Comparison of Buddhism and Other Religions Essay

Comparison of Buddhism and Other Religions - Essay ExampleLike roughly religions, Buddhism has a structure through and through which relief from the burdens of spirit can be achieve. Unlike most other(a) religions, that state of nirvana is realizable during ones animationtime in contrast to the idea of receiving peace at the end of life through admission into Heaven. The Buddhist religion can be compared to other religions with the result being an intellect of how it has logistically been embraced as well as why it has been aesthetically embraced. Throughout history, religions have rarely been foc enforced on a single unmarried. Hinduism, the Greek Olympian graven images, and the Jewish faith were all based upon a God or gods that had not lived an earthly life. Even Christianity is not based upon the life of a man, just on the teachings of God as articulated through his experience in manifesting his son on Earth. Buddhism, on the other hand, is based on the teachings of a ma n who was born(p), had a childhood, and evolved into a great teacher through whom an waken occurred that defined the beliefs of those who then followed his teachings. Through the teachings of the Buddha, a middle way is strand that does not require the someone to live in extreme asceticism, but to also not indulge in an extravagant lifestyle. The teachings of Buddha allowed the individual to be released from the idea of gods ruling their lives and gave to them the concept that anyone can reach nirvana, which is a release from earthly woes. Self-mastery is attained through the Four Noble Truths and through the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are that all life is permeated through suffering, all suffering is caused by desire, desire can only be over discern by Nirvana, and the way to nirvana is guided by eight principles. Those principles are that righteousness can be found through right ideas, right thought, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right cons ciousness, and right meditation. In following these teachings the individual will be released from desire. Manichaeism was developed during the third century through an Iranian born man named Mani and can be compared to Buddhism through the emphasis on the teachings of this man, just as Islam is founded on the teachings of Muhammad, the shoemakers last prophet of the one God. Whereas Buddhism and Manichaeism both focus on an earthly mans thoughts, Islam teaches that Muhammad was channeling the teachings of God. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all use human conduits as teachers for the same God however these three religions have been in conflict for most of history. Manichaeism incorporated the ideas of the Judaism history in order to define a new power balance amid God and Satan in which the power of God was diminished to equal that of Satan through whom a balance was created. According to Scott, the response that Mani had to Buddhism was to describe the Buddha as a Messenger of Light, just like himself, but that the teachings of Buddha that would have reflected the same message as his own had been corrupted because they were not written by Buddha himself.1 Mani insist that the teachings of Buddha had been changed because they were not chronicled enough to survive his passing. Albright asserts the same about the teachings within the Judeo-Christian heritage as he reminds his readers that the Old Testament is likely corrupted and out of chronology because of the number of reinterpretations that have occurred through a serial of rewrites that passed those words down through history.2 Buddhism is not the only highly practiced religion in modernistic society that is based upon teachings that are not directly written from the source. Christianity is defined by teachings that did not come to be