Buddhism Religion

Buddhism Religion

Religion is what people believe in or who they believe in and the things they do for that religion or belief. There are several Gods people believe in each religion whether it’s a Deity, a God or Goddess. Religion is based upon your beliefs and what you stand for and what you believe is right or wrong but there should be no right or wrong. Every religion is different just because one religion believes in something and another doesn’t does not mean that it is wrong. Everyone should be able to do what they believe is right and no one should judge any different religion just because it’s not what they believe.

In the Buddhism religion they believe in Buddha whose real name was Siddhartha Gautama, Buddhist are not like other religions they don’t indulge in making offerings and ask for favors they don’t ask for his prayers what Buddhist do is they bow to a statue of Buddha his hands are gently rested in his lap its compassionate smile reminds Buddhist to strive and to develop peace and love within themselves. The perfume of incense reminds them of the pervading influence of virtue, the lamp reminds them of light of knowledge and the flowers which soon fade and die reminds them of impermanence. When they bow, they express their gratitude to the Buddha for what his teachings have given them. They Buddhism religion is really unique because of how they do things (Gee, 2007).

Buddhism originated in northern India in the 5th century B.C.E, it is said that there are 350,000,000 that follow the Buddhism religion. Mainly people from India are Buddhist and worship Buddha or the original name Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhism has spread from its roots to India to virtually every corner of the world, and in each place it has spread it has adapted local practices and beliefs. Although Buddhism is a distinct religious tradition, many people in the contemporary west have adopted philosophical and practical aspects of Buddhism and incorporated them into their religious and social practices, thus there are people who identify themselves “Buddhist Christians” “Buddhist Jews” and “Buddhist Atheist”.

Buddhism started with Siddhartha Gautama. When he was only seven days old his mother passed away. Trying to protect him and keep him from the world, his father sheltered him and provided him with many luxuries in the kingdom. At a very young age he realized there had to be more to the world then the world he lived in; this is when he discovered four tragedies. Outside of his home he saw an old man, sickness, a dead body and suffering. After seeing these things he began to grieve and realize that he wanted to help instead of living the pampered life style that he was currently in.

He decided to leave his family and his wife and baby, and set out on an adventure trying to accomplish Nirvana. He began to starve himself and believing that this was the way to achieve what he want but instead he was near death. Eventually he realized his was not the way to gain power and peace. He went out and sat under a tree and mediated for a very long time. After few battles and hardships he finally achieved Nirvana. Siddhartha then went to share his story with the world; and now we have to religion of Buddhism.

Buddhist believe in eight different kinds of loves; motherly love, brotherly love, sensual love, emotional love, sexual love, selfish love, Selfless love and universal love. Motherly love is the relationship that a mother has with their child mothers want to protect and wants what is best for their child. Brotherly love is a love between siblings but also friendships. Sensual love is gratification of the senses usually dealing with sexual ideas. Emotional love is your actual feelings towards a person like how strongly you feel about someone. Sexual love is similar to sensual love except it involves the act of sexual activity. Selfish love is only loving yourself and doing what is best for yourself and no one else. Selfless love is the opposite of selfish love and having no concern for yourself and putting others first. Universal love is wanting world peace and overall good for the world. Those are all the ideas of love that Buddhist have there are quite a few different ones that other religions wouldn’t normally consider “love”. There really is no difference in Buddhist weddings and other religious weddings other than the wedding is generally performed by a monk and usually at the local temple. The Buddhist bride has her dress made of brocade and it has to be full length with sleeves usually large jewelry is worn around the neck and the forehead, the groom wears a Bhaku with a cap and a sash around the waist. Before the wedding as a formal engagement the grooms family invites the entire family of the bride for a dinner they give the mother of the bride a gift of rice and chicken thanking her for breast feeding her daughter this is called Nanchang. They also have flowers at the wedding to resemble Buddha being there (Matrimony, 2015).