East and Southeast Asia Religion Comparison Chart



East and Southeast Asia Religion/Philosophy Comparison Chart

| |Buddhism |Confucianism |Taoism |

|Religion or Philosophy |Religion |Philosophy (moral well-being) |Philosophy (nature and the world outside |

| | | |ourselves) |

|Important Person/Prophet |Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) |Confucius |Lao Tsu |

| |Dalai Lama | | |

|Symbol |Dharmachakra(Wheel of Life) |Yin-Yang |Yin-Yang |

| |Lotus Flower | | |

|Beliefs |Dalai Lama is the closest link to the spiritual realm |Leadership should come through example not force |Everything has a life force |

| |Karma |People achieve peace by doing good deeds (being |Want to align oneself with the spiritual and |

| |Reincarnation |kind to one another) |cosmic forces |

| |Meditations | |Body ties to the 5 earthly elements: fire, |

| |Ultimate goal is to reach enlightenment(nirvana) | |earth, water, wood, metal |

| |Polytheism | |Balance of life forces |

|Rules to follow/ important |Darma (rules) |Moral guidelines to restore harmony |Happiness going with “the flow” |

|teachings |Truth is found along the Middle Path | |Doing by not doing |

| |Four Noble Truths: Metta | |Humans are part of nature, not the masters of |

| |Karuna | |it |

| |Mudita | |Tao Te Ching |

| |Upekkha | | |

| |Noble Eightfold Path: views, aspirations, speech, | | |

| |conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, meditation | | |

|Importance in Society |Defines both the religious and political climate of |Chinese base their ethical and philosophical system|Best government was one that did the least |

| |Tibet. | |Offered directions to people about how to live|

| | |Might be considered a state religion because of the| |

| | |government promotion of Confucian ideas | |

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