Dieity Death Match! Buddha vs Brahma.

 

Living in America, my access to information on eastern religions is limited. All I have as a guide are a few books that I own, and the internet. There are neither Buddhist temples nor any Shrines to a Hindu god that I can just drive to and talk to any actual believers. Buddhism and Hinduism are two of the oldest and most dominant religions in the world. Many Americans don’t know the difference between the two (for that matter most southerners don’t know the difference between these and Islam).The two religions have many similarities but they are also different in many ways.  

Both religions started in India before spreading to the rest of the world. The earliest evidence of prehistoric religion in India dates back to the late Neolithic age 5500-2500 B.C.E. Buddhism was founded on the principles of Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly known as Buddha or “The Awakened One.” Gautama is believed to have lived and died in the India sometime between 560 B.C.E. and 400 B.C.E. The central teaching if Buddhism is known as The Four Noble Truths.

1.     The Truth of dukkah (suffering or stress)

2.     The origin of suffering.

3.     The cessation (stopping, discontinueance) of suffering.

4.     The path to the cessation of suffering.

The first truth refers to the nature of suffering. We suffer as we grow old and our body and mind deteriorates. We suffer with the stress and anxiety of everyday life.

The second truth refers to the fact that we can know the cause of our suffering. In many teachings it is our greed for material possessions that ultimately lead to our suffering.

The third truth is that our suffering will end eventually.

And the fourth truth refers to the path that we take to end our suffering. This is known as the Noble Eightfold Path.

Division	Eightfold factor	Sanskrit, Pali	Description
Wisdom (Sanskrit: prajñā, Pāli: paññā)	1. Right view	samyag dṛṣṭi, sammā ditthi	Viewing reality as it is, not just as it appears to be
	2. Right intention	samyag saṃkalpa, sammā sankappa	Intention of renunciation, freedom and harmlessness
Ethical conduct (Sanskrit: śīla, Pāli: sīla)	3. Right speech	samyag vāc, sammā vāca	Speaking in a truthful and non-hurtful way
	4. Right action	samyag karman, sammā kammanta	Acting in a non-harmful way
	5. Right livelihood	samyag ājīvana, sammā ājīva	A non-harmful livelihood
Concentration (Sanskrit and Pāli: samādhi)	6. Right effort	samyag vyāyāma, sammā vāyāma	Making an effort to improve
	7. Right mindfulness	samyag smṛti, sammā sati	Awareness to see things for what they are with clear consciousness; being aware of the present reality within oneself, without any craving or aversion
	8. Right concentration	samyag samādhi, sammā samādhi	Correct meditation or concentration, explained as the first four jhānas

 

Picture from Wikipedia.

Hinduism, on the other hand, has no founder. Hinduism is based off of thousands of religious and encompasses many religious traditions. Their earliest root is the "historical Vedic religion" practiced during the Iron Age 1500 – 500 B.C.E.  Hinduism is tolerant of every god from every religion. They believe that it cannot hurt to worship any god, it can only help. Their main god is Brahma, he is the Hindu god of creation, father of Manu from who all people are descended. And Brahman, the ultimate spirit, In Hindu religion he is defined as infinite. Hindu gods are usually depicted with multiple faces, and arms. Believers say this is because they have to do many things at once.  A Hindu’s ultimate goal is to come have Brahman level awareness in the next life. 

As I stated above Hinduism is based off of thousands of texts written over thousands of years. The oldest of these texts are called the “Vedas.” The Rigveda, the Yajurveda, and the Samaveda mostly contain hymns and formulas for the priests. The fourth is the Atharvaveda is a collection of spells and incantations. Buddhists have many texts as well. Different schools of Buddhism focus on different texts. Theravada Buddhists focus primarily on the Pali Canon, a collection of scriptures written by the fourth Buddhist council in 29 B.C.E. The Pali Canon has rules for monks, sayings from Buddha and some of his disciples, and various philosophy and psychology. Mahayana Buddhists do not worry with the Pali Canon, they have many other religious texts and Sutras. Sutras are a broad collection of scriptures mostly preserved by Chinese and Tibetan Buddhists.

Both Buddhists and Hindus are practitioners of Yoga. However there are some differences in terminology between the two faiths. In Hinduism Yoga is linked to the belief that one soul could bind itself with the entity that underlies everything, Brahman. In Hinduism Yoga emphasizes knowledge and practice, and in known to be difficult. Hinduism holds to the 8 arms of yoga.

1.     Yama (The five "abstentions"): Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (Truth, non-lying), Asteya (non-covetousness), Brahmacharya (non-sensuality, celibacy), and Aparigraha (non-possessiveness).

2.     Niyama (The five "observances"): Shaucha(purity), Santosha(contentment), Tapas (austerity), Svadhyaya (study of the Vedic scriptures to know about God and the soul), and Ishvara-Pranidhana (surrender to God).

3.     Asana: Literally means "seat", and in Patanjali's Sutras refers to the seated position used for meditation.

4.     Pranayama ("Suspending Breath"): Prāna, breath, "āyāma", to restrain or stop. Also interpreted as control of the life force.

5.     Pratyahara ("Abstraction"): Withdrawal of the sense organs from external objects.

6.     Dharana ("Concentration"): Fixing the attention on a single object.

7.     Dhyana ("Meditation"): Intense contemplation of the nature of the object of meditation.

8.     Samadhi ("Liberation"): merging consciousness with the object of meditation.

 

In Tibetan Buddhism yoga can refer to any spiritual practice from tantra to yoga. On the subject of yoga in Tibetan Buddhism author Robert Svoboda  said, “…Yoga controls body and mind to enable them to harmonize with spirit, and Tantra seeks to use the mind to balance the demands of body and spirit.” Tibetan Buddhists practice 108 body postures to control their heart rate and breathing.

With both religions centrally located in India, they share some common vocabulary. Both religions have beliefs surrounding Karma and Dharma. Karma mean “action” or “deed” and is understood by Indian religions to represent the cycle of cause and effect. Good or bad actions will result in either joy or suffering in this life or the next. Dharma means “natural law” or “duty” and could be related to by Buddhists as “the way of the higher truth.” The concept of dharma is central to the formation of both beliefs. In these traditions, it is believed that those how live in more harmony with dharma move more quickly towards enlightenment and Nirvana (personal liberation).

Both religions believe in reincarnation, although in slightly different ways. In both religions your position in your next life has to do with how you lived your previous one, Buddhists believe that there are six different levels of reincarnation. The lowest are beings that live in one of the many hells also called “Narakas.” Second are beings called “preta” that sometimes share space with humans, also known as ghosts. Next are Animals, followed by Humans. Although these realms share the same space, Humans are capable of achieving Nirvana, Animals are not. Above humans are “Asuras” this realm is where Buddhists believe most of the gods and demons of other religions dwell. The highest beings are “Devas” these are the true gods. Buddhists believe that in all these realms beings are subject to rebirth after some time. Some Buddhists believe that reincarnation take places immediately after death, others believe that you spend 45 days in a middle realm.

Most Hindus believe that every being has a spirit or soul. Reincarnation is a core principle in Hinduism. In Hinduism you can only be reincarnated as an animal or Human. The ultimate goal is to reach Nirvana, perfect mental peace, detachment from material possessions, and a union with the gods. This releases one from the cycle of death and rebirth, and you attain Brahman consciousness. You become one with the universe.

Buddhism and Hinduism are two religions that have grown side by side over the past 2600 years or so. They have learned from one another and share very similar beliefs. I believe that Buddhism and Hinduism are split from the same beliefs somewhere along the way. There is so much more to each of these religions that I didn’t go into the Dali Lama and Mahatma Gandhi, Holidays, Rituals, and much more. But I feel I have rambled on enough, I hope now you know a little bit more about what makes these two faiths different.

 Additional Sources.

Hinduism: A way of life (2008)
The Story of Siddhartha (2010)
Journey in to Buddhism (2007)
The Story of India (2007) 
Buddhism and Hinduism

What is wrong with Atheists?

        I am an Atheist. In today’s society saying those words will, more often than not, make people think awful things. Atheists are the least trusted minority in America. In a recent Gallup poll Americans voted that they are least likely to elect an Atheist as president. I personally would like to see a president that has no religious affiliation and is open about it. Although, I am happy to see that seven of ten people would open minded enough to enough to elect a Gay or Lesbian president. Our leaders religious affiliation shouldn’t matter, neither should their gender or sexual preference. It is because of this closed-minded, ethnocentric thinking that our country is struggling, we worry more about the little things than we do about the actual intelligence level of our politicians.

            Another recent study by The University of British Colombia and The University of Oregon, detailed in an article on USA Today states that a majority of people believe Atheists to be less trust worthy than rapists. I don’t think I should have to point out the absurdity of this frame of mind. But, obviously, I am part of the minority and if people think I am less trustworthy than a rapist, then that will eventually cause some major problems in my life.

            Many people think this way because their pastors or other church leaders convince them of it. According to many different people like Heather Basher on Landover Baptist forums “All atheists believe in evolution, which means they don't believe in morality and think we should all act like animals.” She also states in the same post that “a lot of mass murderers were atheists, and all atheists, having no morality to guide them, are only a bad day away from going on a genocide spree. There have no exactly zero cases on Christian mass murderers throughout all of history.” First off I would like to point out that Ted Bundy was a mormon and a man named Burce Lee (no not THE Bruce Lee) killed twentysix people was a self proclaimed christian. And secondly, I would like to state that I do have morals. I argue that atheists, on the whole, are more moral than religious people. Atheists do not need promise of devine punishment to keep from killing, raping, or tortureing anybody. I refrain from doing these things because I feel personally that it is wrong. If the only thing keeping christians from going on a “genocide spree” is the fact that the will go to hell then there is something wrong with them, not me. I suggest you take the time and read the rest of her post, her views on the problems with Atheism are numerious and a perfect example of the ingorance that we deal with daily.

            Although, citizens can hardly be balmed for their hatred and bigotry. In August 1987 George Bush Sr said, “I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.” He was trying to say that since he feels that our nation was founded on christian principles, non-christians have no place here. There are many problems with his statement. The first problem is that we are not “one nation under god” the phrase wasn’t even added to our Pledge of Allegence until 1954. The United States didn’t adopt the motto “in god we trust” intil 1956. Secondly, Most of our founding fathers were either Agnostic meaning they belive a higher power exsists but do not know which one or Deist which means they think there is a god, but he doesn’t interfere with man, they also didn’t believe the supernatural miricles in the bible and didn’t support the “trinity”. Some were even Atheists like Benjamen Franklin, George Washington, and James Madison. Our nation was founded by men who were trying to escape the religious oppression of the Church of England. They came here to find a freedom to worship or not worship how they wanted without fear of punishment. Once we decide that “Atheists aren’t citizens” we are destroying everything this country was founded for. The problem with people distrusting Atheists and saying the ignorant things they say is that it makes us out the be second class citizens. Most Atheists don’t want to fight with Christians, what you belive is entirely your choice and it has absolutely nothing to do with my life.

            Oh, and as far as “Atheists aren’t patriots” I would like to refer you to a picture that I found. It pretty much sums up how I feel.

In conclusion, what is wrong with Atheists? Nothing is wrong with us, we are human and therefore we have our own opinions. That doesn’t make us bad.

Religionless

I was started in church earlier then I can even remember. Every Sunday my mother would load my sister, brother, and I into the station wagon and take us to pick up our grandmother. We would then head out to a small Baptist church somewhere in Decatur, Georgia. I have vague memories of Sunday school and I seem to remember getting disciplined on more than one occasion for climbing in the church.

        After a few years my mom stopped taking us and we mostly just forgot about church in general. I didn’t start going to church again until I was in middle school, then I went to Zion Christian Fellowship in Lithia Springs. Church was a good escape from my home life and whenever things would get bad at home I would go to church. There I learned many things about the bible. I developed a close friendship with the pastor and his family.  I became a rather devout Christian for some time, but the more I learned about the bible and the more I watched the news and learned about the world I started to have questions. Why is God so cruel? Why in the bible did God turn Lot’s wife to a pillar of salt simply for looking back towards home? How did God make light before he made a light source? Why did he need to send Jesus to die for our sins? If he were truly all powerful could he not simply forgive us?

Image from: Think That Through

         By high school I started to learn the theory of evolution and saw how it contradicted the creation story in Genesis. And it occurred to me, if one part of this book is untrue than the book as a whole loses credit as being fact. It was then that I decided to look into other religions. I spent much of the next couple of years looking into different religions, my mother works at a book distributor so this made it easy for me to have fairly unlimited access to many religious texts. For a short time in tenth grade I started a “coven” with a few other friends from school, we really didn’t do anything but draw pentagrams on all of our stuff, dress in all black, and read a lot of books on witch craft. I looked briefly into the Necronomicon which is a book on summoning the dead, but couldn’t take it seriously. All these things had one major flaw in common. They all had a creation stories or similar stories that contradicted known scientific facts. Buddhism, in my opinion, is the only contradiction to the previous statement. A quote from Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama says "if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims." I wish all religions would be so reasonable, but I will talk more about Buddhism in a later post.

        It was at this point that I turned my attention and efforts to my science book. I found an abundance of answers to nearly all my questions. Why is the universe so big? Where did it all come from? Which came first the chicken or the egg? How can there be life and beauty without god/ gods? It was only after much study and debate that today I confidently call myself an Atheist. I honestly do not believe that any gods exist; we are here through random chance. The fact that there is no god does not make life any less beautiful or meaningful. In fact I think it makes life more important, we don’t need to focus on what we imagine will happen to our “spirit” when we die. We need to focus on living the only life we will ever get and make the most of it. Not believing in god does not make me immoral either, I chose to be good because it is the right thing to do, not because I think I will be punished for all eternity. I don’t however think that other people should have to give up their religions, some people need a coping mechanism to keep them happy until such a time as their heart stops, their brain turns off and they go into the ground forever. Because once someone is dead, they will never know if they were wrong.

Introduction

          Greetings and salutations! My name is Jeremy I am starting this blog primarily for my EH 101 class for spring 2013. I do not know yet if I intend on keeping track of it after this semester. So if you like this blog and I suddenly stop posting, I apologize in advance.

        In this blog I will be covering many different religions around the world, to give you a better understanding of what other cultures believe. In most societies religion in the driving force, despite efforts to keep religion and government separate. Most devout believers refuse to accept that their "god" has no actual place in politics. In many countries it is illegal not follow the national religion, even punishable by imprisonment of in some cases death. Most people won't look outside of their own theology to try and expand their mind. Most parents show their children to be the same way, they raise their child to believe blindly in their own god/gods while condemning all others as lies or "of the devil." Because of this with each passing generation we as a people get more and more divided. As this happens believers become more ingrained in their beliefs and are more likely to defend their religion in radical ways. This has been the cause of countless wars and genocides over the course of human history. I feel that if everyone had enough respect to simply learn about other beliefs and cultures we would all live on a much more pleasant planet. I hope that this blog helps just a few people to open their mind, and think for themselves. instead of blindly following the (usually outdated) teachings of our parents or grandparents.