Six Major World Religions

According to the text book, the six major world religions are as follow: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Jainism. Christianity is known to be the largest single faith. Islam is the second largest and Hinduism is the third. Although Buddhism, Judaism and Jainism have a small number of followers as compared to the three largest religions, they also enlighten people, guide them to do good deeds, and help them find the purposes of their lives Schaefer.) Why does Buddhism found primarily in Asia? What is Buddhism and its beliefs? What did Buddha teach? What does the pray "Amitabha Buddha" mean? What is karma and how does karma apply? These questions will be discussed as major teachings of Buddhism. Buddhism is found mostly …show more content…
Buddha teaches his followers to accept that each individual is only temporarily living in this world, and everyone will eventually meet same end with his famous quote in the tripitaka "emptiness is existence, existence is emptiness" (What did Buddha teach). "Amitabha Buddha," the word Amitabha means infinite brightness, infinite life, and infinite merits. Buddhists say this pray to express their gratitude to Buddha for showing them the way to happiness. They also use Amitabha Buddha as a method to calm their mind and soul when they feel uneasy and to eliminate darkness in their thoughts (Chen). Karma is often misunderstood to have a meaning of fate by many people. However, karma does not mean fate, rather it means cause and effect. Karma is applied by looking at the intention behind the actions, the effect of the action on oneself, and the effect of the action on others. For instance, a person who donates money and food to help others because it brings peace and happiness in their mind (the effect of the action on oneself) versus a person who helps others because he thinks his action will bring him good karma in the future (the intention behind the actions