Religion and Theology

Buddhism is one of the many religions that exist in the world. It was founded in India approximately 2500 years ago. As a religion, it is considered to be the most extensive in the Asian continent with most countries in Asia recording it as one with the highest number of faithful. With time, it has laid emphasis on different forms of worship that changed until a nearly uniform one was developed. This is due to the fact that it was practiced by different sets of people with much diversified cultures and beliefs. Originally, Buddhists insisted upon the worship of different deities according to the cultures of the particular people who were involved. For instance, some group of people would have gods representing different issues that affected them. An example is some cultures that had Buddha who was called Laughing Buddha and one who was called the Medicine Buddha. After a while, the sets of beliefs changed considerably in some of the sets of groups. The worship of deities and belief in religious rituals changed to the meditation upon the words of the Enlightened One (Maguire, 2001).

India and China are two examples of countries within which Buddhism is practiced and is considered as the most widespread religion. This implies that both countries have a very high population of citizens who are practicing Buddhism. The religion has shown a very influencing trend whereby it has been noted to be spreading very fast in the West. This might be attributed to the frequent migration and even contact between the East and the West and clash of cultures to bring about harmony. There are different practices in the way the faithful involve in their faith in the aforementioned countries India and China. This might be due to their different cultures and beliefs but the main issue is that the original form which Buddhism took might have been distorted so as to give it a different outlook in the two countries. It has already been noted that Buddhism itself changed initially from the worship of deities to majorly the meditation of teachings from The Enlightened One.

There is an open manifestation in the differences between Indian and Chinese Buddhist faithful. This can be seen in different factors that have contributed mightily to the manifestation. A complete look into the two countries exposes a glaring difference that can be observed to be in the following areas the classes of people, the beliefs and cultures. The most influential factors are beliefs and cultures. Consequently, they have contributed largely to the differences that have continued to visit the way of worship in both the countries. Originally, the Buddhist way of life and as a religion was not accepted in China due to the manner in which it took time for the Chinese to understand fully the teachings of Buddha. First and foremost, the Buddhist beliefs were mainly set upon the principle in not having to gain over others in the society. This would contradict the beliefs of the Chinese who wanted everyone to strive and liberate themselves economically. Evidence to support this is found in the manner in which faithful from different economic classes clustered around religion in India. A keen analysis reveals that most of the faithful in the Buddhist religion came from lower castes and largely people who were not financially endowed. A stark contrast, however, existed in China (Nasotro, 2010).

The beliefs that existed in ancient civilizations in China included Taoism and Confucism. They both had sets of beliefs that were drawn from teachings obtained from their founders. This is one similarity between the two and Buddhism that made the Chinese to accept Buddhism finally. Consequently, the Chinese accepted Buddhism and it is to date observed as the only foreign religion to have successfully penetrated its civilization and taken root effectively. The beliefs arose from teachings that preached on the need to view the world as dependent upon its constituents. Therefore, the faithful were impressed upon to help one another and follow the teachings to the latter. This shows how the religion finally got to be adopted in China due to similarities it shared with the forms of worship in China.

Secondly, the difference in beliefs in China and India are reflected in the forms of human existence in the world. The Chinese believe that a human being has a soul and as such exists even after death. This is shown in the way they revere their dead to an extent of taking time to worship their images after death. They would take pictures of their dear ones and pray for them for assurance that their souls would rest in eternal peace. Clearly, this shows that the Chinese Buddhists have a belief in after-life. On the other hand, the Indian Buddhists have a belief that bars them from believing in after-life. This would make them abhor their dead and as such did not want to have anything to do with their dead. It is believed that this one of the contributing factors to some of the Buddhist faithful cremating their dead. This was a response to the belief that the dead might rise and bring misfortune. As such, they had to be burnt so as not to be able to rise again. This is one difference that has been and is still very common amongst the two groups of believers who happen to be in the same religion.

There is in existence two forms of Buddhism the Zen Buddhism and the Tibetan Buddhism. Zen Buddhism originated in India after a Prince from India settled in China. It has strong foundations in meditation for the realization of a persons self. Tibetan Buddhism, on the other hand, is a conglomeration of thoughts and sets of beliefs and cultures derived from the people living within Tibet and its environs. It infuses in it some religions that also exist in these regions. This form of Buddhism has spread to the other parts of the world like Russia and back to the origins of Buddhism in India. This is a clear indication that the Buddhism in India has been altered a little in China. The difference though lies in the fact that the Buddhism in India has never been influenced by other religions in the manner in which the Buddhism in China has been. The Buddhism in India underwent changes within itself without the influence of other religion that did not enjoy popularity in India (Miscellaneous, 2010).

The second factor that contributes to the big difference is culture and language as a means of delivering teachings. Language, from time immemorial, has been known to be a very big barrier to effective communication between different parties. The Chinese language, with a limited formation, was a hindering factor and in fact is attributed to the resistance received by Buddhists on inception of the religion in China. It is believed that at the onset, the Chinese language was limited in that it did not provide various forms of expressions which in turn contributed to there being a restricted method of teaching. In as much as it was rich in symbols, this did not suffice in conveying teachings to the available converts who were eager to learn from their leaders. This became the focal point of confusion as expressing thoughts conveyed by the senses became tedious to the teachers. Therefore, the little that could be conveyed was not sufficient enough to translate the Buddhist beliefs in its original form to the Chinese believers. This contributed as a cultural difference in bringing about the differences that are currently in existence (Holt, 2010).

Other cultures that contributed to there being differences in the way the faithful from the two nations worshipped involved indigenous ones that were not necessarily within religion. One of them is the classification of people into castes that were basically classes. Of importance is to note that most of the worshippers from India came from the lower castes. This is a clear indication that religion did not necessarily manifest itself in its own cultures. The lower castes believed in the teachings that required all the beliefs to be concerned with the general well-being of every one. By extension, this is similar to most religions belief in goodness and righteousness. The Chinese faithful however were not nearly homogeneously drawn from a specific economic class. Their reason for joining the belief was based on their belief in teachings that was a form of receiving knowledge of their native religion.

In conclusion, we can see that the Buddhist religion has enjoyed a growth expanding from China to other regions of the world. The latest beneficiaries of the Buddhist teachings are the West and other originally communist states like Russia. The growth and expansion of this religion has been identified to be fuelled by the need by most religious people to propagate goodness that affects everyone in the world. There have been differences that are observed between the way faithful in China and India carry out their activities. The differences have been contributed by the different sets of indigenous cultures and belief that have been harmonized with the cultures and beliefs in the religion to bring about a manifestation of differences. The differences have been identified as the Chinese belief in human-beings having souls. The Indians were however found not to have similar beliefs. This affected the way in which the two sets of faithful carry out their activities including the religious ones. The other differences were found in the influence of culture whereby Chinese populations in the religion were found to be influenced by different things to join it. They have different ways of worshipping too.

Finally, despite the differences, we can observe some similarities that are shared by the two sets of believers. Firstly, they both adhere to the general principles of Buddha. This means that they all view Buddha as the overall leader of the religion. This is seen as the original thought that existed at the onset of the religion in 520BCE. The principles of Buddha insist upon the faithful the need to pacify the world. This is a principle shared by both the Buddhists in India and China. The admiration for the principles and the Buddha himself is also shared amongst the Buddhists. It is however important to note that Buddhism is losing its appeal in India due to the influence of Hinduism. On the other hand, it is one of the most popular religions in China. It is however important to view India as the origin of this religion.