Religion, What Is Religion? Religion Is A Way Of Life, A Life Style, I

t shoulddictate how you live your life. However why follow a religious belief, to go to
heaven, avoid the condemnation to hell, to live forever? We in western society
consider ourselves a not so religious society, we say I am Christian or I am
Jew or I am an Atheist I don’t believe. Keep in mind religion is a life style, it
should dictate how you live your life. Sadly in western society, money and our
compulsive cravings for material objects dictate our life. We are far from the
highly evolved forms of religions of Hinduism and Buddhism over in the east.

What are these religions? Buddhism is offshoot/reform of Hinduism. They
are looked at in the same way as Judaism and Christianity are looked at (very far
apart). Through this essay, I will prove – by using some of their differences as
similarities – that they are very much – if not essentially the same – alike.

As an off shoot of Hinduism, Buddhism accepted the notions of karma,
dharma, samsara, and moksha. It differed in its understanding ot these terms and
how to achieve spiritual liberation. As Buddhism spread through south and east
Asia, these differences became greater.

Samsara, the upholstered hell , it is known in Hinduism as the endless
cycle of death and rebirth, and Moksha being the supreme enlightenment, the
realization of Atman the one’s true self, and the liberation from samsara. Despite
the fact that Moksha means Something different in Buddhism, words are
meaningless but their meanings aren’t. Explanation: The ultimate goal of the
Buddhist path is release from the round of phenomenal existence with its inherent
suffering. To achieve this goal is to attain nirvana an enlightened state in which the
fires of greed, hatred, and ignorance have been quenched. This is the essence of
both religions, freedom from the ignorance of what I call Blam?.

The central core of Buddhist teachings is the Four Noble Truths, which are:
1. All life is suffering and pain.

This is more than a mere recognition of the presence of suffering in existence. It is a statement that, in its very nature, human existence is essentially painful from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Even death brings no relief.

1. Desire is the root of suffering.

People become attached to relationships or things they have, and suffer when they experience their impermanence. This impermanence leads to disappointment, which in turn leads to new cravings.

My interpretation of this Noble Truth is that we suffer not because we desire but because we desire the wrong things. Meaning that what we should desire is enlightenment.

2. Suffering and desire can be extinguished with enlightenment.

The noble truth of cessation of suffering is this: It is the complete cessation of that very thirst , giving it up, renouncing it, emancipating oneself from it detaching oneself from it.

3. The way to enlightenment is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Noble Truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering is this: it is simply the Noble Eightfold path, namely right view; right thought; right speech; right action; right livelihood; right effort; right mindfulness; right concentration.

These concepts are nothing pertaining to Buddhism alone, maybe they
haven’t listed and categorized as four noble truths but all the idea’s are
encompassed in Hinduism’s philosophy.

Buddhism analyzes human existence as made up of five aggregates or
bundles (skandhas): the material body, feelings, perceptions, predispositions or
karmic tendencies, and consciousness. A person is only a temporary combination
of these aggregates, which are subject to continual change. No one remains the
same for any two consecutive moments. Buddhists deny that the aggregates
individually or in combination may be considered a permanent, independently
existing self or soul (atman). Indeed, they regard it as a mistake to conceive of any
lasting unity behind the elements that constitute an individual. The Buddha held
that belief in such a self results in egoism, craving, and hence in suffering. Thus he
taught the doctrine of anatman, or the denial of a permanent soul. He felt that all
existence is characterized by the three marks of anatman (no soul), anitya
(impermanence), and dukkha (suffering). The doctrine of anatman made it
necessary for the Buddha to reinterpret the Indian idea of repeated rebirth in the
cycle of phenomenal existence known as samsara. Atman: the one’s true self,
the individual self, held by upanisic and Vedatin