Buddhism

The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.

Albert Einstein

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in the 5th century BCE. Buddhism spread throughout the ancient Indian sub-continent in the five centuries following his death, and advanced into Central, Southeast, and East Asia over the next two thousand years. Today, Buddhism is divided into three traditions, Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Buddhism is a world wide religion that continues to attract followers worldwide, with around 376 million followers.The reason for the widespread appeal of Buddhism is that the content of the Buddha's teaching is simple and practical. Westerners who are turning away from institution religions, but still want spirituality in their lives, find the Buddhists Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path and Five Precepts sensible beliefs and practices to follow. Follows of Buddhism in the Western world have embraced Buddhism because rather than relying on belief in a God, its based upon human experience and human potential.

In Mahayana Buddhism, a Buddha is considered to be a person who discovered the true nature of reality through years of study, investigation of the various religious practices, called enlightenment. It applies to any person who has become "awakened" to the principles of Buddhism, or enlightened. Gautama Siddhartha was only one of many people who could be called a Buddha. According to the Buddha, any person can follow his example and become enlightened through the study of his words, and by leading a exemplary, moral life. The aim of Buddhist practice is to end all kinds of suffering in life. To achieve this state, Buddha's seek to purify and train the mind by following the Noble Eightfold Path, and eventually to gain true knowledge of reality, attaining Nirvana. These appeals to people searching for spirituality and meaning in their lives.

The concepts of the Buddha's teaching are straightforward. The Buddha's teaching starts with the Four Noble Truths. The first one being Dukka; The Reality of Suffering. Meaning existence is suffering. Suffering arises from pain, from change and from our conditioned state. The second Noble Truth is The Cause of Suffering called Samudaya meaning the cause of suffering is attachment (craving or desire). Desire may be desire to have, desire not to have, desire for sense pleasure, desire to become, or desire not to be. Wherever there is desire there is suffering. Nirodha, the third Noble truth is The End of Suffering which means the end of suffering is letting go of desire or craving. Desire is conditioned. True freedom from desire is unconditioned. To attain True Freedom from desire one must attain the impermanence of all phenomena. The final Noble Truth is The Route to the End of Suffering which is called Magga; The end of suffering will result from following the Eightfold Path which is summarized by the development of the Three Cultivations: Wisdom, Morality and Mental Cultivation. The Three Cultivations act together in developing freedom. One cannot achieve morality whilst ignoring Wisdom. Without morality, one cannot achieve Mental Cultivation, and without Mental Cultivation there is no Wisdom.

The first of the Four Noble truths is realistic, and therefore appealing, because it deals with the concept of life can sometimes be bad. Buddhism explains how suffering can be avoided and how we can be truly happy. The second Noble truth acts as realism that getting what you want does not guarantee happiness. The third saying