People think that Buddha is a name, but it actually isn't it's a title. The word Buddha means "the one who is awake". This title was given to a man, Siddharta Gautama. Siddharta lived 2500 years ago in India as a prince. His father, Rajah was a ruler of a tribe in Nepal. At the age of 35, he left the luxuries, his wife, and all his early life ambitions. The reason why he left was because after seeing how much suffering people go through, he wanted to find out the reason for it. He decided to seek the truth himself, without help. The last 45 years of his life, Siddharta traveled through northern India to spread his teachings of the way to Enlightenment. .
Buddhism is not about teaching or learning, it's about experiencing. Buddhist believe that actions have consequences. (karma) For example, if you do good in previous lives than rebirth may lead to rebirth as a wise and wealthy person. You will not suffer much. If a person does evil deeds than rebirth may lead to rebirth as an animal, poor person, a hungry ghost, or even in hell. .
Buddhism followers meditate which is a way to enable people to realize and utilize its teachings in order to transform their experience. Buddha taught methods for overcoming our negative minds, such as anger, jealousy, and ignorance. We can do this by developing our positive minds such as love, compassion, and wisdom Mediation is basically a method for understanding and working on your mind. During meditation we overcome our delusions by becoming with virtuous minds. .
