Analysis of Buddhism as Religion - Essay Example

Buddhism Buddhism is one of the prominent religions in Asia. It is believed that Buddhism began in B.C. 563. Perhaps Buddhism is the only religion which considers all kinds of killing as sin. It should be noted that while most of the other religions consider the killing of human as a sin, Buddhism argues that the killing of any living creature is a sin. Buddhists believe in karma and rebirth. In other words, Buddhists believe that death is the beginning of another birth for a person. This process or rebirth continues till the person does enough good things (Karma) to get salvation. This paper analyses various aspects of Buddhism. What makes Buddhism tradition distinct?  The teachings, customs, and beliefs of Buddhism are entirely different from that of other religions. While most of the other religions believe in single god or multi god theory, Buddhists do not say much about the god. In fact they stress the importance of karma and rebirth. It should be noted that Muslims and Christians believe in single God theory whereas Hindus believe in multi god theory. However, Buddhists argue that human life consist of so many rebirths which may continue until a person does enough good things to get salvation or nirvana. In other words, Buddhists believe that the objective of every life is to purify the activities so that the ultimate nirvana will be reached sooner rather than later. “Buddha’s advice for people “not to depend on others for your salvation [but to] develop your self-confidence to gain it” (Khong, p.62). It should be noted that most of the other religions believe that the prayers by others may give salvation to a person after his death. Hindus and some Christian communities do many prayers and rituals after the death of a person so that the person’s soul may get salvation after his death. On the other hand, Buddhists believe that salvation or nirvana is an individual thing and others cannot help a person in getting it. “Buddha encourages insight and understanding based on direct experience rather than from intellectualizing or following certain beliefs” (Khong, p.62). Buddhists believe that a person’s insights and understandings may lead him towards nirvana. In other words, nirvana cannot be attained though some pre-planned activities. It is not necessary that the activities which gave salvation to a person may give salvation to another person. A person should fine tune his activities based on his insights and understanding rather than trying to imitate others. “According to the Buddha, to understand the truth, it is irrelevant whether the teacher is the Buddha or that the teachings originated from him. What is important is seeing and understanding the truth for oneself, rather than following a set of beliefs based on “blind faith” (Khong, p.62). What makes Buddhism similar to all of the other religions?  It should be noted that Buddhism also believes in salvation or nirvana like other religions. As in the case of other religions, Buddhism also believes that salvation is the ultimate gettable thing in human life. Like most of the other religions, Buddhism also advocates good activities for getting salvation. While other religions, argue against the killing of humans, Buddhism argue against all types of killing including animals. “Human qualities and emotions that the Buddha encourages are love, charity, compassion, tolerance, and patience” (Khong, p.62). These qualities are encouraged by other religions also. Who is attributed to be the founder and what kind of person was he?  The Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama, a prince of the Sakya tribe of Nepal, in approximately 566 BC. When he was twenty-nine years old, he left the comforts of his home to seek the meaning of the suffering he saw around him. After six years of arduous yogic training, he abandoned the way of self-mortification and instead sat in mindful meditation beneath a bodhi tree. On the full moon of May, with the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, the enlightened one (An Introduction to Buddhism). It is believed that Siddhartha Gautama was born in aristocratic family of the northeastern Indian subcontinent. Some people believe that Siddhartha Gautama was the son of a king or oligarch called Śuddhodana. Śuddhodana tried a lot to make his son as the future king of his kingdom. However, Siddhartha Gautama was not much interested in it and gave up all the luxuries of life at the age of 29. Siddhartha Gautama was more interested in finding the meaning of life and eradicating the sufferings of all human beings rather than ruling his father’s kingdom. What fundamental teachings does it most commonly espouse?  Buddhists teach that there are six realms of rebirth; Humans, Gods, Titans, Animals, Ghosts, and Hells. The last three realms of rebirth are regarded as unfortunate whereas the first three are regarded as fortunate (Khong, p.47). All these realms of rebirth are taking place in a person’s life based on the karma in his previous birth. “Karma functions as the elevator that takes people from one floor of the building to another” (Khong, p.51). Rebirth as animals is not good since animals do not have intelligence and are motivated by cruel instincts. Ghosts on the other hand are humans in their previous birth. Buddhists teach that ghosts are people who had strong attachment to this world in their previous humanly birth. “Actions motivated by greed, hatred, and delusion are bad (akuśala) while actions motivated by their opposites—non-attachment, benevolence, and understanding—are good (kuśala)” (Khong, p.53). Buddhism believes that desire is the cause of misery in this world. In their opinion, those who are successful in suppressing or eliminating all kinds of desire can be regarded as the successful people. The four noble truths as per Buddhism are; Life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is attainable and the path to the cessation of suffering. (The Four Noble Truths) “If there were a creator of the world, he would be regarded as responsible for the suffering” (Harvey, p.36). Buddhists argue that life itself is nothing but suffering. In their opinion, whatever the things we derive from this material world may bring sufferings ultimately. In short, it is difficult to attain happiness in this material world. Even if a person does only good things in this world, he may experience sufferings because of his activities in the previous birth. What religious practices, holy days, and traditions does it endorse?  Buddhist practice is based on the four foundations of mindfulness. This means developing continuous awareness of the (1) body (e.g., posture, breath) (2) feelings (whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral) (3) mind (thoughts, emotions, intentions, volitions, and so forth) and (4) mental objects (mental phenomena relevant to awakening, such as the seven factors of enlightenment and the five hindrances to meditation) (Khong, p.66). Mindfulness helps a person to isolate soul from his body. In other words, whatever the pains affected on the body may not cause any damage to the soul of a person who is practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness helps a person to identify the true nature of an incident and to eliminate the sufferings. It helps to eliminate subjectivity and adds objectivity to matters or incidents. The most important day for Buddhists is the full moon night in the month of May every year. This particular night is celebrated in the remembrance of the “birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha over 2,500 years ago. It has become to be known as Buddha Day”(Buddhist Festivals and Holidays). On all festival days, Buddhists visit their temples and offer food to monks and poor people. Apart from Buddha day, some of the other major holy days of Buddhists are given below; Buddhist New Year In Theravadin countries, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Laos, the new year is celebrated for three days from the first full moon day in April. In Mahayana countries the new year starts on the first full moon day in January. Magha Puja Day Magha Puja Day takes places on the full moon day of the third lunar month (March). This holy day is observed to commemorate an important event in the life of the Buddha. Asalha Puja Day Asalha Puja means to pay homage to the Buddha on the full moon day of the 8th lunar month (approximately July) (Buddhist Festivals and Holidays). How has this religious tradition embraced arts, music and literature? Arts, music and literature have lot of significance in Buddhism. In fact most of the Buddhist’s teachings are taught with the help of paintings. Apart from paintings, sculptures are another art form which reflects Buddha’s life and teachings. In the first and second centuries of B.C., sculptures were prominent forms of art used by Buddhists to teach their religious principles. One of the common themes of all forms of Buddhists’ arts are the ultimate nature of phenomena and that of the mind. “The teachings of the Buddha mention music on many occasions. In the Amitabha Sutra, it is written that heavenly singing and chanting is heard all day and night as mandara flowers softly rain down from the heavens” (Music and Buddhism). Music is portrayed as an excellent option to purify mind and heart by the Buddhists. In their opinion, music is the right channel to communicate one’s feeling to others. Buddhists separated literature into two categories; canonical and non-canonical. All texts related to Buddha comes under the canonical category whereas other books comes under the non-canonical category. Works Cited “An Introduction to Buddhism”. Web. 31 May 2012. “Buddhist Festivals and Holidays”. Web. 31 May 2012. Harvey Peter. “An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (Introduction to Religion)”. 1990. Cambridge University Press (25 May 1990) Khong, Belinda Siew Luan. “The Buddha Teaches An Attitude, Not An Affiliation”. 2003. State University of New York Press. “Music and Buddhism”. Web. 31 May 2012. Prebish, Charles S. & Keown, Damien. “Buddhism”. Journal of Buddist Ethics. 2004. “The Four Noble Truths”. Web. 31 May 2012. Read More