s the preserver, and is the one that comes down to help man out of whatever problem we have gotten ourselves into next. I also like the description of his appearance. He is "pictured as a black man with four arms; in one hand he holds a club, in another a shell; in the third a discus (used to slay his enemies); and in the fourth a lotus." While Hinduism is a very tolerant religion, and has been around for about 2900 years, I doubt that it is really going to spread across the world. Other than the fact of overpopulation I doubt that it will come out if India much at all. It is not a religion that is evangelized much at all, and the message of the religion isn't a coming happiness (which I believe is what most people really want). Instead it states that the way to true happiness is to follow a certain set of rules over and over again until you have built up enough good karma to be reincarnated as an Indra or a Brahma.

When Buddha came into prominence, he had two original sayings. He said that the world was non-atman, meaning that there is nobody out there [as opposed to everyone being here all the time (reincarnation)], and that we are mind only, or there is nothing out there. When the Buddha came to teach he always made a point to say that he wasn't here to teach whether there were gods, or what the weather would be like tomorrow, he was here to teach people how to end suffering. After the Buddha died, there were two different schools that formed as they interpreted his teachings differently. The Hinayana school, which is the oldest, formed a strict interpretation of what the Buddha had taught. Later on the Mahayana school formed and took a more casual approach to the teachings of the Buddha. The best way that I can make a comparison to our society today would be that the Hinayana would be comparable to the Roman Catholics and the Mahayana would be comparable to the Southern Baptists. The Mahayana sounds a lot more like something that I could agree with that the Hinayana. They have a much looser interpretation of the laws, and allow common sense to rule tradition. Things like the differences in the four noble truths for instance. Life isn't what causes suffering, frustration is what causes unhappiness. Desiring what we can't have, not selfish desire is what causes suffering. Everyone has desires; it's removing the desire for things that we can't have that will bring happiness.

The eighth step in the eight-fold path is not one step, but four, which ends with a fifth step into steplessness. I like E. Conze's description of completing the eighth step, and becoming a Bodhi-being. He says, "This change from an ordinary being to a Bodhi-being takes place when his mind has reached the stage when it can no longer turn back on enlightenment. Also, he has by then gained five advantages: he is no more reborn in the States of woe, but always among gods and men; he is never again born in poor or low-class families; he is always a male, and never a woman; he is always well-built, and free from physical defects; he can remember his past lives, and no more forgets them again." I like the idea that if someone can achieve enlightenment then he could have all of these different things, but this poses another problem for rein

Some topics in this essay:
Abu Kasem, Bahm Fighting, Arya Dharma, Brahma Hindus, Indra Indras, Baptists Mahayana, Shudras Harijan, Buddhism Hinduism, Shiva Vishnu, Parade Ants, eight-fold path, stages life, step eight-fold path, causes suffering, indra insignificant, sense hindus, teach people, eighth step, true name, school formed, tolerant religion,