Buddhism Research Paper

After conducting my research on the daily practices of Buddhism, my mind kept going back to one of the first articles discussed in the class. In the article it briefly discusses how Buddhism, even though commonly viewed as a lifestyle, can be viewed as a religion by his criteria. Jane considers the core principles of Buddhism such as being kind to your neighbor, loving one another, genuineness, and inner peace that she deems more important than all other actions that could be done in her life; This idea gives her reason to act the way she does each and every single day.

Buddhism is an extremely unique religion that has many different philosophies and practices that you can not find in any other world religions. Buddhism explains the purpose of life. It is also a way to find peace within oneself. It helps find the happiness and contentment that people in our world today desperately seek. These variety of traditions, beliefs, and spiritual practices are largely based on teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha, commonly known as the Buddha, “the enlightened one”. Followers of Buddhism generally tend to stay away from conflict and live peacefully, working towards the ultimate goal of pure and lasting happiness. The religion is growing around the world and most recently in the west. It is a religion that can easily attract people from their fast pace world by giving them solutions and practices to relieve their stress and worries. Buddhism has answers to many of the problems in modern materialistic society. It is an ancient religion that millions of people around the world still follow today. (“A Five Minute Introduction.”)

Buddhism is a world religion based on the teachings of Buddha, who was born Siddhartha Gautama in Nepal around 563 B.C.E. and lived in Nepal and India. Siddhartha was a privileged man who withdrew from the world, learned and meditated, and achieved the Enlightenment that made him Buddha. Buddhism has undergone schisms and evolutions but has some core beliefs such as Nirvana, Anatta and Dependent Arising. In addition, the Buddha's teaching centered on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path to end the cycle of suffering and achieve Enlightenment and Nirvana.

"…[T]he Buddhist path can be summed up as: (1) to lead a moral life, (2) to be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions, and (3) to develop wisdom and understanding.”

Almost 6 percent of the world 's population or 350 million people follow Buddhism. Although among them are varying controversies over whether or not Buddhism is a religion or a followed pathway. Buddhism, founded in the late 6th -century B.C.E , and practices the ideas of varying traditions, spiritual practices, and all beliefs focused on the ideas of Gautama or the Buddha. Gautama valued the beliefs and teachings of The Universal Truths and Four Noble Truths and successfully shared them for the last 45 years of his life as a founder of a group called the Sramanas. He lived in what we now call Nepal and northern India and throughout his journey became known as “the awakened one” or “Buddha” as he found himself searching for enlightenment through having realizations on his entire existence. Buddhism really began to spread when roads were used for missionary uses and the Buddhist and merchants would cross paths resulting in the popularity and the spread of these teachings increasing drastically within Asia. However, people are still contemplating on whether or not Buddhism is a religion or a way of life. People argue that it contains aspects of a religion and others say it doesn’t and should be considered a pathway that someone can value as their way of life. Some claim that Buddhism is indeed a religion and that it holds all the elements of faith, beliefs, and self-transformation while others believe it is a way of life because it doesn’t

They believe that by eliminating all suffering from their life they will achieve enlightenment. They believe they can eliminate suffering by removing all attachments from their life and by following the noble eightfold path. The noble eightfold path is one of the principal teachings of Buddhism. It is used to eradicate greed, hatred and delusion. The noble eightfold path includes right vision, right emotion, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation. These teachings were used so that one will have a pure mind, pure actions and pure speech. The four noble truths are the four central beliefs of Buddhism and they help explain what Buddhist believe in. The four noble truths include existence is suffering, suffering is caused by desire, one can eliminate suffering by eliminating all attachments and one can eliminate suffering by following the noble eightfold path. Religious belief contributes to community because our different religious beliefs make us different and unique and they help unify us into one big community. Buddhists believe that being thoughtful and mindful of one's self and other people will help eliminate all suffering. This would contribute and create a sense of community because everyone respects and treats everyone

The key beliefs of Buddhism are that there is a personal spirit inside everyone that you must go on a journey to enlighten. A Buddhists life goal is to be enlightened. Enlightenment is a state of knowledge and wisdom. When a Buddhist becomes enlightened they have found the truth about life.

The Origins of Buddhism start with a boy named Gautama. Gautama was born on the northern edge of the Ganges River. He lived as a prince in a royal palace, protected from the outside world. Throughout his youth he lived in comfort and luxury hidden from the despair of outside world. After witnessing the pain and suffering outside the palace walls. He decided to renounce his title and fortune,

The first key belief of Buddhism is that they didn't believe in god.The didn't believe in god because the buddha did not and certainly did not call himself a god.The second belief is that they believed in was karma and rebirth and not not everything ends after death.They believed in rebirth,there ultimate goal of buddhist is enlightenment.

Siddhartha Gautama was the original teacher of Buddhism. At thirty five he went through a process of enlightenment that would become the foundations of his teachings or what he referred to as Dharma or truth. Buddhism is more than a religion, it can be considered a philosophy, a way to live ones' life. This is apparent because Buddha never considered or claimed to be a God. He was more a philosopher than a religious leader. His teachings center on the four noble truths and the eightfold path. The four noble truths comprise the truth of suffering, the truth of why we suffer, the truth of how to be free from

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. It is the oldest and fourth largest religion in the world with around 500 million followers. Buddhism focuses on teaching people how to come to terms with and end the suffering of themselves and others by cutting out greed, hatred, and ignorance from their lives. Unlike most major world religions, Buddhism does not revolve around worshiping a god or divine creator, instead the focus of Buddhism is living one 's best life and transforming the lives of others. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to reach Enlightenment and upon death achieve Nirvana, the liberation of pain and suffering. For Buddhists, it is the individual’s responsibility to find his or her own path to enlightenment; the principles of Buddhism are seen more as guidelines than rules.

Buddhism is a religion that is based on teachings it does not have a single God or many gods that are typical found in most religions such as Christianity or Hinduism. Buddhism is a different religion because “All Buddhist practices are ways of developing virtues that entails the non-harming of other beings and a generosity of heart; The purpose of all these practices of virtue, kindness, non-harming, generosity, concentration, steadiness of mind, and the understanding and wisdom that arises, is to bring us to freedom.” This shows that Buddhism is not about violence, merit, good deeds or bad deeds rather Buddhism is about yourself and how you can become better by helping others and also making the world a better place as well. Buddha preached more about self-realization because he knew that is why people suffer their thoughts are more of desires rather then looking within them

Buddhist teachings consist of teaching others how to end suffering in their own lives. Buddha teaches that if you follow an eightfold path, then you are moving toward reaching nirvana. This is the end of all suffering and the goal of all Buddhists.

In the United States there are over four million buddhists, one thousand temples, study groups, or Buddhists associations (Monroe 108). This number has come from just one man searching to find happiness and eventually enlightenment. Buddha’s story is how buddhism became a religion all over the world. It teaches a peaceful manner, reveals the key to happiness for the mind, and eliminates the desire in life. Not just the history of buddhism is important, but how it has spread through the world and what it looks like today.

The Buddhist culture believes that all of our problems are caused by a confused and negative state of mind, but all good fortune and happiness comes form a positive state of mind. Buddhism is meant to teach the human mind how to overcome negative minds like ignorance, anger, and