The founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, was the first son of a obsessively over-protective king in the later half of the sixth century B.C.E. He was smothered with every type of pleasure and gratified any desire at the snap of a finger, but one day he left the picturesque walls of his father’s protection and found himself to be ignorant of pain and torment surfaced by death, hatred, and suffering. This utter shock brought about a long quest in hope to understand the meaning of and beyond suffering. After rejecting all outside teaching and methods, he intensely meditated for three days under a Bodhi tree. He “awoke” illuminating by reaching Parinirvana and finally Nirvana when he left his body behind.
For the final duration of his life , Buddha, taught only of suffering and a way out. Some of the major concepts and paths Buddha left behind are that all compounds are transitory, work out your own salvation through diligence, and to be lamps unto yourselves; four noble truths(eight-fold paths), the “Middle Way”, and which all teachings pivoted on is experience oriented wisdom-“Come and see”.
Buddha is revered and presented to the world as the fully realized being who teaches and epitomizes the true nature of all other beings. He understood that Basic life is unsatisfactory because it is based on ignorance and desire, resulting in the inability to realize that there is no real “self”, Anatman. One must first unite all opposites by finding the Middle way between all attachments, and wanting to be open to all omniscience, all skill, and all compassion.
There are two major forms of Buddhism, Theravada (the elders) and Mahayana. Theravada moved out of India into south eastern countries and believed the teachings of the Buddha in a more literal sense by utilizing the roles and ideas of the Tripitka-disciplines for the monks, Arhants-the noble teacher, and the Samadhi-mediation becomes one with the divine. The Mahayana Buddhism moved north east with a much more liberal and innovative taste that adapted into a few branches: Pure Land Buddhism, Chan(Zen), and Jajrayana(Tibetan).
Buddhism has very little interest in controlling large amounts of people, as in Hinduism, and is severely attracted to a unified psychological state- profound meditation, warm compassion, or even unambiguous fury against illusion. Buddhist practices are focused on strong clear states mind through ritual chanting, meticulous gardening, and finely rendered Mandolas.
