The Spread of Buddhism and Christianity Essay Example For Students

The Spread of Buddhism and Christianity Essay Buddhism and Christianity were each founded by one person, and then eventually grew into two of the largest religions in the world. Each religion had different reasons for the success in the spreading of each respected belief. Although both faced many hardships, the two religions overcame and prevailed through their problems and continued to find ways to attract new believers every day. Buddhism was founded by one man, Siddhartha Guatama. He was born into royalty around 563 B.C.E. in a Kingdom near the border of India and Nepal. He was raised in wealth and luxury, and at the age of 16, he married a wealth woman and they had a child together. Around the age of 29, he began to realize that all humans were in a cycle of suffering, dying, and then being reincarnated only to suffer and die over and over again. It was then that he decided to leave his wife and child to find a way out of this repeating cycle of life and death. First he studied with teachers, but found he was coming to no conclusions, so he turned to more extreme things such as self-mortification, but he was still left unsatisfied. We will write a custom essay on The Spread of Buddhism and Christianity specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now As a last resort, Guatama began intense yogic meditation under a papal tree. One night, he went into a deep trance, and moved through different levels of being. First, he saw all of his previous lives, living through each one over and over again. He then realized that reincarnation is based on how you treat all living things and whether you do right or wrong. He then achieved the knowledge of everything there is to be known in the world, and he attained perfection. He became the â€Å"Buddha†, which means â€Å"Enlightened One†, and he found the release from reincarnation. Buddhacarita, the best known biography of the Buddha, describes what it was like when dawn broke and the Buddha came out of his trance; â€Å"†¦and the leader of all reached the state of all-knowledge. When, through his Buddhahood, he had cognized this fact, the earth swayed like a woman drunken with wine, the sky shone bright with the Siddhas who appeared in crowds in all the directions, and th e mighty drums of thunder resounded through the air. Pleasant breezes blew softly, rain fell from a cloudless sky, flowers and fruits dropped from the trees out of season-in an effort, as it were, to show reverance for him,† (The Global Experience, Ashvaghosha, pg. 79). Having achieved enlightenment, the Buddha began spreading his knowledge to help others achieve â€Å"Nirvana†, which means to be released from the reincarnation cycle. He preached that there were 4 Noble Truths: (1) all life is suffering; (2) the source of suffering is desire; (3) to end desiring is to end suffering; (4) there is an eight-fold path to end suffering; to have the right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. This idea of being released from suffering attracted many people, and Buddhism soon spread rapidly through Northern India, and then through Southern India. However, the popularity of this form of Buddhism (Theravada, as it came to be known, meaning â€Å"way of the elders†) began to dwindle as only a few people were being able to enlightenment as it was so difficult. It was mainly monks who were practicing the eight-fold path, and they would meditate for months and years and would maybe experience an inner spiritual awakening, but few were achieving Nirvana. It got even more difficult as years wore on because after someone had achieved Nirvana and died, it left other people without someone to help guide them to Nirvana. Many people began to feel that achieving enlightenment was nearly impossible, and they began to drift away from the religion, causing a major downfall in the spread of Buddhism. .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 , .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 .postImageUrl , .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 , .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96:hover , .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96:visited , .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96:active { border:0!important; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96:active , .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96 .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u24c0a1f0a15ead87328cf11fc77b6e96:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Machine Roles In Future EssayIt was then that a new form of Buddhism arose in India called â€Å"Mahayana† Buddhism, meaning â€Å"great vehicle of salvation†. This form of Buddhism started around the 1st century B.C.E., and it’s ideas differed pretty drastically from the older Theravada version. This newer version of Buddhism spread quickly out of India into Afghanistan and Central Asia, and then into China, Tibet, Mongolia, Vietnam, and finally into Korea and Japan. One of the main reasons for it’s rapid spread and great attraction to people was the â€Å"bodhisattva†, meaning â€Å"Buddha to be†. The bodhisattva was someone who had achieved Nirvana , however, instead of being taken out of the reincarnation cycle, they chose to remain in the cycle to help all others achieve Nirvana. What this meant to people was that now they could have someone help them and guide them down the path to becoming a Buddha. They no longer had to do it themselves and lead a perfect life, the bodhisattvas could show them exactly what they needed to do. Another attraction about Mahayana Buddhism was that the people could pray to the bodhisattvas for help, forgiveness, or anything. Theravada Buddhism lacked any god-like figures that the people could pray to, and people need something like that in times of need when they have no one else to turn to. These god-like bodhisattvas helped attract new people to the religion who might have been turned off by Theravada Buddhism because there were no god-like figures to pray and look to. One of these bodhisattvas that people prayed to was â€Å"Kuan-yin†, which meant â€Å"the one who hears the cry†. Kuan-yin was a Goddess, and this helped spread the religion because now women could achieve Nirvana and become Buddhas, something that didn’t happen in Theravada Buddhism. Allowing women to become Bodhisattvas attracted many more people to the religion, and helped make it spread that much faster. Christianity originated from Jesus of Nazareth, who was believed to be born from the Virgin Mary and was the son of God. It is believed that he was put here to redeem humanity for all their sins and to bring eternal life for all those who followed him. Jesus preached that at the end of the world, there would be a judgement day, and all those who followed God would be rewarded with eternal life and all those who didn’t would be condemned. Until judgement day, he taught his people to stay away from sin, show love, charity, humility, and to believe in him and his divine mission. Jesus soon gained a following, mostly of poor people. Many upperclass citizens of Jerusalem became suspicious of this group of people, and they began to warn the Roman governor that Jesus and his followers could be revolutionaries. Because of this, Jesus was crucified and put to death around 30 C.E. After the death of Jesus, Christianity began spreading a little throughout Jewish communities, however it wasn’t spreading like wildfire as Mahayana Buddhism had done before it. It wasn’t until Saint Paul of Tarsus that the religion began to pick up. Saint Paul of Tarsus was born Saul, in the city of Tarsus is Asia Minor. Earlier in his life, he had a major role in the persecution of the Christians until he converted to Christianity around 35 C.E. and changed his name to Paul. Many people wanted Christianity to be a version of Judaism and have only Jewish people convert, however, Paul wanted Christianity to be a universal religion, and he soon gained many converts who were non-Jews. Christianity soon spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Many of the followers were the poor and uneducated who were looking for some fulfillment in their lives. It didn’t take long before the Roman government began to distrust the new religion. The Christians refused to worship their Emporer because it would be against their religion, and the Romans considered this treason. Soon the persecution of Christians was heavy and was being done by the citizens, not the government. Although this was a major setback, it had it’s benefits by unifying the Christians even more, and by getting rid of so-so believers and weak Christians. .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e , .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e .postImageUrl , .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e , .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e:hover , .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e:visited , .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e:active { border:0!important; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e:active , .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u3496c84f72eb8eca6d8a25293ff0b59e:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Communication within groups EssayDespite numerous persecutions, Christianity remained strong and continued to spread into Italy and all throughout Western Europe. A major turning point of Christianity in Rome occurred in 311 C.E. when the ruler Galerius, perhaps influenced by his Christian wife, permitted Christian worship to occur in his empire. By 394 C.E., Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire, and from there it only continued to spread throughout the world. Both Christianity and Buddhism were started from nothing but grew into two of the largest religions in the world. The reasons why Buddhism succeeded in spreading to other countries and people are different from the reasons Christianity spread. Buddhism spread because it adapted to what the people wanted and needed. When the numbers began to dwindle, a new form of Buddhism was there, adapted into what would attract new people, and succeeding at it. Christianity, on the other hand, never changed or adapted. The ideas and beliefs have stayed the same since the beginning. The reasons it succeeded in spreading was because it was attractive to everybody. Anyone could be a part of it, not just monks or very strict people. It united all types of people for one cause, to serve God and achieve eternal life. Both these religions spread and attracted many people, and continue to do so even to this day. Bibliography:

Mercantilism and its effects on the colonies essays

Mercantilism and its effects on the colonies essays In retrospect, America was inevitably a revolutionary force from the day of its discovery. America was a home for the latest thoughts and ideas about the nature of society, citizens, and government, and more often then not, conflicting ideas on how to manage the world would potentially create unpleasant surroundings. An example of this was when the British authorities embraced a theory known as mercantilism, that justified their control over the colonies, which would go on to be greatly resented by the American colonists. Mercantilism is the theory and system of political economy prevailing in Europe after the decline of feudalism, based on national policies of accumulating gold, establishing colonies and a merchant marine, and developing industry and mining to attain a favorable balance of trade. Mercantilists supposed that wealth was power, and that a countrys economic wealth could be calculated by the quantity of gold or silver in its countrys treasury. Possessing colonies therefore created distinct advantages, since the colonies could both provide raw materials to the mother country, thus reducing the need for foreign imports, and providing a definite market for exports. The London government saw the American colonists as tenants basically to avoid making for export certain products (beaver hats), who were expected to furnish products needed in the mother country (tobacco, sugar), to buy imported manufactured goods exclusively from Britain, and to not even think about economic independence or se lf-government. What were mercantilisms actual effects on the colonies? Occasionally the Parliament would pass laws to control the mercantilism system. One of these laws was The Navigation Law of 1650, which stated that all trade flowing to and from the colonies could be transported in British ships only. Laws that followed the Navigation Law stated that European goods heading for America had to land in Britain firs...

General Management - Investment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

General Management - Investment - Case Study Example 4 ) Assuming that the client expressed some concern about having too much money in the growth fund, how would the original recommendation change if the amount invested in the growth fund is not allowed to exceed the amount invested in the income fund? 5 ) Is the asset allocation model that I developed will be useful in managing the portfolio for all of the firm’s clients whenever the anticipated yields for the three funds are periodically revised. What is your recommendation as to whether use of this model is possible? The objective of managing the funds of all the clients is to maximize the annual yields of their portfolio given their risk preferences. However it is not possible to use exactly the same linear programming model because the different clients have different risk preferences and risk indexes. The different linear programming models will have different set of constraints in spite of having the same objective. However if the annual yields for the three funds are periodically revised then the model is useful. The coefficients of the objective constraint can simply be changed to reflect the new yields of the three

Social Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Social Issues - Essay Example This was however refuted by the campaign group Crisis, which warns that people are merely moving from the streets into temporary shelters and then moving back onto the streets again (www.bbc.co.uk, 2001). Recent statistics reveal that there may be still be vast numbers of homeless people still populating UK’s streets. In evaluating the trends over time, about two thirds of homeless people in general were single persons over the age of 25 rather than members with families. In England, the number of people recognized officially as being homeless in the year 2007 was 99,500, and this revealed a decreasing trend. The current figure was half of what the figures were in the year 2004 and well below the high numbers that existed a decade ago(www.crisis.org.uk). Similar trends were not however, reported in Wales and Scotland. In the case of the fomer, the number of households recognized as officially newly homeless were 9300, which is an increase from the values of 2004. The homelessness trend has been fluctuating in Wales, it rose sharply from 2001 to 2004, then dropped sharply up to 2007 when it registered another increase. An increasing trend was also displayed in Scotland; the num ber of households which were categorized as newly homeless were 41,00 which are actually a third higher than they were a decade ago. Most people have little sympathy for homeless people, because they believe that these individuals deliberately choose to adopt this option so that they can scrounge off the sympathy and assistance of kindly folk. But as was pointed out in the BBC news item cited above, homelessness is like a vicious cycle because it creates its own set of problems. The failure to be able to demonstrate the existence of a permanent address means that such individuals are also not able to get jobs to earn money for themselves, which in turn, only leads to a higher incidence of homelessness.

Interaction and influences of genetics Essay Example for Free

Interaction and influences of genetics Essay The current belief in biology disqualify the fact that it is only the genes that determine most of the complex traits of a human being. It is well appreciated that DNA interacts at the molecular level with the signals from the environment as well as from other genes. When this concept is considered at the individual level, certain genes do influence trait development in context to a specific environment (Parens et al. , 2006). In this regard therefore, the degree into which a particular trait is influenced by the environment in relation to the genes depends on the specific environment and genes that have been examined. In most of the cases, it has been discovered that genes do contribute to someone’s personality, intelligence and even the psychological traits. Some of these traits maybe highly influenced by the environment in such circumstances as the environmental deprivation (Baker 2004). Environment genes and family traits. It is virtually possible now to measure the heritability of a trait in a certain population when these traits are determined through the complex interaction of environment and genotype. There is evidence that environmental factors within a family set up do have an effect on childhood IQ but on late adolescence it has been observed that the adoptive characteristics in the family siblings are not in any more unique than in the IQ of strangers (McInerney and Rothstein2007). Personality to a certain extent is heritable (Baker 2004). To support this belief, it has been observed that biological siblings are usually more similar in personality as compared to the adoptive ones while identical twins that have been brought up apart show personality similarity than other people who are randomly selected from the population (Parens et al. , 2006). Adoption studies have thus attempted to measure the strength of traits shared in a family. Though some studies indicate that adopted siblings only share the family environment, other studies have shown that by adulthood, the shared family effect on someone’s personality is usually zero. The question of biological determinism thus becomes real. That is if the genes do have a substantial role in the development of personality and even intelligence, then the question remains if genes really determine who really we are (McInerney and Rothstein2007). Though heritability measures used refer to the degree in which there is a variation between individuals in a certain population, these kinds of statistics are not applicable at an individual level. If a heritability index of a certain personality is 6, it would be inappropriate to say that the individual has 40% of personality traits from the environment and 60% from the parents (McInerney and Rothstein2007). Environment is a key factor that cannot be assumed at any point since even the highly genetically determined trait such as the eye color still do carry with them the environmental influence (e. g. atmospheric oxygen and temperature range). Genes do not directly determine the behavior but depending on the environmental context, they influence such conditions and physical traits as blood pressure, height, digestive activities and weight among others (Parens et al. , 2006). The same could be true of the psych-social complex behaviors. Each of these traits is affected by certain multiple genes that interact with various environmental factors. Thus a gene cannot be plainly said that it controls a behavior trait but rather it maybe more appropriate to say that is has an influence on any observed character (Baker 2004). Conclusion Genes that carry the power of heritability in an individual should be considered as enablers of character traits and not as constrainers as it may have been in some cases. Genes carry the possibilities of the organism but do not on the other hand reduce its options as the environment also has a role in enhancing them or even suppressing their expression. The social scientist can thus conclude that these new possibilities are not necessarily scripted in the advance but rather open to the individuals experience.

His Spirit is Soaring Free :: Personal Narrative, Personal Essay

The cold, steel bars of the headboard pressed painfully into my back, and I could no longer feel my legs. Yet I sat motionless, his head heavy on my collarbone, afraid the slightest movement would disturb him. I softly kissed the thin wisps of hair on top of his head as I cradled his frail, emaciated body. Every day spent with him was precious; he would soon be gone. In those silent pre-dawn hours, the harsh lighting and sterile hospital smell faded away as my mind wandered unrestrained, exploring unknown areas and probing into ideas which challenged my Southern upbringing, and returned with new knowledge which was to forever change my life. "Woo," as everyone knew him, loved God, family and the outdoors. He was always daring, climbing to the highest branches of any tree. When he was five years old, he grabbed the manes of our untamed horses to hoist himself onto their backs for wild, frenzied rides. At the age of nine he began a love affair which was to last his entire life—he earned to hunt. His truck roaring into the driveway invariably disrupted the entire household. The children jockeyed for position as they ran to the door laughing and screaming. They knew he would have Tootsie Rolls and Hershey Kisses in his pockets. As soon as his tall, lanky frame filled the doorway, strawberry blonde ringlets bouncing past his shoulders, they wrapped their little arms around his legs, forcing him to drag them into the room with him. He was always willing to play their favorite games, no matter how tired he was. One wanted to wrestle; his long, tapered fingers would dance across the child's ribs eliciting delighted squeals. Another wanted to play "Chin Music." Woo's beard tickled as he blew "raspberries" on their cheeks and necks. Many mornings at daybreak he stopped by for a cup of coffee and quiet conversation. He gestured animatedly when he talked; sparkling azure eyes belied the seriousness of any situation. Hung across his shoulder was the tattered, brown hunting pouch he refused to part with, his curls escaping the orange knit cap he always wore hunting. On those mornings he smelled of crisp, cold air and wild game. The morphine cocktails he was given on demand had stilled his work-callused hands and dulled his eyes.

Hemingway’s Writing Style Essay

From almost the beginning of his writing career, Hemingway’s distinctive style occasioned a great deal of comment and controversy. Basically, his style is simple, direct, and unadorned, probably as a result of his early newspaper training. He avoids the adjective whenever possible, but because he is a master at transmitting emotion without the flowery prose of his Victorian novelist predecessors, the effect is far more telling. In Observations on the Style of Ernest Hemingway, from â€Å"Contexts of Criticism† by Harry Levin (Harvard University Press, 1957), the critic says: â€Å"Hemingway puts his emphasis on nouns because, among other parts of speech, they come closest to things. Stringing them along by means of conjunctions, he approximates the actual flow of experience.† Hemingway has often been described as a master of dialog, and most readers agree, upon being first introduced to his writing, that â€Å"this is the way these characters would really talk.† It is interesting to note, however, that Hemingway’s one attempt at playwriting was a failure. Actually, a close examination of his dialog will reveal that this is rarely the way people really speak. The effect is accomplished, rather, by the calculated emphasis and repetition which makes us remember what has been said. Since the critics cannot entirely agree on Hemingway’s style, perhaps the best way is to put it into the author’s own words. Shortly before his tragic death, Hemingway gave to the Wisdom Foundation in California a collection of his observations on life and art, love and death. They were published in the January 1963, issue of Playboy magazine, and in them Hemingway said of his writing: I do most of my work in my head. I never begin to write until my ideas are in order. Frequently I recite passages of dialogue as it is being written; the ear is a good censor. I never set down a sentence on paper until I have it so expressed that it will be clear to anyone. Yet, I sometimes think that my style is suggestive rather than direct. The reader must often use his imagination or lose the most subtle part of my thoughts. I take great pains with my work, pruning and revising with a tireless hand. I have the welfare of my creations very much at heart. I cut them with infinite care, and burnish them until they become brilliants. What many another writer would be content to leave in massive proportions, I polish into a tiny gem. Hemingway goes on at some length, but the essence of what he says may be in this paragraph: A writer’s style should be direct and personal, his imagery rich and earthy, and his words simple and vigorous. The greatest writers have the gift of brilliant brevity, are hard workers, diligent scholars and competent stylists. To explain Hemingway’s style adequately in a few paragraphs is impossible. Scores of articles, and even some books, have been written on the subject, and it is to these that the serious student should go for additional, more detailed information.