How Does Hinduism Differ From Buddhism?

[Google
Questions Answered]
November 22, 2013 by Ambaa Choate 85 Comments

Curious to know what people were wondering about Hindus and Hinduism, I went to
Google and entered some prompts. For example, I typed “How Does Hinduism” and
then paused to see what questions would come up. Today’s question is…
How Does Hinduism Differ From Buddhism?

This is a great question and I’m glad people are asking it. I’m glad people are trying to
understand the differences between religions and not just lumping them all together as
the same thing.
Hinduism and Buddhism are closely related. Buddha was a Hindu prince before
founding his own path to enlightenment. For westerners I’ll often say that the
relationship between the two is like the relationship between Judaism and Christianity
in some ways. Christianity was inspired by the life of a Jew and Buddhism was inspired
by the life of a Hindu (though the Buddha rejected Hinduism and did not find it to be
the right path for himself).
One of the really stark differences is between Everything or Nothing.
–> Hinduism sees the ultimate reality as being all things united as one glorious divinity.
Buddhism sees the ultimate reality as nothingness. While Hindus gain Moksha and
become one with everything in the universe; Buddhists gain Nirvana by detaching from
everything until nothingness remains.
–> Another big difference related to this is that one of Buddha’s fundamental principles
is that life is suffering. When we accept that, we want to escape from the world, and so
we dedicate ourselves to meditation and breaking the cycle to achieve the nothingness of
Nirvana.
Hinduism, on the other hand, believes that life is actually full of joy. Yes, as Buddhism
says, suffering arises when we feel attachment to things and to people, but suffering is
part of the physical body and the physical plane. There is a bigger reality into which we
can step and in that True reality, the world is perfect and everything is bliss.
–> While Hindus turn to the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Gita, and the Ramayana to
understand life, Buddhism does not accept any of the Hindu scriptures.
–> Buddhism does not worship or follow the Gods. Some don’t believe Gods exist and
others believe they exist but are not beings worthy of worship, as they are also stuck in
the illusion of the world and cannot guide anyone out. It could be said that Buddhism
has no Gods while Hinduism has all the Gods!
–> In day to day practice the most noticeable difference is in ritual. Hinduism has a lot
of ritual about it and proper ways to arrange an altar, proper offerings to make, proper
compass directions to face. Buddhism’s original forms had none of that.
It gets more complicated, though, as both religions have continued to grow. There are
sects of Buddhism now that differ dramatically from the original stark teachings.
My knowledge of Buddhism is not profound, as it is not my religion. It is, however, the
religion of my husband, so I’ve learned about it from him.
Though on the one hand Buddhism has tended to be more welcoming of outsiders,
American Buddhism has really developed into its own sect. I highly
recommendAmerican Buddhist Perspective on Patheos. The writer is very intelligent
and really knows how to distill and explain Buddhism and in particular, American
Buddhism. Here is an article he linked to recently with common misconceptions about
Buddhism:http://www.tricycle.com/blog/10-misconceptions-about-buddhism/ (Numb
er ten makes me laugh because I feel the same way about Hinduism!)
There are those who do not believe Buddhism to be a separate religion and would
categorize it as a form of Hinduism. In fact, in many counts of Vishnu’s avatars, the
Buddha is one.  I’ve thought about that and I don’t know that I can agree. I find
Buddhism’s emphasis on nothingness to be fundamentally at odds with
Hinduism’s beliefs. My sect of Hinduism (Advaita Vedanta) and my husband’s form
of Buddhism are quite similar in many ways and we have plenty of common ground, but
there are distinct differences that we stumble across occasionally in philosophical
debate.
The Buddha found his own way to understand the world and it’s a good path for many,
many people. But it is a different take than that of Hinduism.
Buddhism and Hinduism both have their origins in India and Lord Buddha, the prophet of
Buddhism, hailed from a Hindu family. In fact, Hindus even consider Lord Buddha to be a
part of ‘dasavatar’ or ‘ten reincarnations of Lord Vishnu’. However, there are quite a few
fundamental differences between both the religions.

Hinduism strongly believes in ‘Atman’, the soul and ‘Brahman’, the eternity of self. As per
Buddhism, there is no concept of the self or I and salvation involved in realizing this
concept.

Hindus worship several gods and goddesses. While Buddha did not deny the existence of
any god, he preached that it is futile to search or seek something which an individual is not
even aware of.

After his first experience of the world, Buddha became disillusioned and went on to preach
that life is full of sorrows and the only solution to end these sufferings was to seek nirvana.
While Hinduism also recognizes that there is suffering in human life, the sorrows are
attributed to previous karma or actions of the human being. However, one can attain divine
bliss by discovering the Atman and Brahman.

In Hinduism, the followers pray all natural sources of the earth like stones, water, sun etc.

However in Buddhism, this is not so. They only pray Buddha.

As per Hinduism, there are different ways to seek union with God – Raja Yoga or
meditation, Karma Yoga – righteously doing all the duties as demanded in this
human world, Bhakti – prayer and devotion and Jnana Yoga or the path of knowledge.
Buddha preached the four noble truths and the eightfold path to achieve Nirvana. The four
noble truths involve acknowledging the universal existence of sufferings, that these
sufferings are due to the misleading desires of the ever changing world and that the search
for eternity only worsens human suffering and in order to overcome sufferings and attain
nirvana, one must suppress those false desires and follow the eight-fold path.

Summary:
1.Hinduism is based on the concept of atman and Brahman whereas Buddhism denies the
existence of an eternal soul
2.Buddhism emphasizes on sufferings in the existing world whereas Hindus believe that one
can enjoy divine bliss through moksha or reunion with God
3.Buddhism believes in attaining nirvana through the four noble truths and eightfold path
whereas Hinduism believes there are several ways one can reach to God.
4.Hinduism believes in the existence of several gods whereas Buddhism reasons as to why
one should seek a God which nobody is aware of.