Tuesday, February 15, 2011

religion and mythology 15.2.10

buddhism is highly related to mythology but not the greek mythology we have been looking at it differs as the chinese buddhists and indian buddhists are different.
In India Buddhism was influenced by Brahmanism another form of the hindu religion. They shared the same ideas about the cycle of birth and afterlife/reincarnation they both also inclued devas who were traditional indian gods and Asuas which are traditional indian demons.
A main figure in Indian buddhist myths was Amitabha who was a person who had become enlightened but he was postponed entering nivarna and was to help others gain the same enlightenment. According to the myth Amitabha was born from a lotus flower and helped buddhists who worshiped him.


In china The Mahayana Buddhism was the practised form which had alot more gods and myths than Theravada Buddhism. Chinese buddhists  created a complex hierarchy of gods and goddesses  one of the most importnat was Shang Di whose assistant Dongyue Dadi  was known as the freat emporer of the eatern peak. below him were many other gods that cntrolled other parts of human life.


In both cultures there were also shared important buddhist gods such as The four kings or heaven, The four kings of hell and the kitchen god.


I found all this quite interesting but at the same time confusing as tehre are two different cultures that share the same religion but have different beliefs within that. and it seems liek a very complex religion to be part of.
i found all my info at 
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Be-Ca/Buddhism-and-Mythology.html

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