Can you please explain Buddhism in half a page for me?

Question

please list your sources

Answer 1

You've asked for an answer to a very big question. It is very difficult to reduce a philosophy and an ideology to a few lines or even paragraphs, but if you bear with me I'll do the best I can to satisfy your avid curiosity. I'll try to keep it to less than War and Peace..../Buddhists are allowed to have a sense of humour/...

Buddhism then....in a nutshell....whew this is going to be tough even for me as a Buddhist........

We believe in the Dharma or Teaching. The basis of which is the 4 Noble Truths which are
1. In Life there is suffering
2.The cause of suffering is self serving human desire
3.To cease suffering one must cease self serving desire
4.The way to do this is by following the Noble Eightfold Path

It follows then that to follow the Noble Eightfold Path one must develop the following

Morality including
1.Right Speech
2.Right Actions
3.Right Livelihood (killing is forbidden even as employment)

Mind including
4.Right Effort
5.Right mindfulness
6.Right concentration

Wisdom including
7.Right thoughts
8.Right understanding

As well as these, there are a set of moral code guidelines which are called the Precepts. In general there are 5 but some prefer the more strict code and follow 8. The 5 are
1.Refrain from taking Life
2.Refrain from theft
3.Refrain from sexual miscunduct
4.Refrain from lying
5.Refrain from drugs and alcohol

So, by practising the development of these 8 characteristics of the Noble Eightfold Path and adhering to the 5 Precepts we strive for the achiement of an enlightened state of consciousness which is free of suffering.

We do this not for a selfish reason, rather we strive so that all beings are free of suffering both through a direct result or consequence of our Actions or through the positive consequence or Karma for which we strive.

Buddhists believe several things
1.That Beings include all sentient Life Forms, these Life Forms
include animals and humans.
2.There are several levels of existence....several Lower Realms,
this Realm and several higher Realms each containing Life
Forms of their own.
3.There is no Deity or all powerful God
4.Some higher Realms do have Beings such as Gods and
superhumans who have evolved to get to that Realm
5.Life is a cyclic phenomenon which continues endlessly from
Birth through Life then Death then Rebirth
6.Rebirth is a result of another phenomena known as Karma.
Karma is a phenomena which is a consequence of our
Actions in both this Life and our previous Lives. These
consequences can be positive, negative or neutral depending
on our intentions.
7.To escape from and therefore move out of the cycle of Karma,
Death and Rebirth, one must evolve and to do this one must
attain enlightenment it is understood that we do not have to be Monks to achieve this state but it attainable by all who dilligently follow the Path, it is further understood that it is a Path with no end, that following it will expand our awareness to include others and thereby release ourselves from our self serving feelings, selfishness if you will. We are in effect to become truly selfless in our dealings with others.
8.Buddhists do not preach to attract converts as the Dharma
states that we each should not believe the Dharma but should
reach understanding by our own experience of it.
9. Buddhists do not pray to or worship the Lord Buddha or His image, rather we pay homage and honour to a great human being who's compassion we respect in giving humans the beautiful Dharma. We do this by repeating our promises to Him....we seek refuge in the Buddha...we seek refuge in the Dharma...and we seek refuge in the Sangha or community..these promises are known as the 3 refuges or the 3 gems.

This is a very, very basic introduction to the Dharma and Buddhist ideology. Do not take this answer as the truth of Buddhism. I am not a Teacher nor an Adept and only serves as a very incomplete guide.

Here are a couple of references for you covering the Theravada tradition....

http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/...
http://www.what-buddha-taught.net/books/...

I hope I've helped you...

Peace from a Buddhist..in the season of joy

Answer 2

Read the 4 Noble Truths and the 8-Fold Path. That ought to cover less than half a page.

http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Religion_and_Spirituality/Faiths_and_Practices/Buddhism/