How does Buddhism reflect the human understanding of God or the ‘Other’
With a population of 23 million Australia has grown into one the most culturally and linguistically diverse societies in the world. With this comes a wide variety of religions - over 120 in fact. Out of these religions there are five that are considered to be the ‘world religions’; they are, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Each religion allows its followers to explore a world beyond their day-to-day experiences and to gain an understanding into the mystery of God or the ‘other’. The core beliefs practised by Buddhists are derived from the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, and they pave the path to enlightenment. Although the teachings of …show more content…
In the Buddhist religion the key behaviour limits come under the Five Precepts and the Addition Precepts, while a key law is Karma. The five precepts (refer to appendix 4) outline five key codes of behaviour that are important to Buddhist as they help in ensuring that they are able to attain enlightenment. The Buddha, on his journey toward attaining enlightenment, founded these precepts. After the Buddha, the next few followers outlined the Additional Precepts (refer to appendix 5), which also help in ensuring followers are able to attain enlightenment. Unlike the precepts, the law of Karma is the law that every cause has an effect. This basically means our actions will have results. Under the Buddhist belief of Karma many ‘big questions’ can be answered including: the inequality we face; why some people live shorter lives than others; and why people are born handicapped and gifted. After looking at these key concepts within Smart’s dimension of ‘Ethical and Legal’ it can be seen that when the Five Precepts, the Additional Precepts and the law of Karama are put into practise together followers are able to reach enlightenment easier and are able to answer some of the ‘big questions’ regarding the mystery of God or ‘the
With a population of 23 million Australia has grown into one the most culturally and linguistically diverse societies in the world. With this comes a wide variety of religions - over 120 in fact. Out of these religions there are five that are considered to be the ‘world religions’; they are, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Each religion allows its followers to explore a world beyond their day-to-day experiences and to gain an understanding into the mystery of God or the ‘other’. The core beliefs practised by Buddhists are derived from the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, and they pave the path to enlightenment. Although the teachings of …show more content…
In the Buddhist religion the key behaviour limits come under the Five Precepts and the Addition Precepts, while a key law is Karma. The five precepts (refer to appendix 4) outline five key codes of behaviour that are important to Buddhist as they help in ensuring that they are able to attain enlightenment. The Buddha, on his journey toward attaining enlightenment, founded these precepts. After the Buddha, the next few followers outlined the Additional Precepts (refer to appendix 5), which also help in ensuring followers are able to attain enlightenment. Unlike the precepts, the law of Karma is the law that every cause has an effect. This basically means our actions will have results. Under the Buddhist belief of Karma many ‘big questions’ can be answered including: the inequality we face; why some people live shorter lives than others; and why people are born handicapped and gifted. After looking at these key concepts within Smart’s dimension of ‘Ethical and Legal’ it can be seen that when the Five Precepts, the Additional Precepts and the law of Karama are put into practise together followers are able to reach enlightenment easier and are able to answer some of the ‘big questions’ regarding the mystery of God or ‘the