What Is Buddhism? Essay examples -- essays research papers

What is Buddhism?Buddhism is a channel of teaching and practice. Buddhistic practices such asmeditation are means of changing matchlessself in order to rail the qualities ofawareness, kindness, and wisdom. The experience developed within the Buddhisttradition over thousands of years has created an incomparable resource for allthose who wish to follow the path of spiritual development. Ultimately, theBuddhist path culminates in Enlightenment or Buddhahood.Who was the Buddha?The word Buddha is a call not a name. It means one who is awake inthe sense of having woken up to reality. The title was first given to a mancalled Siddharta Guatemala, who lived about 2,500 years ago in Northern India.When he was 35 he found Enlightenment whist in profound mediation, aftersearching for years. In the next 45 years of his life he spent it travelingthrough India teaching his trend of life. His teaching is known as Buddha-dharma.Traveling from place to place, the Buddha gained many disciples. Theyalso taught of the enlightment, and the chain has continued on to this presentday.The Buddha was not a God, and he make no claim to divinity. There is noconcept of a creator in Buddhism. He was a human being who, thought tremendousefforts, modify himself.The state of Enlightenment which he reached has three main facets. Itis a state of wisdom, of insight into the true nature of things. It is also asource or interminable compassion, manifesting itself in activity for the benefitof all beings. and it the total liberation of all the energies of the mind andthe body so they are at the service of the fully witting mind.What Happened After the Buddhas Death?Buddhism died out in India a thousand years ago, though it has recentlyrevived. In the last century Buddhism has emphatically arrived in the wolfram andup to one million westerners have become Buddhists.What Does Buddhism Teach?Buddhism sees life as being in process of constant change and itspractices aim to form advantage of t his fact. It means that one can change forthe better. The decisive factor in changing ourselves is the mind and Buddhismhas developed many methods for working on the mi... ... the sustainment beings in the six realms of initiation differbut none of them lasts forever. Eventually, rebirth will take place. The realminto which one is reborn and ones conditions of rebirth are rigid by onespast and present actions. This is the law of Karma at work.Because of the force of their karma, people are born are rebornendlessly, in one realm of existence or in another. The Buddha declared thatthere is no permanent rest in the cycle of birth and death. It is only when onefollows the Noble Eightfold path taught by the Buddha and eventually attainsNirvana, that one finally becomes free from the ceaseless cycle and gainssupreme and permanent happiness.KarmaKarma is the law of moral causation. It is action and reaction in the estimable realm. It is natural law that every action produces a certain effect.So if one performs wholesome actions, one will experience happiness. on theother hand, if one performs unwholesome actions, one will experience suffering.The is the law of cause and effect at work. In this way, the effect of onespast karma determine that nature of ones present spotlight in life.