Many individuals have misconceptions about Buddhism. Here are a few facts most people appear to get wrong.
1) Siddhartha Gautama never traveled away from India but his teachings did. Siddhartha Gautama would be a spiritual teacher in Ancient India who founded Buddhism. You will need to do not forget that he would have been a Vedic Brahman (Hindu by today’s standards) so many of his ideas were originally area of the ancient traditional religions of the local historical period. He or she is shown to have lived from around 563 BCE close to 483 BCE because he is assumed to own died at Eighty years old. He traveled and taught over the Ganges River Valley starting near his home, near what exactly is now Nepal.
2) He could be also known as Shakyamuni Buddha, or perhaps the Prince with the Shakyas, because of Ssakya Mountain Range that has been his father’s (King Suddhodana) kingdom. He was created a prince but decided to become a holy man. He spent my youth in wealth and resistant to the outside world but became curious about what people’s lives outside the palace might be like. Many legends surround his birth, but all that is in fact known is the fact that his mother was meant to have ended in childbirth or soon (days) afterwards. His father have been warned soon after his birth that they would be a great military leader or possibly a great spiritual leader. His father, the king, had his or her own ideas of the was proper for Siddhartha, but, at around 29 yrs . old, with the help his charioteer, he escaped the palace walls and ventured outside to discover what life was like for some individuals. He witnessed the consequences of old age, sickness, and saw a corpse, producing mindful of death. Finally, he saw an ascetic. Siddharha’s charioteer explained that this ascetic was person who had renounced the globe and sought release from fear of death and suffering.
3) Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha as a way to end the suffering (dissatisfaction) of all people. He realized the fact that we’re all impermanent and decided to go on a spiritual search for enlightenment. He studied with all the current best teachers of religion and philosophy that they may find back then and learned how you can meditate but decided that somehow wasn’t enough for him.
4) The very center Way: He still had much to understand and ventured into the ascetics of times to adhere to but in time found that the extremes that they can endured weren’t employed by him. He followed their means of self inflicting pain and enduring it, fasting until he was weak, and holding his breath. This hadn’t satisfy him as they decided this became yet another ego inflating approach to self-gratification, proving yourself through self-abuse. He chose to turn from other strict abeyance to rules about starving one’s self and eating unclean things, while he realized however need strength to remain his quest, so he developed what is called “the middle way”. When his disciples saw that he wasn’t following the way they thought necessary, they thought we would leave him. He left and decided to sit with a sacred fig tree until he discovered the answer. The tree was the thing that was considered a sacred fig tree near Bodh Gaya, the tree being named later, the Bodhi Tree. From Wikipedia * “…The Bodhi Tree, also called Bo (from your Sinhalese Bo), was obviously a large and incredibly old Sacred Fig tree (Ficus religiosa) in Bodh Gaya (about 100 km (62 mi) from Patna within the Indian condition of Bihar), this agreement SiddhÄÂrtha Gautama, the spiritual teacher and founding father of Buddhism later referred to as Gautama Buddha, has been said to have achieved enlightenment, or Bodhi….”
5) His Awakening: In his deep state of meditation (samadhi) stay he became enlightened and when he rose from his deep meditation, he stated that he some strategies to the questions he previously sought. He imparted the wisdom from the four noble truths as well as the eightfold path that can for a reason. Minus the previous, the remainder could be impossible to achieve. 6)Some Noble Truths
1) Suffering (dukkha) exists. (All humans suffer during birth, pain, sickness, and death.
2) The main cause of suffering is desire. Everyone has desires which might be either selfish or unrealistic. This is considered “delusional”.
3) There exists a way to reach cessation of suffering.
4) The cessation of suffering comes through practicing the eightfold path. (Freedom from suffering may be possible by practicing the Eightfold Path.)
7) The Eightfold Path
1) Right View Wisdom
2) Right Intention Wisdom
3) Right Speech Ethical Conduct
4) Right Action Ethical Conduct
5) Right Livelihood Ethical Conduct
6) Right Effort Mental Development
7) Right Mindfulness Mental Development
8) Right Concentration/Meditation Mental Development
8) Buddhist Principles: By striving towards the right thing one lessens selfish desire, therefore reaching a state of happiness internally that is not dependent on conditional circumstances. Mindfulness in all things is a key ingredient. If one understands that any tangible thing that we desire is impermanent and ceases to be “attached” to these things that we cannot keep, then one becomes more at peace. We can not become attached to any views since we will become passionate about this and when circumstances change, our view will no longer be important or pertinent.
9) Buddhism is not a self help program: Beware of those who call themselves a master or try to sell you “enlightenment”. There are many books and centers out there which try to use words like enlightenment” that is something that actually has to be attained personally, it can’t be given or taught in a paint by the numbers program that promises some things. First, the word enlightenment is not used in any of the texts from Siddhartha Gautama was concerned that people might rush into this without understanding and this would lead to repeating traditional ceremonies without understanding, which will lead to disappointment because of the lack of benefit from practice. Do not come to an understanding of Buddhism lightly or quickly, take your time and be sure. This will take investigation. Investigate completely, any facets that you don’t understand until it makes sense. Also, practice with others and a good teacher are the best method of learning.
10) Buddhism IS A RELIGION: It disturbs some Buddhists that some people feel that Buddhism is just a philosophy. Some people feel there has to be a main book or one religious deity to worship in order for a religion to be real. Most modern practitioners of Buddhism see that all religions are filled with mythology and they understand that most deities and mythological objects in Buddhism are analogies for science and nature or our own mental make up that early man could not explain. Some practitioners, especially in Asia, still believe in the physical existence of some of these objects and deities. We have to remember that early Buddhist teachings came from Siddhartha Gautama in India, who was a Vedic Brahman. It then traveled across Asia to China where it adapted to Confucianism, which relied strongly on Filial Piety. It then traveled through to Japan, where it adapted to Shinto, which is still practiced side by side with Buddhism in Japan. Buddhism was created to adapt to all other learning. Siddhartha Gautama likened it to “a raft to get to the other side” in a parable he taught. “The Parable of The Raft ” When speaking to his followers Gautama Buddha said, “When you come to a river and the current is too fast to allow you to swim across and there is no bridge then you might decide to build a raft. If after crossing the river you would have some choices as to what to do with the raft. a) You could tie it to the bank to be used by someone else later. b) You could set it afloat for someone else to find. c) You could say to yourself, “What a wonderful raft”, and then pick it up and carry it around on top of your head from now on. Which would be proper use of the raft? Buddhism is practiced in most countries around the world, although Buddhists make up only about 7% of the world’s religious population. Only a few modern Buddhist sects use an evangelical approach, trying to convert everyone around them. Most Buddhists refrain from trying to propagate their religion to anyone who doesn’t seek it.
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