddhism. There is no single text of Buddhism that is followed all over the world as a number of different Buddhist texts are followed by its practitioners. The Buddhists are divided into different traditions and beliefs according to which, they follow different texts such as Theravada Buddhists use Pali Canon as trustworthy and reliable for their religious practices and Mahayana Buddhists use Mahayana Sutras for their scriptural teachings (Fierser and Powers 2007).

Pali Tipitaka is also a Buddhist scripture that is regarded as a reliable scriptural work for many Buddhist practices and traditions by Theravadas (Fierser and Powers 2007). Therefore, there are many Buddhist scriptural works followed by different Buddhists all over the world.Buddha preached his enlightenments consisting of all the principles of right action, right speech, right thinking, right livelihood, right intention, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Buddha teaches that by learning to live a morally perfect life of a person, after succession of births and rebirths, ceases to be reborn and enters what he called Nirvana, a spiritual condition free of all desires, passions and sufferings (Ellwood and McGraw 2004).

Meditation is the basic practice of Buddhist followers. It is said that the founder of this religion himself achieved spirituality and enlightenment on the basis of meditation. There are two kinds of meditative practices, which are Shamatha and Vipassana. These meditative practices are considered essential for acquiring spirituality. In Buddhism, The meditative approaches of mindfulness and concentration are utilized. (Bowker, 1997: 176). According to Sogyal Rinpoche, “The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life.

For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well. Meditation is the road to enlightenment”. (Smith, 1991: 40)The adherents for Buddhism are about 324 million who are accommodated largely in East Asia and the Mainland Southeast Asia, and small parts of South Asia and Russia (Ellwood and McGraw 2004). The text, “Scriptures of the World Religions” gives a detailed account of Buddhism through which, we can gain explanation of the whole religion.

The intended audience of the text is all the learners of religion and practitioners of different religions. Anyone who wants to know about any religion of the world and its scriptures can use the book. The text is quite persuasive in enabling people to know about Buddhism. The text, Many People, Many Faiths is also very persuasive as it also gives detailed teachings of Buddhism. Overall, with the help of the two texts, the readers are able to know the Buddhist religion with all its traditions, beliefs and practices to an extensive extent.

Works CitedBowker, John. World Religions: The Great Faiths Explored And Explained. USA: DK Adult, 1997: 151-176.Ellwood, Robert S. and McGraw, Barbara A. “Wisdom Embarked For the Farther Shore: The Journey of Buddhism”. Many Peoples, Many Faiths. Ninth edition. New York: Prentice Hall, 2004. Fieser, James and Powers, John. “Chapter 3: Buddhism”. Scriptures of the World Religions. Third edition. London: McGrawHill, 2007. Smith, Huston. The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions.

New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991: 34-67.