Comparing Hinduism And Buddhism: Old World Religion

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Both Hinduism and Buddhism are considered old world religions. Some may even consider these religions to be the oldest religions in the world and therefore believe them to be quite similar. This is actually not the case. Buddhism and Hinduism differ in their belief in gods, the afterlife, and asceticism. A major difference between Buddhism and Hinduism is that in Buddhism they do not worship gods but, in Hinduism they do. In Buddhism, Buddha, who is not a god, is worshipped for his teachings. Buddhists follow his teachings of how to reach enlightenment by abdicating materialistic things. Buddhists worship and thank Buddha for bringing his wise teachings to them by listening or reading religious prayers from holy texts or even meditating. On the other hand, Hinduism has many gods and goddesses that Hindus worship. They worship their many gods and goddesses by praying to statues, or even to pictures of specific gods. This is done…show more content…
Buddhists believe that there are 31 planes of existence, 5 of which are considered realms of deprivation. Each realm has a requirement or standard that needs to be achieved in order to excel into that plane. After going through all the planes of existence in Buddhism, anyone, no matter how lowly, can reach Nirvarna, a place of perfect peace and happiness, a realization that there is no self. Hindus believe in that the afterlife is based on reincarnation. Reincarnation is when a living thing dies, and its soul is born into another living creature. What new living creature the soul is born into depends on the total sum of a soul’s moral actions throughout its reincarnations. This process will continue until one can attain moksha which is the realization of liberating knowledge, the consciousness of oneness with all existence. The concept of being reborn is unique and exclusively associated with Hinduism in which only the brahmins can reach
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