Differences between Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhism.

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Buddhism is divided into two main religious groups Mahayana Buddhism and Hinayana Buddhism (also known as Theravada). These two religious groups both share a lot of similarities. But have a few differences. One of the differences is that Mahayana Buddhists believe that The Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) is a God but Hinayana Buddhists believe that The Buddha was an ordinary Human.

     Mahayana Buddhism followers think that The Buddha is a God because they think that the Buddha came down to earth to help people cross the sea of life. So the Buddha can be worshipped as a God because he is eternal and comes down to earth.

      On the other hand Hinayana Buddhists think that The Buddha was a Human instead of a God because they think The Buddha was simply a man who found a way to Nirvana.

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       I think that The Buddha is an ordinary person because he has many human-like characteristics such as looking like a person, being born like a person, living like a person besides if he was a God he would have already known about old-aged people, diseased people and dead people. So Siddhartha Gautama is an ordinary person who devoted most of his life to finding the truth of life, to reach enlightenment. Also the fact that Siddhartha Gautama didn’t know how to meditate before reaching the Meditation Masters suggests that Siddhartha Gautama didn’t know how to meditate and ...

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