Tell me about Buddhism ?

Question

Basics of Buddhism; I don't know too much about it and I feel like learning something.

Answer 1

Buddhism

Buddhism is a very logical philosophy which reveals about the mind, life, and the nature of the world. Lord Buddha is the great master.
A Buddha is a great master who shows people the way to achieve Nirvana the cessation of Sorrow. Lord Buddha was his own master and preached the knowledge he gained through enlightenment. He has reached the state of Buddha by improving his self doing merits and meditation for many years in his previous lives.
Lord Buddha did not represent another powerful invisible figure to preach his knowledge and was his own master. To the layman he taught how to live a good, sincere, happy and a purposeful life and proposed some guidelines to follow to achieve these objectives. Those who do good deeds are rewarded with positive results and vice versa he said. He also said those who want to improve the mind should practice to eliminate selfishness, hatred, anger and ignorance.

Lord Buddha had born 2500 years ago in Northern India and has gain the state of Buddha in his life due to the great merits he has done in his previous lives and the improvement of mind by the meditation he has done. He is not the first or the last Buddha.
There were Buddha's in the past and will be in the future. So we are living in a rare era, an era where Buddhism exists in the world.
We are very lucky to be born in a period of a Buddha. Because there are dark eras where Buddhism does not exists in this world.

He said right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration will lead to cessation of sorrow and to attain Nirvana the ultimate peace. To achieve Nirvana you have to follow the above path. It is not a process which can be done very quickly. One has to follow the path Buddha has taught patiently to achieve Nirvana.


For the intellectuals he said the life is sorrow and taught the way to eliminate the sorrow, by enlightenment. Enlightenment could only be attained through improvement of knowledge thus the improvement of conscious or mind hence some consider it as a philosophy. Worshipping is not a requirement in Buddhism though many do it as a habit and a custom.

Long before Newton, Buddha said every action has a reaction including in all conscious deeds. Those who do good deeds shall be rewarded with positive results and those who do harmful actions (with an evil intension) may experience in adverse results. The results of our righteous or sinful deeds Buddha said shall follow our soul in subsequent lives. Apart from heaven and hell he also said there are other forms of lives after this life.

Just like in thousands of present day books which provide self improvement techniques. Buddha provided an enormous amount of advice to the layman to improve one's self. He said selfishness; hatred, anger and ignorance prevent one from self improvement. One who wants to improve the mind should learn to eliminate these four statuses of mind. Buddha is said to have supernatural powers such as reading others thoughts. He has gained those abilities through meditation. We already know some people possess super natural powers and extra ordinary abilities. Such status could be achieved by improving one's mind thought it is not the ultimatum of the Buddhism. Self improvement or the learning process since the childhood is a way of improving our mind or thinking. It is by improvement of one's mind that the truth could be understood.

It is up to the individual who follows Buddhism to understand and practice what Lord Buddha had taught. Understanding and practicing is important for self improvement.
The Lord Buddha has shown the way. It is our own responsibility to follow it and understand the truth.

Buddhists are practicing 3 major merits in their lives.
They are

1. Dana (Giving & helping other people and animals.)

2. Sheela (preventing from doing sins like killing and harming others and animals, stealing, adultery, false speech, etc.)

3. Bhavana (The improvement in mindfulness and wisdom by practicing Meditation.)

From these practices they are trying to give up desires step by step and coming closer to the state of ultimate freedom NIRVANA.


5 Main precepts of Buddhism

1. I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living beings.
2. I undertake the precept to refrain from stealing.
3. I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct (adultery, rape, child abuse, etc).
4. I undertake the precept to refrain from false speech (lying).
5. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicants which lead to heedlessness.

Every Buddhist should take those precepts and try to improve own self to live a happy, peaceful life. When you give up your lust, anger, fear, hatred your mind becomes more clear and calm. Mind can be improved by meditation.
One fine day when you understand the truth by your self which was shown by Lord Buddha you will find the ultimate peace. Buddhism is a great philosophy, it all about understanding by your self. There is much more to learn about Buddhism.
So here are two of the best web sites to find out more about Buddhism.


http://www.metta.lk/

http://www.bswa.org/

Answer 2

1) Letting go of attachments....
Attachments to things like money and sex and drugs will ruin you and take you further away from enlightenment.
2) Meditation.... and more meditation....
3) Learning and education - becoming a teacher means accepting the path of being the eternal student...
4) Follow the middle path - avoid extremes.
5) Peace and compassion.
6) The eight-fold path - Right thinking, etc...
7) Impermanence - Nothing lasts forever and things change form.
8) Healing and Helping - Hospice charity, evironmental causes etc...
9) Civil Rights - Free Tibet!
10) Ho Tei is not Buddha and he is not a god... Ho Tei is that chubby statue in your garden... he is like the Buddhist version of Santa Claus.

These are the 10 basics (as I see them) and should kind of let you know a little bit about Buddhism.

Answer 3

Buddhism is a dharmic, non-theistic religion and a philosophy.[1] Buddhism is also known as Buddha Dharma or Dhamma, which means the "teachings of the Awakened One" in Sanskrit and Pali, the languages of ancient Buddhist texts. Buddhism was founded around the fifth century BCE by Siddhartha Gautama, hereafter referred to as "the Buddha".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism
http://www.religioustolerance.org/buddhism.htm
http://www.buddhanet.net/

Answer 4

*I bow to Rubble Rouser and his insightful answer. He speaks with much intelligent wisdom.

- Encourage you, if your interested in learning a bit about Buddhism, not to dive
in, so earnestly. There is so............so........ much to learn.

*Start out with something quite interesting and basic, such as "Mindfulness", for
Mindfulness/Living Mindfully for others in Life, is the Most fundamental Truth of Buddhism!

Encourage you to click, and read the information in the below site:

http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/mindfulness_in_plain_english_15.php

*IF, you become interested in learning more about Mindfulness [not for the purpose of being converted to Buddhism - that is not the Buddhist Way], click below:

http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/mindfulness_in_plain_english.php

`

Thank You for your Excellent Question, and Have a wonderful coming weekend.

* Metta, to all.

`

Answer 5

http://www.universaldharma.com [anattaO]for a down to earth Buddhism [clear and precise articles about the faith]
http://www.serve .com what do you think my friend,article for you to ponder.
http://www.dharmathecat.com Buddhist like to laugh at our self [Buddhist humour]
http://www.tde-intl/groups.yahoo.com for you to read and post comments
One important thing to know is Buddhism is not a religion it is an Education,the Buddha is a teacher not a preacher,he is a multi-culture social worker for only a meal a day,he spent the rest of his life after 'gaining' enlightening to teach and educate the people and Buddhism is best made as simple as possible,it is not something out of this world.Metta to all.

Answer 6

Most cities I've been in have Buddhist centers too, if you want to talk to someone. On the whole Buddhists seem less prone to zealous conversion than, say, Christians like me.

(Here, I'm not nearly as annoying as in real life. LOL In the time it takes to split a pot of diner coffee I can get almost anyone to give serious thought to following the Sermons on the Mount and the Plain.)

Answer 7

A good question deserves a good answer.

"Good Question, Good Answer" a free e-book covering the most "basic basics" of Buddhism is available in pdf format here:

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/gqga-4ed.pdf

Answer 8

The tyranny (fear, desire, grasping) of a misconceived selfhood or self-identity compels us to act towards ourselves and others in self-destructive or negative ways. Often we do not understand why or how we are so compelled and do not know what to do about it. Buddhism offers a way to realize and correct the inherited, unexamined and habitual mental patterns of conceptualization and attachment that are the conditions for our sense of confusion and helplessness.

Answer 9

1

Answer 10

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/...The Lord Buddha often said in the Suttas "Are we not the happy ones..?"

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 (there are many kinds of suffering)
2.The cause of suffering is self serving human desire (our own selfishness which originates in our consciousness is the cause of our own and other's suffering)
3.To cease suffering one must cease self serving desire (this means that we must stop being selfish and begin to think of other's happiness in the first instance and stop the arising of these selfish feelings in the consciousness)
4.The way to do this is by following the Noble Eightfold Path
This involves meditation practises which will highlight our thought processes and this is where we find the source of or the causes of the arising of theses selfish feelings, so we know them and can find ways of improving ourselves. As well as following the guidelines in a practical manner by practising being unselfish in our everyday lives.

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 ( this is lucky for us because Buddhist Monks and Nuns follow and adhere to more than 300 ). 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 is 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...allow me a smile for your interest and another for your well being....

Peace from a Buddhist..in the season of joy

Answer 11

Well, then instead of me spoon-feeding you something you may not want to read of MY babbling idiocy... off you go to www.buddhanet.net and pick and choose what you'd like to learn about it. Enjoy dear lady and have fun w/ it.

_()_