Stoicism And Buddhism Comparison Essay

Buddhism can be defined as a religion, originated in India by Buddha, focusing on compassion. The main teaching of Buddhism is that desire causes life’s suffering. To end this suffering one must go through enlightenment. Support for these teachings are the Four Noble Truths. The first truth is that suffering is inevitable. Secondly, suffering is caused by desire and ignorance. Thirdly, is the belief that we can end suffering by eliminating our cravings and desires achieving Nirvana. Finally, the fourth truth is that one must develop understanding, positive intentions, skillful speech, action, livelihood, good effort, mindfulness, and skillful meditation for Buddhist success.
On the other hand, Stoicism can be defined as reaching peacefulness by limiting wants and taking a very realistic view of the world. Stoics believe that the universe is rational and controlled only by natural law and they accept things that they cannot change. A similarity between Stoics and Buddhists is that they believe that having an excess amount of possessions can lead to suffering. For Stoics, the first step to achieve happiness is to control your passions and desires, just like in Buddhism. Stoics define the
Stoicism tends to be more analytical than Buddhism, focusing actively on logical thinking. While Buddhists find inner stillness by meditating and intuition training. Buddhists tend to believe that they can make changes through compassion while Stoics believe most things in the world are as is and cannot be changed. Another major difference between the two is that Buddhists worship Buddha in their home or at a temple, often in front of a shrine, whereas Stoics do not worship. Buddhists also have a sacred text called the Tipitaka while Stoics do not have one specific text they abide