In his new book, Casino Capitalism: The Collapse of the US Economy and the Transition to Secular Democracy in the Middle East, Dr. Susmit Kumar suggests Buddhism may be in for a comeback as the world’s largest religion:
“All religions are officially banned in China at present but it is said that nearly half of Chinese population practice or believe in Buddhism. Until the 1949 communist takeover, Buddhism had the largest number of followers in the world, with Christianity as the second largest. Hence once China starts to move away from the communistic ideology (that considers religion as “the opiate of the masses") we will see the revival of Buddhism.”
According to PROUT, a world constitution should guarantee the fundamental right of spiritual practice to every individual, among other essential rights.
Kumar writes: “As China is poised to be the world’s military and economic superpower in very near future, Buddhism may eclipse all other religions and regain the position of the world's leading religion. It may even make an inroad into India at the expense of Hinduism. During the heyday of Buddhism in India, from 3rd century BC to 12th century AD, there were several large universities like Taxila (4th century-6th century) and Nalanda (5th century-12th century) that attracted scholars and students from such faraway places as Greece, Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. Nalanda University was one of the first great universities in recorded history. It had eight separate compounds, ten temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library where monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections.”
“At its peak, Nalanda provided dormitories for nearly 10,000 students, perhaps a first for an educational institution, and also accommodations for 2,000 professors. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but it also trained students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war.* In 1193, it was sacked by an invading Muslim army of Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turk. The invading army burned thousands of Buddhist monks alive and beheaded thousands in order to uproot Buddhism. They also set fire to the nine story library that continued to burn for three months and the smoke from the burning manuscripts could be seen from hundreds of miles afar. Now efforts are underway to revive this grand old university. A consortium led by Singapore and Japan, with funding from India, China and other nations, have collected $500 million for this purpose.”
* Garten, Jeffrey E, “Really Old School,” The New York Times, December 9, 2006.
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See our review of Casino Capitalism: The Collapse of the US Economy and the Transition to Secular Democracy in the Middle East. The book is available at Amazon and other online book stores.
Buddhism is very logical and that does not be feel for everyone .If someone has developed his pragna,he understands the value of buddhism. Acording to the ideas of Albert Einstine ,he says buddhism is very logical . He is the most clever man im the world after lord Buddha !
Buddhism is can also be called science .
Buddhism does not have to do with
God. A person who follow Buddhism , They worship enlightment , who is free from they life cycle of rebirth..
“”NIBBANA THAT IS POSSIBLE “” brisbane dhamma sarana thero , Brisbane , Australia http://www.bbncommunity.com/mayor-germany-become-theravada-monk-video-interview/
Whatever but buddha was born in nepal
I want to clear to all those people who always says that buddhism is the part of hinduism it is totally rubbish things buddhism is a based on the teaching of buddha, and buddhas teaching is so different from hinduism there is not any leader in hinduism it involves only lot of gods and one thing i would clear that buddhism focous on humanity as against hinduism focous on only god buddhism center around the human whears hindusm center around only god there is not any pace to the human welfare in hinduism so i would say to all those people stop saying this first read books , enhance level of your knowledge then make statement mind it properly….
Well, at the time of the Buddha, Hinduism wasn’t really around yet. More accurate would be proto-Hinduism, as a hodgepodge of Vedic and Shramana movements were practiced at the same time. Both Buddhism and Jainism were Shramana movements. What we call Hinduism today developed out of Vedic religion but took on many aspects of the Shramana movements as well. One of those was the adoption of the Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu.
Hubul, God of Mecca is given the name Allah and worshipped by Muslims. Did Mohammed build Mecca. He hijacked Mecca
Who is Christ? Jesus- He is human had some relation with Mary Magdalene.
My parents are buddism but I can’t belive buddha is God. He is a person and he eat,drink,sick and old and die. He say the moon is not stay. This light from the mountain myintmo. I think he is not God but may happen a teacher.
nk he is not god but may happen a teacher.
Chhyoe wangyal tamang is saying true.Buddha is a designation given to a person who is enlightened. it is true because Lord Gautam a start teaching what he had gained by practicing so many years. from this all knowledge we found that he has not gained knowledge by other religion so how people is saying that Buddhism is a Part of Hinduism and also in Buddhism there is a vast knowledge in all streams like in medical as foreigner comes in Dharamsala, India to learn our ancient techniques of curing peoples. this also proves that Buddhism is a religion in which it believes in transformation(parivartan) with time which is one of the teaching in Buddhism.
and I RESPECT ALL RELIGIONS.
So I want to give an advice to that type of peoples who comment this type of nonsense is that ” BEFORE COMMENT SOMETHING FIRST YOU RESEARCH AND BE SURE AND THEN CONCLUDE”.
so Ankit think about that.
conclusion:- BUDDHISM MAY BE A LARGEST RELIGION IN THE WORLD
It is unlikely that Buddhism was the largest religion in 1949, though beforehand, surely. It won’t be the largest anytime soon though- the Chinese are less Buddhist than many think, and, indeed, Christianity is booming there extremely quickly (the former Communist Director of Religion estimated that there might be as many as 140 million Christians in China. I find this highly unlikely, but a hundred million is quite realistic).
I have no issue with Buddhism. Between the boom of Christianity and Asian’s demographic slowdown, it is unlikely to ever be the world’s largest religion again, though.
what type of fabric used in buddhism period
Please let me know if you disagree with me on this. and let me know the best source proof.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_populations
check the above link and you will learn that only 10% of world populatoin are followers of buddhism. 15% of world population are following hinduism.
No one cares, how many follow this dying Brahmin death cult called Hinduism, named thankfully from Iranians who gave the name “Hindu”. Buddha and the Jain scriptures clearly says not to worship Hindu gods. Sikhism says not to worship Hindu gods. Christianity and Islam and Judaism says not to worship Hindu gods. The vast majority of the world’s religions says NO to Hinduism. Case closed.
I am buddhist, but why hindus must follow what others say to them? By the way, abrahamic religious, like christianity and islam say that you can not worship anybody except their own gods. As a buddhist, I don’t wanna worship christian and muslin gods. So, let us “indians” alone.
Buddihists do not compete with numbers. Whatever be the numbers, be happy. If you are deriving happiness from number count, its your way of searching and enjoying life & happiness. Happiness should be from within not from numbers.
Sabbe Sukhi Hontu.
Yep! We, Buddhist, do not compete with numbers. Shame to me, sometime, deep inside, I want to keep Buddhism as one of my own and not to share "secret"…no-one could have it…It's my Precious! My alone.
The link you site is a Christian based site full of inaccuracy. The Pew research center does not count religion in Communist countries also they don’t count adherents of 2 or more religions. Most people in Japan attend Shinto festivals and rituals alongside Buddhist. Over 90% of Japanese are Buddhist yet this quack link lists only 30% as Buddhist, same goes for China, many practice Taoism and Buddhism. Buddhism is the worlds largest religion with the fastest growing number of adherents. The 6% cited is laughable and shows the Pew center is a biased survey towards the Messianic/Satanic religions of Islam, Christianiry and Judism.
In simple language, Buddha is a designation given to a person who is enlightened. Before become Lord Gautam Buddha, He is a king name Siddhartha and born in Nepal. when he enlightened then he called as Gautam Buddha. So, Gautam Buddha start teaching what he had gained by practicing so many years. from this all knowledge we found that he has not gained knowledge by other religion so how people is saying that Buddhism is a Part of Hinduism and also in Buddhism there is a vast knowledge in all streams like in medical as foreigner comes in Dharamsala, India to learn our ancient techniques of curing peoples. this also proves that Buddhism is a religion in which it believes in transformation(parivartan) with time which is one of the teaching in Buddhism.
I can also give all these useless comment which is given by some peoples but I don’t want to comment on other religions which can hurt other peoples and I RESPECT ALL RELIGIONS.
So I want to give an advice to that type of peoples who comment this type of nonsense is that ” BEFORE COMMENT SOMETHING FIRST YOU RESEARCH AND BE SURE AND THEN CONCLUDE”.
so Ankit think about that.
conclusion:- BUDDHISM MAY BE A LARGEST RELIGION IN THE WORLD.
I LOVE LORD BUDDHA THE GREATEST REFORMIST IN THIS EARTH.A PRINCE TO A SEARCHER, NOBODY HAS DONE THIS .THE GREATEST TEACHER EVER BORN & THE WORLD WILL FOLLOW HIS PATH, MY VIEW IS INDIA WILL BECOME A BUDDHIST COUNTRY IN THE NEXT 30 YEARS, TO EVADE THE CASTE SYSTEM, MARK MY WORDS.
Buddhism has its own particular dogmas, such as “there is suffering”, “there is a cause of suffering”, etc., and other specific teachings, which makes it unique enough in the world of religions. Buddha himself may have followed a Tantric path of practices to achieve enlightenment but his teachings are unique. In the same way Jainism is also counted as a distinct religion of its own. Buddha and Mahaviir Jain lived roughly at the same time in the Hindu belt of North India and their teachings form two separate religions. Futhermore, if we reason somewhat in the way Ankit does here then perhaps all religions can be traced back to the roots of Hinduism, as its children, grandhildren, etc. as it were. Such as: This religion says “There is an Infinite Entity” (so it must be Hinduism) 🙂
i want to say that buddhist are the part of hindiusm. it will follow our hindu god gautam buddha. so hindu was the the largest religions than buddhism
Buddhism is mostly an atheistic religion, though their are some that do believe in god but the Buddha didn’t originate from the hindu god gautam buddha.
The Buddha was born Hindu but Buddism is definately not a Hindu religion. Jesus was Jewish and Christianity and Islam are sort of bastardized versions of the Jewish religion but certainly not Jewish.
Ankit,
don’t spread this vile Hindu extremist propaganda here, that came from Brahminists. Buddha denied he was a god, and Buddha never lies. The case closes there. By implying Buddha was a god, and one of the incarnations of your scam god Vishnu, you blaspheme against Buddha and you also insult Buddhists. May be the buddha your scriptures talk bout , is someone else, but definitely not Siddharta Gautama, and he was not born Hindu, but born a Shramana, one of the indigenous religions. This entire scam of Hinduism was propagated by Brahmins who stole Jain and Buddhist teachings and merged it with Iranian fire worshiping cult to create this puppet worshiping Brahmin invented scam to subjugate millions. Buddhism and Hinduism are two separate entities entirely. Buddha and his scriptures are the ultimate authority in saying it, once Buddha said, he is not a god, then the debate ends there itself. You are no one to decide who Buddha was or not.
A true believer of any religin doesn't/cannot spew hatred towards others' beliefs like this.
"The Hindu religion" lecture by Vivekananda http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_1/lectures_and_discourses/the_hindu_religion.htm
"We believe in a God, the Father of the universe, infinite and omnipotent. But if our soul at last becomes perfect, it also must become infinite. But there is no room for two infinite unconditional beings, and hence we believe in a Personal God, and we ourselves are He. These are the three stages which every religion has taken. First we see God in the far beyond, then we come nearer to Him and give Him omnipresence so that we live in Him; and at last we recognise that we are He. The idea of an Objective God is not untrue — in fact, every idea of God, and hence every religion, is true, as each is but a different stage in the journey, the aim of which is the perfect conception of the Vedas. Hence, too, we not only tolerate, but we Hindus accept every religion, praying in the mosque of the Mohammedans, worshipping before the fire of the Zoroastrians, and kneeling before the cross of the Christians, knowing that all the religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realise the infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of them marking a stage of progress. We gather all these flowers and bind them with the twine of love, making a wonderful bouquet of worship.
"
Actually, you are half correct and half wrong. First of all, there NEVER existed a concept of “religion” in ancient India. Even the word ‘Hindu’ never existed. Only until modern times did something called Hinduism became termed. The word used was Sanatana Dharma which included all denominations under today’s ‘Hinduism’, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism. Hinduism itself consists of various sects and denominations including some based on Atheism, Agnosticism, Deism, Pantheism, etc. The ‘Hindu’ Gods are still worshiped/revered by many Buddhists as Dharmapalas and Arihants. Infact there are sects and denominations in Hinduism which reject all Gods and worship of Gods(eg. Based on Samkhya philosophy- Kapil Math). Also, ONLY Vaishnavite schools call Buddha as an incarnation.
So yes, if Indian or ‘Hindu’ religions are to be counted as One Sanatana Dharma, then Buddhism is a part of it as much as Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and EVEN Taoism, Shinto, etc. Only the fact is that our beliefs when deepened vary.
So when, Protestant, Catholics, Jehova’s, etc. are termed under ‘Christianity’ or Sunni, Shia, Ismaili, etc. are termed under ‘Islam’, surely all Eastern ‘religions’ should be termed under Sanatana Dharma or Eternal Truth while counting.
Answer to others:
All parts of Hinduism are not based on Brahminists. Majority of Ambedkarites themselves don’t know abt Buddhism.
Though all Hindus DON’T believe Buddha to be God, the one’s who do love Buddha as much as a Buddhist would or even a Hindu non-Buddha-godder would(sorry for inventing that word!)
Vedics were never fire-worshippers. Yagnas were not worship.
All indigenous religions come under Hinduism according to today’s surveys.
All the “proto-hinduism” stuff and all are petty non-sense. No such thing exists or ever existed.
So if you anyway place all Eastern Mystic religions as One Eternal Dharma, we are already the largest and fastest growing religion. Just my opinion.
Thanks.
Aum Tat Sat
No, you are wrong. You made a purposeful confusion. Catholics, protestants and others are all christians, of course. But muslins and jews are christians too? Of course not! You can say that Islam, Christianity and Judaism are related to each other, but they are not the same religion. The same thing with the indian religions: Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism are related to each other, but they are different religions. And eastern religions (such as Taoism) are chinese, not indian, you can not put everything in the same pot.
Was Buddha a Hindu God? Then what made him to find a separate philosophy Buddhism?
Buddhism is not part of Hinduism, Buddha is not God.Buddhism is entirely different from Hinduism, There is no God in Buddhism. No soul in Buddhism, No casteism in buddhism, The Buddhism can be accepted by all but Hinduism cannot go beyond india because of its Chaturvarna concept, nobody in the world will accpet this concept
Very little of modern Hinduism appears in the Vedas. There is some evidence that some Hindu practices preceed the Aryan incursion. Hinduism as we know it today grew up alongside Buddhism as even many of earliest of the Upanishads and certainly the most important, were written during the time that Buddhism was in bloom in India. There are some fundamental differences between Hinduism and Buddhism: the Buddhists do not believe in the self whereas Atman is critical to Hinduism and Hindus believe in creation in a cycle of creation and destruction while Buddhists simple believe the world has always existed pretty much as it is today. The two religions coexisted for so long that in some sense they have merged. Also we could be, in the course of this discussion, guilty of the "Historians Fallacy" since the term "religion" did not appear until the 12th century C.E. in the Christian tradition and in fact the concept of "Hinduism" was coined in the 19th century by the British.
Stupid Guy,, Hinduism? hinduism is not religion, Santana Dharma, first check your knowledge,
well said- BUDDHism rules
Buddhism IS and always has been the LARGEST religion in the world. It is hysterical that Buddhist aren’t counted in communist states because they are officially atheist . The vast majority of Chinese are Buddhist by several estimates 1.3 billion Buddhist in China alone.
There are 450 million Taoists, 50 million Confucianists and 500 million Buddhists in China. The rest are practitioners of indigenous religions.
Taoist is a secondary religion in China almost all Taoist in China are Buddhist just as most Shinto in Japan are Buddhist. Buddhism IS the largest religion in the world and ALWAYS has been over 2000 years. Buddhism is also currently the fastest growing religion in the world with OVER 2 BILLION adherents.