Buddhism is one of the peaceful religion and a belief system which provides not only moral teachings but also teaches us the importance and purpose of our life. A word 'Buddhism' originates from the word 'buddhi' which means 'to awaken', 'to understand', and 'to know'. Buddhism is becoming popular in western culture because it provides solutions to many problems in the modern societies. Buddhism was originated nearly 2500 years ago by Siddhartha Gautama who is the founder of Buddhism religion. 

Gautama Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama was a son of an Indian warrior. He was born into the royal family in Nepal, in 563 BC. Till his adulthood, he led an extravagant lavish life and engaged in reveling the privileges of his social caste. However in late stage of his adulthood, he wandered in search of purpose of his life. At the age of 30, he realized that the happiness does not lie in the health and wealth, but the true happiness is somewhere else. He was enlightened after the age of 35 when he studied the meditation and different teachings / philosophies of different religions. He spent rest of his life teaching the principles of Buddhism until the end of his life. The principles of Buddhism is called as 'Dhamma' or 'Truth'. 

Buddha is not a god nor he claims to be a god. In fact he is a man who taught and showed the path towards happiness. Usually Buddhist pay respect to the statue of Gautama Buddha and express their gratitude by bowing to his statue. Most of the time you will find  Buddha's statue as rested hands on its lap with a smile. This statue will remind you to develop peace and love within yourself. 

Buddhism Beliefs

The essence of Buddha's teaching comprises of Four Truths - 

First Truth is Life is suffering - Life includes pain, health issues, diseases, psychological sufferings like fear, jealousy, embarrassment, anxiety,etc; old age and finally death. This is a fact of our life. No one can change this fact. Buddhism teachings makes you realistic and teaches you how to avoid and overcome these sufferings. 

Second Truth is the desire and ignorance are the root cause of the sufferings - By desire I mean craving for pleasure, material goods, and immortality are the wants of life which can be never satisfied. Hence desiring them only brings suffering and misery. Ignorance means ignoring the world and unable to grasp the true nature of life. Hence bad and evil nature like jealousy, hatred, egotism, etc arises from this ignorance. 

Third Truth is that there is an end to the suffering and happiness can begin in your life - The happiness can be attained if we give up these cravings, and if we do not dwell in the past or in future instead if we live in the present every day. Basically this state is called as 'Nirvana' where you are free from sufferings.

Fourth Truth is the attaining the end of suffering through Noble Eightfold Path. It is basically being moral, focusing your mind and aware of your thoughts and actions and develop wisdom by understanding the Four Noble Truths.  

Noble 8-Fold Path

The steps for Noble 8 Fold Path are - Right Understanding, Right Thoughts, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Efforts, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.

 Karma and The Cycle of Re-birth

Karma is refers the law that every action has its reaction, i.e our every action has a result. If a person does good action like generosity, helpful to people, kindness, etc throughout his life, brings happiness in his life; if person does bad actions like stealing, lying, killing, brings about sadness in his life. The result of Karma depends on the past and present action of an individual. According to Buddhism there are 6 different plane or reams on which any living being can be reborn - 3 fortunate realms and 3 unfortunate (miserable)realms. Three fortunate realms are realms of demigods, realms of gods and realms of human being; while unfortunate or miserable realms are realms of animals, ghosts and hell. Rebirth in the fortunate realms results in the wholesome karma while rebirth in an unfortunate realm results in unwholesome karma where they suffer miserably. 

Let me explain you about these realms in brief. Most happiest among the six realms are the realms of God. Living beings are reborn as gods if they have done wholesome good actions, have observed moral precepts and have dome meditation. However the happiness of god is not permanent hence realm of god is not desirable. When the force of karma exhausted the gods from heaven are reborn in another realms. This happens because of pride among them. 

Demigods are more powerful physically and intellectual than human beings, yet they suffer from jealousy and anger. According to mythology, Demigods are usually envious of gods and always fight with gods. Hence they remain unhappy and unfortunate most of the time. This anger and jealousy of demigods causes rebirth in other realms.

Human reals is the most favored realm of all the other realms because human beings has an opportunity to achieve enlightenment and achieve enlightenment. In human realm , one experiences both happiness and sadness or sufferings. The suffering in human realms although seems to be terrible, it is less terrible than the other three unfortunate realms. Also happiness experienced in human reals is also not great as it is experienced in gods realms.  As a result human beings has sufferings and happiness at equal level. Human birth is very difficult to gain because good conduct is the only way or cause to reborn as humans. Human beings are the only one who has opportunity to practice and achieve enlightenment, and to develop qualities like wisdom, mental development and morality. 

In conclusion, Buddhism teaches that solution to our problem is within our self. Every one should decide and take responsibility of their own actions. Buddhism teaches that the wisdom should be developed with compassion which includes qualities of sharing, giving comfort, sympathy, concern,. Through wisdom we can really understand each other and understand our self. True wisdom is not merely following the path, it means experiencing and understanding the truth and reality.