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Jesus Versus Buddha

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Submitted By shilohhawkins
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Jesus and Buddha are founders of two of the largest religions in the world. Both of them desire of making the world better, letting people love together, and giving happiness to all the people in the world. However, Christianity unlike Buddhism is unique in that it strips us of our self-righteousness by exposing our sinful nature, and causes us to see that our only hope is for God to reach down to us in mercy.

Buddhism is the belief system of those who follow Buddha, the Enlightened One. It was founded as a form of atheism. It is the world’s fourth largest religion. The founder of Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama, a prince from northern India near modern Nepal who lived about 563–483 B.C. It is the world’s fourth largest religion; with adherents of 613 million worldwide and one million in the United States. Buddhists regard the United States as a prime mission field, and the number of Buddhists in this country is growing rapidly due to an increase in Asian immigration, endorsement by celebrities such as Tina Turner and Richard Gere, and use in major movies such as Siddhartha, The Little Buddha, and What’s Love Got to Do with It? Buddhism is related to the New Age Movement and may to some extent be driving it. Certainly Buddhist growth is benefiting from the influence of New Age thought on American life.

Buddhism is an impersonal religion of self-perfection, the end of which is death, not life. The Buddhist belief system is in the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and several additional key doctrines. The Four Noble Truths are life is full of suffering, suffering is caused by craving, suffering will cease only when craving ceases, and this can be achieved by following the Noble Eightfold Path consisting of right views, right aspiration, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right contemplation.

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