Buddhism: Rise and Fall in India in Confrontation with Hinduism
Generally speaking Buddhism has a fascinating history of giveand-take with the other religions and cultures. Christianity andBuddhism after a small beginning spread rapidly, one to the Westand the other to the East. Christianity spread to the West ratherimposing itself on others, by trying either to...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
1995
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| In: |
Journal of Dharma
Year: 1995, Volume: 20, Issue: 2, Pages: 178-189 |
| Further subjects: | B
Buddhism
B Comparitive Religion B Religion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Generally speaking Buddhism has a fascinating history of giveand-take with the other religions and cultures. Christianity andBuddhism after a small beginning spread rapidly, one to the Westand the other to the East. Christianity spread to the West ratherimposing itself on others, by trying either to destroy or replaceother religions and cultures, while Buddhism spread to the East byenriching other religions and cultures, and by being enriched bythem. Wherever it went. nobly assimilating the religions and culturalinsights of that place, Buddhism took a new form, and gently inspiredthe local religions and cultures to imbibe the Buddhist spirit. Theresult is that just as by the influence of Christianity the Westernculture has become a basically Christian one, so by the influenceof Buddhism the Eastern culture has become a basically Buddhist one.All the same there is one important difference indeed: while thepreviously existing cultures and religions in the West simply gaveway to Christianity, and the latter took their place, in the East theencounter of Buddhism with the other religions and cultures resultedin a creative transformation of Buddhism itself as well as of thoseothers. Buddhism, not insisting on uniformity, easily took on differentforms in accordance with the religious and cultural ethos of thedifferent regions, while the original religions and cultures of thoseplaces allowed themselves to be influenced by the Buddhist ethos.This is the story of the different forms of Buddhism in Tibet, China,Japan, Burma, Sri Lanka, India and so on. While all of them retain,he basically Buddhist perception of life, they also differ considerablyfrom one another, having transformed in accordance with the particularethos of each of those countries. |
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| ISSN: | 0253-7222 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Dharma
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