Eastern Religion

The Eastern religions are the religions which originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western, African and Iranian religions. This includes the East Asian religions such as Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion, Shinto, and Korean Shamanism; South Asian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism; and Southeast Asian religions such as Vietnamese folk religion as well as animistic indigenous religions.

This East-West religious distinction, just as with the East-West culture distinction, and the implications that arise from it, is broad and not precise. Furthermore, the geographical distinction has less meaning in the current context of global transculturation.

While many Western observers attempt to distinguish between Eastern philosophies and religions, this is a distinction that does not exist in some Eastern traditions.

Indic religions

Also known as Dharmic religions, these are the religious sects originating in the Indian subcontinent, which includes Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc. The theologies and philosophies of these religions have several concepts in common, such as ''dharma'', ''karma'', ''maya'' and '' samsara''.

Hinduism

Hinduism originated on the Indian subcontinent and was related to many other religious traditions outside the subcontinent, in places like ancient Central Asia and ancient Iran. It is considered by some to be the world's oldest extant major religion. Some consider Hinduism to originate from the Indus Valley civilization along with animism of the pre-Harappan migrants as well as the Indo-Aryan migrants. Hinduism contains a vast body of scripture, divided as revealed and remembered, expounding on dharma, or religious living. Hindus consider the ''Vedas'' and the ''Upanishads'' as being among the foremost in authority, importance and antiquity. The '' '', a treatise excerpted from the ', is sometimes called a summary of the spiritual teachings of the ''Vedas''. It is difficult to identify any universal belief or practice in Hinduism, although prominent themes include: ''Dharma'', '' Samsara'', ''Karma'', and ''Moksha''. Hinduism is sometimes called a polytheistic religion, but this is an oversimplification. Hinduism includes a diverse collection of schools whose beliefs span monotheism, polytheism, pantheism, monism and even atheism. For instance, the Advaita Vedanta school holds that there is only one causal entity (Brahman), which manifests itself into all the various living and non-living forms that we observe, whereas traditions such as Vaishnavism and Shaivism worship Vishnu and Shiva in a relatively more monotheistic sense (caused by a differentiation between the parabrahman and atman). A number of scholars even consider the Samkhya school of thought to have atheistic leanings.

Buddhism

Buddhism is a nontheistic Indian religion and philosophy. Buddhism was founded around the 5th century BCE in Nepal by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, with the Four Noble Truths_and_the_Eightfold_Path_as_its_central_principles._According_to_the_scriptures,_the_Four_Noble_Truths_were_revealed_by_the_Gautama_Buddha.html" "title="Eightfold_Path.html" ;"title="Four Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encycl ...