Reflection

          I learned many new things about Hinduism from doing this project. Previously, I had not actually known very much about eastern religious traditions and I thought of Hinduism as very closely related to Buddhism, though of course after completely this project and the last, I know that the religions are worlds apart. One aspect of Hinduism that I previously had not known anything about was the caste system. I had no idea that people could be separated into classes by religion, and had never heard of anything similar. I do wish I could have researched more about that specific aspect of the Hindu culture because I find it very interesting and was not able to research in as in depth of a way as I would have liked. I'm interested in discovering why specifically this part of the ancient culture of Hinduism has outlasted many other traditions, and how it affects the lives of the people who currently practice the Varna tradition in modern day India. I found many differences between the Eastern religion I had been rated as most like, Taoism, and Hinduism. The most obvious difference was the way knowledge and understanding was transferred.  Taoism passes on knowledge by word while Hinduism requires studying doctrine and constant physical involvement in the religion. Hinduism could never appeal to me as a religion because I find it difficult to imagine learning the religion and how to be in a constant search for the liberation from the Vedas and the interpretations of other people that are the Upanishads.