How Buddhism differs from other religions
- Part 5 -

Thangjam Sanjoo Singh *

A Buddhist temple at Tamu at India-Myanmar border in August 2014

What is the purpose of religion?

Annihilation of all greed, Extinction of ignorance, Cultivation of virtue and wisdom. At the very first glimpse in the first paragraph of this article of mine, many readers may think that I am really an eccentricdude. However, it doesn't matter to me because I'm very serious about the quotation as there is a hidden meaning behind it and only a true Buddhist will know what really it means all about. (Is my English correct?)

To me, hell is better than heaven I prefer to go to hell rather than heaven because I believe that heaven is good for playboys but not for me. Many of those intellectuals like the scientist, great thinkers, and ration- alists including the Buddha are in hell because they did not believe in God. So if I go to hell I will have a great time with them. Our belief in some power beyond the world is as old as the human race.

Different religions have given this belief enduring substance, and spawned a rich diversity of ritual and ceremony. While theologians debate religious truths, great philosophers attempt to understand our physical world, grap- pling with logic in their search for knowledge and certainty. The word 'RELIGION' has no one generally accepted definition. Philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, theologians and many other interested in a particular aspect of life, have all been defined religion in their own ways and for their own purposes. However, the main purpose of every religion is to teach people how to lead a respectable and harmless life and to find out their liberation from physical and mental suffering.

The following paragraph may sound very perplexing to some but further reading will make things see-through and clearer, I presume. And that is though in the heading, I mention that "How Buddhism differs from other religions.", yet, at one fell swoop, I, on the contrary,can right fully say that there is only one religion in the world though there are hundred versions of it . So, dear readers, please kindly allow me to continue my writing which I extracted some quotations from several reli- gious teachers as well as great philosophers, thinkers, scientists, historians, psychologists, politicians, free thinkers and from some other publications, too though most of them are extracted by me.

There cannot be only one religion

Religionists must come together and work with each other. Mahatma Gandhi once said, "I do not expect the India of my dream to develop one religion, to be wholly Hindu, Christian or wholly Muslim, but I want it to be wholly tolerant with religions working side by side with one another."

Religions are meant for the emancipation of living beings. Religions are not mere subjects of study and essay writing, but are practical modes of conduct in the grooming of human beings externally in matters of the mundane and internally in things that concern the inner spirit. Religion must be experi- enced at the very source of its beginning and lived in utter abandonment, through all phases of change to attain a spiritu- ality and inner growth.

Among all the founders of religions, it was the Buddha alone who encouraged the spirit of investigation among his followers. He advised them not to accept even his teachings with blind faith and without thorough impartial investigation. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that Buddhism can be called the religion of science. Whatever scientists have discov- ered so far, they have never gone against the teachings of the Buddha.

"Buddhism is truly a religion suited to the modern, scien- tific world. The light, which comes from nature, from science, from history, from human experience, from every point of the universe, is radiant with the Noble Teachings of the Buddha." - Aldous Hauxley

Buddhism as a religion

Buddhism is not a message or something revealed by a supernatural divine being. Buddhism is the Dharma or univer- sal phenomena understood by the Buddha through his enlightenment. Dharma is to understand the nature of life and worldly conditions and to train oneself by leading a righteous way of life and also to gain mental tranquillity, wisdom and finally deliverance from physical and mental sufferings.

Religion is a system of education

Religion is, among many other things, a system of education, by means of which human beings may train themselves, first to make desirable changes in their own personalities and in society, and, to heighten consciousness and so establish more relations between themselves and the universe of which they are parts.

Different aspects of religion

1. Personal Religion

It means the inward veneration of one's religious teachers and the application of one's moral principles in one's daily life, without participating in the showy manifestations of the organised religion of the masses. The intellectually liberated belong to this category.

2. Organised or Institutionalised Religion

It is the popularly practised religion of the masses, with much pumps, many ceremonies, processions and public wor- ship. Temple festivals are typical examples of institutionalised religion. Intellectuals are not very much interested in this kind of religion, but the broad masses are really interested in it. Buddhists satisfies all religious needs: to the intellectual classes, it gives a lofty philosophy, moral teachings that lead to enlightenment and liberation from all sufferings; to the common person, it gives a focal point in worship and the hope of a better life hereafter.

3. Revealed religion

Revealed religion is said to be 'revealed' by "God" through a prophet or special messenger of a God. Christianity, Judaism and Islam are regarded as revealed religions. Adherents of those religions, regard them as the only true religions. They are the monotheistic religions, believing in one God. Catholi- cism, however, has yielded to the popular and more natural demand for more gods, by introducing the belief in the inter- cession of the "Mother of God" and their Saints, the worship or adoration of relics of the Saints, and still many other ways of approaching God and obtaining what one wants without having to ask directly from the "One God".

4. Natural Religion

Natural religion is actually the worship of natural phenom- ena and forces which are said to have been inspired by the aspect of Nature.

This first form of natural worship might have been re- ally inspired by the awe experienced in the presence of strong natural phenomena, such as sun, moon, mountains, riv- ers, sea, earthquakes, thunderstorms, floods, and vio- lent changes in one's environment. It is fear and desire to win the favour of powers behind the natural phe- nomena, which gave rise to the belief of gods, souls, spirits and mighty divine beings, and the possibility of incurring their displeasure or winning their favour.

5. Ancestor worship

Ancestor worship is the form of religion which leads to worship of ancestors or the First Man, or a God, who is supposed to have been the originator of the imperial family and of all men. The Japanese and the Chinese, who are not considered as Buddhists or adherents of other systems are adherents of this kind of religion.

6. Psychological Religion

This type of religion is occupied with the study of the nature of human soul and its relation to God. Though the Hindus declare that their religion is one revealed by God or successive incarnations of God, their religion is often de- scribed as a Psychological Religion that mixed with Natural Religion.

To be continued....