Confucianism vs. Buddhism
By Robert Truckle In this essay, two world religions will be compared to see how similar and/or how different they are; these two religions are Confucianism and Buddhism. Confucianism speaks about the wise thoughts that Confucius came across throughout his life. Buddhism speaks about how to acquire great knowledge throughout life. Confucianism was founded by a Chinese man, but Buddhism was founded by an Indian man. These quick comparisons show how the religions differ, but more detailed comparisons will be seen throughout the essay. The origins and founders of these two religions are quite similar, which will be explained in this paragraph. Confucianism was founded by a man named Confucius; which is how the …show more content…

These three parts are then broken down themselves; the Vinaya-Pitaka contains five books written about discipline and conduct, the Sutta-Pitaka contains five collections of the Buddha’s teachings and is the most important basket in Buddhism, and the Abhidhamma-Pitaka which cover the nature of consciousness and makes technical explanations of the Sutta-Pitaka. Through more detailed scriptures and Confucianism’s scriptures are short but meaningful.

The Rites of Passage or Milestones in these two religions are being compared in this paragraph to show how the two religions aim their lives. Confucianism contains Birth, upon reaching maturity (coming of age), marriage which is broken up into six parts, and death. Buddhism contains some of the similar and some different; the similar ones are marriage and death but the unique ones are naming a child, a child’s first outing, first solid food, and first haircut. Buddhism contains two milestones about death; there is death and death anniversary, but Confucianism includes both of these under death. Confucianism has a birth milestone unlike Buddhism; in the birth milestone there is said to be a T’ai-shen (spirit of the fetus) which protects the expectant mother and makes people who harm her suffer. In Buddhism marriage is a single milestones but in Confucianism marriage is broken down into 6 parts; it contains