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Buddhism

Buddhism
My religion is Catholic.   The religion I follow is through the traditional Mexican beliefs that my parents have taught me through out my life.   I chose to do my research paper on Buddhism.   The reason is because it is giving me the opportunity to educate myself more on another religion outside of mine.
According to historians, Buddhism started in India and spread all the way through East Asia.   The tradition goes as follows, “Siddhartha Gautama (c. 500 BCE), best known as the Buddha (“enlightened one”), was born the son of a chief of one of the tribes in the Himalayan foothills.   At the age twenty-nine, unsatisfied with his life of comfort and troubled by the suffering he saw around him, he left home to become a wandering ascetic.   He traveled south to the kingdom of Magadha, where he studied with yoga masters.   He reached enlightenment while meditating under a bo tree at Bodh Gaya, gaining perfect insight into the processes of the universe.   He preached his first sermon, urging “middle way” between asceticism and worldly life.   For the next forty-five years, the Buddha traveled through the Ganges Valley attracting followers.   These followers were called monks.   The Buddha preached in the local language Magadhi.”   (McKay, pg. 64)  
After the fall of the Han Dynasty the empire was divided into territories north, southeast and southwest which became known as the Age of Division.   During this division non Chinese were settling into the north China.   North China was ruled by one or more non Chinese dynasties.   This was the time where families judged themselves and others by their ancestors.   Many families wanted to maintain the high culture in which many did extremely well in writing poetry and having sharp conversation.   The government expanded the land with taxes by taxing immigrants or local owners in order to maintain an army or support the courts.   “The capital was moved from the northern border near the Great Wall to the ancient city of Luoyang....