Two Journeys of the Jiva, Hinduism Vs Buddhism
Two Journeys of the Jiva
Religion is merely the natural response of a perplexed and fearful people; they spawn from the minds of humankind as a feeble attempt to ease their anxieties once they have recognized that they are living beings that will one day face an inevitable fatality. This acknowledgment of inexorable human death is practically unanimous in all religions, but what follows after that death as well as what the purpose of our brief lives preparatory to said death are where ideas begin to differ. The two most predominant religions of the oriental world are Hinduism and Buddhism. Although many people, especially in Western culture, may think of them as one in the same, in reality they are inherently disparate in their postulations of God, life goals, and the afterlife.
A general understanding of Hinduism is crucial to understanding the birth of Buddhism; Gautama, also known as the Buddha, was born into a Hindu family of upper caste in the year 563 BCE, and went on to be raised in the Hindu tradition. However, he felt a deep discontent with his life and departed from his family in a search for enlightenment; his quest was an eventual success that would lay the foundation for the Buddhist ideology and way of life. As a result, Buddhism and Hinduism appear similar, but it is much easier to view Buddhism as a reformed Hinduism; merely a “reaction against the perversion of Hinduism”. (92)
In the Hindu tradition the public is divided into practically inescapable castes, with glorified Brahmins in the highest level and “untouchable” Shudras hardly acknowledged in the lowest; “between these castes there is no equality…but within each caste there is equality.” (57) It is believed that only the Brahmin can achieve moksha, a liberation from the endless reincarnation cycle known as samsara, and it takes many rebirths supported by a foundation of positive karma to become a Brahmin. Buddha did not concur with this teaching, he taught a religion “devoid of authority”, powered by a desire to “break the monopolistic grip of the Brahmin on religious teachings.” (94) He spoke widely of the idea that no matter your caste “you can make it in this lifetime.” (97) Gautama had his own vision of what life was; he referred to it as “dukkha”, merely a sufferable journey. He described his idea of Buddhism as “a voyage across life’s river, a transport from the common-sense shore of ignorance…to the further bank of wisdom and enlightenment.” (144) Unlike the Hindu idea of prolonged cycles of life, his journey was shorter and seemed more easily attainable. Hindu teachings claim that Moksha, our end goal of liberation, cannot be attained without a prevailing toil through the four stages of life that require a multitude of recycled journeys of the jiva, our individual Soul.
Caste is only the beginning of their differences, Buddhism does not acknowledge an ethereal all-encompassing God, or an individual reincarnating soul; “Buddha denied spiritual substance”, and held a reverent doctrine of anatta, believing that “the human self is that, it has no soul.” (115) This is a complete opposition to the Hindu belief that “underlying every human self…is a reservoir of being that never dies.” A belief that there is an “infinite center of every life, a Godhead…” known as Atman-Brahman. (20) The Hindu view claims that our jiva transmigrates through endless bodies “steadily growing like a plant” as it attains more information and strength in order to eventually liberate itself and achieve moksha, this process is lengthy due to our surface selves becoming buried under a mass of distractions and false assumptions that can only be escaped through self-discipline and a devout commitment to one of the four yogas. (94) It is taught that the jiva is merely ignorant of its divinity, which is quite similar to the Buddhist belief that we are merely asleep, unaware of our attainable nirvana.