Essay/Term paper: Buddhism

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Religion

Buddhism


Buddhism is a religion founded by an ex-Prince Siddhartha Gaumata. Gaumata was
a prince who was brought up in a perfect surrounding. When the prince left the
palace he saw all the poverty. At the age of twenty nine, the prince left his
wife and his infant son to meditate and practice Yoga to find peace and
enlightenment. Gaumata was meditating for a long time when finally while he was
sitting under a Bo tree he had attained the enlightenment he was looking for. It
is for this reason he got the name Buddha, meaning the enlightened one. Buddha
became a traveling teacher and taught everyone his discovery. Buddha did not
write any of his lessons down. He taught about the Four Noble Truths, (1) life
is suffering, (2) all suffering is caused by ignorance, (3) Ending ignorance
will end suffering, and (4) The path to the destruction of suffering is the
Noble Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path consists of (1) Knowledge of the truth,
(2) the intention to resist evil, (3) not saying anything that will hurt someone
else, (4) respecting life, (5) having a job that doesn't injure anyone, (6)
striving free one's mind of evil, (7) controlling one's feelings, and (8)
concentrating properly. Buddha preached that the life was a continuing cycle of
death and rebirth. The well-being of oneself was determined on your behavior in
your previous life. Buddha said that by ridding oneself of worldly things he
would be in nirvana, peace and happiness. After Buddha's death, his followers
collected his teachings that became the dharma.

The sangha is what sometimes referred to as an ideal Buddhist community. All the
people in the community follow all the laws and seek nirvana. The arrangement of
the monks that had a role in the sangha. The monks' arrangement kept the
preserving and the spreading of Buddhism. In many Buddhist countries the monks
had to live in poverty and meditate. The monks wore very long robes. In a sangha
everyone, including the common Buddhists.

The Buddhists have a book called Tripitika, meaning three baskets. The first
part of the book is about the Basket of Discipline, which talks about regulating
the order of Buddhist monks. The second part is the Basket of Discourses, which
talks about the sermons of Buddha. The last part is about the Basket of the
Higher Dharma, which talks about systematic discussions of principle. All
Buddhists have the obligation to pray to Buddha whenever they see a statue of
him. There are different customs in Buddhism. The three places that these
different 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 follow
the 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 get
a special chant for themselves to have a great future. When someone dies their
body is sent to the monastery and is burned by the monks. Wesak is a Tibetan
holiday. It is celebrated in may to honor the birth, enlightenment and death of
the Buddha. Some people fast, but others are picnicking, dancing, acting and
playing sports. Buddhism sounds like a funny religion, but in fact there are
about 300 million Buddhists in the world.