Hindu Culture Dominated India

• 4 Varnas (Castes)

  • Based on birth and occupation

  • Samsara = Reincarnation

  • Dharma = Duty you must follow

  • Karma = Good deeds lead to good effects if
                        you follow your Dharma

• Varna defined and created social order

• Moksha = Release from Cycle

  • Become one with world soul (brahman)

  • Might take thousands of lives to reach

Many God OR Avatars of One God

Brahma Vishnu Shiva Atman and Brahman

Varna and Jati define: Work Friends Marriage

• Hinduism became a religion of the rich

  • Followers had to pay priests to perform rituals, which bring good karma

• Siddhartha = World’s most famous “Seeker”

  • Born to a king, sought meaning in life, experimented, and became enlightened

  • Path of moderation to reach happiness

Buddhist Doctrine

• Anyone can become enlightened

  • Rejected Brahmin Priests

  • Rejected Hindu Castes

  • Rejected Hindu Gods

          * Souls still reincarnate

• 4 Noble Truths

  • All life involves suffering

  • Desire is cause of suffering

  • Curbing excessive desire ends suffering

  • Live by the Noble 8-Fold Path to manage desire

Two Forms of Buddhism Spread Throughout Asia

Theravada

• Original form

• Spread to Sri Lanka & Thailand

Mahayana

• Revised about 200 years later

• Spread to many parts of Asia:

  • Central Asia

  • China

  • Korea

  • Japan 

  • Vietnam 

  • Cambodia
    

Mahayana

• 3 Additions/modifications to doctrine

  • Bodhisattvas = helpers

  • Buddha is a God to worship

  • Get salvation by donating to a Buddhist Monastery

• Became very popular with low caste Hindus, women, and wealthy people who could donate to monasteries
  
  

Hinduism Evolved to Regain Popularity

• Salvation if devoted to 1 god “Bhakti”

• Salvation in 1 life

• Open to all castes and women