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Confucianism vs. Buddhism

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Confucianism vs. Buddhism
Confucianism vs. Buddhism
By Robert Truckle In this essay, two world religions will be compared to see how similar and/or how different they are; these two religions are Confucianism and Buddhism. Confucianism speaks about the wise thoughts that Confucius came across throughout his life. Buddhism speaks about how to acquire great knowledge throughout life. Confucianism was founded by a Chinese man, but Buddhism was founded by an Indian man. These quick comparisons show how the religions differ, but more detailed comparisons will be seen throughout the essay. The origins and founders of these two religions are quite similar, which will be explained in this paragraph. Confucianism was founded by a man named Confucius; which is how the religion got its name. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama but was called Buddhism because Buddha means the one who has awakened. Confucianism was founded in the Chinese state of Lu, where Confucius was born in 551 BCE. Buddhism was founded in Northern India where Siddhartha was born in 563 BCE. Both of the religions were formed in the mid-500s BCE just a couple of countries apart and their concepts were similar but they differ as well as seen in this paragraph. This paragraph will compare the basic beliefs of Confucianism and Buddhism. Confucianism’s beliefs are quite basic and they are only single words or phrases that mean a virtue. Buddhism’s beliefs are more like life paths because they tell you how to live the way Buddha did. Confucianism’s beliefs are: Li which is rituals and etiquette, Hsiao which means love within the family, Yi which is righteousness, Xin which is honesty and trustworthiness, Jen which is benevolence and humaneness towards others and Chung which is loyalty to the state. Buddhism’s beliefs are: Karma which is the sum total of action of body, speech and mind and says if you do good things then good things happen to you, Dharma which has two meanings; the teaching of the Buddha or path of

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