Buddhism: Common Misconceptions

Buddhism: Common Misconceptions

Q1. Discuss any misconceptions you had about the religion you researched.

Buddhism is the religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha Gautama or the Buddha was Himalayan Native lived in between 4th and 6th century BC. Buddhism is one of the most prominent and fast-growing religion of the East-Asia (Buddhists in the World, 2012).

There are many misconceptions in the world especially in the west about Buddhism. These misconceptions are since the first westerners that wrote about the Buddhism were generally the Christian missionaries. The studied the Buddhism to replace it with the Christianity. Since these missionaries were not the scholars therefore they mixed up the Buddhism with the Hinduism. The books written by those missionaries or the books written after them but based on their findings led to many misconceptions (Buddhism, Common Misconceptions About, 2013).

Unlike many others, I also had these misconceptions about the Buddhism. These misconceptions are due to the lack of my knowledge and my low interaction with the Buddhists. The misconceptions that I had about the Buddhism are as follows:

Buddhism is based on the Hinduism

The first and main misconception about the Buddhism is that the Buddhism is a part of Hinduism or is the reformed state of the Hinduism. Majority of Buddhists like Hindus are vegetarian, the Buddha himself was a vegetarian. Buddhists worship the Buddha and his companions like the Hindus worship different idols. The other major misunderstanding about the Buddhism that results in the similarity of the Buddhism and the Hinduism is the belief of reincarnation.

Buddhist Believe in the Reincarnation

The reincarnation is a philosophical and religious thought. The reincarnation is basically being a doctrine related to the Indian religions. The reincarnation defines that a sprit or soul after the death of the living organism, to which it belongs, shifts to a new body and this body may be of animal, human or any other living organism. According to the theory of reincarnation the change in the body of the soul depends upon the moral deeds of the soul in its previous life.

Buddhism: Paganism or Polytheism

Paganism is defined as the religion or religions, revealed not by the God. In short the paganism is any religion other than Christianity, Islam and Judaism (Martindale, C.C. 1911). The polytheism is defined as the belief and worship of various gods. Like many other misconceptions, I believe in that the Buddhism is religion of multi-gods. The Buddhist worships the Buddha and his companions as the Hindus, Greeks or Romans do.

Meditations and Vegetarianism

Another misconception of me was about meditation and vegetarianism in Buddhism. I once thought that meditation is the central column of the Buddhism. It is necessary to have meditation if you accept Buddhism. Without meditation, you cannot achieve purity in your faith. Similarly for being Buddhists it is important to be vegetarian. About all the films and the documentaries presents the Buddhists as vegetarians.

Dalai Lama is the Head of Buddhism

One of the main misconceptions that are widely spread is that the Dalai Lama is the supreme ...