Buddhist Religion

The seeds for the Buddhist religion were sown as way back as the 6th century BC in India with the birth of Lord Buddha. By his own admission, the erstwhile Prince Siddhartha born to a royal family, did not claim to be a God; however, with the immense peace and wisdom surrounding him, which he willingly shared with all who came to him with a desire to learn and grow, he showed the way to finding the meaning of life by following simple truths.

Understanding the nature and foundation of Buddhist Religion
"If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart." So said the Enlightened One, known as the founder of the Buddhist Religion and regarded a great Indian mystic by the world's greatest thinkers and sages, Gautam Buddha. Following in the footsteps of Lord Buddha, (Buddha incidentally wasn't his name, but rather a title bestowed upon the young seeker of truth, which came his way when he meditated for 40 days under the shade of the Bodhi tree; Buddha, thus refers to 'the awakened one' and Buddhas are regarded as preachers) and the millions of Buddhists world over look upon Buddhist religion as the path to righteousness, which can only be followed by conquering desires, living a peaceful, loving life filled with constant spiritual development.

Buddhist Religion basics: self-realization, attaining higher truths, disciplining base desires, path of right belief, speech and conduct as well as regarding meditation as a means towards achieving Nirvana, the ultimate goal of Buddhist Religion.

The base of Buddhist Religion is aimed at human development into a higher form of being through constant contemplation, meditation and following the Middle Path doctrine as propagated by Lord Buddha, who found great solace in this way of life that approves of moderation and self-mortification as the solution to dealing with indulgence, the root cause of desire. Buddhist religion followers believe in the teachings of Lord Buddha wholly when they attribute desire, which is uncontrolled, with being the root cause of evil, misery and suffering; all these grievances of man can be ended with following the tenets of simple living and high thinking as practiced by Lord Buddha and his faithful.

Besides not really channeling devotion towards a God, the Buddhist religion also does not encourage any deification of idols and other such symbols of worship as it believes in providing a person with insight into the true meaning of life through meditation, service towards others and changing oneself through self- awareness, kindness and wisdom.

Buddhist religion is thus mainly about experiencing the divine and higher self as attained through awakening and believes this is possible with each true follower much like the enlightenment experienced by the founding father. The ideology of the Buddhist religion goes beyond the basic teaching scope of a theology in the sense that it does not deal with Godly worship, but is more straightforward and practical in the way it can be applied to fellowmen. Some of these tenets of the Buddhist religion include helping followers understand the impermanence of material things or circumstances, (Buddhism believes nothing is fixed or permanent), that actions have consequences, change is possible and necessary for enabling people realize and utilize this doctrine so they can transform their earthly experiences among other simple truths.

From early days of the Buddhist religion in India, this doctrine of peace and love spread beyond Lord Buddha's time (563-483 BC) from north India (where it enjoyed due patronage during the reign of emperors Bimbisara, Ashoka, Milinda, and Kanishka) to the religious structure of other countries, like Sri Lanka, Tibet-China, Korea and Japan with America and much of Europe also incorporating Buddhism into its folds, thanks to the missionary zeal of Buddhist bhikkhus (disciples).

Currently, there are many schools to the Buddhist religion in India and across the borders, such as Dalit Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism (Himalayan areas like Himachal, Sikkim and Ladakh being the main Indian strongholds) Vipassana meditation, Theravada, Mahayana, Pure Land or Sukhavati, Ch'an, Zen, Nichiren, Vajrayana, Nyingma-pa (old school) and the speech school, Kagyu-pa counted among the major ones.

Whatever be the school of Buddhist religion, the followers have certain common beliefs which make up the essence of Buddhism even in modern times, all the factions notwithstanding; these include adherence to the eight fold Lotus path of Life, acknowledging the Four Noble Truths and following a middle path towards final aim of gaining Nirvana.

To sum it up, Buddhist religion believes: "There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting."