1. Siddhārtha Gautama
He began, they say, to recall all his previous lives, and to see everything that was going on in the entire universe. On the full moon of May, with the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha finally understood the answer to the question of suffering and became the Buddha, which means "he who is awake" (Boeree 2).
Buddha only agreed to teach his path to enlightenment when the king of gods, Brahma, convinced Buddha by suggesting to him that some of us have only a little dirt on our eyes and could awaken if we heard his story. " In a deer park he preached his first sermon to the group of five ascetics his first started his practices with; this sermon is called "setting the wheel of the teaching in motion"" (Boeree 3). Buddha explained to them the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, they then became his first of over 330 million followers of Buddhist philosophies. Siddhartha Gautama died at the age of eighty under a grove of sala trees. His last words were "Impermanent are all created things; Strive on with awareness.".
All Buddhists have faith in three major areas of Buddhism: Buddha himself, .
his teachings, called the dharma, and the religious community he founded, called the Sangha. Buddhist believe in Siddhartha as being the Buddha and the story of his journey to enlightenment. Although Buddha wrote no books, he taught his followers, and they taught their followers, who in turn did the same. Buddhists believe in the teachings of Buddha even though all his followers cannot agree on them. For this reason there is no Buddhist Bible. Most Buddhists can agree on certain teachings. They do agree that the Buddha taught that pain, suffering, and unhappiness must be expected as a natural part of life. Men expect only happiness and therefore they are disappointed when they do not receive it. To avoid this disappointment, the Buddha taught that one should expect nothing. Buddha also teaches that if one knows the cause of unhappiness, one also knows the cure.
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 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 m...
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. ...
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. ...