Buddhism

What is Buddhism?
Buddhism has alternately been called a religion, a philosophy, an ideology and a way of life. As with all the other great spiritual traditions that have withstood the test of time, Buddhism offers many different paths for people with different kinds of sensibilities, needs and capacities.

The Life of the Buddha

Siddartha Gautama was born in the sixth century BCE in what is now Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the Sakya people, and Siddartha grew up living the extravagant life of a young prince. When the prince reached the age of sixteen, Suddhodana arranged for him to be married to his cousin, a charming princess named Yasodhara.

One day, however, Siddartha ventured out into the world and was confronted with the inevitability of aging, illness, and death. Overcome by dismay, the young prince wondered if there might be a happiness that was not subject to change and decay. Then, seeing a forest wanderer, he decided that only by taking up the wilderness life could he find the answer to his question. That night, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his kingdom and newborn son and entered the wilderness.

For six years, Siddartha submitted himself to rigorous ascetic practices.  The path to true happiness required balance—the middle way—rather than extremes of indulgence or self-denial. So on that day he ended his extreme austerities and and accepted a gift of milk-rice offered to him by a young woman.

That night Siddartha sat under the bodhi tree and meditated until dawn. In the first watch of the night he remembered his past lives; in the second watch, around midnight, he saw how beings die and are reborn through the power of their karma, which in turn was shaped by the skillfulness of their intentions; in the third watch, toward dawn, he purified his mind of all cravings, attachments, and defilements, and finally of all intentions, both skillful and not. With that, he attained awakening at the age of thirty-five, thus earning the title Buddha, or "Awakened One."

The Four Noble Truths
In his first teaching,
the Buddha expounded
the basic doctrine
of the Four Noble Truths.

He first declared what he had learned
the day he left the palace;
namely, that suffering
is universal and inevitable.

In the Second Noble Truth,
he explains that the immediate cause
of suffering is desire.
The ultimate cause of suffering, however,
is ignorance concerning the true nature of reality.

The Third Noble Truth
encourages humanity,
asserting that there is a way
to dispel ignorance
and relieve suffering.

This path is detailed
in the Fourth Noble Truth
in the form of the Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold Path
According to the Buddha,
the Eightfold path is the means
to achieve liberation from suffering.
Specifically, this path includes
(1) Right View,
(2) Right Thought,
(3) Right Speech,
(4) Right Action,
(5) Right Livelihood,
(6) Right Effort,
(7) Right Mindfulness,
and (8) Right Concentration.

There is No One Buddhism
There has never been, nor is there now, a central authority in Buddhism. There is no equivalent to the Holy Father of the Roman Church or to anything that resembles papal law. With no supreme arbitrator, the diversification of Buddhism has flourished. This also means that there is no one Buddhism. There are many Buddhisms. So when we try to answer the question, "What is Buddhism?" we can only try our best to present the most inclusive and pan-Buddhist answers.

Diversity of View and Understanding
Some people approach spiritual belief systems in order to comfort themselves and to soften the inevitable harsh blows of life—illness, loss, death, grief. For many people, the communal activity of ritual—congregations or sanghas—itself offers a powerful experience of transcending the claustrophobic boundaries of the individual self in order to participate in a larger, more generous, bountiful experience.

"Theravada" is a Pali term meaning "Teachings of the Elders." Prevalent in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, this vehicle adheres closely to the original sutras (discourses) and vinaya (disciplinary rules) taught by the historical Buddha. Like Jesus Christ, the Buddha himself did not leave written texts. Rather, a council of his elder disciples met the year after his death and compiled a collection of his teachings, called the Pali Canon, which was handed down orally until it was committed to writing a few hundred years later.

In the second century of the common era, there arose in India a new movement that came to be called Mahayana, which means "Great Vehicle." In contrast to the older Theravada schools, the Mahayana placed less emphasis on the accepted texts of the Buddha; inspired adepts from that time, such as Nagarjuna, imbued the Buddha's teachings with new interpretations.

Also commonly called Tantric Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism is the "Diamond Vehicle." It developed out of the Mahayana teachings in northwest India around 500 B.C.E. and spread to Tibet, China and Japan. Today it is practiced mainly in the Himalayan regions and involves esoteric visualizations, rituals, and mantras which can only be learned by study with a master.

There is a long standing debate about whether these different yanas were all taught by the Buddha himself or were introduced later on and, for reasons of "skillful means," attributed to the historical Buddha.

All three, however, share a common foundation encapsulated in the Buddha's first teaching, the Four Noble Truths. The first Truth starts with the point that suffering is an undeniable part of this world of birth and death. Because of this emphasis on suffering, Buddhism has wrongly been confused with nihilism and pessimism. But the Buddha focused on suffering in the same way that a doctor focuses on disease: only by addressing the problem can a solution be found. This solution lies in the remaining three Noble Truths: that suffering has a cause, which is craving based on ignorance; that suffering can be ended by eliminating its cause; and that the cause can be eliminated through developing the path of virtue, concentration, and discernment.

The discernment developed in meditation is central to the path, in that it sees through the illusory notion of self-identity that grows out of craving and ignorance, thus leading to repeated suffering and stress. Buddhism points out that any experience we might identify as our "self" is impermanent, continually in flux, coming into existence and passing away, conditioned from one moment to the next by interrelated, empty phenomena. If we do not abandon our sense of self-identity, we are bound to suffer pain and alienation, as our "self" inevitably falls subject to circumstances outside our control.

To gain freedom from this predicament, we must first develop a healthy sense of self based on being harmless and compassionate, both to ourselves and to others. Then, through meditation, we enter the present moment by dropping our memories of the past and fantasies about the future. Observing the present, we see that our "self" is simply an internal dialogue of incessant chatter. As this chatter grows still, a point is reached in which "self," "other," and "present" are transcended. That is where liberation is found.

thanks Starrinite for finding this information and relaying it to me.