Hinduism - Buddhism links

[Vinod Chhotu Patel]

Hiya,

I was wondering if anyone could tell the exact link shared by these two
religions.

I know Buddha himself was an Hindu, but I believe he rejected it, and went
his own way, so to speak.

I am trying to find out, what they main common features are, and what their
main differences are.

I am also assuming that none of the Hindu texts, i.e. the Bhagavd Gita are
accepted in Buddism.

There are also some people who claim, Buddha himself was an incarnation of
Krishna, but I have heard several Buddhist strongly diagree with this, and I
was wondering what Hinduism says about it.

Thanks in advance.

[pavan03]

In article <85ldem$fmp$1...@nclient11-gui.server.virgin.net>,

"Vinod Chhotu Patel" <Vinod....@virgin.net> wrote:
> Hiya,
>
> I was wondering if anyone could tell the exact link shared by these
two
> religions.

Buddhism has some similarities with Hinduism. For example, it is one of
the few religions that has the belief in reincarnation. As far as I
know, it is predominantly religions that grew out of India that share
this belief. So both religions can offer an explanation of why so many
good people suffer (karma, their actions in previous births).
However, Buddhists do not accept any of the works that Hindus accept,
the Vedas, the Upanishads, Mahabharat. Hindus also do not accept any of
the teachings of Buddha.

> I know Buddha himself was an Hindu, but I believe he rejected it, and
went
> his own way, so to speak.

Supposedly, the story goes that Siddharta Gautama, the son of a king,
was not allowed to see any sad things - death, disease, old age. But one
day he leaves his kingdom, and sees so much suffering. He sits under a
tree and becomes "enlightened". His religious beliefs differ quite a bit
from Hinduism. In Hinduism, the Vedas are taken as the authority, which
praise Lord Vishnu. However Buddha did not accept the Vedas, or several
of the beliefs: the caste system, both happiness and sorrow being
present in the world. He instead states that the world is full of
sorrow, and that people are not born into any particular caste based on
their previous actions.

> I am trying to find out, what they main common features are, and what
their
> main differences are.

The buddhists believe that nothing in life gives permanent happiness.
However Hindus believe that worshipping God does give happiness and is
not by any means ephemeral. Buddhism bears somewhat of a resemblance to
Advaita philosophy in that both say that the world is not real.

> I am also assuming that none of the Hindu texts, i.e. the Bhagavd Gita
are
> accepted in Buddism.

The Buddhists have their own set of literature. The concept of God is
not as clearly defined, because a supreme God does not act through the
souls, but the suffering of souls is a result of their own actions,
without the action of God. But the Vedas state that SriHari exists
everywhere and He is the doer.

> There are also some people who claim, Buddha himself was an
incarnation of
> Krishna, but I have heard several Buddhist strongly diagree with this,
and I
> was wondering what Hinduism says about it.

OK, here there is a problem that the name of Siddharta Gautama is
coincidentally the same as that of one avatar of Vishnu. However, the
form Vishnu takes, Buddha avatar, did not occur at all in the Kali Yuga,
so it must have occurred at least several thousand years ago. The
purpose of the Buddha avatar was to delude the wicked asuras, who were
gaining knowledge of the vedas for malicious intentions, and provide the
right knowledge to the devatas. This all happened thousands of years
before Siddharta Gautama was even born. It is simply the people getting
confused into thinking that both Buddhas are the same. One is an avatar
of Vishnu, who is praised in the Vedas, the other is one who taught
something clearly going against the Vedas.

> Thanks in advance.
>
>

--
Regards,
pavan03

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000, Vinod Chhotu Patel wrote:

> Hiya,
>
> I was wondering if anyone could tell the exact link shared by these two
> religions.
>

> I know Buddha himself was an Hindu, but I believe he rejected it, and went
> his own way, so to speak.
>

> I am trying to find out, what they main common features are, and what their
> main differences are.
>

> I am also assuming that none of the Hindu texts, i.e. the Bhagavd Gita are
> accepted in Buddism.
>

> There are also some people who claim, Buddha himself was an incarnation of
> Krishna, but I have heard several Buddhist strongly diagree with this, and I
> was wondering what Hinduism says about it.
>

This has been discussed extensively in the Advaita Vedanta mailing
list. You can search the archive at
http://www.escribe.com/religion/advaita/index.html
There is also information on this subject on the Advaita Vedanta home page
http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jal...@braincells.com>