American Religions Vs Buddhism

Introduction:

Religions have a big effect on our world from the past and until now. Some of the religions are very well-known and are worshipped worldwide such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism,… but about other religions for example, Caodaism, many people don’t even know their existence. This makes me concern about the popularity of those religions and I really want to know why. Therefore, I turn my concern into my topic research to solve my question and also for other people because I know others are having the same concern. Moreover, I think that this is a great way to gain knowledge about an exciting topic like religion.

National Perspective:

My first comparison is between Buddhism and Caodaism. The reason why I choose these two

“Cao” means high and “Dai” means palace, together Cao Dai means a high palace and can be understood as heaven. Caodaism is a unique religion because it is a compound of many teachings from other religions like Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, and so on. Furthermore, its supreme god is the Divine Eye in a triangle, not a specific human being like the others. The purpose of Caodaism is to create harmony in every religion. It is such a strange Vietnamese religion, but yet unpopular as Buddhism since it only has 7-8 million followers.

Not many people choose to follow Caodaism is because it appeared kind of late, until 1926. By that time, Buddhism was already popular to the Vietnamese people and Caodaism just started its journey. Furthermore, the appearance of Caodaism seems odd to such an Asian country like Vietnam. People feel uncomfortable when they have to face the Eye on a big globe model and see Buddha, Jesus, Kong Qiu, Victor Hugo,… under that eye. It is obviously arrogant to the people here.

In addition, Caodaism’s goal or teaching is not related much to the culture. While Buddhism wants people to be good like what the old Vietnamese generation wants people to be, Caodaism focuses mainly on the peace between the religions and it is not really related to the people’ lives. From those two reasons, not many people choose Caodaism and hence, Caodaism is not as popular as

Buddhism was born around 563 B.C.E while Confucianism and Taoism were born around 550 B.C.E. As we can see, Confucianism and Taoism were born earlier than Buddhism, so by the time Buddhism was introduced to China, Confucianism and Taoism has already been familiar to the Chinese people. Moreover, unlike the Confucianism and Taoism are originally from China, Buddhism is like a guest visits China since it comes from India. In my opinion, what comes from China is more suitable for the Chinese people. Since Confucianism and Taoism are from China, its goal and philosophy are more suitable for the Chinese people. Buddhism is from India, so some of its philosophy might be unsuitable for the Chinese people’ culture. Buddhism is like taking a step after the other two; it comes after them and not as fit for the people as the other two. In a nutshell, the penetration of Buddhism is not strong enough like Confucianism and Taoism; the popularity of Buddhism is not wide enough like the two in