Hindu and Budhist thought - Term Paper Example

Since the terminology “Hinduism” lacks roots among the self-conceptualization of people often labeled “Hindus”, there is lacking significance in the philosophical doctrine that is pertinent to Hinduism. However, the term has continued to be used since it is quite on the stance separating Hindu thinkers from the sikh thinkers and the Buddhist. Non-systematic phy philosophy of Hindu is composed of the philosophical elements for the secondary and primary bodies of the Hindu texts. The systematic Hindu philosophies, on the other hand, adopted the congenial disposition geared towards the Vedas. According to philosophers, both Buddhism and Hinduism go beyond religion and thus, they are more of a way of life or philosophy. The two are termed as a philosophy since philosophy has been accepted to imply love of wisdom. According to philosophers, the Buddhist path is interpreted as leading a moral life, being mindful, as well as being aware of actions and thoughts and being able to develop understanding and wisdom. On the other hand, Buddhism is a religion that is indigenous in the Indian subcontinent encompassing a variety of beliefs, practices and traditions largely based upon the teachings that are attributed to Siddhartha Gautama. Hinduism, on the other hand, is a representative of a diverse and broad philosophy imbedded within the Hindu religion. Hinduism rests upon the trantric and vedic traditions with the vedic traditions being represented within the veda’s. Hinduism or Vedanta has been a worldwide, age-old popular religion with an immense following making it be ranked third among the world religions. It is based on certain beliefs, and it is one of the most mingled religions in the world. Unlike other world, religions, it is preached by various religious organizations and believes in multi-doctrines. Hinduism is a religion, a tradition, a culture, a philosophy, and a way of leading life in the name of some spiritual being. The followers of Hinduism believe in both animals and humans’ spirits, as well as in life after death. They draw their energies from the Goddesses and Gods Idols, in which they believe, and symbolize the existence of God on earth. These followers keep their strong faith in the single Godly image seen as a supreme source of energy. This paper entails discussing the Vedanta or Hinduism and Buddhism, as philosophies, not as religious entities and how the two contrast each other. It is worth noting that the philosophy of Hinduism and the philosophy of Buddhism alongside their goals and practices contrast immensely. Buddhism is somewhat conservative and closest to earlier Buddhism. Research has it that those schools of Buddhism developed devotional practices, as well as other rituals influenced by the existing cultures of India, Japan, Nepal and Tibet. However, as recorded in Pali Canon materials for the Theravada School of Buddhism, the historical forms of Hinduism, as well as the Buddha teachings have differences that are quite pronounced. Buddhism and Hinduism have, for years, had parallel practices existing side by side and the earliest Hindus philosophical test “the influence of Upanishads has been the key subjects of debate. While Neumann, Radhakrishnan, and Oldenberg were quite convinced about Upanishadic influence upon the Buddhist Canon, Thomas and Eliot were of the different opinion where they felt that Buddhism might have been under the influence of Upanishadic ideas. In the texts of the Buddhist, Thomas is presented to be rejecting salvation on claims that it was "pernicious views”. Indian philosophy, on the other hand, are said to have been influenced by Thomas’s interpretation, as well as the ideas of the novel concerning the Buddhist traditional culture. Philosophically, Buddhism and Hinduism differ in terms of principles and practices. It has been widely cited that while Hinduism heavily believe in the supremacy and efficacy of the Vedas, the Buddhism fail to believe in the Hindu scripture or Vedas for that matter. Arguably, Buddha as a prophet is highly recognized in Buddhism and is said to be the founder of Buddha. Contrary to this, in Hinduism, there is lacking particular prophet thought to be its founder. According to both Buddhism and Hinduism philosophy, there is no existence of the first cause, as well as souls in Buddhism. Hinduism, on the other hand, there is theexistence of souls as well in the first cause. According to Hinduism philosophy, there exists Atman, who is the individual soul with Brahman, being the Supreme Creator. Most of the Hindu intellectual traditions were grouped during Brahmanic-Sanskritic scholasticism period into the standard list of six orthodox schools referred to as darshanas or the "Six Philosophies". All of the six philosophies agree to the Vedas testimony. These include Nyaya (the school of logic), Vaisheshika (the school of atomist), Samkhya (the school of enumeration), Vedanta or Uttara mimamsa (Upanishadic tradition), that emphasizes on Vedic philosophy, and Yoga, (the school of the Patanjalam), which puts emphasis on the metaphysics of the Samkhya. For conceptual and historical reasons, these are coupled into three. They include Mimamsa-Vedanta, Vaishesika, and Samkhya. Vedanta school is subdivided into about six sub-schools. These among others include Advaita (nondualism), Visishtadvaita (the monism for the qualified whole), Suddhadvaita, Dvaita or dualism, Dvaitadvaita, and the Achintya Bheda Abheda schools. Besides, the schools, Madhava Vidyaranya, as well encompasses Saiva known to be the school of theistic Sankhya, Rasesvara (the school of the mercurial), pasupata the Shaivism school), the Pratyabhijna (recognitive school), and Panini Darsana, (grammarian school). There are other orthodox systems, however; the above mentioned schools are the key ones. It is worth noting that these systems agree to the Vedas authority, and for this reason, they are often regarded as orthodox schools of the Hindu philosophy. On the contrary, there are schools classified as unorthodox system by Brahmins because they do not accept the Vedas authority. Chief among them is the Buddhism. Buddhist philosophy encompasses a system of beliefs that are based upon Siddhartha Gautama teachings. Since the inception of Buddhism, there have been strong philosophical components that have come up. The foundation of Buddhism was based upon the rejection of the concepts of the orthodox Hindu philosophy. Buddha is of the different opinion concerning the being of the concepts of metaphysics, as well as the no-being. According to Buddha the idea of the metaphysical being or no-being is a misleading and such like view is caused by reification. Philosophically, Buddhism tent to share some philosophical views along with the other Indian systems, and such views include the believe in a cause and effect relationship existing between all that would be accomplished and all that has already been done, karma, and believe that those events occurring are due to previous events. However, Buddhism departures from the Jain and Hindu philosophy, where Buddhist reject the idea of the permanent, and self-existent soul or atman favoring impermanence (anicca). According to the Hindu and Jain thinkers, if there was no continuing soul that could be accepted, then most certainly the efforts for attaining worldly objectives will not be useful since individuals acting and the other individual receiving the consequences will most likely differ. This, thus, implies that the conviction among individuals that whoever is termed as the doer becomes the reaper of the consequences and is the one that establishes the general existence of the continuing soul. The Hindu Philosophy (Buddhsm and Hinduism), have commonalities, and as well differences relative to the ancient Greek philosophy. Hindu philosophy, in this respect, cuts across all the philosophical doctrines that are found in Hindu text of both religious secondary and primary importance, as well as the systematic Hindu schools philosophies: Vedanta, Yoga, Nyaya, Sankhya and Vaisesika. It is worth noting that philosophically, Hindu held the view that there is always a cause and effect relationship existing between all that would be accomplished and all that has already been done. It also believes in a common thesis that karma is the sole determinant of a person’s life, believing that the occurring of events is due to previous events. This is not the case with the Greek philosophy, in which case, the occurrence of events has no connection between the events to occur or have already occurred. The Hinduism is identified with some core values in common terms referred to as in Hindu literature as purusarthas which constitutes a set of values such as artha, moksa, dharma, and kama. Dharma throughout Hindu literature represents moral, or ethical, with artha standing for economic pleasure, moksa for the soteriological liberation from imperfection, as well as rebirth. The purusarthas is vital for any of the study of any Indian thought and constitute the backdrop against which the Indian philosophers tent to articulate their views. Virtually, all the Hinduism philosophers recognized validities of all the four values with some, for instance the materialists hold that sensual pleasure is one and the only dharma. Thus, whereas the Hindu philosophers considers all the Upanishads true, with the atman or spirit the starting point, the Greek philosophy standpoints are both cosmological and humanistic. According to the Greek philosophy, man but not the spirit was thought to be a starting point. This view was rational, scientific, national, and society conscious that held strong in Greek philosophy. Additionally, to the Greek, there is the Jewish tradition, which certainly has both tribal and nationalistic outlook. There was the doctrine of salvation for the case of Hindu philosophy. This theory was not possessed by Mimamsa, however, due to its strong influence, the theory was adopted. As an action, the Mimamsa of the Dharma, as suggested by the Vedas was the doctrine of the Yoga of action that leads to salvation, which was elaborated by the popular Holy Gita. The Greek philosophy has the rationalism and the humanism with strong faith only in human reason. The Greek philosophy pushed nature and man into the background explain everything that happens in terms of faith, God while making all reason subservient to faith. The Greek’ development in science strengthened their strong faith in reason. In the Hindu philosophy, there is the insistence on existential and experiential nature of religion, and this is why it was referred to as mysticism. Hence thought was not beyond experience. Contrarily, according to Greek philosophy God was seen as being beyond speech. Greeks are of the view that philosophy starts in wonder and that the challenges of life are not linked with wonder. The Upanishad thinkers, on the other hand, were quite sensitive to the life imperfections and defects. Most significant is the fact that in the Hindu philosophical schools, moral theory is shared across the Jainism, Mahyana, and the Buddhist thought, and there are also sufficient variations in schools of the Hindu philosophy pertaining moral matters. Thus, the ethical theory is a particularly necessary criterion for Hinduism, though insufficient. In the Greek philosophy the moral theory, though not similar to the Hinduism case, apply across the society, and it is the main reason for existence in the society Work Cited Bertrant Russell. A History of Western Philosophy. London: Touchstone.1967. Richard King. Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu and Budhist Thought. London: Edinburgh University Press. 1999. Read More