Buddhism

I would definitely recommend enrolling in this class next semester as it has been one of the most interesting classes I have taken here at Cornell. In this class I have learnt about many of Asia’s major religions. I have learnt about the Indian Religion called Hinduism in which there are numerous deities which are worshipped . By studying this religion I have come to better understand many concepts in the Hindu world view including the concept of transmigration which is what I find to be most interesting thing about this religion. The concept of transmigration generally accepted by all Hindus and believed to be true. In the Hindu world view death is not the end of one’s existence, it is but a stage of a continuous cycle of birth, death and rebirth that all Hindus are subject to. For Hindus, after death one is not transported to a heaven or hell, or some other world in perpetuity as in other religions, but rather they return to worldly life to live and die again in a different mortal form1. This cycle termed samsara in the Hindu philosophical texts the Upanishads, means circling or wandering. This wandering or circling refers to the fact that after death one does not cease to exist, but instead wanders to a different location and continues to live on in a new time and body. The quality of life a person has after being reborn is not simply determined by chance but is thought to be as a direct result of the way that individual lived in his or her previous life. This idea of one’s actions having later consequences is termed karma in Hinduism and is an integral part of Hinduism and Indian culture. This is just one of the many interesting things I’ve learnt about Asian religions.
Another major Asian religion studied in this class is Buddhism. This religion was also originally an Indian religion but later spread to China, Japan and many other countries in the world. This religious movement was started by a man named Siddhartha Gautama, entitled the Buddha who lived