Expert: John Willemsens aka Advayavadananda - 1/12/2012

Question
Dear Willemsens

I'm reading Siddhartha, and it suddenly occurred to me that I don't know anything about Buddhism.I'm completely lost! Could you please answer the following questions.

1. How is Buddhism different from Hinduism?

2. Do Buddhist believe in heaven, hell, reincarnation, nirvana?

3. What exactly is nirvana?

4. What do Buddhist believe?

5. When christian go to church, they sings hymn and listen to sermons. When Buddhist go to temple what do they do?

6. Why do Buddhist offer fruit, incense, or money to Buddha? Is it for good luck?

7.Is Buddhism the ONLY path to happiness or can Christian find happiness their own religions (i.e. baptist, Methodist, Catholic)


Thank you for your time!

Priscilla

Answer
Dear Priscilla,
Thank you for your interesting questions.
There are many Buddhisms and I speak for Advayavada Buddhism only.
You might therefore want to read our website first.
There is a picosearch device at the bottom of all pages - enter e.g. Hinduism.
If you then have any specific questions about Advayavada Buddhism, I shall gladly answer them.
I suggest you start at http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm
Kind regards,
Advayavadananda.