Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is one of the world's major religions, with between 230 to 500 million followers, most of them living in Asia. Buddhism branches off into many other religions just as Christianity does. The two main branches of Buddhism are Mahayana and Theravada. The word Buddha can be translated to awakened or enlightened. Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, taught around 5th century B.C. in northeast India and Nepal. Most Buddhists believe in rebirth and that the experiences are determined by Karma. People who are very spiritual are not bound by Karma and can determine their own rebirth. Some people can even determine others rebirths’. Buddhists believe that meditation is necessary at a certain point but most believe that they have not reached that point. Buddhism proposes very strong ethics of which encourage generosity and the Five Precepts: refraining from killing living beings, stealing, sexual immorality, lying, and taking intoxicants.
Gautama Buddha, whose name was later found to be Siddhartha Buddha, was born in Lumbini, Nepal. He was born around 560-480 BCE into a warrior tribe called the Sakyas (from where he derived the title Sakyamuni, meaning 'Sage of the Sakyas'). He was raised in Kapilavastu(an ancient Indian region that is considered a holy pilgrimage place for Buddhists. It is located close to Lumbini.). His story cannot be proved to be historical fact. The story says that he was born a prince as the son of King Suddhodana. Supposedly the King was visited by a wiseman a short time after Siddhartha was born. The man said that he would he either grow up to be a good king, or a great holy man. His father wanted to make him a king, so he tried to isolate him from seeing reality. His mother, Queen Maya, died seven days after Gautama's birth. Following the death of Maya, Suddhodana married Maya's sister, Prajapati, by whom Gautama was brought up in great luxury and sheltered from the harshness of the outside...
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