Buddhism - tell me more
Facts and information
Buddhists do not believe the world was made by a God or another being. They do not believe in heaven (as a reward for a good life) or hell (as a place of suffering after a living a bad life).
Buddhists believe in the 4 Noble Truths, these are –
- Duhkha – which means in life there will always be suffering and nothing is fixed (meaning change is always possible).
- Trishna – this is the reason for Duhkha, which is our desire for the wrong things and our own search for answers.
- Nirvana – this is an end to Duhkha, which happens when we stop our desires.
- Ayra – which is also called the Middle Way or the Noble 8-fold path. This path takes us away from Duhkha. Following this path means finding the right way to be, think, speak, and live.
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Their understanding of god
Buddhists do not believe in a god, instead they follow the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)
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How it began
Siddhartha Gautama began the Buddhist faith around 2,500 years ago in India. Siddhartha Gautama was a prince in the early 5th century BCE, in Nepal.
When Siddhartha was quite young (around 20) he left his home and riches, after seeing old age, sickness and death for the 1st time. He wanted to make people’s suffering easier so he began a search to find the truth behind life and death. The answers came to him while he sat under a bodhi tree and thought deeply. When he found the truth he called the way he felt – Nirvana. His search for the truth lasted for 6 years.
Siddhartha’s 5 friends became his followers, and they began the 1st Buddhist community at Deer Park, near Benares.
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About worship
Buddhists worship wherever they can, like ‘temples’ and ‘viharas’, or in centres, shrine rooms or mediation rooms. A vihara is often a room in a big house – the room only has a carpet and cushions.
Buddhists believe they can reach Nirvana by meditating, which means thinking deeply to make their understanding of life and the world grow. They believe that by following the 8-Fold Path they can reach Nirvana.
The 8-Fold Path means doing 8 things the right way, these things are -
- understanding
- day-to-day thinking
- speaking
- way of behaving
- way of living
- using effort and energy
- paying attention
- thinking deeply about spirituality
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How many people believe in this faith?
There are around 350 million Buddhists in the world. There are more than 151 thousand Buddhists in the UK, and nearly 2 thousand in Tower Hamlets.
In the past different groups of Buddhists became known as different traditions, here are some of them –
- Theravada
- Mahayana
- Tibetan Buddhism
- Ch’an (which is Chinese Buddhism) and Zen (which is Japanese Buddhism)
- Pure Land Buddhism
Now there are nearly 10 different Buddhist traditions in the Western world.
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| Diet
Buddhists believe that any kind of planned killing is wrong. Because of this many people think all Buddhists are vegetarians.
However, not all Buddhists are vegetarians, and many have different ideas and feelings about eating meat. For example, Chinese Zen Buddhists are strict vegetarians, but many Tibetan Buddhists eat meat.
The reason Tibetan Buddhists eat meat is because it is very difficult to grow vegetables where they live (on rocky land).
Most Western Buddhists choose to be vegetarian and would disagree with modern factory farming ways.
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