Buddhism

Buddhism is one of the worlds great religions and has had a particularly important effect on the Asian way of life.

Buddha (560-480BC)
Buddha, whose original name was Gautama, was an Indian Hindu price. He lived a life of great luxury but his father had never allowed him to leave the royal palace. When he was 29 he set foot outside the palace for the first time. He saw very old people, with much poverty and grief. He began to wonder why he enjoyed so many pleasures while others suffered so badly. He left his wife and son, and for six years wandered about northern India as a ragged beggar searching for the answer. When he did not find it, he became harsh with himself until he almost died of starvation and exhaustion, but even this produced no answer. He had possessed great wealth and power and in contrast he had been extremely poor, and he had suffered great pain; but none of these had given him the answer to why there is suffering in this world. Gautama then sat under a tree known as the Bodhi tree in the town of Bodh Gaya, India, and vowed that he would not move until he knew the cause.

The enlightenment:
At the end of a week Gautama realized the truth: people suffered because they kept wanting things like money, power, and goods. If they could get rid of this desire they would be happy because they would me content with what little they had. Now that he knew the answer to what he had long searched for. His followers called him Buddha or The Enlightened One- the one who had found the truth. Until his death forty years later, Gautama wandered about India teaching people what he believed was the truth. Many disciples, rich and poor, men and women, prince and peasants, gathered about him and helped to spread his ideas.

Buddhist Concepts:
Karma: Karma (a Sanskrit word, mean: "action, work") in Buddhism is the force that drives the cycle of suffering and rebirth for each being. Buddha explained why often good people suffered pain, poverty and misfortune while wicked people prospered by arguing that they were being punished, or rewarded, for how they had lived in a previous life. Karma are simply your deeds. Rebirth: Buddhism rejects the concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul, as it is called in Hinduism and Christianity. According to Buddhism there ultimately is no such thing as a self independent from the rest of the universe. Buddha said that when people died their spirits were

reborn into another living creature depending on how they had behaved in their previous life. A person who had been good in one life might be reborn richer or in a better position. Someone who had been bad would be reborn in a poorer position or even as an animal or insect. Because of this, staunch Buddhists would never eat meat because the animal might be the temporary home of a human spirit. This cycle of rebirth continue, said Buddha, until the person learned to stop wanting. Through meditation and prayers people could destroy desire and escape into a state a state of central happiness called Nirvana, from which they need never be reborn again. Each rebirth takes place within one of five realms according to Theravadins, or six according to other school. These are further subdivided into 31 planes of existence: 1. Naraka beings: those who live in one of many Narakas (Hells) 2. Preta: sometimes sharing some space with humans, but invisible to most people; an important variety is the hungry ghost[29] 3. Animals: sharing space with humans, but considered another type of life 4. Human beings: one of the realms of rebirth in which attaining Nirvana is possible 5. Asuras: variously translated as lowly deities, demons, titans, antigods; not recognized by Theravda (Mahavihara) tradition as a separate realm 6. Devas including Brahmas: variously translated as gods, deities, spirits, angels, or left untranslated.