Thursday, January 30, 2020

The differences between Christianity and Buddhism Essay Example for Free

The differences between Christianity and Buddhism Essay Basic Belief Systems Buddhism is different from Christianity in many ways. The Christian founder, Jesus Christ was the Son of The Father, God, while the founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama was a normal human being, who achieved enlightenment through meditation and later on was referred to as The Buddha(The Awakened). This brings us to the first major difference, the existence of the supernatural. While Buddhism does not completely reject the Hinduism Gods, it does not see them necessary. At the same time, Christianity has its one and only God, who comes in three faces, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Christian meditations are also very different from Buddhism ones, while Christians have an open minded meditations, where the mind can wonder off freely, Buddhists have a closed ends meditations, in which there is only one goal to the meditation and your thoughts are limited to concentrate only on certain things. The perception of life differs very much in two religions. Buddhists state that Life Is Dukka, life is pain and suffering, while Christians treasure life in every way, and believe that life is the most important thing that God gave us. These are the major differences between the two religions belief systems. Main Rituals and Symbols While both religions use their own rituals and symbols, these are very different from each other. Christianity uses symbols such as the Crucifix, Icons, statues, etc, the Buddhism followers are more used to symbols like The Dharma wheel, The victory banner, The knot of eternity, The conch shell, The lotus, The vase, The fish and The umbrella, which are The Eight Auspicious Signs. Christians usually use these signs during their ceremonies and processions, while Buddhists apply the signs in their life, or during meditation and study. The Christian rituals include the celebration of Christmas, Easter, Sunday Masses and other similar rituals and ceremonies, and Buddhists have their rituals too. They include Offering of Light, Offering of Flowers and Offering of Incense. All these offerings are presented to Buddhas statues to show that people still follow his teachings. This would be strictly prohibited by any real Christian religion,  as it involves creating idols, and is prohibited by the Bibles Ten Commandments. Chanting verses on the Buddhas Teachings is believed to give protection to those who listen to them., which is different from Christian chanting which is only used in Masses and are simply used to praise The Lord, All-mighty. Sacred Texts The sacred texts of Buddhism and Christianity do not have much in common. The Christian main book, the Bible consists of passages and chapters written before and after Jesus death. It consists of two main parts, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. The Buddhists sacred text is called the Pali Canon, which consists of three groups of discourses, called the Tripitaka, which consists of Sutra saying of Buddha, Vinya discipline of the brotherhood and Abidharma a set of creeds based on essential teachings. The canon includes poetry and prose, Buddhas conversations with others and myths about the life of Buddha. While the Bible teaches us the words of God, the teachings of Christ, talks about the Afterlife and Creation, The Pali Canon simply talks about Buddhas life, what he did, his thoughts, and reminds me more of a Biography, rather then a sacred text of a religion. There are other sacred texts including stories, myths and teachings of Buddhas disciples, but those are not considered as major and important as the Pali Canon. Christianity concentrates on The Bible more then any other minor sacred texts, while Buddhism considers all the minor texts as important as each other. The Christian Religion answers all the lifes fundamental questions. If you search within Christianity, you will be able to find answers to questions like what is the meaning of life and how the world was created and why and is there life after death? Buddhism does not give these answers, it concentrates more on self-perfection of the soul and achieving awakening, only then one can understand the mysteries of the universe, but not many can achieve this, while in Christianity all and everyone is able to find answers to these questions. Christians believe that God created the world, he created hell and heaven, the two places where a human soul will spend its  afterlife. Some believe that the meaning of life is for God to decide whether a person was good or bad and where will he end up, some think its is simply to help others during our lives. While no-one knows the right answer to these fundamental questions for sure, we may speculate or try to understand the Bible more closely to fin d the answers we seek. The main difference between Buddhism and Christianity in these questions is that Buddhists believe in reincarnation, where a humans soul will be reborn in a different body after death, and this process is only stopped by reaching Nirvana, a stage of complete enlightenment. Christians however believe that after death, the human soul will travel and be judged and either sent to Heaven, closer to God, or Hell, where Satan is. It is believed that Buddha achieved Nirvana, and therefore will not be reborn again, although some believe that Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of Buddha, but their numbers are few. The teachings of Buddha help Buddhists understand their purpose in life, to achieve Nirvana, enlightenment. This is achieved through deep meditation and self control, including self-denial. Meditation performs an important role in achieving Nirvana. Buddhist monks sometimes go and spend years living by themselves and meditating for most of their time, believing that such deep devotion will help them reach enlightenment and perfection. Some strive to become Buddha themselves, this is achievable through attaining enlightenment on their own, without the help of anyone else. This is considered the highest stage of awakening, and these Buddha are then allowed to go and teach others, and become spiritual leaders. It is obvious that both religions help individuals to answer lifes fundamental questions, and one cannot say for sure, which one helps more or is more right, everyone chooses for themselves, but Christianity is closer to me, and that is the path I choose to walk upon.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Blindness in Richard Wrights Native Son Essay -- Native Son Essays

Blindness in Richard Wright's Native Son Does it seem sometimes as if people are ignorant to other feelings? Have you ever had a friend get away with something or toy with someone's thoughts to benefit him or her? Similar types of blindness occur in the novel Native Son by Richard Wright (1940). The story starts in the Great Depression with a poor black family waking up to a foot long rat in their one room apartment. Bigger, the main character, and his younger brother Buddy narrowly kill it without bodily harm. Bigger is supposed to start a job for a rich white man as a chauffeur. Bigger has never really interacted with white people before and is not wanting to be there. After an accident on his first day, he kills the man's daughter and throws her body into their furnace, severing her head from her body to make it fit. He acts like he didn't do anything and slyly puts the blame on Jan, her communist boyfriend, while leaving a ransom note. It almost works until the media finds remnants of her bones in the ashes of the fire. Bigger believes that he will be blamed and runs away with his girlfriend, who he also ends up killing. He ends up being cornered by a mob of white people and taken to jail. His trial is fast and unjust, but he is convicted regardless of the surprising help of Jan and his lawyer. During the course of the novel, there are many instances where people were blinded by the actions of others or did not realize that their actions were negatively affecting their own lives. The following will better explain and demonstrate this. When Bigger first meets Mary, he instantly hates her for her ignorance in prodding him when all he wants is to be left along. Her blindness about his thoughts and feelings makes him hat... ...nd pray because she thinks she is only drunk. This is may be considered somewhat ironic. However, Bigger could also be considered 'blind' in this situation because he doesn't see what he is doing and how it will eventually end his own life. There are other instances where Richard Wright uses 'blindness' as a symbol. Bigger considers the whites 'blind' of blacks and blacks 'blind' of freedom after he kills. During the entire story, the reader senses that Bigger is lost in life. He never understand why he acts the way he does until his lawyer, Max, explains to him why whites seclude blacks and why blacks naturally push back. In the end, everyone is 'blind' for one reason or another. Work Cited "Native Son" Native Son Richard Wright. 30 April 2004. Barnes & Noble. <http://www.sparknotes.com/> Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Emancipation of slavery Essay

The writer reflects the emancipation of slavery and how it influenced the American women. For many Americans (the slave owners), it was not possible to think that what will happen if they no longer owe slaves. It was natural for people who were used to the cheap and easy labour found themselves in the middle of nowhere. The demise of slavery gave rise to a new kind of slavery where woman could sell their body. For writer this idea of selling women seems new, but in many tribal societies around the world, women are still sold and bought. The idea of selling body was loathsome in society that was still Victorian in thinking. The moralist advocated ban on streetwalkers and prostitution; while state sought to legalize the body trade, it was this tussle that continued for decades. For many the idea of selling body was a reminiscent of slavery; but even the law itself was dubious about the prostitution. According to the idealist the prostitution stood as a† social system in which all was for sale†. It was this thinking that made prostitution or women at the edge a social issue. For Southerners slavery and marriage was one and the same thing; while for Northerner slavery and prostitution were one and the same thing. The Southerners were used to slavery and bondage, prostitution for them seemed a kind of outlet where they could vent out their frustration along with economic benefits. For Northerners marriage was a sacred idea hijacked by streetwalkers to lure loyal husbands and sons. The Southerners argued that by recruiting black women as slave prostitutes they are limiting the white prostitution again shows double standard. The Northerners argued that prostitution continued because the lusty men of South wanted it. For abolitionists it was unthinkable to mix market economy and family values together in one place. Ironically both of them used prostitution as deformation, but the reality was far different. The author failed to address the core issue of the North and South. The basic reason of differences between the North and South has been economics. In broader sense the North was rapidly modernizing and South felt threatened by it. Being more viable economically means more powerful, the South was still stuck up to agrarian economy. It was under these circumstances in the South slaves were more important compared to North. Being less modern and less developed the slave prostitutes were a source of income for Jones in the South and they could not give it away easily. For North it became ideological because they were already reaping the benefits of industrlized economy. Even in the modern world, prostitution is done by the poorest of the poor in the society. In present day American society, despite all freedom no one considers prostitution a respectable and honourable way of life. In simple words, the women who practice this profession are doing it out of economic necessity. In modern day America, government is willing to accept the porn industry legally regardless of how women are exploited for sake of huge tax that reaches US$50 billion per year. Thus we can say it’s the market economics that is still ruling American society. Reference Stanely, Amy Dru. â€Å"From Bondage to Contract. â€Å"

Monday, January 6, 2020

Operations Management ISO Implementations for Riordan...

ISO Implementations for Riordan If Riordan Manufacturing is looking at acquiring ISO certification, the first consideration may be to determine which standard, or standards, may be relevant. For most firms there will be more than a single potential standard, the question will be to determine which would help the firm optimize its market position and support the business. Riordan are manufacturing fans, this is an area in which there are a number of standards; for example, ISO 5136:2003 deals with the noise created by fans radiating acoustics through ducts, ISO 13347-2: 2004, ISO 13347-3; 2004 and ISO 13347-4; 2004 all deal with the fan sound levels, each using a different testing approach (ISO, 2013). ISO 14694: 2003 and ISO 14695: 2003 deal with vibrations, ISO 5801: 2007 deals with performance levels and ISO 13348: 2007 concerns tolerances and data presentation for fans (ISO, 2013). 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