Buddhism began in southern Nepal between 600-500 B.C.E. It has 307 million followers worldwide. Its roots are traced back to Hinduism. It was founded by a man named Siddhartha Gautama, a wealthy prince. One day, Gautama saw some strange signs, which he rendered to be as a sign to seek the causes of human strife and suffering. For the next six years, he wandered as a self-denying monk. Still, he did not find the reasons why people suffered. One day, he decided to meditate as he was tired of being self-denying. Then he got Enlightenment, and then understood the causes of human suffering, and how to evade it. From then on he became known as Buddha, or the Enlightened One. The Buddhist holy book is the Tipitaka.=
Gods and Beliefs
Buddhism is very much like Hinduism, but they do not believe in the Vedas and the devas. Their "converters" are monks very much like some religions have priests (or priestesses!). They spread Gautama’s teachings, as follows:
Meditation and good religious/ moral behavior leads to Nirvana, or state of enlightenment.
However, before Nirvana is reached, one must go through many Reincarnations and the rule of Karma applies here, which makes Hinduism and Buddhism very similar. Also, the monks circulated the message (from Gautama) that existence is a being of suffering itself! The teachings also say that desire and priding oneself (arrogance) causes woe. There are many teachings from Buddha, but the main ones are the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold, and the Dependant Origination. Let me explain them to you.
The main ideas about the Four Truths are: life is suffering (called Dukkha); suffering comes from desire; if we lessen our desire to be better personally, our suffering is decreased; and to follow the middle way, or Noble Eightfold.
The Noble Eightfold are eight things to aim for. However, no explaining of them is needed for the words speak for themselves! The Noble Eightfold are: Right Understanding, Right Intent, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration. Technically, ‘right’ means that it is not too excessive nor too little; nor luxurious nor bare; just enough to make you feel like you’ve done a good job without priding yourself too much.
The Dependant Origination means that nothing exists unconditionally; instead it exists due to earlier contexts.
There are three main branches of the Buddhist religion, who all believe in the Four Truths, Dependant Origination and the Noble Eightfold. They are: the Mahayana with 185 000 000 followers, the Theravada with 124 000 000 worshipers, and the Vajrayana with 20 000 000 people.
