Buddhism

If you want to know something about Buddhism the first thing you have to do is stop seeing it as a religion, is more of a philosophy or a way of life. The name Buddhism came from the word Budhi which means to be awaken, and it has its origins about 2500 years ago when Buddha (Siddhartha Gotama) was awaken himself, then he spread his believes and teachings.

Buddhism shows us the real meaning of life, the real happiness. It teaches us how material things are nor is what is important in life, the really important thing peace and being happy, truly happy; also it teaches us how to be wiser and have a bigger mind, not in size or intelligence but in being more open to understand other people’s life and believes.

Buddhism is based on the four noble truths. The first one consists in knowing that we are suffering and the material world is not helping us, realizing that by living upon material things we are not doing any good, in other words being aware of the Dukkha . The second truth talks about wanting to change that, the next step is the will to stop our suffering and simply want to be a better human being. The third one is about knowing that it all can be ended if we want to and the fourth noble truth is take the path to end the suffering, try to reach the nirvana, which is the freedom of the Dukkha.

The path is all about meditating and following the eightfold path, being one with your true self. The eightfold path consists in eight points that should be important in everybody’s life. The right view, the right intention, the right speech, the right discipline, the right livelihood, the right effort, right mindfulness and finally the right concentration.

Also, Buddhist have strong believes in Karma, which is a believe in that every action has a reaction. In other words, if you do good in this world you’ll get good things in return, in contrast if you do nothing but bad, that’s all you would be getting, bad things in return.

As I said before, more than a religion Buddhism is a philosophy, with believes dos and don’ts. The special things about Buddhism is that there is not an specific way of practicing it, someone teaches you all about it, the fourth noble truths, the eightfold path and other aspect of it and you take all of it and apply it in your own way, you take the path, however the path is not all ready written, you are the one who decide where to go, when to start and how to do it; that’s why Buddhism is very practiced all around the world and in fact, in changes from country to country.



By: Santiago Gil
Co-edited by: Maria Jose Lopez