Compare And Contrast Buddhism
Abstract
Practicers of Buddhism have many of the same fundamental beliefs, but branched off into different divisions as many religions do. This branching led to the Theravadins who emulated the ascetic life of the Buddha in order to attain enlightenment while the Mahayanists, whose worldly commitments required that they depend on the assistance of others to achieve the same goal. While there are differences between these two practices of Buddhism, there are also similarities.
Many religions have a split in their core beliefs like Protestants and Catholics in Christianity, Sunni and Shiite in Islam and others. Within Buddhism, the split is Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism are two different forms of Buddhism that has …show more content…
Once Prince Siddhartha had done what was expected of him and his caste, he felt the need to discover what else the world had to offer and in that pursuit he had his first observations of suffering. Uncertain of how to address the suffering he witnessed the first three instances of suffering, Siddhartha was “relieved only when he saw the fourth sight, a wandering ascetic; to his mind, this figure offered the only way to deal with the sufferings of Humanity.” (Matthews, 2013 P. …show more content…
They agree on the Buddhas discovery that life was suffering and the view that the world is in an ever changing state. Each of these faiths differ in a few ways to include the Theravadin practice of Buddhism glorifies the lives of monks, while the Mahayan look down upon them, referring to Theravadins as the lowly path of hinayana. The Mahayana believe the Buddha to be a savior, but the Theravadins believe him to be the highest example of what a human can be. The Mahayanists believed that there was a way humans and the enlightened humans not yet in Nirvana could communicate and cooperate. In contrast the Theravadins believed that only through meditation and not metaphysics could they achieve enlightenment. (Mathews, 2013, P.
Practicers of Buddhism have many of the same fundamental beliefs, but branched off into different divisions as many religions do. This branching led to the Theravadins who emulated the ascetic life of the Buddha in order to attain enlightenment while the Mahayanists, whose worldly commitments required that they depend on the assistance of others to achieve the same goal. While there are differences between these two practices of Buddhism, there are also similarities.
Many religions have a split in their core beliefs like Protestants and Catholics in Christianity, Sunni and Shiite in Islam and others. Within Buddhism, the split is Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism are two different forms of Buddhism that has …show more content…
Once Prince Siddhartha had done what was expected of him and his caste, he felt the need to discover what else the world had to offer and in that pursuit he had his first observations of suffering. Uncertain of how to address the suffering he witnessed the first three instances of suffering, Siddhartha was “relieved only when he saw the fourth sight, a wandering ascetic; to his mind, this figure offered the only way to deal with the sufferings of Humanity.” (Matthews, 2013 P. …show more content…
They agree on the Buddhas discovery that life was suffering and the view that the world is in an ever changing state. Each of these faiths differ in a few ways to include the Theravadin practice of Buddhism glorifies the lives of monks, while the Mahayan look down upon them, referring to Theravadins as the lowly path of hinayana. The Mahayana believe the Buddha to be a savior, but the Theravadins believe him to be the highest example of what a human can be. The Mahayanists believed that there was a way humans and the enlightened humans not yet in Nirvana could communicate and cooperate. In contrast the Theravadins believed that only through meditation and not metaphysics could they achieve enlightenment. (Mathews, 2013, P.