Religious and Ethnic Groups Paper Eth125

Religious and Ethnic Groups Paper

Johnathan Koo

ETH/125

April 14, 2013

Jean Ellero

I have chosen Buddhism as my religious group for this report assignment. Specifically on Mahayana Buddhism, this is not a single group but a collection of Buddhist traditions. Some groups that make up the Mahayana Buddhism are : Zen Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism. Mahayana and Theravada are both based off of the basic root teachings of historical Buddha. They both emphasize the individual search for liberation from the cycle of samsara, which is basically the cycle of life itself, starting from birth to death and eventually rebirth. The cycle of samsara is where Buddhism is different from other religions like Christianity and Judaism, since their belief is to ascend to heaven after death.

Bodhisattva, which means the “enlightenment being”, is mentioned a great deal in Mahayana as being the ideal way for Buddhist to live their lives. Anyone can embark on this path of life, selflessness to be liberated from suffering in this world. Like most religions, living a selflessness lifestyle and searching for enlightenment, is something Buddhism shares with other different religions.

In Mahayana Buddhism there are three aspects, which regards Buddha as having three bodies, which is called The Trikaya. The first is Dharmakaya, Buddha is transcendent, Buddha being the same as the ultimate truth. The second aspect is called Sambhogakaya, Buddha’s body of bliss or enjoyment body. The third and final aspect is the Nirmanakaya, which is Buddha’s earthly body, which just a regular human being’s body.

My father was Buddhist, and my mother was Christian, so I grew up having experienced both lifestyles of these two religions. There are both pros and cons to each belief. I found that Christianity is a very warm friendly religion but at the same the people that attended my mother’s church were very quick to judge, even though they practice acceptance....