Buddhism Essay examples -- Papers Religion India Essays Religious

BuddhismWorks Cited MissingBuddhism is the religion of close whizz eighth of the worlds people (Gaer 27). Buddhism is the name for a complex organisation of beliefs developed around the teachings of a single man. The Buddha, whose name was Siddhartha Gautama, lived 2,500 years ago in India. There are now dozens of different schools of Buddhistic philosophy throughout Asia. These schools, or sects, wee different writings and languages and have grown up in different cultures. There is no one single Bible of Buddhism, but all Buddhists parting some lowlying beliefs. Buddhism is a Western word. The religion is known in the East as the Buddha-Dharma, or the teachings of the Buddha (Kelen 10). These teachings, based on his personal experience of Enlightenment, or Awakening, spirt the foundation of Buddhism. For every Buddhist the religion is both a field of operation and a dead body of beliefs that is, Buddhists share beliefs about the nature of the world and how to process w ithin it. Budh in the Indian Sanskrit language way of life to wake up, to know. Buddha means the Awakened or Enlightened One, and all Buddhist teachings try to share the Buddhas experience of awakening to truth. Having led an indulgent life as a young man, (Stryk 15) Siddhartha Gautama decided to pursue a course of bitter self-denial(Stryk 18). Yet he felt that this brought him no closer to the truth he sought than the rich life he had led. One day he felt close to reaching his truth, and he sat down under a tree now known as the Bo tree. There he attained the blissfulness and knowledge he had been seeking. Legend has it that, though tempted by evil demons, he sat quietly under the tree for 49 days. This became known as the Immovable Spot. Once Siddhartha Gautama was ... ... have achieved Nirvana, total bliss (Kelen 90). He is shown as calm and loving, usually with a soft grin and radiant energy ( Kelen 93). Some scenes show the Buddha at key moments of his life, for examp le, seance under the Bo tree. Others garnish his teachings. There is a story that tells of the Buddha offering his body as food for a hungry mother tiger and her cubs because he felt that all life was sacred. This scene is a popular ocular theme in the cave temples of China and Japan. Other Buddhist paintings illustrate the sacred writings, as stained glass windows were created to illustrate the Bible in many Christian churches. Since Buddhists believe that anyone can be on the passageway toward Enlightenment, these visual images of the Buddha along his own path are a laboursaving addition to the writings that people study. They make the texts more personal and inviting.