Buddhism Essay
Candice Graham
Rel/133
December 10, 2014
John Shear

Buddhism Essay
Buddhism is a religion with over 300 million followers around the world. Its origin is about over 2,000 years ago, and Siddhartha Gautoma, or Gotama was known as Buddha the awakened one. Buddha was open-minded to be involved in teachings because he felt as though he was awakened to have an awareness of his own nature. Buddha believed that his thinking was the only way to “prevent spiritual understanding that he had been seeking so he renounced a life or wealth, and power to become a spiritual seeker” (Hardy, 2014). The founder of Buddhism in this world is Buddha Shakyamuni. Shakyamuni was a royal prince who was born in the 6th century B.C.E. in Lumbini, located in Northern India. The Northern India is now a part of a place called Nepal.
Buddhism has four spiritual teachings that they abide by, which are called the “Four Noble Truths”. When Buddha preached his first sermon he outlines the spiritual truths calling them Four Noble Truths, and these were “The suffering is characteristics of human existence, the suffering is caused by the longing of pleasure and the avoidance of pain, that it is not necessary to suffer and there is a path to end suffering” (Hardy, 2014). Buddha has gained disciples and they became his followers known as the first Sangha, who basically became part of the Buddhist community of monks. The monks were known as men because at the first only men followed Buddha, later women were able to follow Buddha, and they were called Nuns. Women followers of Sangha were voted to be admitted, some of their early text of Buddhism was that women were not to become enlightened, but must first be reborn as men” (Hardy, 2014). Some early Buddhism text also mentioned that both men and women who followed Buddha was to become enlightened and was eventually sent out