What is the Difference? Buddhism

BUDDHISM

The man who formulated Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama, who was born a Hindu about 560 BC, at Lumbini near the border of India in what is now Nepal.

Tradition says that when Gautama was born, a seer prophesied that he would become the greatest ruler in human history. The seer added that if Gautama ever saw four things-sickness, old age, death and a monk who had renounced the world-the boy would give up his earthly rule and discover a way of salvation for all mankind.

To refute the prophecy, Gautama’s father built a palace for his son, giving orders that neither the sick, the old, a dead body nor a monk be allowed near the palace. Gautama grew up in this way, protected from the world. He later married a beautiful girl named Yasodhara, who bore him a son.

One day as he rode through the park that surrounded his palace, he saw a man who was covered in terrible sores, a man who tottered with age, a corpse being carried to its grave and a begging monk who appeared to be peaceful and happy.

That night he began to think about the look of peace on the monk’s face. He began to wonder if there was more to life than the luxuries of his palace. Late that night he took a last look at his sleeping wife and child, then left the palace forever.

Gautama, 29 years old, was determined to solve the riddle of life. He shaved his head, put on a yellow robe and wandered the countryside as a beggar monk.

One of the Buddha’s most important teachings was his theory of the Middle Way. For Buddha, the Middle Way was a spiritual path of salvation, winding between the extreme asceticism and the unrestrained sensuality he had known while a Hindu. These four main principles are know as the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS:
1. Suffering is universal – Buddha taught that the very act of living involves suffering from birth until death. Even death brings no relief, however, because of the cycle of rebirth, suffering and death. Salvation (nirvana) is to be released from the unending cycle of suffering.
2. The cause of suffering is craving (selfish desire) – People remain in this endless cycle, because they are too attached to their health, wealth, status and physical comfort. This is because they are ignorant of the nature of reality and they fall victim to what Buddha called tanha (attachment, desire)
3. The cure for suffering is to overcome ignorance and eliminate cravings – Since to live is to suffer and suffering is caused by cravings, if a person could remove craving from his or her life, suffering would end.
4. Suppress craving by following the Middle Way-the Noble Eightfold Path – First, Buddha isolated the cause, tanha-humanity’s inability to escape from the squirrel cage of death and rebirth. Next he worked out a system called the Eightfold Path by which a Buddhist could rid himself of tanha. The Eightfold Path consists of eight ways of right living:
1. right viewpoint
2. right aspiration
3. right speech
4. right behavior
5. right occupation
6. right effort
7. right mindfulness
8. right meditation

Buddha claimed that whoever could follow this Eightfold Path would eventually reach nirvana, a release from the endless cycle of death and rebirth.

Buddhism takes a wide variety of forms but the three main kinds are : Hinayana, Mahayana, and Tantrism.

Buddhists deny the existence of a personal God or say that God’s existence is irrelevant.

Buddhists believe that sin is the lust that arises in one’s life, and they seek to rid themselves of lustful desires by self-effort or by calling on Bodhisattvas for help.