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Comparison Of Australia And Buddhism: To Be Or Not To Be?

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Australia and Buddhism: To be, or not to be?
By Elena Green
Once upon a time, so they say, he found peace. They say he found enlightenment. They say he lead the way he felt others should live their lives. This man, so they say, was the Buddha.
Buddhism is not only a religion. It is a lifestyle- a lifestyle without the cons of a strict and restraining diocese, or racial injustice. Essentially, if you can believe, you can be Buddhist. It is for these reasons, amongst the fact that upon entering the local Buddhist temple, I was overwhelmed by holistic vibes, that I have decided upon Buddhism on which to base my creative task this semester.
As a result of composing my creative task and contemplating the purposes of the exercise, I have learnt more …show more content…

The most valuable quality of Buddhism in this sense is its absence of contradiction of other beliefs. For example, although Buddhists don’t traditionally believe in the universe having been created by a god or gods, as most religions including Christianity and Judaism, its beliefs do not contradict this notion. The most dominant issue for people interested in religious pluralism is one of the Ten Commandments, which states: “You shall not have any other Gods before me.” This Commandment, however, is still being followed as Buddha himself is not a God, but a person, and therefore, by worshipping a person, one is supposedly worshipping a creation of God. It is also possible to be an atheist and still practise Buddhism, considering that Buddha, the highest figure in this religion is not a God, but was a person for whom no miraculous happenings occurred, Therefore, you need not have faith in ‘magic’ to be a Buddhist. It is for these reasons that persons of the Buddhist religion and those of foreign ones can still live together in harmony.
Much benevolence is had for Buddhists by foreign believers, stemming from the widely-held belief that practisers of the Buddhist religion tend to be peaceful and non-threatening, as a result of their calm custom. Finding common ground between one’s Buddhist self and others of foreign spiritual beliefs will often pose a challenge. For instance, the values of kindness and compassion, and to identify with other faiths the spiritual, existential and daily issues of life, may be unimportant to the person with whom dialogue is

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In third century B.C.E the following vital occasion in the improvement of Buddhism was the meeting of a Buddhist friar and indian ruler named called Ashoka. It is the leader of substantial Mauryan domain in India, Ashoka had extended it until it secured cutting edge India. Be that as it may, he had turned out to be profoundly trubled by the carnage he brought about in this triumphs. Listening to the friar persuaded Ashoka to give himself to the quiet message of Buddhism. Ashoka raised thousand of rock columns everywhere on his Kingdom with the educating of the Buddha cut into them, the first composed proof we have of Buddhism.

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In Stephen Batchelor’s book, Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening he goes into depth about the idea that Buddhism is not a religion or something to believe in, but rather a mindset that is a way of living with a course of action. Throughout the book he gives examples and tells stories to defend the idea that Buddhism is more than just something to believe in, but it is a way of living. Batchelor noted that when it comes to viewing Buddhism as a religion it is important to know the way Buddha viewed himself “Instead of presenting himself as a savior, he saw himself as a healer” (6). His ‘job’ was not to convert people to believe in his beliefs, rather, he wanted to show them through actions how fulfilling his way of living

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but he replied that if you wanted you exchanged wives and children for wisdom. It is obvious that there was still doubt in people’s mind about Buddhism. That is why this scholar tries to argue that, he is aware of the benefits and the good Buddhism will bring which is why he’s fighting for it. This is what happened to Muhammad when he started spreading Allah’s message in order to spread Islam. The people did not take the time to listen or pay attention to the message they only focused on one man trying to spread something that was not what they believed in, in this case however many of the people did not listen to

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The Anonymous Chinese Scholar defended Buddhism even with his possibly high status in society, due to his obvious literacy. (Doc. 3) He was trying to encourage religions to coexist with one another. The document suggests Buddhist’s were put under more pressure to present evidence that they’re worthy enough to coexist with Confucianism or Islam. He most likely kept his identity a secret, due to fear of persecution. This document was written in 500 CE, between the Han and Sui Dynasties, when there was no dynasty set in tact.

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Buddhism is a religion that has been under pressure for hundreds of years. Specifically in China, the acceptance of the religion was a hard, long battle that formed demise and refute amongst the society. Emperors, Scholars, and even anonymous Chinese writers voiced their opinions for and against Buddhism. Many controversial arguments are held today. Emperor Wu of the Tang Dynasty (845 C.E.), did not respect Buddhism as a religion.

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The rise in Eastern non-Christian religions in Australia are said to be a result of immigration (Cahill, Bouma, Hass & Leahy, 2004 as cited in Holmes et al., 2015, p. 288). Even though individuals are not converting to Buddhism en masse, it has become a recently more explored religion within the organisational research and educational context for a better understanding of Buddhism in western society and the betterment of Eastern communities, (Halafoff, Fitzpatrick & Lam, 2012, pp. 12-15). There is no hard evidence on why Buddhism so popular in western society. The Chief Monk of the

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The role of Buddhism is non-existent. Or so it may seem at first glance on the surface layer. Through a deeper search and study Buddhism is very impactful in American lifestyle. But what is the true impact of Buddhism in a large religiously diverse country such as America; the number of Buddhists in the U.S. range from 2.5 million to 3-4 million, with such small figures it might seem that Buddhism is not an important part of American culture. However, while it is true that Buddhism does not have the large number of followers as other major religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, it still has the same level of impact as those mentioned major religions.

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In the essay, “ The Role of Religion in Modern Society”, Dalai Lama, The preeminent religious authority in Buddhism reveals the reason behind why religion has been a major source of conflict throughout the history, and how inter-religious harmony is the key to overcoming conflict of the first sort. He goes deeper into the similarities between different religion and identifies the obstacles that obstruct inter-religious harmony by developing ways to overcome them. He believes religion plays a vital role in the modern society by shaping the person's spiritual qualities rather than making him a better religious person than the other. Dalai Lama expounds that religious practice can help a person cope with adversity than those who don't.

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