What is the difference between Buddhists and Jains?

jll

What is the difference between Buddhists and Jains?

Dakini

Jains believe plants are sentient beings, Buddhists don't. Jains go to extreme measures to not kill, even by accident, any sentient beings. Buddhists generally don't. All Jains practice vegetarianism, many Buddhists don't. Jains believe in a permanent "self" or soul. Great thread topic.

federica

Moved to 'Comparing Religions'.

ThailandTom

First I have heard of jains, thanks. They seem pretty extreme, like radical buddhists if you can even have such a thing.

Dharmakara

Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the similarities and differences between the two:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_Jainism

As interesting side note, there are (or were) some Jainists who believed that Gautama Indrabhuti and the Buddha were one and the same, that he was the chief disciple (or ganadhara) of Mahavira, but there's problems when it comes to the dates.

Talisman

The primary tennet is that there is an eternal soul. That is the major major difference between the two. There are other differences as well including their strict adherance to the concept of ahimsa, meaning non-violence, so far as to refrain from all forms of criticism regarding other ideologies and beliefs. The buddha had no quams with debating others to prove the validity and superiority of the dharma over other teachings.

Interestingly, the fouonder of Jainism is believe to have been a contemporary of the Buddha and that historically, they lived and taught at the same time.

Dharmakara

It's kind of strange though that there's no mention of the Buddha and Mahavira debating eachother directly.

Jains believe Mahavira lived from 599–527 BCE, though some scholars prefer 549–477 BC, while most historians of the early 20th century date the Buddha's lifetime as 563-483 BC, though today some scholars are of the opinion that he passed away between 486 and 483 BC, others say between 411 and 400 BC.

Talisman

@dharmakara

I'm pretty sure they taught in different areas of india, so although they may have heard of oneanother, they may not have been in proximity to ever meet.

Dharmakara

Yes, very true.

Arthurbodhi

The Buddha and Mahavira maybe don't meet each other but they know they teachings and while the Buddha not agree with the teaching of Mahavira, anyways he has respect to him.

"Once in Nalanda a prominent and wealthy householder
named Upali, a well-known lay disciple of Nigantha Nataputta
(Jaina Mahavira), was expressly sent by Mahavira himself to meet
the Buddha and defeat him in argument on certain points in the
theory of Karma, because the Buddha's views on the subject were
different from those of Mahavira.
Quite contrary to expectations, Upali, at the end of the discussion, was convinced that the views of the Buddha were right and those of his master were wrong. So he begged the Buddha to accept him as one of his lay disciples (Vpasaka). But the Buddha asked him to reconsider it, and not to be in a hurry, for 'considering carefully is good for well-known men like you'. When Upali expressed his desire again, the Buddha requested him to continue to respect and support his old religious teachers as he used to."

Extracted from the book "What the Buddha taught"

Blessings.


PS: Maybe I'm wrong, but in Jainism the women position is more low that in Buddhism.

person

No ones mentioned that Jain ascetics are completely nude.

hermitwin

Buddha was a naked ascetic before founding his own religion,

Jason

Only Digambara Jain monastics go nude. Svetambara Jain monastics wear white clothes. Mahavira was a naked ascetic himself, however.