Buddhism is not a religion, rather a philosophy practiced by the followers of Siddhartha Gautama, a man born in India in 563 B.C. Siddhartha was a prince whose father sheltered him from suffering by forbidding him to leave the palace grounds. One day Siddhartha escaped and the first four things he saw were a sick person, an elderly person, a dead body and a monk.

He wandered the countryside joining various sects until he realized that his aesthetic lifestyle was not giving him the peace of mind he sought. He sat down under a tree and meditated for several days until he became enlightened. (Buddha means The Enlightened One.) Buddha then preached the Middle Way, a philosophy which condemns a life of pain and destitution as much as decadence and pleasure.

In Buddhism, all strive to be the enlightened one, not just the leader, or a historical figure

Buddhism can be practiced by anyone, including devout Christians, Jews and Muslims. It is founded upon the concepts in the Four Noble Truths and practiced through meditation, chanting and the study of Buddhist teachings through books known as sutras.

The Four Noble Truths that are common to all schools of Buddhism, are:

1. Suffering exists. Birth is suffering, death is suffering. Pain, grief and disappointment are suffering.

2. Suffering is desire, which arises through the five senses.

3. Suffering can be eradicated by overcoming desire.

4. Desire is overcome by following the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path is right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

Chanting, a form of prayer, is another act of Buddhist devotion.

Meditation is the main form of Buddhist practice and may seem easy or even boring to someone who has never tried it.

There are numerous ways to meditate. Although sitting meditation is the most widely accepted form, meditation can be created out of almost any activity, from playing golf or painting a picture to walking down the street.

One of the greatest challenges in meditation is learning how to be alone with our thoughts and feelings without analyzing them, judging them or trying to escape from them. Only when the mind is quiet does the spirit have a chance to shine through.

There is an internal chatter that is continual; always commenting on what's going on and getting in the way of a more direct experience of life.

If you draw a straight line and then you draw little cross marks through it, the line is your thoughts and the cross marks are your spirit. Through meditation, you divide up the thoughts into smaller and smaller segments, letting your spirit shine through.

A monk named Da Mo who traveled from India to China around 527 A.D. in order to preach Buddhism:

He came across all these monks and all they did was sit and meditate for hours on end, and they wouldn't move. They were dying at very young ages because their bodies were in such poor condition. He invented a series of exercises called Chi Kung (Qi Gong), meditation combined with physical exercise."

William Upton-Knittle, Buddhist monk and former coordinator of advertising and marketing at UCLA Summer Sessions, says the main reason he became a Buddhist is because "of all the great teachers who ever lived, the Buddha is the only one I know of that ever said, 'If anything I say doesn't fit into your life, throw it away.'"

In Buddhism, the lotus symbolizes the Buddha nature within every person. Buddha himself is called the jewel in the lotus. The lotus grows in mud but its beautiful white flower rises above that mud. The mud represents the pain and suffering in our lives and the flower symbolizes the ability of all people to transcend that pain and suffering.

Just decades after the death of Buddha, 18 branches of Buddhism took root.