What is buddhism? What do they believe?

Answer 1

That would take forever to explain.

Take a look at this site. It'll explain all about it.
http://www.buddhanet.net/

Answer 2

The name Buddhism comes from the word 'budhi' which means 'to wake up' and thus Buddhism is the philosophy of awakening.This philosophy has its origin in the experience of the man Siddhata Gotama,known as tha Buddha,who was himself awakened at the age of 35.
The essence of the Teaching of the Buddha are:
1.The Four Noble Truths
2.The Noble Eightfold Path
3.Dependent Origination
4.Three Marks of Existence

Answer 3

Buddhism is a means to enlightenment through following a path of practice and spiritual development leading to Insight into the true nature of life. Meditation is part of the process of changing oneself in order to develop qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom. Buddhism predates Christianity by many years, and doesn't include a deity or the practice of worshiping a god.

As Buddhism focuses upon all people irrespective of race, nationality, or gender, it is inclusive, promoting harmony rather than hostility, and may provide a more enlightened path to resolving the problems found in the conflict between Islam and Christianity.

Answer 4

Buddhism, religion and philosophy founded in India c.525 B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha. There are over 300 million Buddhists worldwide. One of the great world religions, it is divided into two main schools: the Theravada or Hinayana in Sri Lanka and SE Asia, and the Mahayana in China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. A third school, the Vajrayana, has a long tradition in Tibet and Japan. Buddhism has largely disappeared from its country of origin, India, except for the presence there of many refugees from the Tibet region of China and a small number of converts from the lower castes of Hinduism.
Basic Beliefs and Practices

The basic doctrines of early Buddhism, which remain common to all Buddhism, include the “four noble truths”: existence is suffering (dukhka); suffering has a cause, namely craving and attachment (trishna); there is a cessation of suffering, which is nirvana; and there is a path to the cessation of suffering, the “eightfold path” of right views, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Buddhism characteristically describes reality in terms of process and relation rather than entity or substance.

Experience is analyzed into five aggregates (skandhas). The first, form (rupa), refers to material existence; the following four, sensations (vedana), perceptions (samjna), psychic constructs (samskara), and consciousness (vijnana), refer to psychological processes. The central Buddhist teaching of non-self (anatman) asserts that in the five aggregates no independently existent, immutable self, or soul, can be found. All phenomena arise in interrelation and in dependence on causes and conditions, and thus are subject to inevitable decay and cessation. The casual conditions are defined in a 12-membered chain called dependent origination (pratityasamutpada) whose links are: ignorance, predisposition, consciousness, name-form, the senses, contact, craving, grasping, becoming, birth, old age, and death, whence again ignorance.-

Answer 5

What is Buddhism?
Buddhism is a path of practice and spiritual development leading to Insight into the true nature of life. Buddhist practices such as meditation are means of changing oneself in order to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom. The experience developed within the Buddhist tradition over thousands of years has created an incomparable resource for all those who wish to follow a path — a path which ultimately culminates in Enlightenment or Buddhahood.

Because Buddhism does not include the idea of worshipping a creator god, some people do not see it as a religion in the normal, Western sense. The basic tenets of Buddhist teaching are straightforward and practical: nothing is fixed or permanent; actions have consequences; change is possible. Thus Buddhism addresses itself to all people irrespective of race, nationality, or gender. It teaches practical methods (such as meditation) which enable people to realise and utilise its teachings in order to transform their experience, to be fully responsible for their lives and to develop the qualities of Wisdom and Compassion.

There are around 350 million Buddhists and a growing number of them are Westerners. They follow many different forms of Buddhism, but all traditions are characterised by non-violence, lack of dogma, tolerance of differences, and, usually, by the practice of meditation

Answer 6

Buddhism is a set of spiritual practices that follow the teachings of the Buddha. What they believe depends on which school they belong to. Zen is the simplest and purest form without dogmas. Tibetan is the most complicated with dogmas, gods, reincarnation, and a lot of other fluff.

Answer 7

It's a system of practical philosophy founded on moral precepts. They believe materialist desires are the root cause of human suffering and they seek to overcome desire through meditation etc.