Introduction
There area many religions in this world which include Hinduism, Christianity, New age and Buddhism. Each of this religion has its own beliefs and practices. Buddhism is dominant in Eastern world r religion was Hinduism in India that is why it is sometime referred to us as Indian religion. According to Anderson (1991, p.2),Siddhartha Gautama born in 560 BC by his father Suddhodana was the founder of Buddhism.Gautama remained in the palace for long and enjoyed pleasures and a lot of wealth as was his father’s desire.
However,despite his father’s effort to contain him in the palace, one day he happened to come out oft it and to his surprise he met a dead person, a beggar ,a sick person and an old man who were suffering a lot.Gautama was distressed so much by what he saw to a point of leaving the luxury of the palace to find out the reasons as to why people were suffering and went through a lot of pain.
According to Boa (1990, p.35) Buddha never claimed to be divine but an enlightener. However, seven hundred years after his death, Buddhist began to adore him as their deity. As discussed above, Buddha sought to answer the question as to why there is suffering and pain to find out how these life cycles believed to have been caused by a person’s delusion and aversions can be done away with. Therefore, Buddhist does not believe in any God or god but strives towards helping a person to do away with sensual desires which can lead to suffering and pain. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the eight fold path in Buddhism and its similarities with other religion.
Eight fold path in Buddhism
Buddha taught first on four noble truths and eight fold paths as discussed below. These constitute the basic teaching of Buddhism. These four truths are life is full of suffering and pain, pain is caused by our craving desires, we can get rid of these pain and suffering and the fourth truth show us how we can be liberated respectively.
The eight-fold path constitute eight steps which should be done simultaneously so as to get rid of pain and suffering. The first involve believing on the four truths; secondly involve renouncing all desires that might harm others. The third step is right speech where one speak only the truth and step four involve abstaining from malicicious behaviour.The fifth step is to engage oneself in activities that benefit others and do not harm anybody while step six involve doing away with any bad quality that one might possess and avoid any other from arising but grow more in good and moral qualities as one moves to perfection.
In addition, step seven involve being keen on what happens in your mind and within you so that lastly you can attain perfection and peace. These eight steps from definition of Buddhism are crucial in doing away with pain and suffering but the key contributor to these suffering is as individual and therefore every person should be responsible of what they do, say and think so that they do not harm themselves and others.
Similarities of Buddhism and other religions
Buddhism is one of the major religions in the world and shares a lot in common with other religion. For instance, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism originated in India and have common rituals and rites. For example the kind of prayer they make to the ancestors and deceased are similar, In addition, they are more philosophical than religious which involves law and order and focus on social responsibility and accepting one’s position peacefully and humbly. Moreover, some terms used are common and believe in reincarnation. In addition most of these religions believe in respect for life, avoiding injury and being responsible of your action as one is expected to face the consequences of their actions (Eastman, 1999, p.15)
Conclusion
Buddhism is one of the major religions in the worlds and shares a lot in common with other religion.It is unique as it is more philosophical than religious. The main goal is to come up with ways that explains how to do away with human suffering and pain.
Reference List
Anderson, N. (1991). The world’s Religion. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Boa, K. (1990). Cults, World Religion and the Occult. London: David C. Cook.
Eastman, R. (1999).The Ways of Religion: An introduction to the major Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.