II. Religions
Buddhism:
1. Siddhartha Guatama
2. 6th century
3. Noble Truths:
-All existence in the saha world, the world in which we live at present, is marked by suffering.
-Suffering is caused by craving.
-By doing away with craving one can gain release from suffering and reach a state of peace and enlightenment, often called “nirvana”.
-There is a method of achieving ‘nirvana’, namely, the discipline known as the “eight fold path”.
This is a set of moral principles enjoining one to cultivate right views, right thinking, right speech, right action, right way of life, right endeavor, right mindfulness, and right meditation.
4. This religion contains monks and nuns. They believe in reincarnation and karma.
Reincarnation means to “rebirth” or “transmigration”. It taught that the circumstances or realm into which a being is reborn are determined by the good or bad acts done by that being in previous exsistences.
Karma is a person’s moral actions, whether good or bad, produce definite effects in the person’s life.
5. This religion was founded in India. The ultimate aim of the Buddha-Dhamma is Nibbana — emancipation from suffering. The immediate objective is to help us to understand and solve the problems that confront us in our daily life, to make us well-rounded, happy, and balanced men and women, able to live in harmony with our environment and our fellow beings. Balance, however, though it is an aim worth striving for, is not easily struck in the contemporary world, with its false ideologies and illusory values.