A Very Brief History of Religions
Someone has written to me with an interesting question regarding
Hinduism and Buddhism.
Question: For some reason I always assumed Buddism and Hinduism
were closely related, they didn't have a "God" per se, just an idea of
nirvana.
My answer:
Hinduism came first. Buddhism breaking away from Hinduism was
like the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther breaking away from
Rome in the 16th. century.
Actually, one might say that the Vedas came first (Rig, Sam, Yajur,
Artha) in the Sanskrit language. Then, somehow, a break occured
and the people who were to evolve into the Zoroastrians drifted away,
using many words similar to the Vedic Sanskrit terms, (e.g. Soma
becomes Haoma). This break was possibly between 3,000 B.C.E. and
2,000 B.C.E. Fire was central to both the Vedic and Zoroastrian
worship, but there were differences.
Buddhism split off from Hinduism circa 600 B.C.E.
Once will notice that the Vedas and Hinduism have anonymous
prophets and sages and seers. In Abrahamic religions, one dominant and charismatic prophetic personality emerges. It is, I suspect, the nature of a protestant type of split for there to be some charismatic famous individual, such as a Zoroaster or a Siddharth Gautama (Buddha) or Jesus or Muhammed.
The Zoroastrians are characterized by monotheism and a strong
duality between good and evil, God and satan. Hinduism is
polytheistic with no strong sense of dualism/struggle between good
and evil. Buddhism, in contrast to the other two, was a kind of ethical
atheism, though atheism is not the proper word, for the existence of
gods were not denied, but a god was seen as subject to the same
woes as humanity under the same principles of karma, and worship of
a god was not seen as a means to deliverance or salvation.
In a sense, from Zoroastrianism evolved the Abrahamic religions of
Judiasm, Christianity and finally Islam. The Zoroastrian religion was
the official religion of Persia/Babylon at the time of the Babylonian
captivity of the Jewish people. The Old Testament highly praises one
of the Zoroastrian kings, Darius, as "the beloved of God" because he aided the Jewish people.
Nirvana or "Nibbana" (in Pali dialect) simply means "to extinguish" like
a candle.
The most powerful contrast between Christianity and Buddhism is to
compare one particular statement of Buddha with one particular
statement of Jesus.
Buddha said "I have discovered the architect of this house (the
human body) which is a house on fire (with the suffering of desires),
and now that I have discovered the architect/builder (i.e. the causes
of the cycle of rebirth), this house shall be rebuilt no more (i.e. I shall
escape the cycle of rebirth and suffering and enter into nirvana or
extinguishment).
Jesus said "I come to give you life, and life more abundently. In my
Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told
you. I go there to prepare a place for you."
So, you see, Buddha is a deconstructor and Jesus is a builder
(carpenter).
One may see a curious religious tolerance in common in
Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Buddhism, while the Abrahamic religions
are a mirror image opposite of intolerance for other beliefs. Jewish
scriptures say "The gods of the nations are demons." St. Paul speaks
of false prophets, false teachers, and Lucifer as an angel of light who
may assume the appearance of Christ, but a false Christ or anti-Christ.
The Qu'ran says, in one of its final Surahs (The Surah of the Unbeliever
or Kafir) "Say therefore unto the unbelievers, The god which you
worship is not the God which we worship, and the God which we
worship is not the god which you worship, so therefore unto you your
god and unto us our God."
The Zoroastrian-Hindu-Buddhist religions say things like "Truth is one
but called by many names." How interesting that new age attitudes came first, historically.
