What Do Buddhists Believe?

Number of Followers: 488 Million

Place of Origin: Northern India

Date of Origin: ca. 6th century B.C.

Founder: Siddhartha Gautama or “The Buddha”.

Core Tenets:

The teachings that would be known as “Buddhism” began when Siddhartha Gautama, a wealthy royal first came face to face with the suffering of the world around him while on a chariot ride after leaving the shelter of his father’s palace for the first time in his life. He soon took on a life of renunciation of the world and began teaching this way to followers.

in developing an understanding of Buddhism, it is important to note that Buddhism is unlike many of the world’s other popular religions in that some don’t consider it a religion at all. Some schools of thought within Buddhism, specifically Theravada Buddhism, are considered non-theistic as Buddha himself did not endorse a belief in any gods as part of Buddhist devotion. Mahayana Buddhism, the largest school of thought within Buddhism, maintains a belief in a spiritual world full of spiritual beings such as Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are individuals who could have reached nirvana but chose to remain as celestial beings to aid others in reaching nirvana. The differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism are illustrative of the vast differences found within Buddhist belief. All forms of Buddhism involve the search within oneself for truth. While this search has developed into many different schools within Buddhism, a foundational understanding can be found in the following teachings:

The Four Noble Truths

• Life is made up of suffering.
• Suffering is due to the human desire for pleasure, and ultimately due to greed
• There is an end to suffering
• The end to suffering is following the Eight-Fold Path and the Middle Way

The Eight-fold Path and The Middle Way

• The Eight-fold Path is seen by Buddhists as the path to enlightenment set forth by the Buddha himself. Along with the Middle Way, which is a rejection of extreme indulgence and extreme renunciation or self-punishment, Buddhists hope to achieve Nirvana.

Three Marks of Existence

• Impermanence
  All things are in a constant state of change
• Suffering
  Uncomfortable with the constant state of change, we hold on to the world around us. This causes suffering.
• Anatman
  There is no independent, eternal self or soul underlying personal existence. Buddha advised his followers to not try and ascertain an understanding of self as it ultimately leads to suffering and individualization

Nirvana

• The liberation from suffering in the cycle of samsara. It is thought to be the “extinguishing” or “blowing out” of desire and suffering in one’s life.
  It is typically believed to be incomparable to anything else in life
  and the Buddha taught very little about it, however, it is the ultimate desire of all Buddhists. "Parinirvana" is the cessation of rebirth after death.