Buddhism

19 Pages 4712 Words

“Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religions for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology, it covers both the natural and spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.” (Albert Einstein) Known as one of the world’s great religions, it is professed by over 3500,000,000 people, most of whom live in the Far East. Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddharta Gautama, who is more commonly known as Buddha, the “Enlightened One”. It was developed during the fifth and sixth centuries BCE around 535 BCE, which was the date Siddharta Gautama reached enlightenment and became the Buddha. The Buddhist doctrine of tolerance, pacifism, and the spiritual equality of all men has been a great civilizing influence in the far East. It has adapted itself to the impact of the West, and its insights have in turn influenced many Western thinkers. Buddhism is based on a rational analysis of man’s condition, and it attempts to show the way to salvation.
Prince Siddhartha Gautama, later be known as Buddha, was born in Lumbini, Nepal around the year 563 BC. He was the son of two important great people. Siddhartha’s father’s name was Shuddhodana, the King of the Sakyas. His mother, Queen Maya, was a lady “of perfect form and bee-black tresses, fearless in heart and full of grace and virtue.” Siddhartha got his name from one of his mother’s dreams. Her dream was that an elephant with 6 tusks, carrying a lotus flower in its trunk, touched the right side of Queen Maya’s body. That was when Siddhartha was miraculously conceived. When she told her husband about her dream, he called Brahmins, or learned men to interpret it. They predicted that the child one-day would be the greatest king in the world or the greatest ascetic in the world. So that’s why they called him Siddhartha,...