September 19, 2009

Hinduism = Buddhist ? Oh, No

Today's lunch is pork-rib noodle - a young man's style :P. In Burma, there is a chicken dish named "Young Man's Chicken". It is named that way because it is cooked as if the cook is a group of young men who don't know how to cook but steal each piece of the dish - oil, garlic, squash, chicken etc - and boil them together in order to eat while drinking (alcohol). My pork-rib is also young man's style - just boiled pork rib, fish ball, carrot, cauliflower and noodle all together (with salt and black pepper). It is so delicious.

Having my lunch, I chatted with my senior - I asked her when would the Hindi holiday would be. It turned out to be Muslin's holiday and tomorrow. She claimed I should know it is not Hindi as I am a Hindi. When I protested her by saying I am a Buddhist, she told me Buddhists and Hindi are the same. Her reasoning is - in Database term - classification-based one.

She hashed (if you are not so much into computer science, it means pair) Christian to church, Muslins to mosque and both Buddhism and Hinduism to temple (what about monastery and pagoda :P). Paying homage to various images with candle, flower and other offerings, talking about cycle of rebirth etc and being (sometimes) vegetarians are characteristics of both Hinduism and Buddhism so many people confused them frequently.

The main difference between Hindi and Buddhism is the existence of soul and not. Hindi believe a soul is moving from one body to another until it is cleansed and re-unite with The Soul. However, in Buddhism, there is no such thing as soul. It is only cause and effect and there is no single soul moving around. Whatever you do - good or bad - is Karma and that Karma create new body and events etc (This explanation is an over-simplification one).

In short, Buddhism and Hinduism are totally different.

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Since August 1st, 2009, Law Shay had enjoyed his lunch together with friends.