Buddhism Compared to Other Religions
When you come to Buddhism you have to be prepared for some significant surprises.
Many aspects of Buddhism may seem familiar to you:
Many aspects of Buddhism may seem familiar to you:
- Buddhists tell a story about the founder of their tradition, as Christians and Muslims.
His name was Siddharta Gautama, he lived in Northern India around the year 500 B.
C.
He was known to his followers as the Buddha, or the awakened one. - Like Jesus and Muhammad he developed a very distinctive response to the religious problems of his day.
He started a religious movement that now is expanded throughout the world, from South East Asia across Northern Asia, and in the last hundred years or so, in Europe and North America.
- You might ask yourselves how the Buddha differs from other founders.
Jesus and Muhammad brought many messages as if they were people communicating some sort of divine reality.
The Buddha, unlike Jesus and Muhammad serves more as an example.
He doesn't bring a divine message, he gives us an example of behavior that we as human beings are invited to follow.
- The Buddha also put together a community of followers, like other major founders of religious traditions.
In his case it was an order of monks and nuns who passed on the tradition of Buddhist learning. - Buddhist also has very familiar patterns of ritual and worship.
They go on pilgrimages to important shrines.
These pilgrimages are not different from the pilgrimages that occur in the Christian tradition.
- Buddhists teach people how to confront and deal with the deepest questions, not unlike other religious traditions.
They are concerned about issues that we all confront as human beings.
What will happen to me when I die? How can I live my life in a way that would be happy, peaceful and compassionate? These are questions that concern all of us as human beings.
Buddhists have distinctive and very powerful answers to these questions.
