Buddhism is one of the most popular religions in Asia, particularly in South East Asia in countries such as China, Japan, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka and others.
Buddhism is a path of practice and spiritual development leading to Insight into the true nature of life. Buddhist practices such as mindfulness meditation are means of changing oneself in order to develop the qualities of awareness, loving-kindness, and wisdom. The experience developed within the Buddhist tradition over thousands of years has created an incomparable resource for all those who wish to follow a path - a path which ultimately culminate in Enlightenment. When philosophers asked The Buddha "What do you teach?" He said: "I teach one thing, and one thing only is 'Suffering and the end of Suffering." Shortly after his enlightenment under the bodhi tree, he established The Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path, which are the very foundation of Buddhism.
The basic tenets of Buddhist teaching are The Four Noble Truths/Noble Eightfold Path; they are straightforward and practical.Buddhism teaches that nothing is fixed or permanent; actions have consequences; change is possible.
Buddhism teaches practical methods (such as mindfulness meditation) which enable people to realize and utilize its teachings in order to transform their experience, to be fully responsible for their lives and to develop the qualities of Wisdom and Compassion and for all beings be happy and free from suffering.
However, the difficult part is in how the human being is going to pass through each path without surrendering to the strong powers of desire and materialism. It is a fascinating religion and philosophy of life, and many people, even in the Western world regard it to be a best remedy for the suffering of humanity.
Buddhism does not see human beings as pre-formed, unchanging, objective absolutes. It sees a human being as a constantly developing whole of his karma, habits, memories, experiences. An individual is ever-moving, just like the entire cosmos. Everything is moving in a constant journey, a wheel turning on its own and no grand being is doing it with some pre-determined plan. There is no divine being who is observing us from heavens. It is just us and our actions, and causes of those actions which lead to further actions – everything is a result of circumstances.
We do not need God to achieve salvation, peace and happiness. We can and must do it ourselves. This is one of the cardinal truths central to Buddhism and is popularly called ‘dependent origination’ (‘pratityasamutpada’): all phenomena are constantly in an interdependent web of cause and effect. This interdependence can also be seen in Gautama Buddha’s explanation of causes and conquering of suffering, and actions that can be undertaken to affect nirvana. In the same sense, the ‘shoonyata’ concept of Buddhism is a result of dependent origination, wherein every thing’s meaning is dependent on other things as well that cause it or are caused by it.
Buddhism is about a human being’s moral and spiritual awakening. One has to recognize it on his own and practice positive actions and strengthen himself to rise above the victimization of the sense-desire trap.
Buddhism is to be experienced, not to be learnt from any text. Gautama Buddha never wanted it to be canonized. Hence, he never authorized any attempt to record his teachings or his life in a written form because he wanted his experience (and the same path for everybody else) to remain democratic, un-supernatural, very human, nothing divine. This freedom from the constraints of rules and systems is one of the mainstays of Buddhism.