Personalities and Principles of Buddhism



Personalities and Principles of Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion which belongs from Indian Subcontinent. It has various tradition, beliefs and practices which are given to them by Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha Gautama is also known as Buddha in buddism. Buddha means “the awakened one” who guides towards the correct path. The Buddha lived and preached in eastern parts of the Indian Subcontinent during 4th to 6th century BCE. Buddhist recognizes him as teacher which gave them knowledge and taught them about the right path and pulled them out from the wrong way by giving them guidance (Anonymous, 2012).

There are two main branches of Buddhism which are Theravada and Mahayana. Theravada means the school of the elders. The followers of Theravada are found in Sri Lanka and South East Asia. Mahayana means the great vehicle and its followers are spread throughout the East Asia. The traditions of Mahayana are Pure Land,Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Shingon, Tiantai (Tendai) and Shinnyo-en. There is also a branch of Buddhism which is considered as third branch of Buddhism. This branch is called as Vajrayana and its followers are found in Tibet, Mongolia, China and Russia. Some people consider this branch as a sub branch of Mahayana (Anonymous, 2012).

Buddhism is most popular in Asia but its followers are found all around the world. It is estimated that at least there are around 300-500million Buddhist in the world. Buddhist schools depend upon the path of freedom, their scriptures, teachings and their practices. The two important teachings of Buddhism are dependent organizationa and no-self. The foundation of Buddhism is based on three Jewels which are i) Buddha ii) Dharma (teachings) and iii) Sangha (community).

If a person takes shelter in the Triple Gem is distinguished as Buddhist because non-Buddhist do not take such protection. There are many practices of Buddhism which includes; ethical guidance, living simple life, become a simple person, practice of meditation, study of scriptures, traditions, ceremonies and praying of Buddhas (Anonymous, 2012).

Life of Buddha

Researchers are not ready to claim about any facts on the history of Buddha's life. As most of them accept that he was used to live in a monastic manner and the details found in his biographies does not exactly match. According to some researches it was found that Siddhartha Gautama lived between the border of India and Nepal in 6th century before Christ. No one can tell his exact birth date. The following detail about the life of Buddha does not exactly match his biographies but they are based on present day historians' view (Anonymous, 2012).

In 563BC Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini, it is near Nepales Indian border. His father was king Suddhodona and he was used to rule Sakya tribe. His mother was Queen Mayadevi. The name Sidhartha was given by his father the name means success and properity. His second name is Gautama which means name of the Clan. At that time seers predicted that he will become universal Monarch and will have supreme knowledge. After 7 days of his birth ...