First and foremost, Buddhism is not exactly a religion in the true sense of the word, nor does it have a God or gods in which it believes. Unlike all other religions that place man at the center on the surface of God and essentially put man, Buddhism openly puts man at the center.
Buddhism (Buddha Śãsana - Buddha's teaching) is a philosophy and non-theistic religion that originated in northern India in the 6th century BC. n. e. The founder of Buddhism is Gatama Buddha (560-480 BC).
The term "Buddha" means "enlightened."
Sidarata Gautama was, according to tradition, a prince, born in the north of India 2500 years ago. He lived carefree and discovered late that there was suffering. He turned his back on the palace and devoted himself to asceticism. But even that did not help to overcome the suffering. He found a middle way to reconcile mind and body. After enlightenment, he had many students who, after his death, orally spread the teachings. Written testimonies were written only hundreds of years later.
The teachings of Gautama Buddha spread from Asia from the middle of the first millennium BC onwards, and due to its specific nature it often integrated with other religions, as happened in China with the local folk religion or in Japan with Shinto. Today, Buddhists live in all countries of the world.
Buddhism is a religion born of Indian soil, but today it covers very much a small part of India. However, Buddhism is a very developed religion in: Indochina, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea and Japan.
The main content of the teaching consists of the "four noble truths" about suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering and liberation from suffering. Life is suffering, the cause of suffering is desire and ignorance, which with constant restlessness, as the principle of causality, determine the destiny of every human being and create an uninterrupted circle of birth and death, that is, reincarnations, which are again suffering. One can get rid of it by attaining nirvāṇa, i.e. by distraction from everything that binds to life. Such a state is achieved by following the noble "Eightfold Path" which consists of correct understanding, correct intention, speech, action, living, endeavor (correct direction of energy, awareness (meditation) and concentration (focus).
According to the Buddhist understanding, meditation represents activity in which man seeks to transcend discursive thinking, to destroy or prevent unfavorable mental states, and conceive or establish favorable mental states. The essence of Buddhist meditation is in the concentration of attention and awareness, attentiveness and observation.
In Buddhism, compassion and wisdom go hand in hand. Regular meditation helps Buddhists get rid of bad thoughts and open their minds. Compassion is one of the most important qualities because it helps a person to better understand others and to help them. Because if we do good to others and get rid of all the disturbing emotions like anger, jealousy and pride, the good will come back to us as well.
*Uvod u budizam Geše Kelsang Gjatso
Very interesting article. Buddhism is very mysterious to me. As for meditation, I think it can only be done by people with great self-control.