Beliefs and Festivals in Buddhism - Essay Example

? BUDDHISM College Buddhism is a religion that is traced to the indigenous Indians of the Indian part of the Asian continent. They have a variety of beliefs and traditions that describe their culture traced back to their founder Buddha. Unlike other religions which followers believe in a supreme being, Buddhists believe that Buddha was just a common man like any other man. They believe that in the earlier years, Buddha lived in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent and taught different people. Most of the Buddhists describe Buddha as a true teacher who awakened them from their ignorance. By this, Buddha ensured that they attained the highest form of happiness that humans can ever achieve. After all these years, Buddhists still believe and practice their culture. I interviewed Ashoka, a strong Buddhist, on some aspects of their religion and I was surprised at some of their practices. Beliefs One of the strongest beliefs of Buddhists is that there is no supernatural being, unlike other religions such as Christianity and Islam. Their god was human and so they believe that all people are equal and should respect each other. Buddhists also believe that whatever they hear or read has to be tested. This is unlike most religions that discourage testing of anything that has been said by their gods. Buddhists, however, believe that if something is written in their holy books, then they have the right to test it to be assured that it is true. This, therefore, creates a faith that is transparent and where followers are not subjected to impossible temptations that they cannot overcome and question. Buddhists have the right to question their holy books as well as their god if they have evidence to do so (Patrick, 1982). Buddhists also have many gods. Unlike most religions which followers only believe in one god, Buddhists have a varying number of gods. Some have as many as thousands of gods while others have no god at all. For this, Buddhists believe that one should never argue about the existence of god and they have a saying that they would rather die than argue on god’s existence. The other major belief of Buddhists is the karma belief. This is the belief given especially to children. They are told that if they do wrong, they will get karma which in most cases is considered to be the exact equivalent of what wrong the child has done. Due to this, most of the Buddhist children are upright and in most cases would avoid wrong things. One of the most practiced beliefs about Buddhists which Ashoka gave me a quick review of is the importance of listening to teachers. Buddhists believe that it is very important for people to listen to their teacher’s advice. They believe that teachers are chosen by Buddha and if one wants to prosper and avoid bad ways, they have to listen to their teachers. It is for this reason that most of the Buddhist teachers are always elderly due to the experience that is needed to attain that position. Teachers are, therefore, much respected people in the society and a Buddhist will never disobey their teacher’s advice. Festivals According to Ashoka, festivals are like the only factor that unites Buddhists all over the world. She informed me that during those early days, it was a tradition for all Buddhists to come together and celebrate the full moon. During this time, they would all gather under the full moon and listen to various teachings and try as much as they could to meditate with their specific chants. Even though this festival is losing its taste due to the movement of Buddhists all over the world, it is still a common practice. Apart from this festival, there is the main Buddhist festival that creates a strong sense of belonging to all Buddhists. Their main ritual is known as the Puja and it is always performed by the teacher. The teacher is at the center while the other members of the group are outside and answer to the calls made by the teacher. This practice, according to Ashoka, is practiced to encourage their meditation and normal practices. Ashoka believes in meditation and describes it as the only time when one can be able to experience the value of nature. She says that anyone interested in Buddhism is welcome to the meditation classes that every Buddhist temple offers (Kung, 1988). In any year, Buddhists have four festivals that they practice. The first one is Parinirvana Day. This festival is celebrated in February and is meant to commemorate the death of Buddha. This festival, according to Ashoka, gives them time to appreciate death and to know that death comes to everyone. Their second festival is Buddha Day. This festival is in most cases known as Wesak. It is celebrated in May and Buddhists consider it the most important festival to them. It is a festival set to celebrate the gaining of enlightenment that was brought by Buddha. After this festival, comes Dharma Day, a festival that is held in July to encourage Buddhists to awaken others into their religion. It is a day that is set aside to teaching the Buddhist community some of their morals and is set to help them appreciate their religion and spread it to other people. Sangha Day is the next festival that comes in November. It is a day that is set to celebrate the Buddhist community. Rituals By the end of my interview with Ashoka, one thing was clear to me. Buddhists have a lot of rituals that they perform on children, adults and the gods themselves. The main purpose of these rituals is to allow people to get blessings and enlightenment to themselves. Every form of Buddhism propagates the practice of meditation and in most practices, meditation is fundamental. All the rituals including meditation can be traced back to the practices that were introduced by Buddha. However, as earlier stated, Buddhists believe in experimentations, and this means that all the rituals that are performed by Buddhists are obtained from the experience that most of their teachers have had after a long period of time practicing these rituals. Existing religions in China, India and Japan have had a lot of impact on some of the rituals that Ashoka took me through (Coleman, 2001). One of the most basic rituals that a Buddhist has to be exposed to at a very tender age is meditation. During this ritual, the Buddhists concentrate on the mindfulness. This means that they totally forget everything and remain in a state of calm. The other ritual is mantras which are characterized by sounds that are considered to be sacred. Mudras are rituals in which they use gestures and symbols to bring out their message. The last ritual that she took me through was prayer wheels and in this was where they recite various holy scripts from their books. After the interview with Ashoka and having done a lot of research on the Buddhist religion, the above information points out a conclusion of a very quiet religion under which people do not have to fight or kill others just to accept their religion as other religions do. Buddhism is quiet and based solely on peace. They also believe in gods but have the ability to question their actions through experiments – something that is highly disregarded in other religions. There are a lot more unexplored cultures in their religion that the world would greatly appreciate. References Coleman, J. W. (2001). The new Buddhism: The western transformation of an ancient tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kung, H. (1988). Theology for the third millennium: An ecumenical view. New York: Doubleday. Patrick, M. (1982). Buddhists and Buddhism. Hove, England: Wayland. Read More