RELIGIONS IN ASIA

WORLD RELIGIONS
HINDUISM
 HINDUISM

World's third most popular religion

with 900 million followers
Origin: India, Pakistan
No founder, no prophets
 IDEOLOGY
 Acts are more important than
thoughts

 Belief that soul passes through a

cycle of successive lives and its next
incarnation is always dependent on
how previous life was lived
 Samsara – the cycle of lives
 IDEOLOGY

 The law of Karma suggests that a

person's mental and physical actions
determine the progress of his life on
earth.
Our good and bad actions impact our
life in several ways: bad actions lead us
to suffering and unhappiness, while
good actions lead to happiness and
spiritual success.  
 BRAHMAN
 A supreme spirit

 Entirely impersonal and impossible to

describe

Brahman shows itself in many forms or

aspects

Hindu Trinity: Brahma creates, Vishnu

sustains, Shiva destroys
SHIVA
•Shiva is called the
Destroyer, with the aspect
of regeneration

• Considered the most

powerful god of the Hindu
pantheon

• In pictures Shiva is
represented as a Lord of a
Dance who controls the
movement of the universe
 VISHNU
 Vishnu preserves and protects the
universe

 He is also thought to save humankind

from natural disasters or from tyranny
 HINDUISM
 Sacred Text: The four Veda:
Rig-Veda
Yajur-Veda
Sama-Veda
Atharva-Veda
 HINDUISM
“CASTE SYSTEM”

According to Vedas society is based on:

 Educational / knowledge-pursuit system
 Military and defense system
 Economical and business system
 Strong and happy, productive workforce
 RITES

According to Hinduism, the most important

events are those of passage (samskaras):
 Birth, and the first time the child eats solid
food
 Marriage, and blessing for the pregnant, in
order to have a son, and for him to be
healhy and survive
 Death (cremation and, if possible,
spreading of the ashes in the Ganges, or
BUDDHISM
 BUDDHISM

Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses

on personal spiritual development and is not
centered on the relationship between
humanity and God as other religions
 BUDDHISM
 Origin: India
 Founder: Siddhartha Gautama,
known as Buddha
 350 million followers
 Doesn't have the concept of Saviour,
nor of Heaven and Hell in the popular
sense
 BUDDHISM

Buddha: “one who has woken up”

 THE FOUR TRUTHS
 Buddha’s illumination was based upon “The Four
Noble Truths”
 (1) Life is suffering.
 (2) The reason for the suffering lies on the fact
that the human being ignores the truth of reality.
 (3) A stop can be put to suffering if the truth of
reality is understood.
 (4) The way to end suffering is the Octuple Senda
(or Road of the 8 stages), it consists in having a
right concept of everyting, good intentions, the
right way of expression, make good actions, have
the right way of living, make an effort the
possitive way, have good thoughts and dedicate
to the right way of conceptualization.
 IDEOLOGY
 The path of Enlightenment is through
the practice and development of
morality, meditation and wisdom
 Nothing is fixed or permanent – change
is always possible
 KARMA

Actions have consequences; so our

lives are conditioned by our past
actions
 NIRVANA
 The final goal of Buddhism is to
reach a state in which suffering
stops. In order to do this, reaching
the Nirvana is necessary

 The nirvana is the state in which

there are no more bad actions or
thoughts
CONFUCIANISM
 CONFUCIANISM
 Origin: China
 Founder: Confucius, and later on, his
followers
 6 million followers
 Even though Confucianism was at once
China’s official ideology, it has never
been a religion with a church and
priesthood, Confucius was never
benerted as a god, neither did he claim
to be one
 IDEOLOGY
The keynote of Confucian ethics is jen,
variously translated as "love," "goodness,"
"humanity," and "human-heartedness." Jen
is a supreme virtue representing human
qualities at their best.

Golden rule “Don’t do to others what you

don’t want done to you”.
Important virtues: honor, decency, and
integrity.
 IDEOLOGY
Five Basic Relations:
 Ruler and subject
 Father and son
 Elder brother and younger brother
 Husband and wife
 Friend and friend

All, except the last, involve the authority of one

person over another

While the higher status person provides

protection and consideration, the other one
owes respect and obedience.
 CONFUCIANISM

“BOOK OF CHANGE”
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