How Buddhism differs from other religions
- Part 5 -
Thangjam Sanjoo Singh *
A Buddhist temple at Tamu at India-Myanmar border in August 2014
What is the purpose of religion?
Annihilation of all greed,
Extinction of ignorance, Cultivation of virtue and wisdom.
At the very first glimpse in
the first paragraph of this article of mine, many readers may
think that I am really an
eccentricdude. However, it
doesn't matter to me because
I'm very serious about the
quotation as there is a hidden
meaning behind it and only a
true Buddhist will know what really it means all about. (Is my
English correct?)
To me, hell is better than heaven
I prefer to go to hell rather than heaven because I believe
that heaven is good for playboys but not for me. Many of
those intellectuals like the scientist, great thinkers, and ration-
alists including the Buddha are in hell because they did not
believe in God. So if I go to hell I will have a great time with
them. Our belief in some power beyond the world is as old
as the human race.
Different religions have given this belief
enduring substance, and spawned a rich diversity of ritual and
ceremony. While theologians debate religious truths, great
philosophers attempt to understand our physical world, grap-
pling with logic in their search for knowledge and certainty.
The word 'RELIGION' has no one generally accepted definition. Philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, theologians
and many other interested in a particular aspect of life, have
all been defined religion in their own ways and for their own
purposes. However, the main purpose of every religion is to
teach people how to lead a respectable and harmless life and
to find out their liberation from physical and mental suffering.
The following paragraph may sound very perplexing to
some but further reading will make things see-through and
clearer, I presume.
And that is though in the heading, I mention that "How
Buddhism differs from other religions.", yet, at one fell swoop,
I, on the contrary,can right fully say that
there is only one
religion in the world though there are hundred versions
of it . So, dear readers, please kindly allow me to continue my
writing which I extracted some quotations from several reli-
gious teachers as well as great philosophers, thinkers,
scientists, historians, psychologists, politicians, free thinkers
and from some other publications, too though most of them
are extracted by me.
There cannot be only one religion
Religionists must come together and work with each other.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, "I do not expect the India of my
dream to develop one religion, to be wholly Hindu, Christian
or wholly Muslim, but I want it to be wholly tolerant with
religions working side by side with one another."
Religions are meant for the emancipation of living beings.
Religions are not mere subjects of study and essay writing,
but are practical modes of conduct in the grooming of human
beings externally in matters of the mundane and internally in
things that concern the inner spirit. Religion must be experi-
enced at the very source of its beginning and lived in utter
abandonment, through all phases of change to attain a spiritu-
ality and inner growth.
Among all the founders of religions, it was the Buddha
alone who encouraged the spirit of investigation among his
followers. He advised them not to accept even his teachings
with blind faith and without thorough impartial investigation.
Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that Buddhism can be
called the religion of science. Whatever scientists have discov-
ered so far, they have never gone against the teachings of the
Buddha.
"Buddhism is truly a religion suited to the modern, scien-
tific world. The light, which comes from nature, from science,
from history, from human experience, from every point of the
universe, is radiant with the Noble Teachings of the Buddha."
- Aldous Hauxley
Buddhism as a religion
Buddhism is not a message or something revealed by a
supernatural divine being. Buddhism is the Dharma or univer-
sal phenomena understood by the Buddha through his
enlightenment. Dharma is to understand the nature of life and
worldly conditions and to train oneself by leading a righteous
way of life and also to gain mental tranquillity, wisdom and
finally deliverance from physical and mental sufferings.
Religion is a system of education
Religion is, among many other things, a system of education, by means of which human beings may train themselves,
first to make desirable changes in their own personalities and
in society, and, to heighten consciousness and so establish
more relations between themselves and the universe of which
they are parts.
Different aspects of religion
1. Personal Religion
It means the inward veneration of one's religious teachers
and the application of one's moral principles in one's daily
life, without participating in the showy manifestations of the
organised religion of the masses. The intellectually liberated
belong to this category.
2. Organised or Institutionalised Religion
It is the popularly practised religion of the masses, with
much pumps, many ceremonies, processions and public wor-
ship. Temple festivals are typical examples of institutionalised
religion. Intellectuals are not very much interested in this kind
of religion, but the broad masses are really interested in it.
Buddhists satisfies all religious needs: to the intellectual
classes, it gives a lofty philosophy, moral teachings that lead
to enlightenment and liberation from all sufferings; to the
common person, it gives a focal point in worship and the hope
of a better life hereafter.
3. Revealed religion
Revealed religion is said to be 'revealed' by "God" through
a prophet or special messenger of a God. Christianity, Judaism
and Islam are regarded as revealed religions. Adherents of
those religions, regard them as the only true religions. They
are the monotheistic religions, believing in one God. Catholi-
cism, however, has yielded to the popular and more natural
demand for more gods, by introducing the belief in the inter-
cession of the "Mother of God" and their Saints, the worship
or adoration of relics of the Saints, and still many other ways
of approaching God and obtaining what one wants without
having to ask directly from the "One God".
4. Natural Religion
Natural religion is actually the worship of natural phenom-
ena and forces which are said to have been inspired by the
aspect of Nature.
This first form of natural
worship might have been re-
ally inspired by the awe
experienced in the presence of
strong natural phenomena, such
as sun, moon, mountains, riv-
ers, sea, earthquakes,
thunderstorms, floods, and vio-
lent changes in one's
environment. It is fear and
desire to win the favour of
powers behind the natural phe-
nomena, which gave rise to the belief of gods, souls, spirits
and mighty divine beings, and the possibility of incurring their
displeasure or winning their favour.
5. Ancestor worship
Ancestor worship is the form of religion which leads to
worship of ancestors or the First Man, or a God, who is
supposed to have been the originator of the imperial family
and of all men. The Japanese and the Chinese, who are not
considered as Buddhists or adherents of other systems are
adherents of this kind of religion.
6. Psychological Religion
This type of religion is occupied with the study of the
nature of human soul and its relation to God. Though the
Hindus declare that their religion is one revealed by God or
successive incarnations of God, their religion is often de-
scribed as a Psychological Religion that mixed with Natural
Religion.
To be continued....
* Thangjam Sanjoo Singh wrote this article for The Sangai Express
This article was posted on July 25, 2016.
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