Buddhism Is a Worldwide Religion Started Over Term Paper

Buddhism is a worldwide religion started over 2,500 years ago by Siddhartha Gautama, called "The Buddha," in India (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004). Since then it has grown and spread across the globe and now 300 million people profess to be Buddhist (Grow, 1996).

Buddhism, like Protestantism, is actually a group of related religions that have some similarities and some differences (Grow, 1996). However, just as all Christians trace their beliefs back to the life and teachings of Christ, all Buddhists trace their beliefs back to Siddhartha Gautama. One of the most significant differences between Buddhist beliefs and other religions is that in Buddhism, the basic perception of the world around us changes. Buddhism characteristically describes reality in terms of process and relation rather than entity or substance (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004).

Buddhist beliefs are organized into related groups of concepts. The basic doctrines of early Buddhism, which remain common to all Buddhism, include the "four noble truths": existence is suffering (dukhka ); suffering has a cause, namely craving and attachment (trishna ); there is a cessation of suffering, which is nirvana; and there is a path to the cessation of suffering, the "eightfold path" of right views, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004).

Buddha, who was born wealthy but came to seek more meaning in his life (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004), did not view himself as divine and described himself as " "one who is awake," (Grow, 1996), and this reflects the theory behind Buddhism: that we need to be more in the present and not as caught up in what has happened in the past or what might happen in the future.This relates to the concept of "attachment." According to Buddha, we humans tend to get too attached to not only our possessions but our perceptions of what is going on around us. As long as we stay attached to objects and old perceptions we cannot open ourselves up to a higher level of consciousness.

The idea of attachment was one of Buddha's "Four Noble Truths: life is suffering; suffering is caused by attachment; freedom from attachment is the cure for suffering; and the way out of suffering is through the eightfold path": right speech, right action, right livelihood, right concentration, right mindfulness, right effort, right understanding and right thought (Grow, 1996).

Central to all of this is the concept of attachment. Buddha recognized that all things change and that nothing is permanent, so if we become attached to something, we are bound to suffer, because the thing will change and no longer be what we wanted it to be. This concept extends not only to relationships but to tangible objects: rugs fray; couches get soiled; cars break down. It explains the human body, which is….....