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For Buddhism, the religious leader and almighty being that they worship is Guatama Buddha. People that have lived in India don’t think of Buddha as a god but more of a spiritual leader who set guidelines for a religious Buddhist life. Hinduism has three major gods, Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi who weren’t considered gods until sometime well after the year 200 BCE. In Hinduism the choice is up to the individual as which he or she wants to worship. The next three paragraphs will go in to more depth on Hinduism, Buddhism and the comparisons between the two. Guatama Buddha the founder and leader of the Buddhist religion was born as a prince in the year of 563 BCE. When Buddha was born he was predicted to be a very important member to India civilization, whether it was the ruler of an Indian empire or some kind of religious leader. He took the path of religion. Buddha searched his inner soul through years of self discipline and sacrifice to find the religious path he had spent years looking for. After much meditation and sacrifice Buddha finally found what he needed, and began sharing his religious ideas with others. At the core of Buddha’s philosophy are the four Noble Truths. Life is a suffering event from birth to death; suffering can be ended by over coming sacrifice; if you live a good, peaceful life suffering will be limited; and life is a cycle and death will bring rebirth. Buddhists believe that you will keep on going through the cycle of death and re- birth until you reach absolute nirvana (the state of consciousness beyond definition). You first receive nirvana and will continue to live until you burn off the rest of there Karma (personal acts that create consequences). Once all karma has been released from system final nirvana (parinirvana) will occur at death. Hinduism, as stated before, features three major gods, Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi. Vishnu started off as a relatively minor god related to the sun and developed into an almighty savior god who continues to try to the best for the people. Shiva began began as the “health” god who was able to cure and create ill, but then became a major god who’s followers believe is superior to Vishnu or Devi, Shiva is probably the most worshipped of the three gods. Devi is the third god who is considered the mother of Hinduism, could be the most respected woman in Indian religion. Hinduism is one of the most flexible religions there has ever been. Unlike many other religions, worshipers have choices such as which god(s) they will worship and pray to. Hindus believe in in the step cycle of life. Which is you start out as a lower being and climb your way up through the ladder of life. Like some might start out as a bee and will take many lives and pay there dues to work there way up to a human being. Hindu’s are very careful to hurt no living be-beings because every living animal is important and has an ultimate purpose. Buddhism and Hinduism are similar in some ways and drastically different in others. The largest similarity would have to be the location of the two religions, which started out in India and eventually branched out to the rest of Asia, and eventually the rest of the world. Buddhism of course came from the ways of Buddha and Hinduism was kind of a branch off Buddhism so essentially both religions originated from Buddha. Both Hinduism and Buddhism are similar in some beliefs such as karma. Both religions believe that every action you make will have a later affect or consequence. They also both believe in reincarnation which is birth after death. The difference in this belief is in Buddhism you stay as a human during re-incarnation and try to reach absolute nirvana, where as in Hinduism you are trying to climb the ladder of life and become a human. Another large difference is that of who the people worship. Buddhism doesn’t have a god but they worship Guatama Buddha and his religious ways. Where as Hinduism does worship god like be-ings and actually has a choice between three (Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi). The last big difference is the strictness and flexibility of the religions. Buddhism offers far more flexibility than Hinduism. Buddhists worship Buddha’s ways and that’s that. But Hindus get to choose between three gods or others if they choose and get to decide what form (one of that of the three gods) of Hinduism they want to believe in. Most people consider Hinduism and Buddhism to be interchangeable religions, but in fact they are extremely different from each other. Bibliography: Word Count: 846
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