Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is an important religion in most countries of Asia. It is one of the world's oldest and greatest religions practiced today. Buddhism teaches the practices of and the moral observance of moral concepts. When it was founded, Buddhism rejected important views of Hinduism. It questioned the authority of priesthood. The Buddhist movement was open to all people denying that a person's worth could be judged by their blood.

Buddhism was founded in the late 6th century B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) in India. Buddhism gradually spread throughout Asia, to Central Asia, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Southeast Asia, as well as the East Asian countries of China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. The Buddha was born in North India at a place called Lumbini, near the Himalayan Foothills. As a child it was predicted that one day Buddha might decide to withdraw from the temporal life. To prevent this, his father gave him many luxuries and pleasures. As a young man Buddha went out into the world and saw the difference between his life and human suffering. Buddha realized that all the pleasures on earth were temporary and only hid human suffering. He left his wife and son, to go meditate in the forest until the point of near starvation. Finally when Buddha realized starvation was adding more suffering he ate food and sat beneath a tree to meditate. By morning he felt he had attained enlightenment, which gave him the answers to the causes of suffering and permanent release from it. Now Buddha began to teach others about this realization. After Buddha's death his followers collected his teachings and they became known as the Dharma.

Teachings Buddha taught included the Four Noble Truths and Eight- Fold Path. The first Noble Truth is that life is suffering; the second Noble Truth is that craving for pleasures and for things to be as they are not causes suffering; the third Noble Truth states that suffering has an end and the fourth Noble Truth offers the means to the end which are the Eight- Fold path and the Middle Way. If someone follows these combined paths they will obtain Enlightenment, an indescribable state of all-knowing easily understood awareness in which there is only peace and joy. The eight fold path is represented as an eight-spoked wheel (The Wheel of Dharma) includes Right Views (The Four Noble Truths), Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Endeavor,