| Buddhism |
| Buddhism is a way of life that was founded by the formerly named Siddharta, who was a Prince and the heir of much fortune and gold. His father, the emporer, out of worry for his son, kept Prince Siddharta inside of the castle walls at all times, and therefore keeping the soon to be Shakyamuni Buddha, away from sickness, old age, and death. But at age 18, Siddharta ventured outside the castle walls seeking a new world in which he has never seen before, and it was this curiosity that led him to his quest to end depression, his enlightenment, and the enlightenment of people who are Buddhist even today. Siddharta came upon another travelling man who claimed to be well disciplined and fully clear of all depression, when he asked the traveller how he had come about this happy lifestyle, the traveller showed Siddharta to a place where young men go where they get little to eat, lessons in self discipline, and excersice every day. Willing to try anything to make himself and, more importantly, the people around him, free of depression, Siddharta tried it. After some time of this discipline, Siddharta became extremely skinny, and was on the brink of death. He quit the school, and while he was wandering in the woods he came upon a pond, and while looking into the pond to see the reflection of what he had become, a local lady came to pay a sacrifice of rice to a god she had believed had saved her child, she mistook Siddharta for her god, and gave him the rice. This lady had actually saved the future Buddha's life. So, from there on, Siddharta figured it would be up to him to figure out the path to extreme enlightenment. And after years of study and practice, Siddharta was sitting under a tree, which became known as the bodhi tree, or the tree of enlightenment, and it was here that he attained full enlightenment, and was freed of all depression. He was no longer Prince Siddharta, he was now Shakyamuni Buddha, or just Buddha, which means The Enlightened One. After sitting under the Bodhi tree for hours on end, meditating and enjoying the things only a Buddha can see and feel, he set off toward his father's village to spread the joy. To get back to the castle that he denounced to achieve everlasting happiness, Buddha had to cross the school that he had learned his self-discipline from. The traveler he had met earlier later recalled that as he saw Buddha coming from a mile away, he could see, or rather sense, the peace that surrounded him. And it was at this school that Buddha found his first students, in which the traveller himself had achieved Buddhahood not long afterward, he became a Buddha under the lessons and instructions of Shakyamuni. When he reached the castle Shakyamuni had already accumulated a great number of students, and after denouncing the throne, Buddha left with even more followers from his own town. There are many great books on Buddhism and how to achieve a stress free life through Buddhism. A lot of these books were written by the Dalai Lama himself, the Dalai Lama, converted to Catholic terms, is like the Pope of Buddhism, without the funny hat. That was not an insult, considering Buddhism is not a religion, as I have said, and there are many who are Catholic and follow the ways of Buddha at the same time. In fact, Buddha made the Ten Steps to a Meaningful Life, which are very similar to the ten-commandments. I suggest for better instructions in these ten steps, you get the book How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life, written by the Dalai Lama, and, believe it or not, one of the best books I have ever read was Buddhism for Dummies, which was also from the Dalai Lama, only translated into nowadays terms. One that is pointed out in a lot of the Dalai Lama's teachings, is the fact that most of us westerners love the fact that if your own beliefs and your heart tell you that something that Buddha has said was wrong, or that one thing he has said conflicts with another, then you don't have to practice whatever it is that he has said, and it will affect your path to enlightenment very little. As long as you get the main ideas of Buddhism across and go by them, you will be alright. Now here's the part Westerners don't like, in order to achieve a stressfree, happy lifestyle, you can go by The Ten Ways, get the general concept of Buddhism down and many other ways, and in a short time you will be happy and will have a very positive affect on those around you, which comes back on you, since you are a Buddhist your main goal is to make everybody happy which will be the main source of your happiness. Yet, in order to achieve supreme enlightenment, you have to denounce all material possessions, and live strictly by the standards The Buddha or A Buddha has set for you, which can be learned from the above mentioned books. This doesn't mean it's not possible at home, it just means it's harder at home. In America we are used to throwing our money around and buying things that we think make us happy, we consider everything we buy or everything that is bought for us as "mine!". This is the root of depression, believe it or not, and a lot of people will argue against it but apart from making you stressfree and happy, Buddhism makes you a wiser person, and even smarter. Any Buddha will tell you that thinking of something as yours and, as the original Buddha put it, "clinging to material possessions", will get to you in the end. You see, no matter how good we look, how much money we have, how big our house is, or how fast our car is, we know that in the end we will be without all of these, and that leads to depression. Then there's the matter of protecting your possessions against theft, which causes great stress, and losing a possession which is even worse. Now if we can have these possessions around us and just use them, and truly believe of them as "not mine", we should be okay, and we have just progressed further in to the world of a meaningful life. As I have mentioned on my home page, if you are interested in further information on Buddhism, email me and we can get some kind of information exchange thing going on. If you are serious about it, I will be willing to download an instant messenger to chat with you on. A good site for pictures with some of Buddha's teachings, go to www.bodhivision.net |