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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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