Buddhism?

"To do no evil; To cultivate good; To purify one's mind: This is the teaching of the Buddhas," was the first quote I saw when I looked up Buddhism. Those words can be found in the Dhammapada, a book that consists of 423 quotes once spoken by the Buddha. The Buddha was born a prince named Siddhartha Gautama in 566 BC. He was the prince of a Sakya tribe in Nepal. Buddha is said to have been born with full ability to walk and talk and it is said that he told his mother he has come to free all mankind from suffering. Buddha's father was told that Buddha could become one of two things: a king, maybe even an emperor, or a savior of humanity. At the age of 29 Buddha freed himself of all material possessions and left his wife and newborn son to discover what it was like to suffer. He nearly starved himself to death for six years until he learned that his practices were not getting him anywhere. He wanted to find the middle ground between life with luxuries and life with nothing. So he decided to sit under a tree until he found the answer to no more suffering. What he discovered after days of reflecting on his life and seeing the whole universe in front of him was that suffering happens if you live life thinking about the past or live life thinking about the future. You can only live life with no suffering if you learn to constantly think in the present.

What I particularly like about Buddha is that he lived during a time when women ranked far below that of men, but he was the first to allow women into his circle and his wife and aunt became the first Buddhist nuns.

Buddhism is based on what are called: The Four Noble Truths:
1.) Life in Suffering: duhkkha
2.) Suffering is due to attachment (trishna)
3.) Attachment can be overcome: nirvana
4.) There is a path for accomplishing this: dharma

This path that Buddha speaks of has 8 steps, or ways of getting to dharma:

1.) You must have the *right* view of the world.
2.) The *right* aspiration
3.) Right Speech
4.) Right Action
5.) Right livelihood
6.) Right effort
7.) Right mindfulness
8.) Right concentration

If you are able to successfully do all of these steps, Buddha says you van overcome attachment.

The reason I am drawn to Buddhism is because I love the idea of living in the moment. Too many times I have gotten upset thinking about something that happened to me in the past and then ultimately it effects my future. A brief example is when I sit in class and think about what I got wrong on the test from by previous class, I am missing out of hearing valuable information given by the professor. Buddhism teaches you to live in the moment and enjoy the right now. It is a religion that I would like to come back to after I've done more research on other religions. No matter what religion I find most suitable with who I am, I can already promise myself now that I will always want to live life in the present and never take for granted what I am blessed with that I have right in front of me.