Hinduism and Buddhism
Hinduism, originating in India in the year 1500B.C., is the oldest living religion. Because of this, many sociologists refer to Hinduism as been archaic. It is the most complex, diverse, and most tolerant of all world religions. The reason for it's tolerance is that it meets the challenge of other religions, not by creating war and conflict, but by absorbing them and their practices and beliefs into the mainstream of Hinduism. One can find within Hinduism almost any form of religion from simple animism to elaborate philosophical systems. Within Hinduism one can find 1158 deities. One of those divinities is Ganesh, the God of knowledge and the remover of obstacles. He is worshipped, or at least remembered, in the beginning of any ceremony for blessing. If given the choice, Ganesh would certainly be my primary pick of the Gods' to be worshipped. He has many positive characteristics and one of those is the rope he carries to help lead his devotees to the truth. He also carries an ax to help cut away attachments in his believers. He has an elephant's head, four hands, a big belly and a hand always extended out to grant people blessings. He is one of the most desirable Gods to worship because
Another religion in India, Buddhism, has had great deal of effect on Hinduism. Buddha changed the Hindu idea of the atman. The Hindus believe that the atman is the individual soul. Buddha, however, believed that there is no such thing as the self. Buddha does not deny that each person has a personality, mentality, and a soul. He however does deny the metaphysical agent that is supposed to serve as the soul. he represents tremendous wisdom and if there is just one thing that anyone should obtain from life it should be wisdom. No one can have too much of it. During the many years that the Buddha has taught he has sought to teach just one message: how to end suffering. With this teaching, two schools of Buddhism emerged, the Hinayana and the Mahayana. The Hinayana leaning more towards the renunciation of life while the Mahayana is more towards hedonism. If given the choice, I would have to say that I would choose the Hinayana way of thinking. They believed that life is a suffering all in it's own and that the only way to rid of this suffering is to rid oneself of selfish desire. Everything evil that we do is based on vanity and selfish desire. We go to war so that we will have other peoples will fear and so that we can take what is not ours. We kill each other and so much more because we sense a constant need to necessitate our perpetual desires. If we were to rid of this, then there would be no reason hurt others or to commit any other evil because we would not have the selfish desire to do so.
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Approximate Word count = 1366
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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