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Buddhism
The teachings of
Siddhartha Gautama
 Siddhartha Gautama was
born in north India around 560 years before the birth of Jesus Christ and many
scholars generally put the time of his birth or enlightenment as about 500bc.
His life was one of wealth, luxury and privilege. But after becoming aware of
the suffering of the common people, he became so concerned, that he made it his mission to find a solution to end
human suffering and in order to do this, he became a spiritual aspirant or
seeker of knowledge.
As an
ascetic* and spent time with followers of various spiritual
traditions, trying out their practises and during an intense meditation he achieved complete awakening
(Nirvana) which gave him insight into the nature and
cause of human suffering and how to end it.
He described the cause of suffering as ignorance; this must have been obvious as
education was mostly for the privileged and not universal. Life at this time was
very simple, people lived by fishing hunting and growing crops, but it was also
the beginning of a more cosmopolitan lifestyle when people began to wear cotton
clothing.
To eliminate suffering he advised
that practitioners learn to recognise and accept The
Four Noble Truths, and
take actions to end suffering by following the
Eight Fold Path which would lead to the
state of supreme liberation called Nirvana.
He became renowned for this achievement so much so that his peers saw him as a
saint and after his death, the monks who knew him collated and wrote down his
teachings which form the basis of Buddhism today.
Please note that Buddhism is not considered by Buddhists to be a religion,
rather it is an experiment, a subject that you take on and try out and if it
works for you, then wonderful, your suffering will lessen and eventually cease
altogether, although this may take several lifetimes.
There is nothing to believe in, or pray to unless you choose to believe in an
afterlife in which the Buddha still exists. Following Buddhist practices is to
accept the possibility that there is an end to suffering and being appreciative
of those who have walked before and testify the validity of the path.
Buddhist teachings fill many thousands of books which are all based on the
Four Noble Truths and the
Eight Fold Path.
* ascetic - a person who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative
or spiritual ideals
References
Reference books
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