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,...
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