what about buddhism?

Question

What are the principles? How do you find if this is the religion for you?

Answer 1

That's a pretty open ended question. If I were you, I'd start with wikipedia's entry on Buddhism and maybe Buddhism for Dummies. Like all religion and relishes, it adds flavor to life but you don't want to pour the stuff on everything.

Answer 2

The Buddha's teaching is about the Ultimate Truth regarding the world.Buddhism,however,is not a revealed or an organised religion.It is a purely scientific approach applied to questions concerning the ultimate nature of existence.The Buddha discovered this teaching without the help of any divine agency.This teaching can face any challenge without changing the basic principles of the doctrine.Any religion that is forced to change or adjust its original teachings to suit the modern,is a religion that has no firm foundation and no ultimate truth in it.Buddhism can maintain the truth of the original teaching even under the the difficult conditions prevailing in the modern world.It can face any challenge posed by the most rigorous method of scientific inquiry.

Answer 3

There's a lot of stuff on-line. You could start by searching for the Noble Eightfold Path, the eight basic principles of Buddhism.

Answer 4

The basic principals of Buddhism are fairly simple. The Buddha said that all life is suffering and this suffering comes from improper cravings an desire. (Some people think this means all desire, but that is incorrect.) If we eliminate improper cravings and desire then we can be free of suffering.

To illustrate, think of the things most people desire or crave. Money, power, sex, life, etc. When we don't get what we want, we are disappointed and that is suffering. Any problem in our lives can be linked back to desire. (Even the pain in our knee from an old injury. After all, it is the desire to be rid of the pain that leads us to suffer.)

Buddha laid down rules for better living and the Nobel Eightfold Path to help us guide our lives to help us reach enlightenment.

There are many schools of Buddhism. Personally, I follow the Ch'an/ Seon/Zen teachings of the Mahayana school of Buddhism. One of the guiding principals of Zen in that all beings poses Buddha nature and thus the ability to become Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from birth. This is sometimes called the unborn mind. All we need to do is learn to unlearn the conditioned responses of 'humanity' and accept our true nature, our Buddha nature. To do this, we chant (verbal Meditation) we practice seated meditation and Kong-ans (koans) riddles that awaken the inner mind. There are other practices, but these are the core practices.

As for how to know if it is right for you, your best bet is tome find a practicing Buddhist, preferable a teacher, and ask them for more information and make up your own mind. One thing that helped me make up my mind was the fact that the Buddha told his followers that they should question every lesson for themselves and never take anything at face value just because it's written someplace or because someone said so.

I'll leave you with a brief outline of some of the core/fundamental Buddhist beliefs. If you have more questions, please ask them. I hope this information helps you.

Details:

The core teachings of the Buddha were the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. (Listed Bellow) there are several other teachings, but these for the root of all the schools of Buddhism and ALL core Buddhist beliefs.

1) There is suffering.
2) The cause of suffering is improper craving. (improper tanha)
3) There is a way to end suffering.
4) To end suffering one needs to follow the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Noble Eightfold Path is as follows:
(I) Concerning Wisdom:
1. Right understanding
2. Right intention
(II) Concerning Ethical Conduct:
3. Right speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
(III) Concerning Mental Discipline:
6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration

As for the ethics or morals of Buddhism, the Sila (behavioral discipline) desirable the base morality and are often called the 'Five Precepts" in Buddhism. They are:
1. To refrain from taking life.
2. To refrain from taking that which is not freely given (stealing).
3. To refrain from sensual misconduct (improper sexual behavior).
4. To refrain from lying.
5. To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness.

If would take a great deal of time to explain much more, however I do recommend going to http://www.buddhanet.net/ and reading more.

Answer 5

what about it!!!!!!