Conceptual Comparison of Hinduism and Buddhism

Running head: CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
Conceptual Comparison of Hinduism and Buddhism
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1CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
The sense of religion is significantly influential for the people in the way of living for the
majority of the people in this world. The rituals, culture, belief of any group of people are
believed to be highly influenced by the concerned religions (Oppong). The Indian
subcontinent has two major religions influencing the majority of the people residing in that
region which are Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism is an Indian religion which connects the
Indian religious traditions in a less compact manner than that of the Buddhism. Hinduism
connects the broader range of philosophies with the linking between the rituals, concerned
cosmology and shared textual resources (Klostermaier). Whereas Buddhism comprises of the
variation of the traditions, religious beliefs, spiritual practices primarily based on the precious
teachings of Gautama Buddha. The paper conceptually compares both the religions with
some specific focusing on the points like the concept of rebirth in the respective religions of
the Hinduism and Buddhism.
As mentioned above, Buddhism is generally recognized as the teachings of Gautama
Buddha also known as the "Tathagata". However the findings regarding the textual
description of Buddha is not sufficient and not clear enough, still the limited resources
confirm that Buddha found his learning of conceptual briefing regarding the "Nothingness" or
"Emptiness" and "What is neither seen nor unseen" from his Vedic teachers, insufficient in
attaining his goals(Kelen). The list also included the practice of "asceticism" and then he
returned to the practice of "Dhyana" or meditation where he achieved knowledge regarding
the workings of "Karma" and his previous lives and gained exactness about the "Middle way"
to be the correct spiritual practice to end one of the claimed problems of life known as
"Dukkha". With the inclusion of "Bodhi", the enlightened Buddha constructed "Sangha" and
taught them "Dharma" or religion. The teaching followed a detailed explanation on the
mentioned problems of life which are Dukkha and its ending, the cycle of rebirth, Karma and
Liberation(Thera). The teachings of Buddha are converted into 18 Buddhist sub-schools of

2CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
thoughts containing different perceptions. These emerged as many widespread traditions like
Theravada, Mahanaya and Vajrayana Buddhism in the modern era.
The rebirth in the Buddhism relates to one aspect of the teachings that are discussed
above. The rebirth is the realization of the fact that the actions of one takes him or her to a
new existence after the death in a never-ending manner or cycle termed as Samsara(Sarao).
The cycle is stated to be Dukkha which is a Buddhist concept of painful suffering. The cycle
stops when one gets the Moksha which is known be the liberation. The Moksha is achieved
by the Bodhi. The term Bodhi has a meaning similar to enlightenment. Rebirth is considered
to be one crucial primary beliefs of Buddhism along with Karma, Nirvana and Moksha. The
concept of rebirth in Buddhism does not emphasize on the point that the rebirth will take
place as a human being only but it informs that the rebirth will take place in one of the six
conceptual ways known as Gati. The six Gati or realms are Tiryak, Preta, Deva, Asura,
Manusya, and Naraka. This is known as Bhavachakra where Deva means angelic, Asura
means demon, Manusya is humanistic and Tiryak is animal, Preta is devil and Naraka is
dweller of hell. The Karma plays an important role in the determination of the
Gati(Appleton). A good realm is always associated with Kushala whereas an evil realm is a
result of Akushala or bad Karma. The escape from this endless rebirth and reappearing and
death is called Nirvana or Nibbana(Duoc). In Buddhism, achieving Nirvana is the eventually
the prime objective of Buddhist teaching. However, the majority of the Buddhist traditional
practices is centred on achieving the merit and merit transfer but it is believed that an
individual gains rebirth for himself or herself or his or her closed ones in good realms and
ignores the rebirth in the bad realms.
All the Buddhist ethics excluding Navayana acknowledges the approach of rebirth.
They have differences in the discussion regarding the operations of rebirth or specifically