Buddhist and Hindu Beliefs Comparison Essay Religion & Theology Essay (Essay Sample)

Buddhist and Hindu Beliefs Comparison Essay
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Karma/Rebirth
Karma and rebirth are two very important concepts in several eastern religions although they might have different meanings. The teaching about karma explains that it is our past actions that come to affect our future life. This effect can either be negative or positive depending on our actions. In general, karma concludes that even our present actions will affect our future lives. Rebirth, on the other hand, is a concept that is used to explain the persistence of an individual after their bodily death. This can be in different forms either in soul, mind, or consciousness (Sharma, 2017). It can also be in some other entity depending on local beliefs in one or more successive existence. In Hinduism and Buddhism, this existence can be in form of a human being, vegetable, spiritual, or an animal depending on the circumstances defined by traditions and beliefs. The belief in multiple souls is not a new concept but mostly dominated in eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The essence of this paper is to discuss the comparison between the concepts of karma and rebirth among the Hindu and the Buddhist.
Karma is very common among Buddhist and even uses an agricultural metaphor to explain how good or bad deeds are as a result of peoples’ actions. The Buddhists believe that an individual reaps what they sow, bad seeds will result in a bad harvest while good seeds will be fruitful. This interpretation means that good actions result in a good and happy life while bad actions are likely to be regretted over time (McDermott & Doniger, 2018). Early Buddhists suggest that it is not right to reflect all our experiences with our actions. Some life experiences do not have anything to do with past or present actions since some are natural events that we do not have any control over. Buddhism only associates a section of some of our actions to our experiences which is very different from what other religions think.