was Buddhism influenced by Upanishads?

Answer 1

The religion of the world is either emphasize the object or insist on experience. The first category is an attitude of faith and conduct directed to a power without. The second category is an experience to which the individual attaches supreme value. Hinduism and Buddhism fall under the second category. For them religion is salvation or Mukti i.e. liberation from the cycle of birth through self-realisation or enlightenment. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad deals with the theme which is the central point in Buddhism.

H.D.Lewis and Robert Lawson Slater have co-authored a book under title 'The Study of Religions' which in connection with Buddha says that what he thought to have condemned actually had influenced most of his thoughts and that was Vedic Truth of enlightenment.

Answer 2

What my previous answerer has said only indicates that Buddhism and Hinduism are continuous, but it is not clear if Buddha was influenced by the Upanishads. Is there one Upanishad or many of them? How many Upanishads were prior to Buddha? And what are the similarities between Buddha's teaching and the tenets of Upanishads? Only then, perhaps the answer would be clear.

I am also told by writings from Swami Vivekananda that Buddha was a rebel Hindu, but what he said were already available in the Upanishads.

Answer 3

Buddhism is influenced by Sankhya Philosophy. In sankhya there is Prakriti (3 gunas and Karma), which Buddhism believe in

The Purusha of Sankhya is the Nirvana state of buddisim

On God, both Sankhya and Buddhism are silent

Answer 4

Definitely

Answer 5

Yes Buddhism has a connection to various Hindu philosophies. I will list a few of Buddhas basic teachings with their similarities to Hindu philosophy. Ans is long so i hope u read it.

Buddha taught four basic truths: that suffering exists, there is a cause for suffering, suffering can be eradicated, and there is a means to end all suffering. But these four noble truths had previously been discussed in the Sankhya philosophy before Buddha's appearance, and had later been further elaborated upon in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. So this train of thought actually was not new.


Buddha also taught that suffering is essentially caused by ignorance and our own mental confusion about the purpose life. The suffering we experience can end once we rid ourselves of this confusion through the path of personal development. Otherwise, this confusion and ignorance causes us to perform unwanted activities that become part of our karma that must be endured in this or another existence. When karma ceases, so does the need for birth and, naturally, old age, sorrow, and death. With the cessation of birth, there is the cessation of consciousness and entrance into nirvana follows. Thus, according to this, there is no soul and no personal God, but only the void, the nothingness that is the essence of everything to which we must return. Although this was the basic premise from which Buddha taught, this theory was mentioned in the Nasadiya-sukta of the Rig-veda long before Buddha ever appeared.
However, Buddha refused to discuss how the world was created or what was existence in nirvana. He simply taught that one should live in a way that would produce no more karma while enduring whatever karmic reactions destiny brought. This would free one from further rebirth.


In order to accomplish this, Buddha gave a complete system for attaining nirvana that consisted of eight steps. These were right views (recognizing the imperfect and temporary nature of the world), right resolve (putting knowledge into practice or living the life of truth and nonviolence toward all creatures, including vegetarianism), right speech (giving up lies, slander, and unnecessary talk), right conduct (nonviolence, truthfulness, celibacy, nonintoxication, and nonstealing), right livelihood (honest means of living that does not interfere with others or with social harmony), right effort (maintaining spiritual progress by remaining enthusiastic and without negative thoughts), right mindfulness (remaining free from worldly attachments by remembering the temporary nature of things), and right meditation (attaining inner peace and tranquility and, finally, indifference to the world and one's situation, which leads to nirvana). This, for the most part, is merely another adaptation of the basic yamas and niyamas that are the rules of what to do and what not to do that are found in the Vedic system of yoga.


The word Ch’an of the Ch’an school of Chinese Buddhism is Chinese for the Sanskrit word dhyana, which means meditation, as does the word zen in Japanese. Furthermore, the deity Amitayus is the origin of all other Lokesvara forms of Buddha and is considered the original spiritual master, just as Balarama (the expansion of Lord Krishna) in the Vedic literature is the source of all the Vishnu incarnations and is the original spiritual teacher. Also, the trinity doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism explains the three realms of manifestations of Buddha, which are the dharmakaya realm of Amitabha (the original two-armed form is Amitayus), the sambhogakaya realm of the spiritual manifestation (in which the undescended form of Lokesvara or Amitayus reigns), and the rupakaya realm, the material manifestation (which is where the Buddha in the form of Lokesvara incarnates in so many other different forms). This is a derivative of the Vedic philosophy. Thus, Lokesvara is actually a representation of Vishnu to the Mahayana Buddhists.


Furthermore, all the different incarnations of Vishnu appear as different forms of Lokesvara in Buddhism. For example, Makendanatha Lokesvara is the same as the Vedic Matsya, Badravaraha Lokesvara is Varaha, Hayagriva in Buddhism is the horse-necked one as similarly described in the Vedic literature, and so on. And the different forms of Lakshmi, Vishnu’s spouse as the Goddess of Fortune, appear as the different forms of Tara in the forms of White Tara, the Green Tara, etc. Even the fearful forms of Lokesvara are simply the fearful aspects of Lord Vishnu, as in the case of the threatening image of Yamantaka, who is simply the form of the Lord as death personified. The name is simply taken from Yamaraja, the Vedic lord of death.


For a further study u may want to refer to the links below

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/h_buddhism.asp
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/buddhism/essays/vedantaand_buddhism.asp

Answer 6

There could have been some influence, but they are not part of the Buddhist texts.

Answer 7

Sure. Read both texts, buddhist and Hindu, and you shall see a commonality.