Buddhism

Classification

• Universalizing• Buddhism is ranked 4th in the world.

• 350 million followers

• Growing at about 7.8% annually

• growth is in new members mostly converts

Hearth & Core of Buddhism

• Hearth: Northeastern India

• Core: Not prominent in hearth area because of conversions to Islam

• Where is it growing the most: China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Taiwan, Cambodia, and India.

Diffusion of Buddhism

• Types of diffusion– Expansion: Across the Magadhan Empire

– Hierarchical Diffusion: From Magadhan Empire to Ceylon, Kahmir, Himalayas, and Burma

– Contagious: From China to Korea to Japan

• Changes in where Buddhism is found– Communism abolished Buddhism in Mongolia, North Korea, and parts of Southeast Asia.

• Routes of diffusion– Along trade routes from India to China, from China to Korea, from Korea to Japan.

Short History• Buddha- Siddhartha Gautama:born - sixth

century B.C. in Nepal.

• One day ventured out into the world and realized the reality of inevitable suffering.

• One night Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi tree, and meditated until dawn. He purified his mind of all defilements and attained enlightenment when he was 35, thus earning his the title of the Buddha or “Enlightened One.”

• For the remainder of the Buddha’s life, he preached the Dharma in an effort to help others reach enlightenment.

Short History- Buddhist Celebrations

• Dharma Day- marks the beginning of Buddha’s teaching.

• Sangha Day- the festival that celebrates the spiritual community.

• Parinirvana Day- Mahayana Buddhist festival that marks the death of the Buddha.

• Wesak- the most important of the Buddhist festivals Within this spiritual New Year, all energies within one's being are able to become love and recognize the true nature of self. That one is Divine.

Wesak Festival

Central BeliefsThe four Noble Truths

1. There is Suffering - Suffering is common to all.2. Cause of Suffering - We are the cause of our suffering.3. End of Suffering - Stop doing what causes the suffering.4. Path to End Suffering - Everyone can be enlightened.

The path to the end of suffering is called the Noble Eightfold Path, or THE MIDDLE WAY

Central BeliefsThe Eightfold Path

• 1st - Right Views: You must accept the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

• 2nd - Right Resolve: You must renounce the pleasures of the senses; you must harbor no ill will toward anyone and harm no living creature.

• 3rd - Right speech: Do not lie; do not slander or abuse anyone. Do not indulge in idle talk.

• 4th - Right Behavior: Do not destroy any living creature; take only what is given to you: do not commit any unlawful sexual act.

Central BeliefsThe Eightfold path

• 5th - Right Occupation: You must earn your livelihood in a way that will harm no one.

• 6th - Right effort: You must resolve and strive heroically to prevent any evil qualities from arising in you and to abandon any evil qualities that you may possess. Strive to acquire good qualities and encourage those you do possess to grow, increase, and be perfected.

• 7th - Right Contemplation: Be observant, strenuous, alert, contemplative, and free of desire and of sorrow.

• 8th - Right Meditation: When you have abandoned all sensuous pleasures, all evil qualities, both joy and sorrow, you must then enter the four degrees of meditation, which are produced by concentration.

Symbols

• The Dharma Wheel is the symbol of Buddhist life, the endless circle of birth and rebirth, and also represent the Buddhist teaching or Dharma.  The wheel often has eight spokes, which stand for the noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism.  

Religious LandscapeLarge Temples

where worship takes placenot all Buddhist visit a temple regularlymany place alters in their homes

Statues of different Buddhas.represent different vales or serve different purposes: protection, love & wisdom

Sacred SpaceFour religious sacred sites for Buddah, located in

Asia assigned by Buddha as the four sites that all

Buddhist must pilgramige to:1-Lumbini is the location where he was born.

2-Bodh Gaya was the site where his enlightenment occurred.

3-Sarnath the place where his first sermon took place.

4-Kushinara is where Buddah passed away

Bodh Gaya

Lumbini

Sarnath

Kushinara

Death/Burial

In Buddhist practice, the deceased is cremated. In the Buddhist view, all

things must pass. •As practiced in many Buddhist countries, a real Buddhist funeral is a simple, solemn and dignified ceremony. •Buddhists do not believe that one day someone will come and awaken the departed persons spirits from their graveyards or the ashes from their urns and decide who should go to heaven and who should go to hell. •Buddhists believe that when a person dies, rebirth will take place somewhere else according to his good or bad actions.

Hinduism

By: Meghan Steele, Johnny

Hinduism

What is the classification? • Ethnic religion -in order to be a part

of this religion requires immersion into culture.

• 3rd largest in the world

• Over 780 million followers

• Religion is growing

• Out of the total population of 1.028 billion in India , 80.5% of the population of the country are Hindu

Hindu Origin & Diffusion

• Hearth: In 5000BC Hinduism first originated from the people of the Indus River Valley creating the basis of Hinduism.

• contagious diffusion ---spread down Ganges River ---south to the subcontinent and

into adjacent regions ---South east Asia

• Core: India• Also practiced in:Indonesia,

Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Burma

History/Origins

• Hinduism derived richly from the Indus People, the Vedic People, from Dravidian cultures, from folk religions and also from the foreign traditions of Mesopotamia, Greece, Arabia, China and central Russia.

Central Beliefs

• The belief in a Single Divinity or Supreme God that is present in everything, with manifestations of one supreme God.

• Beliefs that the soul repeatedly goes through a cycle of being born into a body, dying, and being reborn again (reincarnation).

• Karma is a force that determines the quality of each rebirth depending on how well one followed his Dharma of his past life.

• Goal of a Hindu: liberation from the cycle of birth and death

• Caste System

Hindu Communities/Caste System

• The rules of the caste define what people can and cannot do.

• Caste- is the structure of society, and an expression of the eternal transmigration of souls.

• All Hindu’s are to follow “dharma”, which are the law of duties.

• Each craft or profession has its own particular caste

• For example, all the businessmen and farmers have a different caste than servants etc.

• Caste rules usually define who they can talk to, food, clothing, and where they live.

Central Beliefs cont.• Hindu Gods: Three major manifestations:

-Brahma-Shiva-Vishnu

Cultural Landscapes/Places of

Worship• Temples and shrines

• Worship in temples is not required, people can worship at home with shrines.

Cultural Landscapes/Places of Worship Cont…

• All temples have a circular spire as a reminder that the sky is the real dwelling place for god, who temporarily resides in the temple.

• Temples are built to house shrines for particular gods rather than congregational worships, for example- in Cambodia the Angkor Wat temple is dedicated to God Vishnu.  

• Temples look can change depending where they are located.

Symbols

• Major symbols include:

• Ohm• Swastika• Shi Yantra

Burial Ceremonies• Cremation• People who are being

cremated are washed in water drawn from Ganges river.

• the body is then carried to the cremation ground as prayers are chanted to Yama (God).  

• A burial is reserved for children and people with certain diseases.

Sacred Places