Comparative Analysis of Hinduism, Theravada
After long periods of
Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism
In Hinduism and Buddhism (Mahayana and Theravada), dharma
is an integral concept. In Hinduism, dharma refers to the religious and
moral law governing a person’s conduct. It is also one of the four
Hindu goals of life. For the two Buddhist schools, it may pertain to the
cosmic law and order or to Buddha’s teachings. Apart from the
Buddha and the sangha, the dharma is one of the “Three Jewels” to
which Buddhist followers go for refuge.
Hinduism and Buddhism both originated in India. Hindu followers
comprise 80% of India’s population of more than a billion or about
14% of the world’s population. Meanwhile, there are more than 370
million Buddhists around the world that represent about 6% of the
entire population. Quite interestingly, while Buddhism began in India,
it almost died out as a living religion in its place of origin (Coogan
2005). Majority of its followers can be found in China Japan, Korea,
and Indochina Peninsula. The major sects of Buddhism include
Theravada and Mahayana schools of thought.
ORIGIN
Both Hinduism and Buddhism, two of the world’s great religions, trace
their origin in India. Believed to be the oldest living religion in the
world, the early beginnings of Hinduism with its forms and themes
may have begun around the third millennium B.C.E. (Hopfe 1983). As
the precise time of its founding is very much difficult to determine,
Hinduism evolved and developed during the ancient Indus Valley
civilization. It is widely regarded that both pre-Aryan and Aryan
elements are found in Hinduism (Brown 1975). A timeless religion as
it is and a way of life for its adherents, Hinduism has no precise
moment of origin and no one specific founder or prophet unlike most
other world religions. Throughout its long history, Hinduism became
the source of three other religions, namely, Buddhism, Jainism, and
Sikhism. Buddhism also traces its origins in northern India around the
sixth century B.C.E. as another interpretation of the Hindu belief. This
religion is closely linked to its founder Siddhartha Gautama who is
also referred to as the Buddha or the “Enlightened One.” A son
of a Kshatriya chief, the once affluent Siddhartha abandoned the
comfort of his palace and family as he set to discover the remedy to
universal suffering he observed in this world.
abstinence and meditation, he finally reached enlightenment (nirvana)
and became known as the “Buddha” or the “enlightened one.” He
preached mainly in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent such as
in Magadha and Kosala. About 500 years after Buddha’s
enlightenment, a schism within the Buddhist religion resulted in the
emergence of two major branches around the first century C.E,
namely, the Theravada and Mayahana schools of tradition. Both
schools owe their fundamental teachings to the Buddha whose life has
become an inspiration to millions of followers all over the world.
Around the third century B.C.E., Buddhism reached neighboring Asian
countries as a result of the missionary zeal of Indian rulers. A different
outlook to salvation attracted many Asian people to embrace the tenets
of Buddhism as it reached China, India, Korea, and Indochina
Peninsula. However, while Buddhism was successfully converting
people in faraway places, Buddhist fervor gradually waned in native
India as a result of resurging Hinduism. The resurgence in Hinduism is
due to how Hinduism absorbed the rising challenge of other new
religions as it incorporated their elements into the Hindu belief.
MORALITY
Hinduism is said to be the most tolerant of all religions as there are
numerous ways to manifest one’s set of Hindu beliefs (Hopfe 1983). In
short, the Hindus themselves differ in the manner of practicing their
religion. However, while Hinduism may seemingly lack a cohesive
system of beliefs and practices, most of its adherents hold several key
moral values such as karma and dharma. The concept of karma
involves the accumulation of one’s past deeds that have a direct effect
on one’s present condition. Karma is closely linked to the Hindu belief
of reincarnation (samsara) or the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Bad
deeds, including actions and thoughts, may result in one being born
into an unpleasant circumstance in the next life. On the other hand,
good deeds generate an enjoyable disposition in one’s next life. In
short, karma is the universal law of causality. The notion of balance
and order in this universe is integral to the Hindu belief. People are
born in this world with specific duties to perform in accordance to
their status in society, such as those elements related to gender and
caste. This is the concept of dharma wherein people must accomplish
their tasks so that society can prosper as a whole. Evidently, dharma is
a complex term that could mean law, duty, order, justice, or norm
within Hinduism. To disregard one’s dharma is tantamount to reaping
bad karma that could have an adverse effect in the next life. By
performing one’s dharma correctly, one gains good karma. Essentially,
dharma brings morality and ethics in the Hindu belief system.
While the Buddha embraced the general framework of Indian ideas, he
radically altered many of them (Bowker 1997). Similarly, the cycle of
rebirth persists in Buddhism and succeeding lives may be affected by
the moral laws of cause and effect or karma. Until one has achieved
enlightenment, one’s deed in the present lifetime will affect the course
of future rebirths. Buddhist moral thoughts and actions are principally
guided by the “Four Noble Truths” formulated by the Buddha, along
with the basic guide called the “Eightfold Paths” that are divided into
three categories, namely, right view, right conduct, and right practice.
Unhappiness of life (dukkha) is principally caused by people’s
unending desires. People are advised to scrutinize their motivations
and ponder upon the outcome of their actions keeping in mind
Buddha’s teachings. Anything harmful to others, in deed and in
thought, must always be avoided. The two major schools of Buddhism,
the Theravada and Mahayana sects, follow the “Four Noble
Truths” and the “Noble Eightfold Path.”
PURPOSE
In Hinduism, there are four desirable goals of life (purushartha). All
Hindus aim to achieve the four-fold purpose of life that includes
dharma artha kamaand moksha Dharma means to behave appropriately
and act righteously. In essence, dharma is a path toward a pleasant
rebirth through fulfillment of one’s destiny that is often defined by
class, family, social status, age,and gender. It also involves paying
debts to gods, fellow humans, and other living beings during their
lifetime. Artha pertains to the pursuit of legitimate worldly prosperity
or material well-being. Wealth must be gained by way of lawful
measures. As one pursues success, dharma must always be kept in
mind. Kama refers to the pursuit of legitimate pleasure as one obtains
enjoyment in life, such as those related to arts, music, and dance. This
could
also include satisfaction of one’s desire or sexuality. Moksha is
the final meaning of life that involves enlightenment, self-realization,
or union with god. For the Hindus, this is the most difficult goal of life
to accomplish. While some can accomplish moksha in just one
lifetime, others may take several reincarnations in another physical
form just to be liberated from the cycle of rebirth. While ignorance and
illusion hinder the enlightenment of sentient beings, they can still
escape these bondages. In essence, the main purpose of their life is to
obtain release from the cycle of reincarnation or at least a better
rebirth. In addition to the four goals of life, traditional Hindus often
pass the four stages of life (ashramas). The first stage of Hindu life is
that of being a student (brahmacarya). As a bachelor, he lives in the
house of a guru and studies sacred scriptures under his guidance.
The second stage is that of being a householder (grihastha) wherein
he takes in a wife, raises children, and contributes to the well-being of
society (Brown 1975). During the third stage (vanaprastha), he
withdraws to the forest with his wife as he undergoes meditation to
understand the meaning of life. Finally, the fourth stage (samnyasin)
involves renouncing the world and all its attachments as he now
becomes a holy sage. The first three stages are obligatory in nature
while the fourth is only optional and not all men attain it. In
Buddhism, the principal purpose of one’s life is to terminate all
forms of suffering caused by attachment to impermanent entities, such
as material things, friends, and health. All these do not offer enduring
happiness but sorrow. When one recognizes the impermanence of all
these things, an individual begins to free one’s self from
attachment thereby reducing suffering and ending the cycle of rebirth.
Buddha’s teachings on the “Four Noble Truths” and the “Noble
Eightfold Path” form the basic tenets of all Buddhist sects.
In Theravada Buddhism, the monastic way of life ensures the
path toward enlightenment. For the Buddhist laity, they must first be
reborn as monks for them to be eligible for enlightenment. As
members of the laity perform good deeds, positive karma may bring
forth a pleasant condition in the next life. In contrast, Mahayana
Buddhism offers enlightenment to anyone, not only for the members of
the monastic order, but also for those with families and secular careers.
Moreover, the Mahayana branch of Buddhism attracts followers
because it offers a faster route to enlightenment than the Theravada
sect.
DESTINY
Simply put, the destiny of all Hindus involves reincarnation until such
time they gain ultimate enlightenment. Hinduism believes that within
the human is an eternal soul (atman) that is being reborn millions of
times and in many forms subject to the moral law of karma (Bowker
1997). While the soul is immortal and naturally blissful, it could
plunge into darkness because of ignorance and delusion concerning
reality. Moral law enables souls to create their own destiny leading to a
pleasurable or repulsive state of existence. Hindu practices to achieve
enlightenment involves yoga, meditation, proper worship, rituals,
devotion to gods and goddesses, pilgrimage to sacred shrines, and
performing one’s duties. For the Hindus, the idea of an eternal heaven
or hell is unfounded as it does not uphold genuine moral behavior. In
fact, the concept of heaven and hell can be exploited by religious
groups just wanting to lure or scare people Meanwhile, Buddhism
holds that no soul is being reborn because there is no permanence in
anything (Bowker 1997). The Buddha preached to his followers to
achieve their own salvation conscientiously because external forces
have no control over their life and circumstances. They control their
own fate as they are bound to the law of causality. Buddhist destiny,
therefore, is the direct result of natural law or dharma and one’s
accumulated deeds or karma. Here lies the glaring difference of
Buddhism as a dharmic religion when compared to other world
religions that teach the concept of fate or predestiny. For Buddhist
followers, life and events are not controlled by an all-powerful creator
or universal force. In contrast to Hinduism and other religions, the
Buddhist goal is neither
Absorption into Brahman nor union with God. Instead, Buddhists
aspire to reach nirvana or the extinguishing of fires of longing and
suffering (Bowker 1997). When one has achieved nirvana, one has
attained the state of perfect peace wherein attachment, aversion, and
ignorance have ceased once and for all
VIEWS ON WOMEN
The status of women in ancient India leaves much to be desired as they
are always seen as inferior to men in all aspects of life. Restrictions
abound with regard to their daily activities; tending household chores
would be their primary role. Women are to be cared for by their
parents in their childhood days, by their husbands when they marry,
and by their sons when they reach old age. Religious and educational
liberties for women are severely lacking. Honoring women in Hindu
society as a fundamental teaching has been laid down in one of the
supplementary arms of the Vedas, the Manu smriti or the “Laws of
Manu.” Based on this standard book in the Hindu canon, women must
attend ritualistic practices despite the fact that they had no roles to play
in these activities. According to this basic text, the three-stage pattern
for a woman include that a woman child be protected by her father, a
wife must be protected by her husband, and an old woman be protected
by her sons. As a married woman, she must become a good wife and
treat her husband as a god. She must serve and follow him, and pray
for him. She often eats when her husband has finished eating. In
return, a husband must also revere his wife as a goddess. The sacred
text adds that the happiness of the wife is crucial in the stability of the
family. Cases of having several wives also exist in Indian society that
naturally breed hatred and jealousies among the wives. More so,
women are not allowed to remarry after the death of their husbands.
Shaving their head is a requirement to make them unappealing to other
interested men. The most difficult chores are given to widows and they
are forbidden to eat alongside family members. Widows are
personification of all the negative characteristics of a woman, ill-fated
and wretched. Widows are brought to the Indian city of Vrindavan by
their families who eventually abandon them there. A widow can opt to
commit sati or the act of killing herself by jumping into the funeral
pyre of her husband. It is believed that immolating one’s self assures
immense rewards for the family and gives a chance to the wife to be
with her husband in the next life. The practice of sati has now been
banned in India especially with the passage of Sati (Prevention) Act of
1988 that criminalized any type of involvement in sati.
On the other hand, women have enjoyed considerable freedom in their
religious life in Buddhism as compared to Hinduism. The Buddha
himself allowed the full participation of women in all major Buddhist
rites and practices. For so long a time when women’s duties were
confined to household and kitchen duties, Buddha radically changed
this when he allowed women to join the monastic order and attain
enlightenment in equal footing with men. In the past, learned women
members of sangha include Dhammadinna, Khema, and Uppalavanna.
Fully-ordained Buddhist female monastic members are bhikkunis. For
the Buddha, men are not always wise and women can also be wise. In
Buddhism, women should not be treated as inferior to men because
both are equally valuable in society. Women as wives and mothers
have roles to fulfill in the family and society. Husbands and wives
must equally share responsibilities in the family with the same zeal.
Wives must also familiarize themselves in trade and business dealings
so that they can also handle these affairs. Men and women have equal
status in Buddhist societies