Hinduism vs.

Buddhism
Comparison Paper
by
Elba Espinoza
RELS 2300

Introduction
In life there are many questions we, as human beings, dont have the answer to and weve
also recognize that there is something more to life than this physical world we live in, and weve
turned to religion for answers and understanding of those things. There are many religions
around the world. Some are very similar to one another, and some differ very drastically. There
are two religions that I want to focus on: Hinduism and Buddhism. These two religions intrigue
me for their many similarities but also how different they can be. When I first encounter this two
religion very superficially, I thought they had nothing in common. As Ive learned more and
more of them, found out that the share similarities too.
Origins
These two religions originated in India. This was a surprise to me because I originally
thought that Buddhism originated in Asia. The start of Hinduism is unknown but it is believed
that it was carried through the years by ancient hymns or songs called Vedas. The Vedas are not
consider work of men but a revelation from a higher being, that were transmitted orally through
the years (Fisher p.75).
Buddhism originated very differently. This is a far more new religion than Hinduism and
was originated by a man or prophet called Gautama Buddha (Fisher p.137). Buddha was a prince
living in a palace with no knowledge of pain, struggles, sickness, death, or anything negative. He
had no knowledge of the outside word and lived in his palace surrounded by pleasures and
happiness. As this man started his suspicions, he decided to seek answers to his questions by
going outside of his palace. From what he encounter, he decided to find the truth of life by
meditation and the study of religions. His teachings form the base of Buddhism.

Even though both religions started in India, one was based on revelations from a divine
being and the other was based on the philosophy of a prophet.

Who do they worship?

Worshiping is in important part of many religions and it usually directed to one or more
deities. Contrary to popular believe Hinduism is a monotheistic religion, meaning that they
believe in only one god creator of everything. This god is called Brahman and he takes the form
of many incarnations such as Shiva, Lakshmi, and Vishnu to name only a few. The believe is that
Brahman takes many forms according to he peoples needs so he (Brahman) has a form or
manifest for each need. For example Vishnu is viewed and worship as the love and caring form
of Brahman, while Shiva symbolizes destruction (Fisher p.83-90).
Buddhism, in the other hand, does not claim the existence of a god or creator; it is a
nontheistic religion. They do not worship Buddha, but worship (in a way) his teachings.
According to the book Living Religions by Mary Pat Fisher, Buddhists explained the following
at the 1993 Parliament of the Worlds Religions in Chicago:
Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was not God or a god. He was a
human being who attained full Enlightenment through meditation and showed us
the path of spiritual awakening and freedom. Therefore, Buddhism is not a
religion of God.
Mysticism
I wan to focus in two aspects of these two religions: Meditation and reincarnation. Both
of these religions believe in meditation as being a way of finding balance in the mind. Hindus
call this Yoga. Yoga is meditating to either find wisdom, balance, peace and/or wisdom. There

are many different types of yoga according to the purpose of the meditation (Jhana, Karma,
Bhakti, and Raja yoga). Buddhist see yoga as just simply meditation and a form to find
enlightenment and spiritual liberation as the first Buddha did (Fisher 2014). The body positions
while meditating for both religions are very similar; both sitting on the ground with hands resting
on the knees with backs straight and sometimes eyes closed.
The belief of reincarnation is also found in both religions. The Buddhists believe that
Buddha is been reincarnated from body to body through the years. Hindus believe that some of
the forms of Brahman have been reincarnated as well. Another aspect of reincarnation for both
religions is reincarnation after death. These two religions believe in reincarnation according to
Karma. The possibility of reincarnating into an animal, another person, or another being depends
(for both religions) to the actions and thoughts you had while alive (Fisher 2014). Therefor
reincarnation after death can be either a good or bad experience.
Congregations
I want to describe both of these two religions and the way they practice their routine
ceremonies with my own experience. The Hindu temple was very colorful and many statutes of
many sizes were surrounding the place. The statutes had flowers and other gifts that the people
brought to them during celebrations. I experience the awakening of one of Brahmans forms
Shiva. We had to sit on the floor while the priest or pugari sang ancient vedas. The ceremony
proceeded to bathing Shiva with milks and a paste made out of honey and other ingredients. The
ceremony only lasted about an hour. The have other rituals for their deities at different times of
the day. It is also no mandatory to come to a temple as a Hindu to worship, since most Hindus
have a room a their homes dedicated to worship.

The Buddhist congregation was much different. They were statutes as well but not as
many and also very colorful. The monk asked to us to sit down on the floor in a meditation form.
The whole ceremony was meditation, not worshiping. There were some songs sang and
everybody was welcome in participate singing. It was much a simpler form of ceremony than the
Hindus, which seemed livelier. In both religions, the participation of the congregation was minor
compare to the western religions. Both ceremonies required you to sit on the floor and songs
were sung, making chanting an important part of both religions. The priest and monks attire was
different in a minor way but both were loose tunics of some sort.
Rituals and Practices
I want to begin talking about some of the Hindu rituals and practices because I consider
Hinduism as the most active religion of the two. By active, I mean very festive. Some of its
rituals consist of pilgrimages to holy places to purify themselves and to reach a higher level of
spirituality. The book Living Religions mentions that millions of pilgrims yearly undertake
strenuous climbs to remote mountains sites that are thought to be blessed by the divine. As I
mentioned, Hindus are also very festive. They celebrate every deity with colors, music, dance,
lights and retreats. The government recognizes some of these festivals and gives the devotees
days off to partake in the activities (Fisher p.108).
Buddhist tend to be a little more conservative when it comes to festivities. Although they
carry out agricultural festival and others like the Vesak (which celebrates the Buddhas birth,
enlightenment, and death) they focus more on the rituals and meditation. There are ceremonies to
assist the dead, teachings on how to share spirituality with others, chanting blessing for
protection, healing rituals, and ceremonies to invoke blessings from deities (Fisher p.156-157). It

seems like its more important for Buddhist to control their emotions and to Hindus it seems that
being more expressive is whats most important.
Hinduism and Buddhism Today
Hinduism and Buddhism have been affected by many different factors through out the
years. Hinduism has suffer the most drastic changes (in my opinion) because it roots were not
established as solidly as Buddhists did. It also being a much older religion, it has gone through
many years of change and adaptation. This religion was exposed to other religions such as
Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Jainism (Fisher p. 111-112). Christianity impacted Hinduism
the most when British took over India and changed some of their traditions that they called
intellectually incoherent and ethically unsound (Fisher p.112). Hinduism was also changed by
different Hindu spiritual leaders that modified some of its believes for better practice and
political unity (Fisher p.112). We also learned in class that there was also a time where anybody
(mostly males) could add new doctrines to the sacred scriptures, and this happened for many
years changing Hinduism more and more.
Buddhism Today
Buddhism has also faced different changes through out time. It has expanded and adapted
by many countries around Asia like Japan, China, Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand. Zariah
Cain explains how Buddhism has changed over time in her article titled How Has Buddhism
Change Over Time? She mentions that what affected Buddhism the most was its expansion to
the West. She also says that even thought Buddhism has changed in practices and rituals, its main
purpose has stayed the same: to reach enlightenment and Nirvana. In my own opinion, Buddhism
has become more of a relaxation path. People seek this religion for its meditation benefits as a
relaxation technic, rather than finding true enlightenment.

The Future of these two Religions

If we look around, humans are the most unstable part of this world. What Im getting at is
that we change our minds every day as individuals about simple things and we also do it as
generations go by. Every time we get a new president things change, every time we get new
teachers things change, every times we get tired of doing something too many times we change.
This type of human behavior will keep affecting, not only these too religions, but religions all
over the world. This will bring improvement and innovations into these religions, but they also
take the risk of separating from their main ideology, beliefs and purpose that they were founded
for.
The job of keeping these religions pure and alive are falling into the hands of a very few
due to newer generations not being interested in religions or accommodating it to their own
comfort (mostly in the more industrially and technologically advance countries).
Conclusion
Hinduism and Buddhism are two religions that were born in India separated by a gap of
many years but brought together by their region. Their beliefs are both unique and different but
theyve also share many similarities. Its difficult to compare both of these religions with
precision due to Hinduism being so broad and Buddhism having to change so much with its
expansion to other countries, but some of their similarities and differences are very clear. With
their many differences, both of these religions seek to find peace and knowledge, and pursue
their followers to be better people towards nature and towards others. They both teach
consequences to evil thoughts and deeds and show a way to help lead their followers away from
such behaviors.

References

Cain, Z. (2013, September 12). How Has Buddhism Changed Over Time? Retrieved from
https://prezi.com/f0x56zslk7fz/how-has-buddhism-changed-over-time/

Fisher, M. P. (2014). Living Religions. New Jersey: Pearson.