Buddhism is a religion founded by an ex-Prince Siddhartha Gaumata. Gaumata wasa prince who was brought up in a perfect surrounding. When the prince left thepalace he saw all the poverty. At the age of twenty nine, the prince left hiswife and his infant son to meditate and practice Yoga to find peace andenlightenment.
Gaumata was meditating for a long time when finally while he wassitting under a Bo tree he had attained the enlightenment he was looking for. Itis for this reason he got the name Buddha, meaning the enlightenedone. Buddhabecame a traveling teacher and taught everyone his discovery.
Buddha did notwrite any of his lessons down. He taught about the Four Noble Truths,
- lifeis suffering,
- all suffering is caused by ignorance,
- Ending ignorancewill end suffering,
- The path to the destruction of suffering is theNoble Eightfold Path.
The Eightfold Path consists of
- Knowledge of the truth,
- the intention to resist evil,
- not saying anything that will hurt someoneelse,
- respecting life,
- having a job that doesn’t injure anyone,
- striving free one’s mind of evil,
- controlling one’s feelings,
- concentrating properly.
Buddha preached that the life was a continuing cycle ofdeath and rebirth. The well-being of oneself was determined on your behavior inyour previous life. Buddha said that by ridding oneself of worldly things hewould be in nirvana, peace and happiness. After Buddha’s death, his followerscollected his teachings that became the dharma.
The sangha is what sometimes referred to as an ideal Buddhist community. All thepeople in the community follow all the laws and seek nirvana. The arrangement ofthe monks that had a role in the sangha. The monks’ arrangement kept thepreserving and the spreading of Buddhism. In many Buddhist countries the monkshad to live in poverty and meditate. The monks wore very long robes. In a sanghaeveryone, including the common Buddhists.
The Buddhists have a book called Tripitika, meaning three baskets. The firstpart of the book is about the Basket of Discipline, which talks about regulatingthe order of Buddhist monks. The second part is the Basket of Discourses, whichtalks about the sermons of Buddha. The last part is about the Basket of theHigher Dharma, which talks about systematic discussions of principle. AllBuddhists have the obligation to pray to Buddha whenever they see a statue ofhim. There are different customs in Buddhism. The three places that thesedifferent customs come from are from the Theravadas, the Mahayanas, and the Zens.
The Zens are the group that originated in China. The marriage and death followthe different customs. The Theravadas have a wedding by going to a monastery,after the legal wedding. There they give a generous gift to the sangha. They geta special chant for themselves to have a great future. When someone dies theirbody is sent to the monastery and is burned by the monks. Wesak is a Tibetanholiday
. It is celebrated in may to honor the birth, enlightenment and death ofthe Buddha. Some people fast, but others are picnicking, dancing, acting andplaying sports. Buddhism sounds like a funny religion, but in fact there areabout 300 million Buddhists in the world.
