BUDDHISM AND THE FOUR PRINCIPLE BELIEFS
Buddhism, with about 365 million followers makes up 6% of the world's population and is the fourth largest religion in the world (exceeded by Christianity, Islam and Hinduism).
Buddhism was founded in Northern India in the sixth century BCE by the first Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama when he attained enlightenment.
Buddhism is made up three main forms. They are Theravada Buddhism found mainly in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos, Mahayana Buddhism which is largely found in China, Japan, Korea, Tibet and Mongolia and Vajrayana Buddhism. Some other that can be included are Tibetan Buddhism and Zen Buddhism.
There are four principle beliefs in Buddhism.
These are:
The Four Nobel Truths
The Eightfold Path
The three Jewels
The Three Marks Of existence.
The Four Noble Truths
The “Four Noble Truths” of Buddhism are:
• Life means suffering.
• The origin of suffering is attachment.
• The cessation of suffering is attainable.
• The path to the cessation of suffering.
The first of the Four Noble Truths is life means suffering. The basis of this is that to live is to suffer, because the human race is not perfect and neither is the world. On this earth, everyone inevitably suffers pain, sickness, injury, old age, and eventually death as well as psychological suffering like sadness, fear, frustration, disappointment and depression. Life in its totality is imperfect and incomplete, because the world is subject to impermanence. This means we are never able to permanently keep what we strive for, and just as happy moments pass by, we ourselves and our loved ones will pass away one day, too there for all ...