The Hindu Religion and Buddhism

We haven't had quite as many classes lately, so the topic material is a little more scarce. however, we did delve into the world of hinduism, namely its origins, characteristics, and the branches of this religion.

Originally Hinduism began just as Vedas, in "Vedic religions". However, these religions lost popularity as people started to find them too ritualistic. Over time, Buddhism began to replace the Vedic religions as the main religion of India. Another aspect of Buddhism was yoga, and yoga sutras- essentially, people used meditation to sharpen themselves in many ways, and to this day scientists are fascinated by certain effects of meditation. see here:

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/09/60452

Next came Puranas, a branch of Hinduism that details specifically from creation to destruction. part of this branch is Puja, which is an offering to gods.

Four words: Dharma shastras: varnasrama-dharma. definitely the biggest mouthful to come from this class yet. Dharma-Shastra is the "science of dharma", and is a group of texts that contains information from the Vedas. It is also important that they are also called Law, but in hinduism there isn't much of a line between religion and law. Varnasrama is a social system like a caste system in india, although tends to be kinder that the traditional caste system, in that it offers everyone spiritual advancement. Finally comes one of the most important aspects of Buddhism- reincarnation. In this regard of life and death, Buddhists believe that upon dying (which never really happens because your Atman, or soul, lives on after death, connected to Brahman (which is basically what everything is and is connected to)), one's soul is brought up and, based on what kind of life they lived, based on Karma, they either move up, down, or stay where they are on the "spiritual ladder". The goal is to reach Nirvana and achieve eternal bliss, which is called Moksha, when one is released from the cycle.

Hinduism and Buddhism are certainly interesting religions- they're old enough that they certainly compare with native american religions, yet at the same time are still present enough today to be fully studied. For all their metaphorical nooks and crannies, they're certainly religions I'm excited to learn more about.