Patrick Flood

RELS 2300

Dharma

Dharma (or religion) for Hinduism followers, covers the topics of duty, ethics, social

welfare, natural law, health, wealth, power, fulfillment of desires, and transcendental realization.

Its interesting because in western religion, the term religion, i feel like, covers maybe ethics,

duty, and a couple others but i just dont think it follows what dharma presents. It seems like

Hinduism is all encompassing and gives no option but that it is THE way of life

In the textbook it talks about how Indian religious customs are being viewed or

interpreted wrongly by non-Indians and is as of now a fervently discussed cultural issue. It uses

the Hindi word "dharma" as an example. As said in the book, the word basically means

"religion" in english. but it covers a wide variety of meanings along with that.

I also have gathered that it mentions about how some few Indians now state that Western

investigation of Hinduism has been carried on by outcasts who were one-sided against Indian

culture, or who assumed that all religions can be concentrated by Western religious

classifications, thus taking the side of western religion and acting more biased. Western religion

is most definitely "younger" than Hinduism so im not surprised that the definitions of "dharma"

vs the english term "religion" are similar yet so very different.

The Buddha's argument for this particular topic of how the human being is "self less" is

such an interesting topic. the Buddha dont believe that there is an Eternal Soul that is related to

our being. but rather things that we go through, pain, happiness, suffering, positivity, negativity,

is all something that comes and goes. due to not only our own control through thoughts and
feelings but also because of the belief that their isnt an eternal soul to us. As life continues to

move on and new life processed and begun its a new moment for us but never the same. things

just come and go so a "self" is never truly established. Now this is similar to hindu beliefs but the

way that buddhism views selflessness vs how hinduism views it are where we see the contrast.

Hindus see things in life as happenings that we must go through with a consequence or rather a

reward in the end but the buddha believe this process with more of a dismal look in the end if i

might say so. Karma is the main similarity in all this between buddhism and hinduism but

differences lie in the perspectives of social (Hindu) vs personal enlightenment (Buddha).