What is Buddism, what are the main beliefs?

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.

I hope I've helped you...

Peace from a Buddhist..in the season of joy

Answer 2

We learned about Buddhism in school.

Buddhism was founded by Siddartha Gautama, a Hindu prince. When he was born, there was a prophecy saying that if he stayed inside the castle, he would be a great ruler, and if he left, he would be a great spirituel leader. He finally ventured out of the castle one day when he was around 29 years old. He saw an old man, a dying man, a dead man and a guru (or holy man). He went on a long quest to find out why the guru was so happy (enlightened). At the end, he meditated under a bodhi tree for 40 days and made Buddhism. From that day on, he became known as the Buddha (or the Enlightened one)

The Buddha created The Four Noble Truths:
1. Everyone suffers
2. suffering is caused by desire
3. to end suffering you must crush desire
4. to end suffering, crush desire and become enlightened, you must follow the eightfold path.

The Eightfold Path:
1. right views
2. right intention
3. right speech
4. right action
5. right livelihood
6. right effort
7. right mindfulness
8. right concentration

Karma: good deeds
Dharma: doing one's job or duty in life.

In Buddhist monestaries (cannot spell, sorry!!!) the people live a "poor" lifestyle. They have only the essential things, clothing and shelter. They take alms (or offerings) from the community.

Buddhism is a lot like Hinduism, in the sense that they believe in reincarnation or samsara. To end samsara is the goal. When you break samsara, it is called Nirvana.

Bhodi Sattvas are people who achieved Nirvana, but came back to teach the people of earth the ways of buddhism (or something like that). This is what the Buddha did.

Ahimsa (or non-violence) is a key part of Buddhism.

There are several different forms of Buddhism:
Mahayana Buddhism: Reveres the Buddha and all Bodhi Sattvas as gods.
Therevada Buddhism: Reveres the Buddha and all Bhodi Sattvas as teachers

BUDDHISTS REJECT THE CASTE SYSTEM (a social class system in India that is still there today)

Phew! That was a lot, I think I didn't write about EVERYTHING, but that's all I can remember for now...

Answer 3

Buddism believe on cause. All our people action will follow by consequent. If you do bad you will get bad thing if no now will be later even after live .
Budism also believe every body can become Buddha if the person practice good behaviour.

Answer 4

As an Atheist, Buddhism is my favourite religion. It's just a shame that the rampant commercialisation of Buddhist principles and practices that we see in the west pretty well obscures everything really worth knowing about it.

Most people in the UK would answer that it's something to do with feng-shui, and that makes me a bit angry.

Answer 5

The belief that all things are connected and related. All life is sacred.
There is also the theory that what we do, good or bad, comes back to us full circle. Peace and harmony are valued as the best way to go through life. Also that we have many lives, not just one, and if we mess up the current one we will come back as a lower form of life until we learn how to live well. How bad can that be.

Answer 6

It's a system of practical philosophy that promotes adherence to a set of moral precepts in order to eventually attain enlightened consciousness-it places no emphasis on the supernatural or belief in God. That's the basics.

Answer 7

Buddhism is founded on the teachings of the Budda. He lived about 2500 years ago in India. There is no Bible of Buddism.
Buddism believes in reincarnation. The goal of this religion is also to escape the birth-death cycle.

Answer 8

Ok, well Buddhism is a religion in China. Their main beliefs are, that it is wrong to harm other living creatures. They also believe in nonviolence,dharma,and the cycle of birth. Those are the main beliefs of Buddhism.

Answer 9

Its a philosophy. See the link below.

Answer 10

It's the same as alcoholism where as the alcoholic abuses Budweiser beer.