Buddhism as a religion was born because of Hinduism:
Siddhartha
Gautama was a Hindu prince by birth. He was born at a time when
Hinduism, the oldest religion in the world, was in the grip of
superstitions, caste-system and corruption in Vedic way of life. Siddha
systems of learning had nearly vanished from the society. Gautama went
on to find his own answers (which later become guiding principles of
Buddhism) because Hinduism could not satisfy his urge for absolute
truth. It is due to this reason that Hinduism and Buddhism, the two
spiritual traditions of the East, are quite similar and dissimilar at
the same time.
Buddha is not God; he’s a teacher:
Buddhists do not look up
to Buddha as God, as most people think they do. He’s revered as a
teacher or spiritual guide. Buddhists look up to Buddha for wisdom and
guidance. Many Buddhists meditate upon Buddha to find their own answers
or absolute wisdom.
It’s the 4th largest religion in the world:
The
spread of Buddhism, as many people presume, is not limited to Tibet and
mountainous areas in India. There are well over 360 million people all
over the world who practice and adhere to the teachings of Buddhism. The
number is growing with each passing year as people in the West have
begun taking deep interest in Buddhism, its teachings and rituals.
Buddhism does not teach that everyone in the world is destined to suffer:
It
is a common misconception about Buddhism. The fact is: Buddhism accepts
the world as ‘temporary’ or ‘transitory’. Therefore, the suffering,
too, is temporary and there’s a way out of this suffering called the
Middle Path. The whole religion or philosophy of Buddhism is based on
it.
Buddhism complements science:
Buddhist principles and
doctrines, like Vedic scriptures in Hinduism, complement science to a
great degree. Over the last couple of years, many parallels have been
drawn between Buddhist literature and findings in Quantum Physics. These
parallels have, in particular, been drawn by considering ‘spiritual’
principles of Buddhism that appear to indicate sublime truths now being
discovered by quantum physicists.
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