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| Poster: Duc Hoang Reply Post Message Date: Thu Apr 19 06:41:11 2007 |
| Subject: Differences between Hinduism & Buddhism |
| Post No: 3815 Reply to: 3808 |
From the Hindu point of view, Buddhism is really Hinduism because they're all-inclusive. In fact, one of the reasons Buddhism all but disappeared from India, the land of its birth, is because it was absorbed into Hinduism. From the Buddhist point of view, however, there is a big difference between the two. While it's true that mainly of the principles of Hinduism were included in Buddhism, just as Judaism heavily influenced Christianity, there are significant differences to be aware of. The main one is the Buddha's teaching of anatman. In Hinduism, there is the concept of atman, which is similar to the Judeo-Christian notion of "soul". In other words, it is a permanent, unchanging nature that travels from life to life, putting on different forms as its karma dictates. The Buddha specifically rejected this notion of a permanent, unchanging essence or self-nature, however. He taught that nothing is permanent and unchanging. Therefore postulating the existence of a permanent, unchanging nature, or atman, would by that definition be impossible. Instead he taught the principle of anatman, that there is no permanent, unchanging self-nature. Instead, the self is composed of impermanent, constantly changing elements that change from moment to moment, like the frames of a motion picture that give the illusion of a single image in motion, but in reality are separate images that we perceive as one. In short, our idea of a solid self is an illusion, just as the flickering image of a movie on the silver screen is an illusion. So that is the main difference. There are lots of others, including the Hindu idea of tantra, which, while related to Buddhist tantra, isn't at all the same thing. Their focus no the sexual side of tantra has caused lots of problems for a proper understanding of Buddhist tantra in the West. |