1. Siddhārtha Gautama
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy founded by Siddhartha Gautama in northeast India during the period from the late 6th century to the early 4th century BC. Spreading from India to Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan, Buddhism has played an influential role in the spiritual, cultural, and social life of much of the Eastern world. The Buddha, which means the "Enlightened One," died in northeastern India between 500 and 350 BC. According to tradition, his family name was Gautama; later sources call him Siddhartha, which means "He Who Has Reached His Goal." He was reared in a minor royal family of the ruling Kshatriya, or warrior, caste. Shocked as a young man after wittness by pure accident sickness, old age, and death, he renounced his family life in order to wander as a shramana, or ascetic, in search of religious understanding and a way of release from the human condition. Discarding the teachings of his contemporaries, through meditation he achieved enlightenment, or ultimate understanding. Thereafter, the Buddha instructed his followers (the sangha) in the dharma (Pali dhamma, "truth") and the "Middle Way," a path between a worldly life and extremes of self-denial. The essence of the Buddha's early preaching was said to be the Four Noble Truths: (1) life is fundamentally disappointment and suffering; (2) suffering is a result of one's desires for pleasure, power, and continued existence; (3) in order to stop disappointment and suffering one must stop desiring; and (4) the way to stop desiring and thus suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path--right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right awareness, and right concentration. The realization of the truth of anatman (no eternal self) and pratitya-samutpada (the law of dependent origination) was taught as essential for the indescribable state of release called nirvana ("blowing out").
The Dhammapada is a collection of the Buddha's sayings. It was probably compiled by followers of the Buddha during the third century before Christ. The version quoted here was translated by John Richards. In his introduction he indicates that the Dhammapada is a subset of the Theravada Pali Canon of...
Buddhism Inner peace, enlightenment, and true happiness are all sought out by many people with very diverse beliefs and religions. This path to eternal peace is the bonding point that ties most religions together. Some of these religions however, require a belief in a figure of higher power or in a higher God such as Christianity. It is possible to still live a morally good life and reach that point of inner peace without having to believe in God or other spiritual figures. Buddhism is an alternative choice for reaching enlightenment that requires no worshipping of Gods or a Bible whic...
Hinduism and Buddhism have there similarities and have there differences. Hinduism started from the Aryans and developed from there, Buddhism started some years later and became a practice. To call Buddhism a branch would not be correct but to call it similar would be correct. Hinduism and Buddhism both started from the ancient land of India, which at the time was a powerful country. As time went on Hinduism would originate by a group of people, and Buddhism would start from a Prince in India. ...
There are 750 million+ Hindus in the world, most concentrated in India (pearls.org). Before elaborating on what beliefs and practices Hinduism has, perhaps it is helpful to first consider the "familiar to a Westerner" features that it doesn't have. There is no "founder" of Hinduism and no specific time it "began" (i.e. Jesus or Buddha's birth). There is not a set of scriptures that has authority over all other texts of its religion (i.e. ...