Buddhism Versus Greek Mythology Essay - 3667 Words

â€Å"[A human being] experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness, â€Å"said Albert Einstein. â€Å"Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty† (â€Å"Heart Quotes†). Einstein’s view on nature is similar to that of Indian Buddhists. Life-giving Indian weather inspired the Buddhist cyclic view of rebirth while the rugged terrain of Greece inspired their harsh outlook on nature. Buddhists believe man is one with nature while Greek mythology emphasizes the all-importance of man. Buddhists live in harmony with nature whereas the Greeks show violence towards it and all†¦show more content†¦To reach Enlightenment, peace and oneness with nature are essential. Man and nature are one. Therefore, everyone and everything, especially nature, should be treated as so. â€Å"[Siddhartha said,] ‘This stone is a stone, it is also an animal, it is also God, it is also the Buddha, I love and honor it not because it would become this or that someday, but because of this because it is a stone, because it appears to me now and today as a stone, it is precisely because of this that I love it and see worth and meaning in each of its veins and pits, in the yellow, in the gray, in the hardness, in the sound it emits when I tap it, in the dryness or dampness of its surface. [T]hat is precisely what I like and what seems wonderful to me and worthy of worship†¦I love the stone and the river and all these things that we contemplate and also a tree or a piece of bark. These are things and things can be loved† (Hesse 126-127). In harmony with the principle of reincarnation, any plant, creature, or other aspect of nature is a part of the cycle of rebirth. Therefore, any of these can one day become a man, for when something in nature dies, it undergoes the cycle of rebirth and can be reborn as anything. One day, it will become a human. Nature holds the ability within itself to be a human and, for that reason, should be considered as an equal. 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