# How different are Hinduism and Buddhism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111 "2013-04-30T15:40:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/1 "2013-04-30T15:40:12Z")
In [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=689542&page=2) thread, **Half Man Half Wit** made the following statement > [@Atheists - What drives you?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-what-drives-you/657030/80): > > You can be a Hindu, believing in the concept of Atman, i.e. the true, unchanging self, and a Buddhist, following the doctrine of Anatman, i.e. the non-existence of a true, unchanging self, only if you don’t really know anything about either. To which I responded - > [@Atheists - What drives you?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-what-drives-you/657030/82): > > [Brief hijack] > You seem to be postulating a far wider philosophical gap between Hinduism and Buddhism than I think exists. For instance, the ‘atman’ aspect of Hinduism exists to reconcile with the ‘Brahman’. Which is to say your true unchanging self is the same as everything else(which to me really says it doesn’t exist). And there are strains of Buddhist thought that also talk about ‘atman’. On the (very slightly) broader question of whether you can be both Hindu and Buddhist at the same time…I don’t know, but I think it’s quite possible. > [/Brief hijack] To which he responded - > [@Atheists - What drives you?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-what-drives-you/657030/84): > > Yes, any such proposition is bound to be disputable. But nevertheless, I think that you can really only hold to ‘every religion says more or less the same’ if you ignore most of what most practitioners of any given religion will believe in actuality, ending up with the watered-down concepts of modern day ‘private’ spirituality, believing that ‘there must be something’ without actually attributing anything to that something… Now I don’t know a lot about Hinduism or Buddhism, but I do know something, having lived most my life in the country both religions are from. And it seems to me that there are many more similarities between the two than just “every religion says more or less the same”, including the concept of Atman. Am I right? How similar or different are the two? Also, can a Hindu be a Buddhist, or vice versa? Mods: I intend this as a GQ, but please move it to GD if you think that’s what it’s suited for. ---
**Author:** ![Archaic\_Entity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@Archaic\_Entity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archaic_Entity)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/2 "2013-04-30T15:48:00Z")
While I am a believer in neither religion, I will go ahead and say that they’re vastly different. Hinduism is a polytheistic religion and Buddhism is an atheistic religion. You don’t get much more different than that. Of course, Siddhartha was a Hindu before he decided to follow his own path, and Buddhism was born. But the fundamentals of the two religions are different. Now, can you be both? Yes. Buddhism is oddly mixed with many religions. Japan is a good example of Buddhism mixing with Shinto, and Buddhism and Shinto had a brief stint mixing with Christianity. But those are usually cases of preservation of a culture (in Japan’s case Shinto) while adopting a new religion. They also admit they have their categorical differences. It’s the same with many Chinese Buddhists who still revere their ancestors, even though Buddhism does not have any ancestral worship associated with it. New wave Buddhism, though… this concept gaining ground in the West, is very much about the spirituality of Buddhist ideology without any of the more hardcore tenets, and I’ve met a lot of “Christian Buddhists.” Make of that what you will. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/3 "2013-04-30T16:29:57Z")
There are Hindu sects who consider Siddhartha Gautama to be an incarnation of Vishnu. > **[Gautama Buddha in Hinduism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_as_an_Avatar_of_Vishnu)** > > The historic Buddha (Sanskrit: बुद्ध, lit. ''the enlightened one'') or Gautama Buddha, is considered the ninth avatar among the ten major avatars of the god Vishnu, according to the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism.\[note 1\] > The Buddha has been a formative force in the origins of Hinduism. Regional Hindu texts over the centuries have presented a spectrum of views on Buddhism, possibly reflecting the competition between Buddhism and the Brahmanical traditions. In contemporary Hinduism, the Buddha i... Buddhism often blends with polytheist religions by classifying the local pantheon as buddhas and bodhisattvas. Hinduism and Buddhism both have far too many sects and splinter groups to make any sweeping generalizations about “Hinduism is this” or “Buddhism is that”. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/4 "2013-04-30T18:45:03Z")
> [@Archaic\_Entity](#): > > While I am a believer in neither religion, I will go ahead and say that they’re vastly different. > > Hinduism is a polytheistic religion and Buddhism is an atheistic religion. You don’t get much more different than that. There have been, and are, many atheist Hindus. > [@mbh](#): > > Hinduism and Buddhism both have far too many sects and splinter groups to make any sweeping generalizations about “Hinduism is this” or “Buddhism is that”. Even if you can’t precisely define two things, you _can_ estimate the amount of overlap between them. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/5 "2013-04-30T18:48:58Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > There have been, and are, many atheist Hindus. [Cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/6 "2013-04-30T18:50:55Z")
**blydsabba** , you do realise that the original meaning of “Hindusim” was “the polytheitic people who live beyond the Indus tributaries whom we cannot be bothered to differentiate between”? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/7 "2013-04-30T18:55:31Z")
I thought that all Buddhist sects share a belief that nothing is permanent. And I would have guessed that a Hindu would think that at least one thing exists that is permanent. This would seem to put them in disagreement. Of course, I guess that’s until you start asking whether impermanence is permanent, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/8 "2013-04-30T22:10:14Z")
> [@Archaic\_Entity](#): > > Hinduism is a polytheistic religion and Buddhism is an atheistic religion. Hindu is not necessarily polytheistic. It (or at least some sects\*) can be considered to be monotheistic in the same way Trinitarian Christianity is monotheistic. All gods are aspects of a single God. Anyway, one thing about Hindu and Buddhism is that they’re (often) syncretic, that is if you look up many Buddhas on Wikipedia, it will also give you the corresponding Hindu god. The gods are often considered the “same” (incidentally, the same thing happens with Japanese Shinto gods, often they’ll have corresponding Hindu gods and Buddhas listed). It’s much the same way that Roman Gods were considered “basically the same” as gods from cultures they conquered or met. However, the question posed in the OP can often come down to “what sects, exactly, are we talking about?” Buddhist sects in different parts of the world can have very different views on syncretism, philosophical beliefs, spiritual beliefs and many other things. There are definitely some Buddhist sects that mesh well with certain Hindu sects (though, as always, you often end up having to throw out some tenants of either belief system here and there to really make them mesh), but it’s going to be difficult to get some sects to play nice. And, in fact, Hindu followers and Buddhists have had their scuffles and disagreements in the past (though, IIRC, this is largely before they tried to bring syncretism into it and play nice). - I use “sect” loosely, I’m not a huge expert on Hindu, but I think that many things called “Hindu” have little to do with each other. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/9 "2013-04-30T22:17:02Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I thought that all Buddhist sects share a belief that nothing is permanent. And I would have guessed that a Hindu would think that at least one thing exists that is permanent. This would seem to put them in disagreement. > > Of course, I guess that’s until you start asking whether impermanence is permanent, or something like that. It’s not uncommon for religions to throw out tenants to “play nice” with each other. For instance, I’ve read (in scholarly books, not the interwebs) that in Japan “Shinto has a monopoly on life, and Buddhism on death.” That is, Shinto rituals, beliefs, ceremonies, and mythologies are paid attention to when a person is **born** , but after they **die** they observe Buddhist rituals (including giving a posthumous name) and beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/10 "2013-05-01T00:49:24Z")
All the Hindu sects can be split into 2 groups: personalists and impersonalists. The personalists believe the highest form of God has personal attributes (eyes, nose, hair, etc.) some may say its Siva others Visnu (or Krsna). Impersonalists believe that the highest form of God is a supreme energy, Brahman, not to be confused with the god Brahma nor the caste Brahmins. Both groups believe in the various Gods and Brahman, it is just a matter of which is the topmost. The impersonalists are considered by some personalists to be atheists because they believe in an energy, not God as the source of everything. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/11 "2013-05-01T01:00:42Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > There are Hindu sects who consider Siddhartha Gautama to be an incarnation of Vishnu. > [The Buddha in Hinduism - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_as_an_Avatar_of_Vishnu) Yes. And they say as such the Buddha 1) taught us the wisdom of avoiding animal sacrifice and 2) distracted demons with his false doctrine. Given #2, I’d say that Hinduism and Buddhism believe themselves to be pretty different. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/12 "2013-05-01T01:10:13Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > It’s not uncommon for religions to throw out **tenants** to “play nice” with each other. Yeah, Christians found that necessary when replacing the Old Tenement with the New Tenements. ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/13 "2013-05-01T01:11:02Z")
Needless to say, the impersonal schools of Hinduism are going to be closer and have more in common with Buddhism. In general they have a lot in common and share Sanskrit as the scriptural language. If I could make a comparison that only goes so far: Buddhism is to Hinduism as Christianity is Judaism. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/14 "2013-05-01T01:36:11Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > Yeah, Christians found that necessary when replacing the Old Tenement with the New Tenements. This is why we don’t stay up \>48 hours and post. You start talking about the land ownership/residency of the religious instead of their principles. I blame the letters “n” and “a”, bastards have been conspiring against me since Sesame Street. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/15 "2013-05-01T03:37:47Z")
> [@Archaic\_Entity](#): > > Hinduism is a polytheistic religion and Buddhism is an atheistic religion. You don’t get much more different than that. There is no such thing as an “atheistic religion” and the idea that Buddhism is some sort of philosophy without religious trappings is a myth bought into by white Americans who want a magical religion without religion. If you have ever been to Asia or met an Asian person who practices Buddhism elsewhere you might notice the statues of not only the various Buddhas but also the Hindu gods in their house. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/16 "2013-05-01T04:43:27Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > There is no such thing as an “atheistic religion” and the idea that Buddhism is some sort of philosophy without religious trappings is a myth bought into by white Americans who want a magical religion without religion. If you have ever been to Asia or met an Asian person who practices Buddhism elsewhere you might notice the statues of not only the various Buddhas but also the Hindu gods in their house. The people in my extended family that practice Buddhism do so as a philosophy, without a belief in any god. They are from Asia, not white people. They don’t keep statues of the Buddha, but do respect those that they encounter. I’ll have to explain to them that they are mythical. My wife will be disappointed to learn that she doesn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/17 "2013-05-01T05:12:21Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > There is no such thing as an “atheistic religion” and the idea that Buddhism is some sort of philosophy without religious trappings is a myth If what you’re trying to say is that “Both Hinduism and Buddhism as currently practiced, like all the other existing sets of traditional practices and beliefs that are currently associated with any of the world’s major religious traditions, include the concept of some sort of personified deity”, you’re right. But I think that’s missing **Archaic\_Entity** ’s point. Something that’s identified as a religion nowadays can nonetheless have atheistic concepts embedded in the historical development of its doctrines. **Archaic\_Entity** has a valid point, though carelessly expressed, when s/he points out that Hinduism and Buddhism have different levels of what might be called “foundational theism” in this regard. Hinduism, like the Vedic-era Brahmanism it was largely descended from (and like other ancient Indo-European ritual traditions related to Brahmanism), has the concept of personified deities as its fundamental premise. The very core of Vedic text and practice was the sacrifices offered to the deities in praise and propitiation. Buddhism, on the other hand (like its contemporaries Jainism and Ajivikism) rejected the concept of sacrificial offerings. Rather, these sects had as their core premise a set of basically impersonal principles independent of the existence of personified deities: _karma_, rebirth, and liberation from rebirth for Buddhists and Jainas, and _niyati_ or destiny for Ajivikas. So while both Buddhist and Hindu practices are nowadays thoroughly intertwined with theistic belief and worship rituals, there’s a definite difference in the foundational doctrines from which they evolved. And this difference is indeed something along the lines of “Hinduism is polytheistic and Buddhism is atheistic”. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/18 "2013-05-01T05:20:21Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Hinduism, like the Vedic-era Brahmanism it was largely descended from (and like other ancient Indo-European ritual traditions related to Brahmanism), has the concept of personified deities as its fundamental premise. The very core of Vedic text and practice was the sacrifices offered to the deities in praise and propitiation. > > Buddhism, on the other hand (like its contemporaries Jainism and Ajivikism) rejected the concept of sacrificial offerings. Rather, these sects had as their core premise a set of basically impersonal principles independent of the existence of personified deities: _karma_, rebirth, and liberation from rebirth for Buddhists and Jainas, and _niyati_ or destiny for Ajivikas. But many of these ‘impersonal’ principles exist in Hinduism too. The concepts of Karma, rebirth, and liberation from the cycle are all fairly integral parts of Hinduism as I understand it, and they predate Buddhism. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/19 "2013-05-01T05:29:51Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > But many of these ‘impersonal’ principles exist in Hinduism too. The concepts of Karma, rebirth, and liberation from the cycle are all fairly integral parts of Hinduism as I understand it, and they predate Buddhism. To extend, from Wikipedia, lightly edited > [@](#): > > **Samsara** > In Hinduism, it is avidya, or ignorance, of one’s true self that leads to ego-consciousness of the body and the phenomenal world. This grounds one in kāma (desire) and the perpetual chain of karma and reincarnation. Through egotism and desire one creates the causes for future becoming… > Through ascetic practice one finally attains sanctity and liberation (moksha or mukti). > > … > > The Hindu Yoga traditions hold various beliefs. Moksha may be achieved by love of Ishwar/God (see bhakti movement, see Mirabai), by psycho-physical meditation (Raja Yoga), by discrimination of what is real and unreal through intense contemplation (Jnana Yoga), and through Karma Yoga, the path of selfless action that subverts the ego and enforces understanding of the unity of all. > The Rig Vedic, Yajur Vedic and Atharva Vedic Upanishads like Aiteraya Upanishad, Taittiriya Upanishad, Swetaswatara Upanishad, Mundaka Upanishad etc. contains the most ancient ideas on Reincarnation of soul.[13][14][15] Hence, based on this, the earliest known texts to have spoken about karma, sansara and Moksha or Mukti, are the Vedas and other Dharmic Texts. (Dharmic Texts stands for the Vedas, Ithihasas and Puranas). The Vedas describe Karma as the result of enjoying the sensory pleasures of this material universe.[16] > > … > > **In Jainism, Saṅsāra** is the worldly life characterized by continuous rebirths and reincarnations in various realms of existence. Saṃsāra is described as mundane existence, full of suffering and misery and hence is considered undesirable and worth renunciation. The Samsāra is without any beginning and the soul finds itself in bondage with its karma since the beginningless time. Moksha is the only liberation from samsāra. > > **Samsara in Buddhism** > > Within Buddhism, samsara is defined as the continual repetitive cycle of birth, death, and bardo that arises from ordinary beings’ grasping and fixating on a self and experiences. Samsara arises out of ignorance (avidya) and is characterized by dukkha (suffering, anxiety, dissatisfaction). In the Buddhist view, liberation from samsara is possible by following the Buddhist path. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111/20 "2013-05-01T05:31:58Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > My wife will be disappointed to learn that she doesn’t exist. If she is a good enough Buddhist, she already knows she doesn’t exist. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-different-are-hinduism-and-buddhism/657111.md?page=2)