BuddhisM
Origins
The enlightened and peaceful lifestyle known as buddhism was founded by one admirable visionary named Siddhartha Gautama. There is no exact date for when siddhartha was born but modern scholars agree that he died somewhere between 410 and 370 bce, about 100 to 180 years before the reign of ashoka of the mauryan empire. Siddhartha's father, suddhodana, was head of the shakya clan and his family was of the kshatriya(warrior class) meaning that they were comfortably wealthy.
As Siddhartha grew he began to observe the world around him and when he had the realization that anyone could be subjected to the different forms of human suffering such as disease, hunger and death, it drove him into a personal crisis. By the age of 29, siddhartha had left his home to find a way to free himself of worldly suffering. It was in his mid 30's where he meditated under a fig tree and reached a state of bliss he called "enlightenment". Siddhartha's followers started to call him "buddha" which meant "enlightened one". After buddha gave his first sermon at sarnath, he and his disciples established the first buddhist monastic community known as sangha. From then on buddhism rapidly became popular within india and ultimately all of asia between poor lower caste members, to mighty kings and rulers. |
Beliefs and Traditions
Buddhism adopted some of its customs from Hinduism such as the concept of Moksha and Dharma. The Buddha created the Four Noble Truths which state: 1. Life has inevitable suffering, 2.There is a cause for our suffering, 3. There is an end to suffering, 4. The end to suffering is contained in the eight fold path. The eight fold path is a guide to how a person should act to end their suffering. Buddhists also believe in reincarnation, they believe if they were good in a previous life they would be rewarded with abettor life after rebirth, as well as a worse life if a person is evil. Buddhists don't have many holidays other than Buddhas birthday, the Buddhist New Year, and Puja which is a well known form of worship in the Buddhist world. It is in most instances directed towards images of the Buddha. People will make an offering for the Buddha as well as a prayer.
Growth and spread of buddhism
Buddhism was started in India by the Buddha and in 247 B.C.E. was introduce in Sri Lanka. Some time later around 100 B.C.E-300 B.C.E Mahayana Buddhism was created in India. Also in 100 C.E. Buddhism had begun to to be established in China. Tantric Buddhism is started in India between 400-700C.E. In 617 C.E. Buddhism is found in Tibet, and now Buddhism can be found all over the world as more people migrate to different places and spread the religion around. Buddhism is still followed by about 7% of the worlds population.
Changes in Buddhism over time
The main focus of Buddhism hasn't changed it is still mainly on the same concept of achieving enlightenment. More so the people following Buddhism have changed in a bad way. Many people who follow Buddhism can not even describe what Buddha looks like anymore. They are still greedy and ignorant which will never result in a person achieving enlightenment.
How Buddhism Affects society
Buddhism has affected society in different ways. It has given certain people more freedom by eliminating the caste system. Buddhism gave peasants more rights and the ability to gain a more prosperous life. A negative effect of no caste system was that many peasants felt like they could get away with not doing their job. This resulted in the economy falling apart because many important roles were not filled. Buddhism has made many people around the world