As a culture, Buddhism has been around for over 2500 years. It was founded by a man named Siddhartha Gautama who has been estimated to have born around 566 BC. Siddhartha Gautama was born as the Prince of the Sakya tribe in Nepal. He lived a life of pleasure and comfort until the age of 29, when he decided to give up his life of riches and find out why the suffering around him was happening. After six years of wandering, he sat beneath a 'bodhi tree' and entered a state of meditation. During this meditation and including his six years of wandering, he had reached 'spiritual enlightenment' and became 'Buddha'. He then spent 45 years traveling around India, teaching people about the path to Enlightenment.
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| Buddha beneath the Bodhi Tree |
The Four Noble truths are the center of Buddha's teachings. These are:
1. The truth of suffering
2. The truth of the origin of suffering
3. The truth of the cessation of suffering.
4. The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering.
Buddha believed by understanding these truths in full, "is the prescription, the way to achieve a release from suffering." BBC. (2009).
Buddhists do not believe in harming others or killing. They believe in peace and acting out of love and compassion to everybody, even if they are your worst enemy. By doing so, you will be spreading around good Karma. In order to become a more compassionate and loving person, Buddha believed that meditation was vital. Meditation is a key practice within the Buddhist faith as it is a way to further understand yourself and others. It helps to clear the mind; see the world with new and different perspectives and every time you meditate, you get closer to spiritual enlightenment. Buddhism teaches that nothing is fixed. Nothing is permanent and that change is always possible.
BBC. (2009). The Four Noble Truths. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/beliefs/fournobletruths_1.shtml. Last accessed 10th Jan 2013.
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