Budismo versus cristianismo

Sacramento City College
PHIL 352. Introduction to World Religions
Instructor: Profesor Carboni

Roots of Buddhism and Christianity:
The main teachings of Buddha and Jesus Christ.

Name: Camila Sepúlveda
Student number: 1358102
Date: 03/18/2011
In modern time, such as it was in thepast, everybody wants to be happy. Beyond the cultures, religions, and philosophies; every person has the need to satisfy his own self and to reach happiness. What is happiness? This a question that can take different names depending on what it means for different religions.
This essay is going to develop this idea from the view of two religions, Buddhism and Christianity. It is based on acomparison between these two religions and it gives a deeper explanation of how people can release themselves to reach the ultimate goal by following these paths.

Both religions have a central figure to praise, a leader who has taught his teachings during his life. In the case of Buddhism this man is Siddhartha Gautama, who after reaching enlightenment would be known as the Buddha.

Siddhartha wasa prince who was born over two thousand five hundred years ago into a rich warrior caste. He was raised in Nepal under the Hinduism faith and values. He lived most of his life enclosed in his palace. He did not know much about the real world, so one day he decided to see how life was like beyond the palace. What he saw in 4 different occasions shocked him so strongly that changed his life forever.Since then he just wanted to comprehend the nature of suffering. For this reason he left his life of privileges, his wife, and his son, to look for that knowledge.
He knew that in order to gain anything you must first loose everything.

Siddhartha was astonished with the reality. He discovered life is painful and involves changes. He needed to find a way to deal with this endless sufferingthat has always existed trough the wheel of rebirth. That is how he tried to learn from two different gurus, but after a while he realized that he could not find a way out of human suffering. Soon after, he found five ascetics and joined them for six years, but he could not reach the enlightenment trough this path either.
He realized that the answer had to be within him, so he sat under a pipal treeto meditate until he reached the enlightenment. Then “the enlightened one knew he had overcome the ignorance that leads to suffering with the knowledge that brings release”[1].
He became the awaked one, the Buddha.

For Buddhism your capacity for enlightenment already exist in you. The seed of happiness resides inside every person. You are the universe, you have the grace within to reachnirvana and the only door is your own body and mind.
The happiness that Buddha found is in the ordinary world, seeing every moment as nirvana.
The root of Buddhism is compassion, which is to feel a deep affection for everything that surrounds you. The whole world is connected, and you are part of the world, thus you are connected to every sentient being, and your happiness depends on their happinesstoo.

Buddha said he had discovered a new path, which is the middle path. This means to live in balance between the excess.
The core of the Buddha’s teachings are based on the four novel truths that people should know and follow in order to lead the mind to enlightenment.
First, it is important to be aware that there is suffering in this world. Second, our own mind cause this suffering troughdesires and cravings. Third, you can be free of suffering getting rid of the inexorable desire. It is impossible not to desire something, you could desire to be enlightened for example, but you have to be smart with your desires. Fourth, there are some instructions to follow called the eightfold path, which is to have a “right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right...