The Purpose of the Journey to China
The purpose of the journey to China is to inform Christians about the existence of different religions in the globe. China is one of the nations with a wide variety of religious organizations, all of which have strong religious views. Some of these groups completely reject Christianity, while others only somewhat do. Exist what the Buddhists believe?
The Role of Buddhism in China
In China, Buddhism is a religion that reveres statues that adherents think symbolize their god and affirms the historical existence of Buddha as their deity. Christianity claims that worshiping any aspect of the human body as an idol violates God's commands and is therefore idolatry. The trip to China is focused on finding the historic story about the start of the Buddhism community which has almost a similar believes with Christianity but differ in their way of worship.
Do Buddhist People Believe in God and Jesus?
Do Buddhist people believe in the existence of God and do they believe that God sent his son Jesus to come to the world and die so that he can wash away the sins of the world?
The Split of Buddhism into Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism
Why is the Buddhism religion split into two; Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism?
Places to Be Visited
Places to Be Visited
- Giant Buddha of Leshan: It is also known as the Dafo, it stands 233feet tall, being the tallest statute in the world. It represents a seated Maitreya Buddha with his hands resting on his knees.
- Mogao Caves: These Buddhist cave temples were a middle of principles on the Silk Road from the 4th to the 14th centuries and contained well-preserved religious murals and carvings spanning that entire period.
The Mythical Beliefs of Buddhism
The Mythical Believes
The acceptance of the mythology, whether early or fully developed, has been a crucial factor in the development of Buddhism. One of them is stories about the narration of the Buddhist rule soon after Shakyamuni's decease, details of his previous lives, and explanations of the six spheres of rebirth. Mara is identified to poses various demons and evil spirits, and the texts describe him in these terms and later recognizes a definite victory over him, despite the spiritual or popular level it may be understood, it remains an inalienable element of the myth. There is a saying in the religion that says. "The mount is a Buddha, and the Buddha is a mount." It illustrates the large size of the statute of Buddha statute.
Worshiping in the temple is always associated with some Mahayana rituals which are ways of worshipping Buddha. These include; chanting, praying, mediating, eating vegetable meals and also celebrating the Buddhist holidays, such as the Buddha's birthday (International Buddhist Society 2016).
A Journey into a Sacred, Myth, and Ritual
Buddhism is one of the greatest religions in China that has a good history of the attraction. It is believed to have spread in China in 67 AD during the Han Dynasty (206BC-220) from Hotan in Xinjiang to Central China. It greatly influenced the traditional culture and thoughts of the Chinese people and later became one of the major religion groups at the early time. Buddhism got into China through the Silk Road, transmitted by the Buddhist people to the western region. They later built up the first temple known as the White Horse Temple which was built in the walls of the Luoyang capital. After the fall of the Han dynasty, the religion grew to become an influential religion in China even during the period of political division. When it was majorly established the Buddhism religion grew began to compete with China's indigenous religion and Taoist movement (Li & Moreira 2009).
Buddhist believes in the existence of Buddha (the god), Kuan Yin (the Goddess of Mercy), Maitreya (the future Buddha) and other more who they all contain their statutes in temples and also houses which they pray to them for favors.
Later, it is believed to have merged with native Taoism and folk religion. Ancient Hindu Buddhism taught by Buddha involved enlightenment through mediation. Buddhist scriptures were later translated to the Chinese language which helped many people to interpret the religion in their own and local languages. Mayahana Buddhism is one of the types of Buddhism in China which originated from Kusha Empire known as Yuezhi (Li & Moreira 2009). Then various schools sects that adopted it became popular not only in China but also in other countries like Japan. Millions of people in China believe in the combination of Buddhism and Taoist.
The modern Buddhism slightly differs from the original teaching of the religion which taught that Buddha is not just a teacher, but they believed that he was the only God, and thus they prayed for salvation and help. The popular Buddhist religion believes that both Buddha and Taoist gods and also homage ancestors can rescue them in times of fate, and therefore they can all be worshiped. Buddhism has affected and continues to affect the way Chinese people think and operate. Then, wellbeing of China roots from the religious groups Buddhism playing a major role where people were supposed to look for wealth and later contribute a portion of it to the temple for more blessings. In the Buddhist religion and the scriptures, a female is not mentioned, but the word man has been involved in many places which might have been used as a general term for both males and females.
Buddhist believes in the law of karma (action); one's gladness or anguish, victory or failure, health or infection, and so on are triggered by one's bodily, verbal or mental actions. In the times of suffering a Buddhists will seek to do good actions to alleviate any unpleasantness.
Relationships between the Buddhism Religion and the Culture
The culture reals to us who we are, it gives an expression of our nature the manner of living and also that of thinking in an ethical aspiration and knowledge. The religion also teaches on the meaning of life why we live and requires us to respect ourselves and also respect others.
In Buddhism, mind prevails over matter. A normal feature of mind is a resolution. To make the paramount use of our life, we must choose a practical aim in life and devise a plan to achieve the aim. Then we will be what we want to be. The more we treasure out about ourselves using self-observation and meditation, the better will be our chances of self-development A well-adjusted Buddhist has positive qualities of respect to his elders, obedience, honesty, love faithfulness and all the positive qualities learned in various religious groups. They believe the more one performs a right action, the more it becomes a habit to him or her. The exemption of the death of Jesus on the cross, and of the Christian principle of atonement, the most ancient Buddhist records had comparisons with the Christian traditions.
According to Christianity, they worship through praying to God to have mercy on them. They worship him as their supreme being and the giver of life. In Buddhism, Buddha is also regarded as a supreme being and is worshiped in the church (Li & Moreira 2009). The Christian monks and nuns, especially from the catholic dominion, do not marry since they decided to serve the Lord the same way the monks from Buddhism do but they conduct a civil ceremony.
There exist many similarities between Christianity and Buddhism since they are both religions which have followers who all have a different way of worship. Some of these similarities are;
- They believe that Jesus died on the cross is a similarity with the Buddhist religion. Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God and he died and rose on the third day.
- They all have special statutes which they honor as a sign of the existence of a supreme being Christian use the cross as a representation Jesus died on the cross and Buddhist have statutes of Buddha as their God.
- Christians believe that Jesus died here on earth the same way the Buddhists community also believe that Buddha died (Li & Moreira 2009).
Despite the many similarities discussed above the two religious groups also have some differences, these are;
- Christianity is a monotheistic religion and relies on a God as the creator of the universe while Buddhism is non-theistic and rubbishes the idea of a Creator God which delivers spiritual values for the world.
- Buddhism sees a blank space as eternal and without a starting point of creation while Christians trust that the Almighty God created all this that are visible and those that are invisible as declared in the apostle's creed.
- Buddhists believe in the life cycle, and therefore in their scriptures, there is nothing like end times while in Christianity is well described on the things that are going to happen (Li & Moreira 2009).
From the above, it can clearly be understood that there exist different religious groups which have their faith. Their culture should also be respected and honored. People should not undermine other people's religion, and with respect of all, we shall all live in peace and harmony.
References
Fronsdal, G. (n.d.). Rituals in Buddhism: Insight meditation center. Retrieved from http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articles/rituals-in-buddhism/.
International Buddhist Society (2016). Chanting. Retrieved from http://www.buddhisttemple.ca/buddhism/rituals/chanting.
Li, T., & Moreira, G. O. (2009). The influence of Confucianism and Buddhism on Chinese business: The case of Aveiro, Portugal. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 19. Retrieved from https://www.immi.se/intercultural/nr19/tianbo.htm.
