Buddhism Is a Worldwide Religion Started Over

Buddhism is a worldwide religion started over 2,500 years ago by Siddhartha Gautama, called "The Buddha," in India (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004). Since then it has grown and spread across the globe and now 300 million people profess to be Buddhist (Grow, 1996).

Buddhism, like Protestantism, is actually a group of related religions that have some similarities and some differences (Grow, 1996). However, just as all Christians trace their beliefs back to the life and teachings of Christ, all Buddhists trace their beliefs back to Siddhartha Gautama. One of the most significant differences between Buddhist beliefs and other religions is that in Buddhism, the basic perception of the world around us changes. Buddhism characteristically describes reality in terms of process and relation rather than entity or substance (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004).

Buddhist beliefs are organized into related groups of concepts. The basic doctrines of early Buddhism, which remain common to all Buddhism, include the "four noble truths": existence is suffering (dukhka ); suffering has a cause, namely craving and attachment (trishna ); there is a cessation of suffering, which is nirvana; and there is a path to the cessation of suffering, the "eightfold path" of right views, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004).

Buddha, who was born wealthy but came to seek more meaning in his life (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004), did not view himself as divine and described himself as " "one who is awake," (Grow, 1996), and this reflects the theory behind Buddhism: that we need to be more in the present and not as caught up in what has happened in the past or what might happen in the future. This relates to the concept of "attachment." According to Buddha, we humans tend to get too attached to not only our possessions but our perceptions of what is going on around us. As long as we stay attached to objects and old perceptions we cannot open ourselves up to a higher level of consciousness.

The idea of attachment was one of Buddha's "Four Noble Truths: life is suffering; suffering is caused by attachment; freedom from attachment is the cure for suffering; and the way out of suffering is through the eightfold path": right speech, right action, right livelihood, right concentration, right mindfulness, right effort, right understanding and right thought (Grow, 1996).

Central to all of this is the concept of attachment. Buddha recognized that all things change and that nothing is permanent, so if we become attached to something, we are bound to suffer, because the thing will change and no longer be what we wanted it to be. This concept extends not only to relationships but to tangible objects: rugs fray; couches get soiled; cars break down. It explains the human body, which is in a constant state of change and which will undoubtedly break down over time, causing us pain, and ultimately end in our death. Change is both inevitable and painful, and we ease the pain to the degree that we can avoid attachment.

Not being attached also allows us to remain in the present, perceiving and enjoying things as they are now without the encumbrances of past experience placing resistance to change on what we experience. Buddhism also emphasizes moderation in all things, and for this reason it is sometimes called "the middle way" (Grow, 1996).

While the concept of attachment affects every aspect of life, so does another principle of Buddhism -- the interrelatedness of everything. Buddha broke a person's experiences into five components (called "skandhas"): material experience, or "rupa;" perceptions ("samjna"); sensations ("vedana"); psychic ("samskara"); and consciousness ("vijnana") (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004). Buddha taught that all things exist in relation to other things and that nothing exists in isolation, and thus, that we are interdependent on each other and the world around us, and that others and the world around us are interdependent on us.

Although Buddhism emphasizes being fully conscious of the present free of the encumbrances (attachments) of the past or anticipation and desires regarding the future, he also taught the importance of living a good and moral life through the concept of karma. Buddha teaches a belief in reincarnation. Our karma in this life, the sum of the good and bad we have done, decides what kind of life we have in the future. In this way Buddhism appeals to some former Hindis from the lower castes in the Hindu religion, because by living a good life now they could expect to have a better life in the future.