A Comparative Analysis of Hinduism and Buddhism: Key Concepts

This essay provides a conceptual comparison of Hinduism and Buddhism, focusing on their perspectives on rebirth, karma, and liberation. It begins by outlining the core tenets of each religion, including the teachings of Gautama Buddha and the principles of Hinduism. The essay then delves into a detailed analysis of the concept of rebirth (Samsara) in both traditions, highlighting the differences in how it is understood and experienced. While both religions acknowledge the cycle of rebirth and the importance of karma, they diverge significantly on the existence of a soul (Atman) and its role in the process. Hinduism posits the existence of an eternal soul that transmigrates through various lives until liberation (Moksha), while Buddhism rejects the concept of a permanent self. The essay explores the implications of these differing views on the nature of reality, the path to enlightenment, and the ultimate goals of religious practice, drawing on relevant scriptures and scholarly sources to support its arguments. The conclusion summarizes the key differences and similarities, emphasizing the profound impact of these differing perspectives on the practice and understanding of these two major religions. The essay also touches on the concept of Gati, which are the six realms of rebirth in Buddhism, and the paths souls take after death in Hinduism based on their karma. The essay concludes by highlighting that both religions share the goal of ethical living and liberation from suffering, even though their paths to achieving this are different.

Running head: CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
Conceptual Comparison of Hinduism and Buddhism
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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

3CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
how the events take place just after the death (Keown). The ancient Buddhist scriptures state
that Buddha was exposed to considerable difficulty while briefing the concept of reborn and
how it takes place, after he established the conception of "no self"( Zimmer). Buddhist
scholars such as Buddhaghosa stated that the absence of self or soul does not mean shortage
of constancy. And the concept of rebirth throughout the different realms of birth such as
human, heavenly, animal, and infernal takes place in the exact way in which a flame is
transferred from one burning candle to another. The concerned sub-school of Saravastivada
Buddhist belief proposed the idea of "transmigrating substratum of consciousness" which
states that each deeds of a human enriches that individual in a unique way and can be termed
as something that has a good or bad consequence. According to Sutta Pitaka, the stream-
enterers are subjected to seven rebirths in human or good realms. Once-returners returns once
more like human. The non-returners returns once more in a heavenly realm and arahant has
no birth.
According to Hinduism when a person dies, the soul will proceed in any of the
concerned three paths that are recommended in the Vedas. The soul will travel to the
interstellar space known as Antariksham and the body will be subjected to the final sacrifice
of life known as Antima Kriya. The concept of Karma or the cumulative result of past actions
comes from here. The liberated souls are sent along the northern path known as Uttarayana to
the timeless immortal zone and from there, they will be sent to the eternal heaven of Brahman
known as Vaikuntha, Kailasa or Parandhama. Those souls which are not discharged but lived
an honest and respectful life will be sent along the path following south known as
Dakshinayana to the ancestral world in the circle of the moon until the karmas are finished.
Then they are believed to come down to earth through rains and enter in the food and from
food to semen and from semen to wombs where they will reborn again according to their
deeds in the previous life. The third path is for those souls who committed severe crimes and

4CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
devilish actions and the path is towards the hell in the subterranean world (Adhogati). After
their Karmas get exhausted, they will be appear as worms or insects.
In Hinduism the soul's future and subsequent liberty or the superiority of the rebirth
and the further proceedings towards ‘salvation' entirely depends on the quality of deeds
conducted on earth. Rendering the rules of “Karma” (actions) it is supposed that every action
has a cause and effect (Hunt). Hinduism says that man is not a puppet at the hands of fate or
destiny. Unlike the fatalists who resign completely to the inevitability of Fate, Hindu people
believe in the creation of one's own destiny by the activities done in this life. They focus
more on the accumulation of “Punya” (pure deeds) which can bring them better rebirth
(Dhakal). The convention says that the quality of rebirth is measured by the level of devotion
towards God and not towards materialistic objects. According to the principles of “Manu”
Hinduism discriminates between the ways one has died. It differs from person to person
taking their way of death into considerations.
Hinduism is one of the most ancient religion and is considered as the "Sanatana
Dharma" which is created by no human force and cannot be demolished by anyone. It is the
primitive source of faith. The various scriptures that are followed by the Hindu people such
as “Bhagwat Gita”, “Vedas”, “Ramayana” are the foundations of Hinduism and
“Upanishads” are the refined doctrines of the scriptures (Herman). All of these doctrines
agree with the concept that the human body is only the outer cage inside which the “Atman”
(soul) resides. “Atman” is indestructible, immortal, and ceaseless and it only transfers from
one mortal body to another after the final liberation or death.
A soul can move towards enlightenment, progression and can get purified through the
cycles of rebirth- a process of reincarnation. The “Atman” holds the ability to go through
various birth cycles, permutation before merging with the divine. Death separates the body

5CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
and the soul and the soul is bound to descend to earth through undergoing several lives until
it is connected with the supreme power. The last moment of one's life is highly important to
finalize the features of rebirth. During the moment of death a person is asked to have a last
sight of his or her family and chant a mantra such as “Om Namah Shivaya” which is the
“Mahamrityunjaya” mantra that leads one to have the last journey through the path of
enlightenment.
The rebirth concept in Hinduism significantly depends on the primary assumption that
the soul or Atman exists (Knott). Whereas the Buddhist assumption regarding the same is that
there is no presence of soul (Tongprasert). Hindu beliefs admit the soul to be the stable
eternal attribute of a living being and in many of its theological and non-theological
traditions, the soul claimed to be exact with the ultimate reality termed as Brahman. So, even
if both Buddhism and Hinduism welcome the karma and rebirth concept and both primarily
focuses on ethical interpretation of life as well as liberation from rebirth and suffering as the
optimum sacred pursuit, they have a completely different perspective on whether a soul exists
which has significant impacts on the details of their respective rebirth concepts.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that there are some visionary
differences between the concepts of various aspects of the two most practiced religion,
Hinduism and Buddhism. But both the religion has almost the same inner meaning which is
serving the people. Both the religions had significant differences in the approach of practicing
the religion. The concept of afterlife and rebirth is stated in the paper to be almost the same
but the situational differences along with the changes in the characters are visible. The
theoretical discussion on the existence of the soul after the death and the sufferings through
which it goes to the next life is described with a prime focus on the determination of it by
Karma. The influence of the deeds that the person committed in the human life is observed to

6CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
be incredibly affecting the fate of one regarding the rebirth and the form of appearance in the
next life. The categorical changes in both the religions regarding the presence of deity in the
rebirth concept are visible.

7CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
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8CONCEPTUAL COMPARISON OF HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
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